Caroline-Barbe Colchen Carré de Malberg

The work of Caroline Carré de Malberg has its source in a major spiritual encounter. In June 1869, deeply tested by the loss of her third child, she met Abbé Henri Chaumont in Paris (Sainte-Clotilde parish), whom she chose as her spiritual director. Abbé Chaumont was then seeking to found an association of women desirous of living the Gospel and striving for holiness in the midst of the world, under the patronage of Saint Francis de Sales.

On October 15, 1872, on Rue Cassette in Paris, Caroline co-founded with Abbé Chaumont the Society of the Daughters of Saint Francis de Sales. This association of laywomen (married, single, or widowed) proposed a method of continuous formation and permanent conversion, called the "probation," to help its members sanctify themselves in their daily and professional lives.

Caroline also encouraged Abbé Chaumont to extend this spirituality to priests and laymen, which led to the creation of the Society of the Priests of Saint Francis de Sales (1876) and the Society of the Sons of Saint Francis de Sales.

In October 1889, the work took on an international missionary dimension. At the request of the Bishop of Nagpur, four Daughters of Saint Francis de Sales (including Félicie Gros, in religion Mother Marie Gertrude) embarked for India to evangelize and to help women and the poor. This group was at the origin of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI). Caroline, although seriously ill, sent them a warm blessing before their departure.

In 1888, to respond to the growth of the work, Caroline installed the motherhouse in her former country property in Lorry-lès-Metz, which became the Foyer Carré de Malberg.

Caroline Carré de Malberg traced an original path of holiness, anchored in the duty of state and the loving acceptance of daily trials. She sanctified her life as a wife in the face of a difficult husband and her life as a mother in the face of the painful loss of her four children.

Her resignation in the face of illness deeply edified her contemporaries. When Abbé Chaumont proposed that she have the members of the association pray for her recovery, she responded with total abandonment to the divine will: "Let them do, Father, what they wish. I do not refuse healing, nor do I refuse death."

Her reputation for holiness spread rapidly after her death. Initially buried in the Est cemetery in Metz, her remains were transferred on August 5, 1899, to the chapel of the Foyer Carré de Malberg in Lorry-lès-Metz, where she still rests.

The beatification process for Caroline Carré de Malberg opened at the diocesan level in Metz in 1909, under the pontificate of Saint Pius X. After a long interruption, the modern diocesan process was officially closed in 2004. On May 9, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues. She was thus declared venerable (the decree was made public on May 10, 2014). Her cause is currently ongoing, awaiting the official recognition of a miracle to pave the way for her beatification.

The spirituality of Caroline Carré de Malberg is deeply Salesian, characterized by gentleness, humility, discreet charity, and confident abandonment to Divine Providence. Her life motto was: "Live Jesus at all our expense." She was a pioneer of lay holiness, reminding us, well before the Second Vatican Council, that every Christian is called to evangelical perfection in the heart of the world.

Today, her spiritual legacy continues through the Salesian Family of Abbé Chaumont, which includes: * The Saint Francis de Sales Association (an international lay branch, recognized by the Holy See in 1994); * The Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI) (an autonomous religious branch since 1968, present in more than 20 countries); * The Priests of Saint Francis de Sales and the Sons of Saint Francis de Sales.

The Carré de Malberg Center in Lorry-lès-Metz remains an active spiritual center dedicated to prayer and retreats.