Elisabeth 'Mamie' Van Keerbergen
Also known as Elisabeth van Keerbergen · Mamie
Life
Elisabeth Van Keerbergen, affectionately known as Mamie, was born on 12 July 1908 in Brussels into a non-practising Catholic family. In her youth she worked in a tailor's shop and later kept the accounts for a brewery; she had a particular love of music and especially of opera. On 12 January 1929, aged twenty, she married François Treuttens, a metallurgical entrepreneur, in the Church of Saint Susan in Brussels, and the couple had one daughter, Simonne. Her only sister Jeanne later entered the Sisters of Charity as Sister Helena.
Shortly after Simonne's birth Mamie contracted an incurable eye disease that left her nearly blind, the beginning of more than two decades of physical suffering. In 1954, in the Church of Saint Gertrude in Brussels, she experienced a profound conversion, and in 1962 she was miraculously cured at Lourdes. After her husband's death in 1966 she moved to Santander, in northern Spain, where she devoted herself to caring for sick children and to a hidden life of prayer for priests.
In 1973 she met the young seminarian Rafael Alonso Reymundo, who later founded the Home of the Mother. Mamie became his spiritual mother and, by her own account, was given by Our Lord ninety-nine 'spiritual sons' for whom she offered every pain of her last years, three of them eventually bishops. She died in Santander on 4 August 1994, the feast of Saint John Vianney, patron of priests.
Suggested prayer
Heavenly Father, in your providence you raise up holy men and women in every age.
Through the intercession of N., grant me [your specific intention] if it be your will, and the grace to remain faithful to you in all things.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sources
Questions & answers
Who was Mamie Van Keerbergen?
Belgian laywoman and Servant of Suffering, spiritual mother to Fr Rafael Alonso and the priests of the Home of the Mother, who offered her long illness for the sanctification of clergy.
When did Mamie Van Keerbergen die?
Mamie Van Keerbergen was born on 12 July 1908 and died on 4 August 1994.
Is Mamie Van Keerbergen a saint?
No. Mamie Van Keerbergen has not been canonised, and no cause for beatification has been opened. MyHolyHero remembers this life as a witness of faith; the prayer here is for private devotion only.
Is there a prayer to Mamie Van Keerbergen?
No official prayer for the cause is available here yet. This page offers a general prayer for private use, asking God for a grace through the intercession of Mamie Van Keerbergen.
