SAINT EMELIE DE VIALAR

Saint Emily de Vialar, born Anne Marguerite Adelaide Emily de Vialar in 1797 in Gaillac, Languedoc, was the eldest child and only daughter of Baron James Augustine de Vialar and his wife Antoinette, daughter of Baron de Portal, physician-in-ordinary to Louis XVIII and Charles X of France. At fifteen, Emily left school in Paris to accompany her widowed father in Gaillac, but conflicts arose over her refusal to consider marriage.

For fifteen years, Emily dedicated herself to caring for neglected children and aiding the poor in Gaillac. In 1832, upon inheriting a substantial fortune from her maternal grandfather, she bought a large house in Gaillac and moved in with three companions. More women joined them, and three months later, the archbishop authorized the Abbe to clothe twelve postulants with the religious habit, forming the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition. Their mission focused on caring for the needy, especially the sick, and educating children.

In 1835, Emily and seventeen other sisters made their profession, receiving formal approval for their Congregation’s rule. While en route to Algiers, Saint Emily was shipwrecked in Malta, which she interpreted as a divine sign to establish her congregation there. She opened a school in Birgu, and soon after, the sisters began managing the Conservatory at Bormla for orphans from the Cottonera district.