Placide Viel (26 September 1815 — 4 March 1877), born Eulalie-Victoire Jacqueline Viel, was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

professed religious and mother general who was active in organizing relief during the Franco-Prussian War. Viel joined the Sisters of the Christian Schools in 1833 with the order's founder and mother general Saint Marie-Madeleine Postel being her aunt and served alongside her in various capacities. Viel made extensive travels setting up branches of the order and made several trips to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to collect funds for the order's expansion while later travelling across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

as her aunt's successor for the order's continued growth. Her beatification was celebrated in 1951.

Life

Eulalie Victoire Jacqueline Viel was born in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

on 26 September 1815 as one of eight children to farmers (she was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

just moments after her birth with her godparents being Jeanne Viel and Jacques Tournaille). Her aunt was Saint Marie-Madeleine Postel. One sister was Victoire who died in her childhood. Viel was known for being timid but also pleasant and cheerful; she made her

First Communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin Church tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communi ...

before the mandated age because the parish priest of

Quettehou Quettehou is a commune in the Manche department in north-western France. On 1 January 2019, the former commune Morsalines was merged into Quettehou. Geography The town of Quettehou is located at the North-East tip of the peninsula of Cotentin i ...

believed she was mature enough. Her parents sent her to learn sewing when she was old enough from the village

seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Nota ...

Madame Gilles and she taught

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

and the

psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

to the local children. Her heart was set on the religious life and she joined her aunt in her new religious congregation on 1 May 1835 while being given the new religious name "Placide" and served at some stage as the novice mistress after having first worked in the kitchens. Her solemn profession of perpetual vows was made on 21 September 1838. Viel studied at

Argentan Argentan () is a commune and the seat of two cantons and of an arrondissement in the Orne department in northwestern France. Argentan is located NE of Rennes, ENE of the Mont Saint-Michel, SE of Cherbourg, SSE of Caen, SW of Rouen and N ...

as she entered the order and worked in school administration while founding new convents at her aunt's request. Her aunt also instructed her to go to

to collect funds so the order could continue to grow and function. Viel made three such visits with the first being from January to June 1844. The second was from October 1844 to 1845 and the last visit before her appointment as superior-general was from October 1845 to June 1846 when she had to return to see her ailing aunt. It was on one of those visits that she met with Queen Marie-Amelie. In the late spring of 1845 she toured

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

and

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

before moving on to

Saint-Brieuc Saint-Brieuc (, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. History Saint-Brieuc is named after a Welsh monk Brioc, who Christianised the region in the 6th c ...

. On 1 January 1842 she was appointed as assistant-general of the sisters in an appointment that caused great resentment among her sisters since some believed it granted her too much power. After her aunt died in 1846 she became the mother-general of the order at the age of 31 on 5 September (two months after her aunt's death) in what was a unanimous election. But she wanted to be able to continue going to Paris to collect funds rather than be elected though still rising to the position. Viel directed the institute for three decades and received papal approval for the order in 1859 from

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

. Her tenure as superior-general saw membership in the order increase from 150 to more than 1,000 as well as seeing an increase in the number of convents. The superior-general was noted for her charm as well as for her humble and retiring disposition. On 14 September 1849 she arrived in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

where she met with its archbishop before setting off for

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Viel made successive visits after Brussels to

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

as well as Breslau. Viel met with Count Henri on 19 September at the Frohsdorf castle and later met with Frederick William at

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

en route back home. Viel died at

Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte () is a Communes of France, commune in the Manche Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in north-western France. It is situated in the Cotentin Peninsula near Valognes. Its populat ...

on 4 March 1877 after having been organizing relief during the Franco-Prussian War that had broken out around that time.

Beatification

Her cause for canonization was introduced on 22 July 1935 titling her as a

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

while confirmation of her

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

allowed for her to be named as

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

on 9 February 1941.

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

beatified her on 6 May 1951.

References

External links

Catholic Online

Saints SQPN

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viel, Placide 1815 births 1877 deaths 19th-century French nuns 19th-century venerated Christians Beatifications by Pope Pius XII French beatified people French people of the Franco-Prussian War French Roman Catholic saints People from Manche Venerated Catholics