Marie-Thérèse Haze

To provide for their needs, Jeanne and Ferdinande opened a small fee-paying school in their home in 1824. In 1829, the dean of the collegiate church of Saint-Barthélemy in Liège (Dean Cloes) and his vicar, Father Jean-Guillaume Habets (1801-1876), asked them to take charge of a free school for the poor young girls of the parish. After the independence of Belgium in 1830, freedom of education and association was restored. With the active support of Father Habets, who drafted a rule of life for them, Jeanne and her companions decided to dedicate themselves fully to religious life. On September 8, 1833, the congregation of the Daughters of the Cross of Liège was officially founded. Jeanne and Ferdinande pronounced their perpetual vows in the chapel of the Carmel du Potay in Liège. Jeanne took the religious name of Mother Marie-Thérèse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (her sister became Sister Aloysia). The congregation dedicated itself to the education of poor children, home care for the sick, visiting incarcerated women, and the rehabilitation of marginalized persons (prostitutes, beggars). The institute received diocesan approval in 1845 from Mgr Corneille van Bommel, Bishop of Liège, and then pontifical approval on May 9, 1851, by Pope Pius IX. Under the leadership of Mother Marie-Thérèse, who remained superior general until her death, the congregation experienced remarkable expansion: foundations were created in Germany (1849), India (1861), and England (1863). At her death on January 7, 1876, the institute numbered more than 900 religious sisters spread across 51 houses.

After her death in 1876, the reputation for holiness of Mother Marie-Thérèse Haze spread rapidly. The diocesan informative process opened in 1902 and closed in 1905. Her spiritual writings received theological approval on February 23, 1910. Her cause for beatification was officially introduced in Rome on December 13, 1911, under the pontificate of Pope Pius X, conferring upon her the title of Servant of God. The decree of validity for the informative and apostolic processes was published on June 26, 1923.

On February 9, 1941, Pope Pius XII promulgated the decree on the heroic nature of her virtues, declaring her Venerable. The process concerning a miracle attributed to her intercession progressed with the favorable opinion of the medical board on March 7, 1990, followed by the approval of the theological consultants on July 5, 1990, and the cardinals on October 23, 1990. The decree officially recognizing the miracle was promulgated on January 22, 1991, by Pope John Paul II. Mother Marie-Thérèse Haze was solemnly beatified on April 21, 1991, by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Her relics, long kept at the motherhouse on Rue Hors-Château, were the subject of a solemn translation on April 29, 2017, to the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Liège, where they are now venerated.

The spirituality of Blessed Marie-Thérèse Haze is deeply anchored in the mystery of the Cross and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For her, the Cross is not only a symbol of suffering, but the supreme sign of God's redemptive love. Her motto was: "Go to the poor with the heart of a poor person." She knew how to combine a life of intense contemplation (notably through Eucharistic adoration) with vigorous apostolic action among the most destitute, prisoners, and the sick.

Today, the Daughters of the Cross continue her work of education, healthcare, and social assistance throughout the world (Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Brazil, India, Pakistan, etc.).