Our History

Eugénie Caps, the Foundress, and Elise Müller, the companion of the beginnings.

Baptismal Fount in the Church of Loudrefing where Sister Eugénie Caps was baptized.

During the First World War, Sister Eugénie commits herself at the Red Cross.

In 1924, first missionary departure to the Cameroon.

Formation of the Spiritan Sisters at Béthisy-Saint-Pierre.

The Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit was founded on 6th January 1921, feast of the Epiphany, at Farschviller in Lorraine, by Eugénie Caps and her two companions, Elise Müller and Lucie Lay.

Eugénie Caps was born on 3rd June 1892 in Loudrefing, Province of France in Lorraine, in the diocese of Metz. She grew up in a Christian family. Very early, she was attracted by the religious consecration for the Mission, mainly towards the population of Africa. She groups around her, some of her friends who have the same desire to become missionaries.

In 1915, during her thanksgiving, after communion, Eugénie Caps heard Jesus’ call to found a new work of Missionary Sisters. The novelty was the birth of a female congregation that was missionary only and not missionary in scope, which already existed at the time. Eugenie had received a clear call to found a specifically missionary Congregation.

After the First World War, Eugénie therefore made contact with the Fathers of the Holy Spirit of Neufgrange, in Lorraine, to concretize the project of foundation willed by God. She met Bishop Le Roy, the Superior General of the Spiritans at the time.

Bishop Le Roy was looking for sisters to replace the German sisters, who had to leave the Missions of Cameroon and Eastern Africa. Eugénie Caps’ proposal is timely! It appears providential. Especially that soon after, other girls from different parts of France, and very quickly from other neighboring countries, offered themselves for the same purpose: to serve the Missions.

On October 20th, 1920, in Paris, Eugénie and one of her friends met Bishop Le Roy. They agree on the purpose and name of this new Congregation: an exclusively missionary Institute, called the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The visit ends with a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Victories, the source of all the great religious and missionary initiatives of the time.

The foundation project was soon eagerly received by Pope Benedict XV. On 22nd March 1923, the Congregation obtained its canonical erection in Rome.

On October 5th, 1924, the first 25 Spiritan Sisters commit themselves. The following month, a group left for Martinique, another for Cameroon and a third for Switzerland. The Congregation was born from the breath of the Holy Spirit, who, through the docility of this young woman, Eugénie, was able to give birth to the unexpected.