Emilie Schneider

After spending seven years at the convent in Liège, Sister Emilie was sent in 1851 to Haus Aspel, near Rees, on the Lower Rhine. This monastery was the very first foundation of the Daughters of the Cross on German soil. There, she served as mistress of novices. In July 1852, her superiors sent her to Düsseldorf to take charge of the Theresienhospital (the hospital of the Cellites), located in the old town (Altestadt). Appointed superior of this community of five sisters, she was tasked with restructuring and modernizing this healthcare establishment, which was then in decline. Her task proved extremely difficult: the local religious (the Cellites) perceived the arrival of these sisters from the Lower Rhine as undesirable competition and rejected Emilie's authority. Sister Emilie had to face intense tensions, slander, and misunderstandings. Despite these trials and fragile health, she displayed remarkable energy in reorganizing the hospital, introducing modern care methods and watching with devotion over the relief of the sick and the most destitute in Düsseldorf. In 1857, she contracted typhus, from which she recovered with difficulty, and remained subject to violent headaches. She passed away prematurely on March 21, 1859, at the age of 38. She was buried in the Saint Joseph Chapel (Josephskapelle) adjoining the hospital in Düsseldorf.

The reputation for holiness of Sister Emilie Schneider spread rapidly after her death. The inhabitants of Düsseldorf, touched by her devotion to the sick and by her piety, considered her a saint. In 1926, Cardinal Karl Joseph Schulte, Archbishop of Cologne, officially opened the informative process for her beatification. The diocesan inquiry was carried out and concluded in 1931. However, the upheavals of the Second World War led to the interruption of the proceedings. The process was relaunched in 1984 by Cardinal Joseph Höffner, then Archbishop of Cologne. In 1992, the acts of the diocesan inquiry were officially transmitted to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to be examined. The validity of the diocesan inquiry was decreed on May 9, 1986, and March 24, 1995. The Positio on her heroic virtues was published in 2000.

On July 6, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable. The cause for beatification is currently underway, under the supervision of the vice-postulator, Mgr. Dr. Thomas Vollmer. For Sister Emilie to be proclaimed Blessed, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession by the Holy See is required.

Sister Emilie Schneider is considered a great figure of modern German mysticism. Her spiritual life was deeply rooted in the Eucharist and the contemplation of the Passion of Christ. She benefited from intense mystical experiences, notably visions of Jesus, his wounds, and his Sacred Heart, as well as the grace of the wound of love in the heart. She spoke of these graces only to her spiritual director, Rector Joseph von der Burg.

Her spiritual letters, published as early as 1860 under the title Geistliche Briefe (Spiritual Letters), reveal an intimate union with the suffering Christ, following in the spiritual tradition of Saint Teresa of Avila. For Emilie, the love of God was inseparable from the service of the poor: she recognized the face of the suffering Christ in every sick and needy person she cared for.

Today, her memory remains alive in Düsseldorf, where a square in the old town bears her name (Emilie-Schneider-Platz). Her tomb, located in the Josephskapelle, remains a place of prayer and pilgrimage for the faithful.