Saint of the Month - February 2013: Blessed Marie of Jesus

Bl. Marie (Deluil-Martiny) of Jesus

Handmaiden of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Memorial: February 27th

Marie Deluil-Martiny was born in 1841 to a wealthy family from Marseilles, France. Her parents were quite pious and instilled in their five children a lively faith. Marie, in particular, was quite expressive in her devotion, even as a child.  It was once reported that while she was still a teenager and attending a convent school run by Visitation nuns, she innocently started her own “congregation” with her classmates, complete with a rule and profession ceremony. When the Sisters got word of the group of play-nuns they were quite amused, but quickly put an end to their community.

After her studies were completed, the Lord subjected Marie’s family to several trials – her four siblings died one after another from illness and she was left alone to care for her parents who are both ailing themselves. Their situation eventually caused a financial strain on the family, which left them with a significantly depleted fortune. Despite the hardship, the family persevered in faith and they weathered the financial storm.

As an adult, Marie developed a profound love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She joined an association called the Honor Guard of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was zealous in promoting devotion to the heart of Christ. Beginning in 1866, she experienced a series of interior lights and mystical contacts with the Lord that solidified her desire to give herself completely to God through religious consecration. At first she went through a period of severe scruples, but through the guidance of two holy priests, she again found peace and came to discern for herself a vocation as a victim, who spiritually united with the priesthood, the Blessed Virgin, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, would make reparation for the many offenses committed against God.

Patiently, she prayed and waited for an opportune time to make a move, all the while deepening her union with the Sacred Heart. Finally, in 1873, with the support of a sympathetic bishop, Marie founded a religious institute – the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus - in Berchem-lez-Anvers, Belgium, to bring her vision to life. At that time, Our Lady reportedly said to her, “For the future institute, the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the celestial offering of the Divine Victim sacrificed on the Altar, will compensate most excellently for the corporal mortifications that some constitutions can no longer bear.”

Mother Marie of Jesus, as she came to be called, exercised her office as foundress and superior by being a living example of the sacrificial charism that she wished to impart to her spiritual daughters.  She was noted for the tender love that she displayed to the other sisters, and for the writings that she penned to record her thoughts and mystical insights concerning her personal form of spirituality. Her burning love for the Sacred Heart went so far as to inspire her to continuously offer her very life for the success of the charism of victimhood that she felt urged to propagate; it was a sacrifice that was soon to be accepted.

In 1883, Mother Marie of Jesus had sympathetically hired an impoverished young man named Louis Chave as gardener to her foundation in La Servianne, France, and despite the Sisters’ charity towards him, he was rude and unreliable. His growing anarchist views also made him increasingly hostile to the Sisters, which necessitated his expulsion from the convent. In revenge, on February 27, 1884, Louis ambushed the foundress during the Sisters’ recreation time and shot her twice in the neck with a pistol before fleeing. Mother Marie of Jesus fell to the ground mortally wounded. She was heard to gasp, “I forgive him... for my work... for the institute.”  before expiring shortly after.

Rather than ending her work, Mother Marie of Jesus’ death had the effect of invigorating her legacy. Her congregation grew and spread throughout Europe, and as a direct result of her spiritual influence, an organization - the Association of Victim Souls – came to be established with thousands of members, which included such notable souls as St. Maximilian Kolbe, Bl. Columba Marmion, and Bl. Joseph-Marie Cassant.  The Church Beatified Bl. Marie of Jesus Deluil-Martiny on October 22, 1989 in recognition of her sanctity. Her body, exhumed miraculously incorrupt, is venerated today in the original convent that she founded in Berchem-lez-Anvers.  Please pray for her speedy Canonization.
 

A Reflection

“I wish to make souls for Myself who understand Me…” ~ Words of Our Lord to Bl. Marie of Jesus

A Short Prayer
Lord, grant us the grace and light of the Holy Spirit that we may come to understand you.  Amen.

The incorrupt body of Bl. Marie Deluil-Martiny

(the face and arms are covered with wax).  A

priest who was present at the exhumation once

shared with me about how surprised he and

others were when they discovered the body of

the foundress darkened but preserved

despite the gaping wound in her neck.