Marie de Mandat-Grancey

Marie de Mandat-Grancey , Daughters of Charity, (September 13, 1837 – May 31, 1915) was a Roman Catholic religious sister, best known for her involvement in the discovery of the House of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus, Turkey.

Biography Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey, DC. was born of a distinguished family at the family estate - Chateau de Grancey (Bourgogne) in France, in 1837. Her family included two popes and several saints. In 1858 she became a sister when she joined the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul in the parish of St. Sulpice, Paris. On September 27, 1862, she made her Religious Profession. After years of nursing in France, she was assigned to the Mission to Turkey in 1886, serving in the French Naval Hospital at Smyrna. In 1890 she became the Superior of the Community and of the Hospital.

Mary's Home While in Smyrna (now İzmir), she became the central figure of an effort by Vincentian priests and archeologists to locate and identify a house (July 29, 1891) said to be originally occupied by Mary, the Mother of Jesus and St. John, the Beloved Disciple in the first century. She was part of a group of five who found the house in July 1891; she used her family's money to buy the house and the surrounding area.

Besides being a pious and devout Religious, Sister Marie was also gifted with a profound practical sensibility. She at once secured the purchase of the house and its property (November 15, 1892), despite many obstacles. The noteworthiness of the Domus Mariae (Meryem Ana Evi) is located in the fact that it is a precious shrine for both Muslims and Christians alike.