Valiant Vignette: Mother Elizabeth of the Eucharist

Mother Elizabeth of the Eucharist, born Elise Rivet, was the Mother Superior of a French convent during the Second World War.  She and her Sisters helped hide Jewish refugees, specifically women and children, as well as weapons for the French Resistance.  In 1944, she was denounced to the Gestapo and the convent was searched.  Mother Elizabeth and only one other Sister were arrested, and the refugees and remaining Sisters were left unharmed.

She was sentenced to hard labor and taken to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck.  After a year of prayer and cheerful suffering, she offered to go to the gas chambers in place of a mother.  It was March 30, 1945--Good Friday.  It was only a few weeks before the end of the war.