Madeleine Sophie Barat, RSCJ, died in Paris in 1865. She was buried in a vertical tomb in the crypt of the convent chapel at Conflans, site of the novitiate as well as a boarding school, outside Paris. Sophie already had the reputation of being a saint, and in 1879 the cause of her canonization was introduced. As is the custom during that process, her body was exhumed; this exhumation took place in 1893 in the presence of the superior general, several clerics and a team of physicians who examined the body in detail and found it intact. This in spite of having been buried in damp ground for twenty-eight years in a coffin that was partially decayed. Sophie was then placed in a new coffin and interred in the convent chapel itself, above ground, where she remained until 1904.

As the twentieth century dawned, governmental policy in France became less and less favorable to Catholic schools, and a series of laws was enacted resulting in what in the Society we have called the “expulsions.” Although nuns were not directly expelled from France, they were forbidden to teach in either private or public schools or to “form associations” for religious purposes. In the face of this legislation, the superior general, Mother Mabel Digby, decided to send all 2000 religious in France to other countries.¹

Unsure of what would happen to the Conflans chapel and the remains buried there, Mother Digby decided to send Sophie’s body to Belgium to Jette St Pierre, outside of Brussels, where the Society had a large convent with a beautiful Gothic chapel. At first her body was buried in the crypt of the chapel; but after Sophie’s beatification in 1908, the decision was made to place her body in the gold and crystal reliquary, the châsse, where it has remained. The châsse was blessed and enshrined in a side chapel at Jette on April 30, 1909. The chapel soon became a place of pilgrimage.

But in recent years, the chapel was declared structurally unsound and was closed. In 1998, the châsse was removed and placed in a small chapel in the provincial headquarters, Rue de l’Abondance, in Brussels. The hope was that Sophie’s friends would continue to seek her out, to pray by her body and to experience her presence. However, as the character of the neighborhood of Rue de l’Abondance changed, this hope was no longer being realized. After much consultation, superior general Clare Pratt, her council and the provincials of France and of Belgium arranged to have Sophie brought back to Paris, where she had spent so many years. The châsse would be installed in the Church of St. Francis Xavier, a stone’s throw from the house in which she died, and Sophie would come full circle.