Life of Sr. Marie de St. Pierre
Table of Contents
Our Little Breton
Birth—Early years—First steps in virtue—Her attraction for prayer—First Communion—Death of her mother—Her temptations—Her pious amusements—Learns a trade—Admitted to a confraternity in honor of Blessed Virgin—Aridities and trials—Change of confessor—Makes a retreat.
Her Vocation
Gratitude to the Blessed Virgin—First thoughts of quitting the world—Her new director—His opinion of his little penitent—His counsels—Her pious practices of devotion—Trials and rebuffs—Her charity manifested toward a poor family—Her influence over them—First account of the extraordinary operations of grace in her soul—Her love for humiliations and sufferings—Humiliations ordained by her confessor—Consolations which she experienced—Devotion to Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament—To the Sacred Heart—Miraculous cure.
The Trial
Influence exercised over her companions—Their entertainments—Illness of her sister—Fears of her father that she was about to leave him—Embarrassments—Second marriage of her father—Visit to Meaux—Permission from her confessor to enter there—Disappointment—Recourse to St. Martin— Vision—Avidity for prayer—Charity toward the indigent sick—Illness of her confessor—Pilgrimage to Notre-Dame de la Peinière—Her confessor desires to send her to the Hospitallers at Rennes—Trials—Promise of Our Lord that she would be a Carmelite—Poverty of her father a seeming obstacle—Her adieus.
The Carmelite Monastery of Tours
Her departure—Reception by the community—First trials in religious life—History of the monastery of Tours—First Superiors—Difficulties of the foundation—Fidelity of the sisters to their religious engagements during the revolution of 1789—Driven from their convent—Sufferings of the religious—Prisons—Return to their conventual life—Miraculous picture of the Blessed Virgin—Other sacred objects, in their possession.
Her Novitiate
Early endeavors to attain the spirit of her rules—First vision relative to Reparation—Act of abandonment demanded by the Lord—Objections of the mother prioress—Summary of life of Mother Mary of Incarnation—Early life—Call to religion—Her character—Devotion of Sr. Mary St. Peter to the Holy Infancy—Consecration to the Holy Family—“The Ass of the Infant Jesus”— Month of the Infant Jesus—The devil tries to smother her.
Her Profession
Her three demands at Chapter—Her profession—Act of Consecration—Method of keeping in union with God—Her spirit of mortification—Her interview with an extraordinary confessor—Approves her method of meditation—Appointed portress—Her prayers for Spain—Our Lord again demands the Act of Perfect Abandonment— Change of monasteries—Troubles of the Superior—Supernatural aid—Vision of Our Lord—Attachment to sensible devotion.
The Golden Dagger
Communications on the Work of Reparation—Extraordinary storm—Reflections of the sister—Our Lord’s first complaints of the sin of Blasphemy—The Golden Dagger—Consoling promises—Surprise of the Prioress at the account of this vision—Her devotion to the Holy Name of God—Her exercise in Reparation—Her Superior refuses to recognize these new devotions—Submission of the sister—Her interior sufferings— Finding of printed leaflet on Reparation—Joy of Sister St. Peter—M. Dupont distributes Forty Days Prayer among the Communities—Rigor of her Superiors diminishing— Malady of the mother prioress—Novena made by the community for her recovery—Cure.
The Reparation
Confessors of the house—The sister defines her “visions”—The Lord demands the birth of the devotion at Carmel—New communications—The Holy Name of God—The sister offers a little billet to the Blessed Virgin—Our Lady of Good Help—Feat of a novice— Divine vengeance— Blasphemy demoralizing modern society—France the center of this corroding evil—The Association at Rome—Prayers of Reparation.
The Association
Interview with the Superior—The sister obtains permission to make her Act of abandonment to the Infant Jesus—She asks to have the Reparatory Prayers printed—Is refused—Her letter to the prioress—Her motto “And He was subject to them”—Method of meditation given her by Our Lord—The Association—Great desire of the sister for the establishment of Reparation.
The Archbishop
Necessity of examining the revelations—Character of Mgr. Morlot—High esteem for M. Dupont—Incident at the archbishopric—The communications subjected to the decision of the prelate—His pastoral—The Association of Notre Dame de la Riche—The Lord encourages her to suffer— The Carmelites leave their old monastery—Graces obtained by the Reparatory prayers.
The Little Gospel
Death of the Duke of Orleans—The Saviour desires the sister to relieve this soul—Three years after, is assured of his beatitude—Proof of this circumstance—Mgr. Morlot’s consoling letter to Queen Amelia—Similar circumstance narrated in the life of a religious of the Visitation—Our portress is besieged by visitors—The “Little Gospel”—M. Dupont defrays the expenses—Great favors obtained by the Little Gospel.
The Holy Face
The Lord encourages his servant to ask for an interview with the archbishop—Visit of the archbishop to the sister—His counsels—Encouragement—Her joy and consolation—The archbishop approves the prayers—New trials and temptations—Vision of St. Veronica—Our Lord first speaks of his Holy Face—Consoling promises—Establishes relation between the Holy Face and the Sacred Heart.
Veronica and the Good Thief
Another vision—The piece of coin—Great favors accorded through the intercession of St. Veronica—Second vision—Consoling promises in favor of those devoted to his Holy Face—Third vision—Influence exercised by the Holy Face on St. Peter—Prayer to the Holy Family—Sign of Reparation—Our Lord reproaches her for her neglect in praying for blasphemy — Threats of divine justice—Our Lord thanks her Superior for her zeal in promoting his work—Appointed shepherdess by Our Lord to watch over souls—Offers the example of Veronica and the Good Thief—Magnificent promises to those who devote themselves to Reparation—He commands her to write his promises.
La Salette
Dupont—Intimacy with the Carmelites—Sister St. Peter asks him for a book treating on the Blessed Sacrament—Esteem of the archbishop for M. Dupont—The mother prioress relates the sister’s vision in which she prophesies the apparition of the Blessed Virgin (September, 18-16)—La Salette, October 22nd—Reasons given by the mother superior why this communication is not found in the sister’s writings—Joy and thanksgiving of Sr. St. Peter.
The Sins of France
Interior sufferings—The Lord warns her of his anger because of the profanation of the Sunday—Inundation of the Loire—Offers herself as a victim to avert the calamities which threaten France— Demands the establishment of the Work of Reparation—Information of these revelations sent to the archbishop—Our Lord holds her responsible for all the sins of France—Shows her the multitude daily falling into hell—Invests her with all the treasures of his Passion to ransom souls—Her charity toward the agonizing.
The Obstacles
“Abridgment of facts” addressed to the archbishop— Approbation—The litanies composed by the sister authorized—M. Dupont distributes these “Abridgments”—The Lord complains of the want of love of the faithful—Their neglect in visiting the Blessed Sacrament—She points out the relation between the face and the name of a man—The establishment of the Reparation predicted—The sister saddened at the sight of the many difficulties— The Abridgment of Facts noised abroad — Disquietude of the archbishop—Prohibits any further movement in the matter—Submission of M. Dupont and the Community—Chastisements announced—She receives another command from the Lord to write to the archbishop —Opposition of the superior—Sufferings of the sister.
The Communists
Secret societies—Their destructive principles—The Lord bids her combat them with his cross—She is afraid she has sinned in using imprecations against them—Her interior dispositions—The Work of Reparation, the salvation of France—She asks other graces of Our Lord—The Reparation to be given to the world through the intercession of Mary—He compares it to a mine of gold—Demands the Work—The sister remits the work into the hands of the Blessed Virgin—Our Lady of the Holy Name of God.
The Arch-Confraternity
Lebrumont-Julien visits the Carmelites—His interview with the Bishop of Langres—Reparation—Canonical erection of the Confraternity—Pius IX constitutes it an arch-confraternity—Congregation established by Mlle. Dubouché—Her vision— Picture of the Holy Face—Renounces the world—Father Marie Augustin (Herman)—Nightly adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Divine Maternity
Nature of the sister’s communications explained by the teaching of theologians—St. Theresa—Her devotion to the Holy Infancy—Hidden mystery— Jesus, infant in the arms of his Mother—Scriptural references—Confirms her singular revelations by the writings of the saints—Her exercises of devotion to the Infant Jesus—Revelations of the same nature granted to a religious of Beaune—Mary at the foot of the cross becoming the Mother of all men—Legatee of the merits of Redemption.
Interview with the Secretary
Grief of the sister over the sterility of the church of Tours—Prediction of new calamities—Notice forwarded to the archbishop — The Church menaced—Her prayers for the Pope—Revolution at Paris—The Lord threatens her with a rigorous account of the graces received—Begs a sign that the archbishop may he convinced—Our Lord commands her again to declare all her revelations to the archbishop—He sends his secretary—Account of the interview—Consolation from Our Lord—Ecce Homo.
Her Virtues
Simplicity of her life—Her appearance—Her education—Natural qualities of mind—Good judgment—Gayety—Her concentration of mind—Her charity—Her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament—To the Blessed Virgin—Her humility—Spirit of sacrifice—Perfect obedience— Detachment—Recollection—Her love for mortification—“The Drum”—Testimony of one of the sisters.
Her Illness and Death
Foretells her death—Her strength commencing to fail—Her days shortened by her continual application to the things of God—She falls ill—Opinion of physicians—Retires to the infirmary—Her edifying resignation—The remembrance of her intimate communications with the Lord withdrawn—Her cruel sufferings—Her Patience—Confidence in God—Annointed—Asks pardon of the Community—Gratitude toward her superior—Her agony—Assaults of the devil—Last benediction of the archbishop—Her last words—Sit Nomen Domini benedictum.
Her Burial—Her Work
General opinion of her sanctity among the Carmelites—One sister convinced after an extraordinary dream—The great number who flocked to venerate her last remains—Extraordinary cure—The archbishop—Sorrow of M. Dupont—Pilgrimage to her grave—Her last remains transferred to Carmel— Mission of M. Dupont—Origin of the picture of the Holy Pace—Miracles wrought by the oil burning before the Holy Face at M. Dupont’s house—His death—House transformed into a public chapel—The formation of the Order of Regulars of the Holy Face—Rapid extension of the Reparation.
Sit Nomen Domini benedictum!