Saint of the Month - July 2020: Sr. Marie-Marthe Chambon

The Servant of God

Sr. Marie-Marthe Chambon

Apostle of the Holy Wounds

Today this blogger features a mystic who received a major private revelation from our Lord; a divine message that's credible and backed up by the saintly life of this humble French nun.  The fact is - she lived in a manner so exemplary in virtue, she's now up for sainthood, which is a good sign the revelation she received is authentic.  From my personal assessment, her star has been rising steadily in the past 20 years.  These troubled times are an opportune time for her life and message to now shine brightly for the good of all souls.

+ THE APOSTLE OF THE HOLY WOUNDS

Françoise Chambon was born in the French hamlet of Croix-Rouge on March 6th, 1841. Her parents were poor uneducated farmers but were apparently rich in faith, which translated to Francoise being a highly precocious and pious little girl who began receiving favors from Heaven even in her childhood.  She experienced her very first mystical grace at just age nine when, during Good Friday in 1850, she envisioned Christ Crucified bleeding profusely from countless wounds.  The event marked her so deeply she resolved to belong wholly to God from that day on.  Later, that same year, she saw him again when she received her First Holy Communion.  On that second occasion, Jesus said to her: "My child, so it will be every time you go to Holy Communion."

At 19, Francoise became a Franciscan Tertiary and was referred by her confessor to the Carmelite Monastery in nearby Chambéry for possible admission.  She was, however, not accepted into the order because she was deemed too frail and unsuited for a Carmelite's austere mode of life.  Undaunted, she applied with the Visitation Convent in the same city and the nuns there were charmed by her candor and simplicity - they accepted her into their company and, at age 21, she entered under the religious name of Sr. Marie-Marthe.

For the most part, the early years of Sr. Marie-Marthe's life in the Visitation Monastery was exteriorly uneventful.  She was seen as a very good nun by most, but within her soul extraordinary graces were intensifying - beginning in September 1866, she experienced regular visits from Jesus - sometimes battered and crucified on the Holy Cross.  He drew attention to his many wounds, while teaching her how to contemplate and honor them through various reflections and prayers he taught her.  Our Lord allegedly said to the nun: 

"The Crucifix, that is your book!

All the real science is in the study

of my Wounds."

As her union with Christ Crucified rapidly deepened, the seer's thirst to expiate mankind's sins also increased - Sr. Marie-Marthe routinely practiced voluntary mortifications such as sleeping on the bare floor; wearing a spiked belt under her habit; spending late hours in prayer; and fasting rigorously.  If that weren't enough, the Lord mystically crowned her with his very own Crown of Thorns, which made it especially painful to touch her head, even laying it on a pillow.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy through

the merits of your Holy Wounds!

The following year in September 1867, Marie-Marthe witnessed a sublime vision of the Crucifixion, during which Jesus commissioned her to help reestablish in the Church a renewed devotion to his Holy Wounds, via a special emphasis on honoring them and making reparation for sins that caused them.  One of the means of accomplishing this aim was revealed to be a new chaplet called the Chaplet (or Rosary) of the Holy Wounds (see below for instructions on how to pray it).

"There will be no death for the soul

that expires in My Holy Wounds;

they give true life."

~ Jesus to Sr. Marie-Marthe

For the rest of her life, Sr. Marie-Marthe focused her energy in responding to everything Jesus had asked of her; only disclosing what she heard from our Lord to her confessor and superiors, while hiding her mystical graces from her peers.  Her superiors, on their part, believed in her mission and they had her private revelations published in booklet form even during her lifetime.

To fuel the devotion's success, the seer continued praying and sacrificing - she received the rest of the stigmatic wounds on her hands, feet, and heart but they remained mostly invisible except on rare occasions when they actually bled.  Furthermore, additional charisms were manifested in the nun's spiritual life that included visits with Our Lady and the Saints; spiritual voyages to Heaven; frequent contact with the Poor Souls from Purgatory for whom she also prayed and suffered; and the gift of living on the Eucharist alone for an extended period of time.

"When you offer My Holy Wounds for

sinners, you must not forget to do so for

the souls in Purgatory, as there are but

few who think of their relief... The Holy

Wounds are the treasure of treasures

for the souls in Purgatory."

~ Jesus to Sr. Marie-Marthe

Sr. Marie-Marthe Chambon died at the age of 66 on March 21st, 1907.  It was reported that after her death, over a million devotional booklets on the Holy Wounds were distributed, worldwide, in 17 languages!  Her Cause for Canonization was opened by the Diocese of Chambery in 1937, and is still quite active.

Please join this ministry in spreading the Devotion to the Holy Wounds and also praying for Sr. Marie-Marthe's speedy Canonization.

Sr. Marie-Marthe Chambon in death.

+ THE CHAPLET OF THE HOLY WOUNDS

Using the traditional 5-decade Rosary, the chaplet is recited with prayers dictated by our Lord to Sr. Marie-Marthe Chambon:

On the Crucifix:

+  Sign of the Cross

+ O Jesus, Divine Redeemer, be merciful to us and to the whole world.

On the first three [Hail Mary] beads: 

1.  Strong God, holy God, immortal God, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

2.  Grace and mercy, O my Jesus, during present dangers; cover us with Thy Precious Blood.

3.  Eternal Father, grant us mercy through the Blood of Jesus Christ, Thine only Son; grant us mercy, we beseech Thee.

On the Our Father beads:

  Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ to heal the Wounds of our souls.

On the Hail Mary beads:

  My Jesus, pardon and mercy, through the merits of Thy Holy Wounds.

After the five decades:

  Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to heal the wounds of our souls.  Amen. (3x)

The Chaplet of the Holy Wounds,

as prayed in a YouTube video.

+ PROMISES AND BENEFITS OF THE HOLY WOUNDS DEVOTION, AS REVEALED BY OUR LORD

The following is compiled from the writings of Sr. Marie-Marthe and lists revelations and promises made to her by Jesus ... to those who will practice this particular form of devotion to his Holy Wounds:

• At each word that you pronounce of the Chaplet of the Holy Wounds, I allow a drop of My Blood to fall upon the soul of a sinner.

• Each time that you offer to My Father the merits of My Divine Wounds, you win an immense fortune.

• Souls that will have contemplated and honored My crown of thorns on earth, will be My crown of glory in Heaven.

• I will grant all that is asked of Me through the invocation of My Holy Wounds.  You will obtain everything, because it is through the merit of My Blood, which is of infinite price.  With My Wounds and My Divine Heart, everything can be obtained.

• From My Wounds proceed fruits of sanctity.  As gold purified in the crucible becomes more beautiful, so you must put your soul and those of your companions into My sacred Wounds; there they will become perfected as gold in the furnace.  You can always purify yourself in My Wounds.

• My Wounds will repair yours.  My Wounds will cover all your faults.  Those who honor them will have a true knowledge of Jesus Christ.  In meditation on them, you will always find a new love.  My Wounds will cover all your sins.

• Plunge your actions into My Wounds and they will be of value.  All your actions, even the least, soaked in My Blood, will acquire by this alone an infinite merit and will please My Heart.

• In offering My Wounds for the conversion of sinners, even though the sinners are not converted, you will have the same merit before God as if they were.

•   When you have some trouble, something to suffer, quickly place it in My Wounds, and the pain will be alleviated.

• This aspiration must often be repeated near the sick: “My Jesus, pardon and mercy through the merits of Your Holy Wounds!”  This prayer will solace soul and body.

• A sinner who will say the following prayer will obtain conversion: “Eternal Father, I offer You the Wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ to heal those of our souls.”

• There will be no death for the soul that expires in My Holy Wounds; they give true life.

• This chaplet is a counterpoise to My justice; it restrains My vengeance.

• Those who pray with humility and who meditate on My Passion, will one day participate in the glory of My Divine Wounds.

• The more you will have contemplated My painful Wounds on this earth, the higher will be your contemplation of them glorious in Heaven.

• The soul who during life has honoured the Wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ and has offered them to the Eternal Father for the souls in Purgatory, will be accompanied at the moment of death by the Holy Virgin and the angels; and Our Lord on the Cross, all brilliant in glory, will receive her and crown her.

• The invocations of the Holy Wounds will obtain an incessant victory for the Church.

 A rare relic of Sr. Marie-Marthe's

clothing in this ministry's custody.