of Saint Peter before setting off to visit the catacombs and other Roman churches, and then attending Mass in the room where Ignatius of Loyola died. On 31 May she had a private audience with Pope Pius IX. Marie-Eugénie de Jésus returned to Rome where on 11 April 1888 Pope Leo XIII issued pontifical approval to her order and signed the decree in her presence. In 1893, Marie-Eugénie de Jésus returned to Rome and met Leo XIII again. In 1894 she attempted to return to Rome but had to stop in Genoa due to falling ill en route. In late 1894 she visited Madrid and San Sebastián. In March 1895 she went with her nurse Sister Marie Michel to Rome and made stops along the train to Montpellier and Nice as well as to Cannes and Genoa; she returned to France three months later. The aging sister suffered a small stroke in October 1897 which caused her speech to slow; her legs began to grow frail and movement became more difficult over time. Marie-Eugénie de Jésus died on 10 March 1898 at 3:00am; she received the Viaticum on 9 March and received the Last Rites on 13 February when it seemed she would die despite her bouncing back from that scare. The Cardinal Archbishop of Reims Benoît-Marie Langénieux celebrated her funeral on 12 March. As of 2019 her order had 1300 followers from 44 different nationalities, operating in 34 countries on four continents. Sainthood The sainthood process opened in the Paris archdiocese in an informative process that Cardinal Jean Verdier oversaw from 1934 until its closure in 1936; her writings received theological approval on two separate occasions on 1 February 1939 and on 8 July 1949. The formal introduction to the cause came on 17 April 1940 under Pope Pius XII and she became titled as a Servant of God. Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard oversaw the apostolic process from 1941 until 1943 before all documentation from both processes was sent to the Congregation for Rites in Rome who validated these processes on 14 December 1945. An antepreparatory committee approved the cause on 9 May 1951 as did a preparatory one (the first on 30 June 1953 was inconclusive) on 7 June 1960 and the general committee on 6 June 1961. On 21 June 1961 she became titled as Venerable after Pope John XXIII confirmed that she had lived a life