Émilie de Villeneuve (9 March 1811 – 2 October 1854) was a French Catholic nun and the founder of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Castres.

At the age 19, de Villeneuve was back at Hauterive, where she managed family life, mitigating of this task her father, then mayor of Castres (from 1826 to 1830).

But during the cooling off period imposed by her father, she created (with the approval of her bishop), and in collaboration with two companions, the Congregation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1836.

In the anonymity of a house in Castres, with her companions, she served the poor: young workers, sick people, prostitutes and those who were convicted in prison.

This charism explained the scope and diversity of the competences displayed by the community members: education, health and participation in the life of local church.

Twelve years after the establishment of the congregation, it started to expand in Africa in 1848, then in Europe in 1903, in Latin America in 1904–1905, and eventually in the Asia Pacific region in 1998.

Today, there are around 600 members spread in 124 communities in 18 countries: France, Spain, Italy, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Gabon, RD Congo, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, Haiti and in the Philippines.

On 6 July 1991, there came the "reading of the decree of the heroism of the virtues" in front of Pope John Paul II, who authorized the promulgation, which became official on 9 October 1991.

It would go to the Medical Board and a vote was held for the miracle, completed on February 16, 2006 in which the members recognized unanimously that medicine could not explain the cure in question.

Émilie de Villeneuve was beatified by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during a ceremony in Castres on 5 July 2009.

For the canonization of Émilie de Villeneuve, the postulator of the cause presented the case of healing of a child named Emilly, born 2 August 2007 at Oroco, Pernambuco, in Brazil.

The initiative to invoke Villeneuve's intercession came from Ana Celia de Oliveira, a religious sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, who knew Emilly's grandfather Rafael, and his family.

When de Oliveira received the news of the accident at the Mr. Rafael's granddaughter, she began to invoke the intercession of Villeneuve in front of a relic.

On 25 September 2014 the theological advisors met and considered the child's recovery as a miracle through the intercession of Émilie de Villeneuve.