{"id":343,"date":"2024-07-01T12:44:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T12:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/?page_id=343"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:17:12","slug":"het-leven-van-veronica-obrien","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/het-leven-van-veronica-obrien\/","title":{"rendered":"Het leven van Veronica O’Brien"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Veronica O'Brien (1905-1998)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Born in Midleton (County Cork, Ireland) on 16 August 1905. Entered into the peace and joy of the Lord on 19 February 1998 in Wemmel (Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium).<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Buried in Nevers (France), at the Jean Gautherin cemetery, because it was in Nevers that Veronica O'Brien began her apostolate for the Legion of Mary.<\/p>

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Call to religious life (1924-1935)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Louise-Mary was the eleventh child of the O'Brien couple. Two more children were born after her. Her father was a surgeon in Midleton and her mother was a \u2018distinguished, deeply pious\u2019 woman who encouraged family prayer (Angelus, rosary, etc.). Piety, conviviality and joy reigned in the family home.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

After completing her primary education in Midleton, Veronica was sent to England to complete her education with the Sisters of St. Clotilde at Eltham Park, near London. During a sermon, the school chaplain recounted the life of Father Doyle, S.J. She was deeply moved and said \u201cthat she felt compelled to say yes to God. It was like the end of a duel where, defeated, I had to bow down before the victorious love of God.\" (The Hidden Hand of God, Veritas\/Dublin 1993, pp.18-19).<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Responding to the Lord's call, she entered the Sisters of St. Clotilde, whose boarding school she had attended at Eltham Park. There she gradually realized that this way of life did not correspond to her vocation and that she was called to a more direct apostolate or evangelizsation in the broadest sense.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

After fourteen years of convent life, on the advice of her superiors and ecclesiastical advisers, she left the congregation and set out to find her path, continuing to bear her religious name, Veronica, which reflected her desire to remain personally united to Christ in his Passion.<\/p>

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Years of apostolate in the Legion of Mary (1936-1959)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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After much trial and error, she discovered the Legion of Mary, which \u2013 under the impetus of a fellow countryman, Frank Duff, its founder \u2013 was then experiencing remarkable growth.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

A priest had given Veronica a Legion of Mary handbook. One of the first sentences struck her: \u201cThe Legion of Mary\u2019, it said, is an organization which, through fidelity to its statutes and unfailing energy, has the power to communicate, through Mary, life, gentleness and hope to the nations.\u201d \u201cThose lines,\u201d Veronica would later say, struck me and decided my life.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

On the eve of the Second World War, after attending a single meeting of a \u2018praesidium\u2019 (the basic team of the Legion of Mary) in Dublin, she left Ireland on the last boat to France to establish the Legion of Mary there.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

After many adventures, Veronica finally arrived in Nevers at the beginning of the German occupation of the city. Risking her life (her British passport led her to be suspected of espionage) and that of the nuns of the Saint-Gildard convent who had taken her in, she founded the Legion of Mary in Nevers in August 1940.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Mgr. Flynn, Bishop of Nevers, wrote about the beginnings of the Legion of Mary started by Veronica: \"With no other resources other than her ardent faith, her love for the Blessed Virgin, her rosary and her Manual, she immediately set to work and, despite incredible difficulties, succeeded beyond all expectations. Deus incrementum dedit (God brought the harvest to maturity)\" (The Hidden Hand of God, Veritas\/Dublin, 1993, p. 56).<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

After the war, she travelled throughout France, where she founded more than 800 \u2018praesidia\u2019 in some 30 dioceses. For twenty years, she was a delegate of the Legion of Mary, which she also founded in Belgium, Greece, Turkey and the former Yugoslavia.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

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Spiritual guidance for King Baudouin (1960-1993)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In Cardinal Suenens' memoirs, \u201cMemories and Hopes\u201d and \u201cThe Hidden Hand of God\u201d, the cardinal rigorously refrained, out of discretion, from making any reference to King Baudouin, as his relationship with the king was not a matter of public knowledge. The unexpected death of the king, however, forced him to speak about it.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Here are two short excerpts from a letter from Veronica to King Baudouin, published in Cardinal Suenens' book \u201cKing Baudouin, King of the Belgians, the Hidden life\u201d (pp. 25-26):<\/p>

\"It would seem that this year could be a decisive one for you.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

That is why the Holy Spirit wants you to realise more clearly what your \u201cjob\u201d here on earth is, and that is why he wants to reveal \u201cMary's secret\u201d to you more intimately.\"<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cI am sure that when you have meditated and prayed over the holy pages, you will choose Mary as your Queen and accept her as your Mother, even more than in the past. After that, let yourself be guided and inspired by her tender love, which envelops every detail of life.\u00a0as your Queen and that you will accept her as your Mother, more so than by the\u00a0<\/span>past. After which, let yourself be guided and inspired by its tender love which envelops\u00a0<\/span>all the details of life.<\/span><\/p>

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Introduction to Direct Evangelisation in Congregations (1960-1972)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A crucial issue for the future of Christianity has always been, for Veronica, the training of priests and religious men and women in evangelisation. Veronica's life was, from beginning to end, a passionate and painful call for the reform of seminaries, novitiates and active religious communities, with a view to initiating and training their members for direct religious apostolate, through personal contact and connection. <\/p>


<\/p>

This concern led Veronica to launch (in Belgium, France, Italy and the United States) a number of pastoral experiments strongly inspired by the Legion of Mary.<\/p>


<\/p>\n

Veronica had a gift for awakening apostolic awareness and inspiring simple initiatives that were within everyone's reach. She taught, concretely and with humour, how to love God with all one's imagination. \u201cUse your grey matter,\u201d she would say, pointing out the thousand opportunities to be \u201cwitnesses of the Lord everywhere and always.\u201d<\/p>


<\/p>\n

Under Veronica's impetus, nearly fifty communities representing some twenty congregations agreed to undertake the same apostolic experience. It should be reiterated that these were all active congregations. The following is an excerpt from the letter she wrote to Monsignor Montini, who later became Paul VI (20 June 1964): \"You were then, Most Holy Father, kind enough to tell me that you were personally interested in this matter and that you would like to be kept informed of developments in this regard. ... Daring to hope for everything, I take the liberty of informing you, Most Holy Father, that I am at Salvator Mundi, the Great American Hospital! Viale delle Mura Gianicolensi, where the sisters are also strongly involved in this type of \u201capostolic training\u201d. ... I humbly and respectfully request your blessing, Most Holy Father.\u201d<\/p>


<\/p>\n

Veronica, always very concerned about living in ecclesial \u2018communion\u2019, went several times to inform the Roman authorities of the exact meaning and need for these experiences, but also of the urgent need for the hierarchical Church not only to tolerate them but to promote them. Rome reassured Veronica that the novitiate year was not incompatible with outside activities. She was told that initiation to the gospel, inherent in the baptism of every Christian, should not be put on hold in active congregations.<\/p>


<\/p>\n

To avoid any confusion, Veronica abandoned the term \u2018legionary\u2019 and freely created \u2018Apostolic Teams\u2019 which retained the same fundamental principles but had no connection whatsoever with the Legion of Mary as such.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Her openness to the grace of Charismatic Renewal (1972-1990)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Her commitment to the grace of Charismatic Renewal.<\/p>

At the beginning of the Charismatic Renewal, Veronica was sent to the United States by Cardinal Suenens. Here is her reaction: ... We must say \u201cyes\u201d to the grace of Pentecost and \u201cno\u201d to Pentecostalism; we must take the pearl of great price out of its case and believe, with a living and daring faith, that the Holy Spirit is always at work in his Church, miracles and charisms included and be ready to accept his surprises. \"<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

She understood immediately that the Renewal was not a \u2018movement\u2019 - a label too often used in our ranks - but that the Renewal was a powerful grace at work today, a breath, a motion of the Holy Spirit, a grace of Pentecost, to be received by all the baptised and by all \u2018movements\u2019, whatever they may be. That was her hope.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

But this grace had to be received in full harmony with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. And on this subject, ambiguities remained that needed to be cleared up. This situation of sheep without shepherds, being led by improvised leaders, made it urgent for the Catholic leaders of the Renewal to establish confident but direct contact with the center of the Church: Rome. ...<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Cardinal Suenens continues: ... When the leaders of the Renewal were considering a new International Congress, the most geographically suitable location seemed to be Puerto Rico. Veronica succeeded in persuading the leaders to arrange the meeting at the gates of Rome.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

During a stay in the United States, Veronica was invited to give a lecture to an ecumenical assembly of pastors. This was unusual in a milieu where St. Paul's recommendations to women still prevailed.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

She told them about her hopes for the ecumenical future of the Renewal. At the end of her talk, she knelt down, asked the assembly to pray for her, and ended with an improvised prayer and a bold invitation that moved the assembly.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u2018Do not be afraid,\u2019 she said, \"to go and pray in Rome at the tombs of Peter and Paul. All the paths of ecumenism lead there.\"<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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She added these unexpected words: \u2018I see in my mind's eye that one day Cardinal Suenens will celebrate the Eucharist in St Peter's in Rome at Pentecost and welcome the pilgrims of the Charismatic Renewal there.\u2019<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

This \u2018prophetic\u2019 statement, which she repeated to me later, seemed so contrary to Roman customs that I found it humanly implausible and impossible. However, as we shall see, it would one day come true and take its place in the history of \u2018God's surprises\u2019. The memorable Pentecost Congress in Rome in 1975, thanks to Veronica's initiative and mediation, in close union with Bishop Benelli, ended on a high note.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

To rid Catholic Renewal of any ambiguity and immunise it against the temptation \u2013 constantly recurring throughout the ages \u2013 to unite Christians, beyond their Church, in a supra-Church of the Holy Spirit, Veronica multiplied her frank and fruitful contacts. It was on the basis of this reflection that Cardinal Suenens invited a group of American leaders to his residence in Brussels, where they remained for several years.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

It was from this team that ICCRO was created, along with a journal of communion for the Renewal. Later, under Veronica's influence, ICCRO was transferred from Brussels to Rome, where the service continued its work.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Let us hear from Cardinal Suenens: \"No longer able, at her age, to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, Veronica inspires and encourages various initiatives that still achieve the same goal. We must love and serve, she said, not only with all our hearts, but also with all our imagination. Hence the FIAT Initiatives.\u00a0the Gospel to the ends of the earth, Veronica inspires and stimulates initiatives\u00a0<\/span>different ways of achieving the same goal. You have to love and serve,\" she says,<\/span><\/p>

not only with all our hearts, but also with all our imaginations. Hence\u00a0FIAT Initiatives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

These aim to deepen the spiritual and therefore apostolic life of Christians.\"\u00a0<\/span>of Christians.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Veronica was an apostle until the end of her life. With great pedagogical skill, she strove to make each collaborator a missionary of the Good News, while respecting the freedom of each individual. Thus, she was the founder of the apostolic team which, gathered around Cardinal Suenens, became the FIAT Association.\u00a0<\/span>apostle<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0until the end of his life. With a great deal of teaching skill,\u00a0<\/span>she strove to make each colleague a missionary of the Good News and\u00a0<\/span>this, with the greatest respect for everyone's liberty. As such, she was the founder of\u00a0<\/span>the apostolic team which, gathered around Cardinal Suenens, became the FIAT Association.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The FIAT Rosary is introduced by the FIAT prayer, which is addressed to the Holy Spirit. In this way, the FIAT Rosary unites the Holy Spirit and Mary in the same prayer to help us live the grace of our baptism.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The FIAT rosary is introduced by the FIAT prayer, which is addressed to the Holy Spirit. It is <\/span>as well as the FIAT chaplet uniting the Holy Spirit and Mary in a single prayer for us <\/span>help us to live out the grace of our baptism.<\/span><\/p>


<\/span><\/p>

Veronica ardently desired to return to the Father's House (1995-1998). She received the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick for the first time on 8 September 1995, the feast of the Nativity of Mary, and to everyone's joy, she regained her strength. <\/span>She received the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick for the first time on 8 September. <\/span>1995, the feast of the Nativity of Mary, and to everyone's delight, she regained her strength.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

On 11 February 1998, on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, she received the sacrament of the sick once again. Very weak, she passed from this life to Life on 19 February 1998, surrounded by her loved ones.<\/p>\n

As a conclusion, here is the message sent by Saint John Paul II on the occasion of Veronica's death: \"The Holy Father assures you of his heartfelt sympathy.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

He joins in the thanksgiving of all her loved ones for the ecclesial service, Marian apostolate and spiritual influence of this remarkable personality who contributed so much to the faithful in several countries, especially Belgium.\"<\/p>\n

 <\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veronica O\u2019Brien (1905-1998) N\u00e9e \u00e0 Midleton (comt\u00e9 de Cork en Irlande) le 16 ao\u00fbt 1905. Entr\u00e9e dans la paix et la joie du Seigneur le 19 f\u00e9vrier 1998 \u00e0 Wemmel (Archidioc\u00e8se de Malines-Bruxelles en Belgique). \u00a0 Inhum\u00e9e \u00e0 Nevers (France), au cimeti\u00e8re Jean Gautherin, car c\u2019est \u00e0 Nevers que Veronica O’Brien commen\u00e7a son apostolat pour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-343","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":182,"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086,"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions\/2086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veronicaobrien.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}