Stephanie Gayat 1840-1918
Probably at her request, Sr St Raphaël does not have a circular.
Here are some notes from the book of our chronicles:
On August 27, 1918 at 11 o'clock in the evening fell asleep gently in the Lord, our dear sister Saint Raphaël of the Heart of Mary, aged 78 years and 6 months, 49 of whom spent in religion.
Sister St Raphaël was originally from Honfleur; his father was a cooper and his mother a chair reupholsterer. Not much is known of his youth. She entered the Carmel on February 24, 1868, at the age of 28. She took the habit on June 26; it was the Bishop of Bayeux who gave it to him and the Rev. Fr. Bénigne preached. Profession followed on July 6, 1869, and Sr. St. Raphael received the veil on the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
In 1870, Sr St Raphaël experienced the war in her own way. Bishop de Bayeux, by sending the nomination to Mr. Delatroëtte, our superior, gave him the power to exempt his new daughters from the cloister as soon as he saw the need to bring them out because of the war. No sooner had he taken charge than the most sinister noises forced him to give my Sr. St. Raphaël permission to go out. Her father, who lived in Le Havre, had sent his eldest daughter to fetch her younger sister. Our Sister, back home, was very often in charge, sub-prioress and depositary.
Wise and charitable, she is also good and gentle – and will be full of attentions for Thérèse. Three winters in a row, she took care of Thérèse's frostbite, until she spent hours there. She will also complain that this young sister is not served enough in the refectory.
For several years reduced to a painful state of infirmity, she had gradually lost the use of her faculties and found herself almost completely in childhood. But it was only on August 16 that our good old lady went to bed never to get up again. Stricken with an attack of gravel, an illness from which she had suffered in the past, she gave us such great anxiety from that day on that we administered Extreme Unction to her in haste, on this day after the feast of the Assumption. before the conventual Mass. But the Lord, so compassionate and so good for his spouses, wanted to give back to our dear dying woman all her intelligence at this supreme hour, so that she prepared herself for mass in the most edifying way, offering her great suffering and above all the dreadful torment of thirst she endured, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. "My God," she said with deep conviction, "you will have mercy on me, because I have always trusted you!" Or other similar impulses. However, the acute crisis passed, and the soul of our dear sister still had to be purified in the crucible of pain, and deserve for her and sinners, for nearly a fortnight.
Gradually, she grew weaker, fell into an almost continual sleep, while keeping her consciousness until the end, since at 8 o'clock in the evening, on the 27th, she still piously kissed her crucifix presented to her by our beloved Mother, and she even tried to make the sign of the cross. Then without a jolt, like a lamp going out, our good sister Saint Raphaël entered her eternity, without it being almost possible to notice her last sigh. It was 11 o'clock in the evening, her nurses the only ones present, for not anticipating such a prompt outcome, we had forced our Mother to take some rest, in view of the fatigues of the next day. At the same time in the choir, we were having the vigil "at arms" of a young professed sister, Sister Marie of the Incarnation, wearing the white veil, and the celebration having to be entirely interior, we did not think we had to postpone it. There was no lack of analogy, moreover, between this final farewell to life and this farewell to the world on the threshold of the Carmel, a veritable vestibule of heaven. It is indeed by this first death or austere separation from the fleeting happinesses that the world offers, that our signal privilege of forming in Paradise the immaculate procession of the Lamb, Bridegroom of the Virgins, is purchased.
We have the sweet confidence that our good sister Saint Raphaël received a favorable judgment from the Father of Mercy, as she hoped: "Lord, she said in her last days of exile, Father, remember that you have promised to grant us everything we would ask of you through the Face of Jesus” And all her life she had had such great devotion for the Adorable Face of the Saviour. She also counted on our "little Thérèse" to make her welcome, and the good Lord who had subjected her in recent years to a very humiliating state of infirmity and moral collapse, remembered her deep piety when She enjoyed all her faculties, and the numerous masses which she made it a pious duty to attend, spending entire mornings in choir for this purpose. We were ourselves well consoled by the very edifying dispositions of this dear Sister, and by this unexpected return of her intelligence which one could not expect without a very special grace.
The funeral took place on Friday August 30 and the three absolutions given by Father Dufrenoy, parish priest of Haugest (diocese of Amiens) and refugee in Lisieux, by Canon Pitrou, our worthy Chaplain and finally our Father Superior , parish priest of Saint Jacques. Hidden in the audience, Monsignor Bonnefoy, Archbishop of Aix, for at least the fourth time a pilgrim from Lisieux, attended the burial mass. He had celebrated community Mass in the morning.
