GRIVOT, IRMA, ST.

In religion Marie Hermine de Jésus; martyr, religious superior of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary; b. April 28, 1867, Beaume, France; d. July 9, 1900, Taiyüan, Shanxi, China. Irma, the daughter of a cooper, completed her elementary studies in 1883, then worked as a private tutor. Her parents did not support her religious vocation, perhaps because of her poor health. She joined the Franciscan Missionaries at Vanves near Paris (1894). Then she began her novitiate (July 1894) at Les Châtelets, near Saint Brieuc, where took the name Marie Hermine de Jésus. After making her first vows, she returned to Vanves to serve as bookkeeper. In Marseilles she received training as a nurse in preparation for her assignment to China in 1898. At the time of the Boxer Uprising, she was superior of the mission at Taiyüan. She surprised the bishop by insisting the sisters would rather die for Christ than seek safety. Her offered sacrifice was accepted by God. She and her religious sisters were beatified by Pope Pius XII, Nov. 24, 1946, and canonized, Oct. 1, 2000, by Pope John Paul II with Augustine Zhao Rong and companions.

Feast: July 4.

Bibliography: g. goyau, Valiant women: Mother Mary of the Passion and the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, tr. g. telford (London 1936). m. t. de blarer, Les Bse Marie Hermine de Jésus et ses compagnes, franciscaines missionnaires de Marie, massacrées le 9 juillet 1900 à Tai-Yuan-Fou, Chine (Paris 1947). l. m. balconi, Le Martiri di Taiyuen (Milan 1945). Acta Apostolicae Sedis 47 (Rome 1955) 381–388. L'Osservatore Romano, Eng. Ed. 40 (2000): 1–2, 10.

[k. i. rabenstein]