AT HIS LAST BREATH, MARY ACCOMPANIED EUGENE TO THE FRUIT OF HER WOMB

” So your strength is failing you? Why don’t you tell your mother about it?…Mother! Call her with a loud voice. She is listening to you; she sees you in danger, perhaps, and she–your holy mother Mary–offers you, along with the grace of her son, the refuge of her arms, the tenderness of her embrace…and you will find yourself with added strength for the new battle.” (Saint Josemaria Escriva)

“They will always regard her as mother” Eugene had written when we officially became Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate after our papal approbation in 1826. He asked us to have a “tender and filial devotion.” Throughout his whole life he was accompanied by Mary – because of this Rule that he quotes in his retreat notes:

Devotion to Mary must also characterize us: At least once a day they will pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament and a visit to the Blessed Virgin, towards whom all the missionaries will cultivate a special devotion, and to whom they will always look up as to their Mother
They will recite the rosary every day, and will leave nothing undone to make the faithful most fervently and trustfully devout to this Immaculate Virgin and the most holy Mother of God. 

Retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163

Eugene died during the praying of the Salve Regina, at these words: “Turn then, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!”

Father Fabre describes the scene:

We recited the entire Salve Regina, which our well-loved Father understood and followed fully. At the words: Nobis post hoc exilium ostende, he opened his eyes slightly; at each invocations: O clémens, o Pia, he made a slight movement; at the third: O Dulcis Virgo Maria, he breathed his last. His beautiful soul was in the presence of God.

Circular Letter to the Congregation 26 May 1861

Because of his life-long closeness to Mary, she did indeed accompany him to the fruit of her womb: Jesus. May we learn to look on her as mother and as our faithful faith-companion on our Christian journey to be shown the fruit of her womb at its fulfilment in our own death.