Sometime during the French Revolution, probably 1795...
Lamourous had met the priest named William Joseph Chaminade...
who was also working in the underground Catholic Church in Bordeaux.
The two struck up a friendship and when she lost her previous Spiritual Director to the guillotine, she asked Chaminade to take on the role.
They continued to stay in touch, mostly in writing...
throughout the rest of the Revolution, even during Chaminade’s exile in Spain from 1797 to 1800.
While in Spain, Chaminade had received the [marian] inspiration to re-Christianize France by forming small faith communities - called ´Sodalités´ [fraternities] - under the patronage of the Mother of Christ. Lamourous became a major collaborator in this effort.
In addition to her duties at the Miséricorde...
she was álso the director of the women’s sodality...
and acted as a consultant to Chaminade in business transactions.
Today, Lamourous is regarded as the Mother of the Lay Branch of the Family of Mary...
with Chaminade as the Father of the entire Family of Mary...
especially the Society of Mary (Brothers and Priests)...
and Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon as the Mother of the Daughters of Marie Immaculate (Sisters).
Lamourous died on September 14, 1836, aged 81.
She died in her room at the Miséricorde, surrounded by her beloved daughters.
Her legacy lives on in the works of the Sisters of Marie-Josephe and of the Misericorde, and in the thousands of Lay Marianists all over the world.
Her cause for canonization was opened in 1911, and on December 21, 1989, the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints decreed that she had practiced heroic virtue during her lifetime, thus she was given the title “Venerable.”
Her feast day is September 14.
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