Marie-Marthe-Baptistine Tamisier

(Called by her intimates EMILIA)

Initiator of international Eucharistic congresses, born at Tours, 1 Nov., 1834; died there 20 June, 1910. From her childhood her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was extraordinary; she called a day without Holy Communion a veritable Good Friday. In 1847 she became a pupil of the Religious of the Sacred Heart at Marmoutier, remaining there four years. Without any special attraction for the life of a religious she made three unsuccessful attempts to enter it; the third was in the Convent of Perpetual Adoration founded by Ven. Père Eymard, who assured her she still belonged to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. A lady of wealth sought her aid in establishing a community of perpetual adoration but this plan also came to naught. She then (1871) went to live near the tomb of Blessed Jean Vianney at Ars. Coming under the direction of Abbè Chevrier of Lyons she found her true vocation, at once contemplative and active in the Eucharistic cause. She had been prepared for it by many trials and disappointments. Throughout France and beyond, by extensive correspondence and by travel she spread the devotion. With the help of Mgr de Ségur and Mgr Richard, then Bishop of Belley, pilgrimages were started to sanctuaries where Eucharistic miracles had taken place. Their success led to Eucharistic congresses. At the Lourdes Congress she was called the Jeanne d'Arc of the Blessed Sacrament, but her name was not publicly associated with the congresses until after her death. Canon Vaudon's history of the congresses published just before her death, though giving a detailed account of her apostolic career, calls her only "Mlle . . .". She lived for some years at Issoudun and ministered there to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. All her spare means, though often depriving herself, she devoted to the education of poor aspirants to the priesthood.