Eugénie Caps

Marie-Eugénie Caps (1892–1931) was a French Catholic sister who founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit or Spiritaines or Spiritan Sisters in January 1921, at the age of 28.

Biography Early life Eugénie was born on June 3, 1892, in Loudrefing , then located in German Lorraine, following the outcome of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Her father was a railroad employee and her mother was related to Blessed Jean-Martin Moye (1730-1793), a French Catholic priest who served as a missionary in China and was the founder of the Sisters of the Congregation of Divine Providence. The couple had two sons after Eugénie, Camille (1894-1969) and Abel (1907-1972).

Her childhood was spent happily in a very fervent catholic family. She attended the school of the Sisters of the Divine Providence at Saint-Jean-de-Bassel and very early on, missionary stories exerted a real fascination on her.

The family followed the father's professional transfers: first to nearby Bouzonville (1900) where Eugénie was attending a boarding school. Afterwards, they moved to Ancy-sur-Moselle (1906) where her father was station master. Here, Eugénie made her First Communion in 1904 and received the Confirmation in 1906. In Ancy, she learnt office work and took sewing and knitting lessons.

On March 6, 1910, her father suddenly died: The Bishop of Metz, Jean-Baptiste Pelt, endorsed the request on 2 December. In the same time, a house was purchased in Farschviller to host Eugénie and two other sisters of the nascent movement.

On January 6, 1921, the pope Pope Benedict XV blessed the creation of the congregation, then comprising Elise Muller (1901-1970), Lucie Lay and Eugénie Caps. The novelty of this movement was to be entirely devoted to missionnary, not just attached to it. the rules and organization of the Spiritaines movement: on March 22, 1923, Pope Pius XI signed the canonical erection of the community, less than two years after its foundation.

In July 1927, Eugénie took part in the first general chapter of the Spiritan Sisters. On the 27th, Sister Michaël Dufay (1883-1964) was the first elected superior general.

Marie-Eugénie weakening state pushes her in May 1928 to resign from the position of superior of the community in Montana. After many wavering, she took her perpetual vows on October 5, 1930. Africa (Mozambique, Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Senegal); Europe (France, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Switzerland); America (Haiti, Brazil and Canada); Asia (Philippines).

The 100th anniversary of the canonical erection of the Spiritaines community was celebrated in March 2023.