15/08/2026
On 15 August 1822, while experiencing deep anxiety, uncertainty, and concern for the future of his young missionary community, St. Eugene de Mazenod knelt in prayer before a newly blessed statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the chapel at Aix-en-Provence.
During this time of prayer, he received a profound spiritual grace that dispelled his fears and renewed his confidence in God's plan for the Society. Writing immediately afterward to Fr. Henri Tempier, he described the experience in these words:
โI believe we owe to her also a special experience that I felt today; I will not go so far as to say more than ever, but certainly more than usual. I cannot describe it very well because it embraced several things, but all related to a single object, our dear Society.โ ๏ฟผ
He then explained the conviction he had received:
โIt seemed to me that what I saw, what I could put my finger on, was that within it lies hidden the seed of very great virtues, and that it can achieve infinite good... As I looked at the Society, I found in it a sure, even infallible, means of salvation.โ ๏ฟผ
This grace-filled experience, received on the Feast of the Assumption, confirmed for Eugene that the Society was God's work and would bear abundant fruit in the Church despite the many difficulties and uncertainties surrounding its future. ๏ฟผ