Since my early childhood, I had the intuition that one day I would become a religious sister, even though I did not know any in my surroundings. In my family, we lived a Christian life, but I never spoke about this call. As a teenager, I struggled to push this idea away, but the call was always there! I felt drawn to a missionary vocation, but I had no idea where to find a congregation.

At that time, I went to Lourdes for the first time, and not far from the Grotto there was a missionary exhibition. I picked up the leaflets offered by the different congregations present, including the one from the FMM.

When I returned, I looked through each leaflet and said to my mother, showing her the one from the Institute: “This is where I want to go!” She asked me, “Why?” and I answered, “I don’t know!” In fact, apart from the missionary aspect, nothing in particular had struck me. So I went to the address indicated on Cours Gambetta in Lyon, and that is how I began to visit the FMM before entering the novitiate.

To the question I am asked today—what attracted you to the Institute?—I can say: it was God, through Mary, who led me. And it was indeed there that He wanted me. It was within the Institute that I discovered how much the Eucharistic, Marian, and missionary dimensions were my vocation. I feel deeply Franciscan and imbued with the spirit of Mary of the Passion. That is why I live in thanksgiving, fully happy to be a Franciscan Missionary of Mary.