The initiative of these pleas returns to the officer Pierre Mestre, a layman close to the Carmel, who had discovered Story of a soul when he was in garrison at Lisieux. Shortly after, he began a fiery propaganda. This former student of the Assumptionists had remained very close to Fr. Emmanuel Bailly, their Superior General. Meeting him in Paris while on leave in 1916, he mentioned an idea close to his heart, the sending to Benedict XV of petitions from soldiers in favor of the canonization of Sister Thérèse. Bailly promised to take his petition to Rome. It was actually a collection of letters collected by the officer. More than twenty were calligraphed by Lisieux, but the others were sent directly to the Vatican.
These letters mix all formal expressions and very personal stories, containing allusions to the situation of each one and the story of the graces received. The soldiers speak in their own name, emphasizing however that they are the interpreters of many other soldiers, or of their unit. Mestre himself comments on the sending of these petitions in a letter to Mother Agnès, which Marie du Sacré-Coeur quotes to Léonie: "The pope was very touched by these requests and would like this to be generalized in the French army, wrote Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart in Léonie in 1916. No doubt this will not modify the canonization procedure, but the number of these military pleas would be a curious thing and would be very impressive” [MSC to Sister Françoise-Thérèse on November 1, 1916]. It was a presentiment of the direct consequence that these pleas would have: dispensation from the inquiry into the Reputation of Sanctity.
The pleas of the soldiers number in the tens, while the later pleas of the faithful will number in the hundreds of thousands. On the other hand, it is the pleas of the soldiers that have remained in the memories as decisive and extraordinary.
Antoinette Guise Castelnuovo
We present here the 26 petitions, copies of which are kept in the archives of the Carmel.
Commander Mestre
To the Armies, July 24, 1916.
To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
A pupil of TR Father d'Alzon, of holy memory, and of the Augustins of the Assumption which he founded, I learned from them, from a young age, not only to respect in your sacred person the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, but still to obey him blindly, to follow his directions in everything, to have in a word what our masters so aptly called the Cult of the Pope. It is in these feelings of submission and of faithful attachment to the Vicar of Jesus Christ that I come, as a Catholic, and more particularly as a senior officer of the French army, to address You, in the name of a large number of my comrades, a very humble request. You kindly agreed last year, Most Holy Father, to authorize the minting of a medal bearing the effigy of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. The little Carmelite of Lisieux is very honored among us. We love it, we venerate it, we implore it. How many officers and soldiers owe him since the beginning of the present war, the grace of a good death, of certain protection on the battlefield, of a return to faith, of an understanding clearer of the Christian life! It is in all forms that our little saint spreads her favors in our ranks. We therefore thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for the authorization given for the medal; we wear this sacred badge with respect. But we dare to ask you even more. Please, T.ST Father, for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls, hasten the Beatification of our dear Protector. Thousands of French soldiers will bless You and I will wholeheartedly join in their outpouring of gratitude. Prostrated at Your feet, Your Father, I implore for myself, for my family, and for my brothers in arms, your apostolic blessing. . Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a son very humbly submitted to Our Lord.
Alexander Ginetti
To the Belgian Armies, July 22, 1915.
Most Holy Father,
Heartbroken with pain at the sight of the cruel suffering that his compatriots have endured for so long, at the sight of the ruins that accumulate every day in his dear country and in all countries tried by war, and above all, yes, above all, at the sight of the attacks directed against the Holy Church and its Head Augustus, a poor little Belgian soldier, animated by a completely filial confidence, comes to throw himself with the deepest respect at the feet of Your Holiness to beg him to deign to listen his prayer.
It is towards the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Virgin that the faithful stretch out their arms to appease divine justice, and I believe that if God wants to save us, if Jesus wants to be glorified with his divine Mother, it is through intercession of the one He has chosen to reveal to us the marvelous tenderness of his Heart that He wants to be glorified and will be. I believe it, it is certainly Our Lord's desire that the whole world invoke and know the one who was consumed by the desire to love him and to make him loved by all men, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She loved Jesus madly and He revealed to her all the secrets of his Heart. Now that she is close to Him, she must repeat to Him constantly, "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth, I want to make love loved". Didn't she say she couldn't rest until the Angel said, "The time is no more..." How then could we not trust her, the most loving spouse of Jesus, the favorite child of the Immaculate Virgin.
For me, if my heart is on fire with love for Jesus and his divine Mother, it is to her that I owe it; also my greatest happiness is to make it known, and the little money at my disposal is used for this purpose. If I were in my dear country, my only concern would be to make her known, because this little known saint is Jesus and Mary, known and loved as they wish to be, it is the reign of Love! I, poor little Belgian soldier, take the respectful liberty, Most Holy Father, to humbly beg Your Holiness to hasten the day when the faithful Spouse of Jesus, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, will be proclaimed blessed. of the Carmel of Lisieux, and to order that public prayers be said throughout the Church in order to obtain from the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Virgin, through the intercession of the Servant of God, peace in the world, and the reign of Jesus in souls.
Most Holy Father, Your Holiness' first pontifical blessing was for our poor bruised Belgium! may she therefore deign to forgive the temerity of the poor little Belgian soldier who would like to be, Most Holy Father, of your Holiness, one of the most respectful and obedient sons
Ss-Lieutenant Faget
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To the Armies, October 16, 1916.
To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
Please allow an officer of the French Army to address a very humble request to you. Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, whom we all pray with so much fervor, and who seems to understand us so well, already has thanks to Your Holiness a medal bearing his image. We beg you, Your Father, for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls, to hasten the beatification of the little Carmelite nun of Lisieux. This would be an indescribable happiness for many soldiers. Prostrated at your feet, TS Father, I implore for myself, my family and my brothers in arms, your apostolic blessing. Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a son very humbly submitted to Our Lord. André Faget
Officer of the Moroccan 1st Mixed Brigade
Decorated with the War Cross
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Colonel of Gastines
Petition of Colonel de Gastines
To the Armies, August 25, 1916
Most Holy Father,
Learning that from different quarters officers of the French army, witnesses of the powerful protection of Little Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux, are addressing Your Holiness to beg him to see with a favorable eye his beatification, I am happy to associate myself with their pleas. The miraculous facts which have been reported to me will be exposed by the very people who have been the object of them.
As for me, I like to bear witness before Your Holiness to the personal trust that prompted me to make the vow to go and pray at the tomb of the Saint of Lisieux after the war, with the members of my closest family who are there. participate, in order to thank the Venerable Servant of God for her protection. On the front since the beginning of hostilities, none of us has been hit so far.
As I beseech Your Holiness to deign to accept my request, I beg you to believe in the sentiments of veneration and submission of your very humble servant and son,
Colonel de Loustal
To the Armies, September 3, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
Having heard from several of my comrades in the French army asking you to be good enough, for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls, to hasten the beatification of Sr Thérèse de l'Enfant. Jesus and of the Holy Face, I dare allow myself to join them in addressing very humbly to Your Holiness the same request. I had the signal honor and the great joy of giving one of my daughters to Carmel there is 4 years old; my family's devotion to Sr Thérèse could only increase.
Moreover, without being able to cite absolutely precise facts, I am completely convinced that, since the beginning of the war, Sister Thérèse has specially protected us, me personally, the 28th Artillery Regiment, composed solely of Bretons and Vendéans, among whom our chaplains had successfully spread devotion to the Servant of God. Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore for myself, for my family, especially for my Carmelite, for the 28th Heavy Artillery Regiment whom I currently command in the 11th Corps, your apostolic blessing.
Deign to accept Your Holiness the most respectful homage from a son entirely and humbly submitted to Our Lord,
Captain of Romanet
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at your feet, I come, like many of my brothers in arms, to beg Your Holiness to hasten the Beatification of little Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, to which my family and I owe so much gratitude. Thanks to his protection, my two sons and I were marvelously protected from death, on the forehead. Just in recent days, the youngest was miraculously saved in a very serious automobile accident, on the forehead where he should have being killed along with 8 of his comrades, but little Sister Thérèse was watching over them, thanks be to her! Deign, Most Holy Father, to accept our earnest prayers and to receive the humble homage of my respectful and faithful submission.
second petition - To the Armies, November 1, 1916
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at your feet, your very respectful and obedient son beseeches you to accept his humble plea. Senior officers have already asked you to cast your eyes on their prayer to hasten the Beatification of her whom we all invoke on the battlefield and who saves us. On me, who is the least of her privileged, she has visibly placed the seal of her protection. She saved me a hundred times from death, under grapeshot, in particular when, buried and asphyxiated by shells and gas, I called her and shouted to her: "Save us!" my comrades and I got out of there safe and sound.
Another time, on leave, I threw his image into a forest fire, which died out. This fact was related and sent to the Carmel of Lisieux, like the first it was signed by witnesses. Receive, Most Holy Father, the assurance of my entire submission, and please bless your respectful son, who assures you of his religious attachment.
Captain Michel d'Anne
September 5, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
As a former student of the Stanislas College in Paris, as a descendant, member, and head of a sincerely Catholic family devoted to the Holy See, as a French officer, prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I respectfully ask you to accept the expression of our reverence, our devotion, and our absolute obedience.
Visibly protected, in myself and in my family, spiritually and temporally, by Sr Thérèse de l'Enfant. Jesus, I unite myself wholeheartedly with so many French Catholics and soldiers, who have in her complete and never deceived confidence, to show her our gratitude, and I join my humble prayer to that which so many sons address to you, so that Your Holiness may please, for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls, to hasten the hour of the beatification of our dear Protectress.
Prostrated at the feet of your Holiness, I implore from her, for my family, for my comrades, and for myself, your apostolic blessing. Deign to accept Your Holiness the respect of a son most humbly submitted to Our Lord,
Captain Loir Mongazon
| To the Armies, September 12, 1916
Most Holy Father, I come humbly to join the many people who, like me, have felt the benefit of the intercession of Sr Thérèse of the Child. Jesus, to implore Your Holiness for his Beatification. Thanks to her, without a doubt, I obtained the Croix de guerre last month. A year ago, as soon as I learned about the life of the little Carmelite woman from Lisieux, I asked her to obtain this award for me by the end of the campaign. This wish came true sooner than I expected and in gratitude I had my Cross placed on his tomb. My company was particularly affected by his protection, in Verdun, last March, because it was among the most favored having had only 8 minor injuries and not one death. The Christian sentiments in which I was brought up, and which are linked to a name known and venerated in Anjou, are your guarantors, Most Holy Father, of the filial veneration which I have for you and which make me always bow before your decisions. However, I would be happy, Most Holy Father, if Your Holiness would kindly welcome the request of thousands of people who have placed their trust in Sr Thérèse de l'Enfant. Jesus. Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore for my family and for me your apostolic blessing. Deign to accept Your Holiness the most respectful homage from a son humbly submitted to Our Lord. Captain Loir Mongazon
From the 71st Infantry Decorated with the Croix de guerre.
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Captain of Chaumontel
September 21, 1916. To His Holiness Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
In the midst of all the anguish that assails your heart and makes it live intimately the poignant drama that is being played out, will the most humble of your children dare to ask you to accept favorably the petition that he lays at the feet of Your Holiness? ? Your paternal goodness, so often affirmed, your tireless solicitude for all causes, small or large, which claim Christ, of Whom you are the Representative here below, my subsidiary trust, make me hope so, Most Holy Father, and I come to you as one came to Him.
Indeed, how powerless we are to pay our debt to Sr Thérèse de l'Enfant. Jesus, all of us whom she miraculously protected, brought back to the practice of faith, or supported in tragic hours of battle? Saved from death by her, in circumstances of war which include a succession of facts escaping all human logic, I am one of those who cry out their infinite gratitude very loudly, but whom others nourish in silence and meditation the same feelings of ardent gratitude! That others, officers or soldiers, have expressed it to me, not finding words moving enough to bless "the Angel of the Carmel of Lisieux", whose effigy, authorized by You, protects so many valiant breasts!
Deign, T. St. Father, to consider this irresistible surge of hearts towards the one who was their Interpreter with the divine Liberator; deign to consecrate it with your approval by hastening the beatification of the humble Servant of God, and may this title of "Blessed" be, for her and through you, the homage of all those over whom she watched. Prostrated at your feet, Your Father, I implore from You this signal favour, convinced that it will contribute to the greatest glory of God as well as to the greatest sanctification of souls, and I very humbly ask you, for my family and for myself, your apostolic blessing,
Captain Bastien
To the Armies, September 15, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
You are on earth the Representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ and, whatever my poor and dear country affects to ignore you officially, you are none the less for the French people the dear and venerated Sovereign of our souls. Believe that we love you, that we are with you in all the anguish that assails your noble heart because we know that you love France which will come back to you, very Holy Father, please accept the certainty of it.
As a Catholic, and more specifically as an officer in the French Army, I come to address to you, in the name of several comrades, a humble request. First of all, we would like to thank you for agreeing to authorize the minting of a medal bearing the effigy of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus last year, because we love and venerate the terrestrial Angel whom God placed in his heaven to sustain our hope here below. Officers and soldiers, what do we not owe to the Religious who was so humble, so small before her death, so great and already so glorious since her entry into Heaven?
She miraculously protected some and gave them the Christian strength which makes them invincible, she restored faith and taught others to die by putting on their lips words of repentance and love, she softened the terrible passage to wretches who were slowly dying, showing them the sky. Yes, what do we not owe him? Confidence in her is so great that all our soldiers want a souvenir of the Carmelite of Lisieux.
Personally, she saved me on September 6, 1914, the first day of the Battle of the Marne. The bullet that was supposed to go through my heart that day deflected off a cross that the little "saint" had placed there... And since then, at all times, I actually feel protected, to such an extent that I she had the confidence of a child for his Mother, the one she herself had for God.
Also, Your Father, in the name of my family and friends, in that of many soldiers, I come to ask you, for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of souls, to kindly hasten the Beatification of the humble Religious who from heaven does so much good on earth. Prostrated at your feet, Your Father, I implore for my family and myself, for all my comrades, your apostolic blessing.
Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a son humbly submitted to Our Lord.
Captain of Rozet
To the Armies, September 1916
Prostrated at the feet of His Holiness, I beg him to grant us the joy of being able to honor the title of Saint, Sr Thérèse of the Child. Jesus.
Personally, I have had recourse to her at times of anguish and I have always felt the effect of her protection. I carry under my tunic a relic of the venerated little Sister and it is to Her that I have been protected in June 1915 when a piece of shrapnel struck me in the shoulder and, by some miracle, did not had no serious injury. It is to Her that I returned safe and sound from the battles in Champagne (autumn 1915) and Verdun (July; August 1916)
My daughter was entrusted to the Little Sister. Aged 6 months in January 1915, she was in very poor health. My wife addressed herself to the little saint and my little girl currently enjoys perfect health.
I dare to ask His Holiness for his blessing, for me, for my family, for my friends, for all those who are dear to me, at this time of terrible trial. I am, of His Holiness, the humble servant
Commander Pusey
To the Armies, September 1916
Most Holy Father,
The officers, non-commissioned officers, corporals and soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 81st French Infantry Regiment, humbly prostrate at your feet, come to ask your kindness for the great favor of the forthcoming Beatification of Sr Thérèse de l'Enfant. Jesus. Through his intercession, they have repeatedly experienced the effects of divine protection and they would like to show him by this request their gratitude for the very special protection of which they have been the object on several occasions.
Second Lieutenant of the Roscoat
To the Armies, September 19, 1916
Most Holy Father,
Since the beginning of the campaign, I put myself under the protection of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Full of confidence in her intercession, I attribute to her in large measure the favor of having escaped all grave danger up to this day; a single injury was inconsequential for me. I know that many of my comrades preserved like me would be infinitely grateful to the goodness of God if it deigned to grant him the honors of Beatification.
From the best of my heart I join my wishes to theirs by laying them, with my very humble respect, at the feet of Your Holiness.
Captain Feret
September 25, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
I come very humbly and very respectfully to kneel before You to express to Your Holiness my entire devotion unto death and my great and supernatural affection. I will add that my veneration and affection for the Sovereign Pontiff greatly increased during the glorious reign of your Holy Predecessor.
I address you as a Father and I come to ask you to hasten the Beatification of Sr Thérèse of the Child. Jesus. Since the beginning of the war, my Company has been placed by me under the protection of Sister Thérèse and we have all felt the effects of this protection. I believe that Sister Thérèse is a saint of France and that the good God, who loves our country very much, sent her to save us, to do us good, and to do good for all humanity.
Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a devoted son who allows himself, despite his indignity, to ask Your Holiness to bless him and his family.
Captain Lesueur
To the Armies, October 3, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
In addressing this petition to you, although I am the most unworthy of your sons, I am fulfilling a duty of gratitude towards the little Carmelite Sister of Lisieux, Sr. Th. de l'Enfant. Jesus. I acquired, in fact, the certainty that on many occasions she watched over me and interceded with God on my behalf.
Before leaving for the front, 14 months ago, I went on a pilgrimage to his grave; I confided to him my deep distress: an adored father, an officer, taken prisoner in Maubeuge and died in captivity, of grief and deprivation; a wife and a mother in precarious health; three grandchildren, the eldest of whom is 6 years old; my house burned by the shell, all my material possessions lost and my situation more than compromised... In the midst of this sadness I confided in Sister Thérèse as in my good angel and I asked her to bring me back to the midst of mine , if it was God's will. For 14 months, she hasn't stopped protecting me; day and night his image has not left me. Commanding a Company of Infantry, I have dedicated my men to him; however, according to the leaders, it is to date one of the units which has suffered the least from the regiment.
Of the many signs of protection I have been the object of, I want to retain only this one: On July 23, 1916, finding myself in the furnace of Verdun, I received the order to go, with my men, to a dangerous location, subject to severe bombardment; to get there, I have to cross a violent barrage; realizing the seriousness of the situation, I take from my wallet one of Sister Thérèse's relics, which never leave me, and place it in the headdress of my helmet. Then I accomplish my mission, without caring the least about the shells falling around me. An hour later I am injured in the head and it is to the protection of my helmet that I must escape death.
In the ambulance, I immediately told the story to our divisional chaplain, a professor at the Seminary of Amiens, who was well aware of my veneration for the Carmelite saint. I don't know what the future holds for me, but whatever my fate, I accept it with faith and resignation. From the bottom of my heart I will keep until the end a deep gratitude towards Sr Thérèse who inspired me, in the most painful moments, this absolute confidence and this calm serenity.
I therefore join the most authoritative people who beg Your Holiness to proclaim the Beatification of the humble Servant of God. Prostrated at your feet, I implore, Your Father for my family so tried and for myself your Apostolic Blessing
Captain Soulary
To the Armies, October 8, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
Several of my comrades, officers of the French Army, have already respectfully asked your Holiness to hasten the Beatification of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, through whose intercession so many of our soldiers must have been protected in the battles and come back to God. I am, TS Father, one of the proteges of the Carmelite saint of Lisieux. My wife and my children entrusted me to her on August 1, 1914, when I left for the border. I could not enumerate all the graces which were obtained for me through her intercession, but, after 25 months of campaigning spent entirely on the front lines, I have not yet been sick or injured.
Among these graces, there are two to which I attach an inestimable value: the first is that, despite all the obstacles inherent in wartime, I was granted the power to make Holy Communion almost every day. The second is the religious vocation of my daughter, who entered the Carmel of Lisieux on September 8, feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. It is full of gratitude towards our Holy Protector and full of confidence in your paternal Goodness that I come, Your Father, to join my petition to those that more authoritative personalities have already addressed to Your Holiness.
Prostrate humbly at your feet, Your Father, I ask you for me, my family, my comrades, and my soldiers, your apostolic blessing, assuring you of my deep respect and my absolute devotion.
Sergeant Tabut
To the Armies, October 23, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
Born in Lisieux, and having almost always lived in this city before the war, I began to know Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus when a friend lent me the little booklet of her miracles. Some time later I read his life, and from then on I remained a fervent admirer of his little way of trust and abandonment which I try to apply to the current circumstances of my life. In the meantime I am doing my best to make it known to my comrades and I am amazed at the result; I distribute medals and engravings, and I never have enough of them.
So I allow myself, TS Father, to thank you very respectfully for the medal you authorized to strike. But I dare to want something else and frequently I repeat the prayer: "If it is for your glory and the sanctification of souls, make, O my God, that soon the halo of the blessed shines on the so pure brow of your little Spouse Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. This is why, Your Father, I and my comrades, prostrate at your feet in a feeling of filial submission, we address this petition to you, asking you to hasten the beatification of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, our new Joan of Bow.
Deign to accept, Your Father, the assurance of all our attachment to the Catholic Church and kindly give us the apostolic blessing which we implore for ourselves and our families.
Sergeant Guillaumet
Bordeaux, June 17, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate before the throne of Your Holiness, we submit to your paternal goodness the request of our grateful hearts, that it please you to order, by virtue of the sovereign power which the Common Father of the faithful holds from our divine Saviour, that the Beatification Process of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus be activated.
Our gratitude to the humble Carmelite, whose merit the Lord delights to exalt and to manifest celestial power by the miracle, ardently desires to see the Church, guardian of the dogma, visible and infallible expression of the eternal Christ, officially proclaim the heroic virtues and the authenticity of miraculous facts, by raising it to the altars. We ourselves were the privileged ones of Sister Thérèse. It is thanks to her miraculous intervention that, after a surgical operation when science announced the approaching death, their mother was preserved for my children. Since then, our family has been visibly protected by the loving advocate with God.
And how to express also, without the necessary developments, the extent of which would exceed the limits of this humble petition, the providential action of Sister Thérèse to the French armies. There too, his protection is visible, and there is not a day, according to the testimony of the beneficiaries, when his power does not burst forth at the call of souls in distress. Several times already, his presence has manifested itself in favor of soldiers in danger of death, terrified by the imminence of the peril.
For these facts, and thousands of others whose celestial flowering covers our national soil with a mystical rose garden, according to the promise of the pious Carmelite, we beg you, Most Holy Father, to grant to Christian souls the beatification of their Benefactress and thus confirming her celestial glorification. Deign, Most Holy Father, to extend your paternal hand over our Fatherland, in order to calm the anguish of our hearts before the greatness of the necessary sacrifices, and so that God may grant it peace through victory.
We also implore for ourselves, for our five children and our whole family, the apostolic blessing. Faithful children of the Church, our Mother, we offer to Your Holiness the humble submission of our persons and our actions,
Commander Pagès de l'Herm
Governor's Staff, Le Havre, October 30, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
Deign to allow one of your children in France to humbly send you the following request in favor of a cause which is dear to him in more ways than one.
At the beginning of the current war, I got to know Sr Thérèse de l'Enfant. Jesus of the Carmel of Lisieux and the graces that she spread on earth, and I left for the battlefields, bearing the medal which you were kind enough to authorize the minting, placing all my trust in its protection. This protection has never failed me and, in the most perilous circumstances, it was enough for me to invoke the holy Carmelite of Lisieux and call her to my aid to instantly ward off the most serious dangers and restore the situations the most compromised. She was obviously my protector and that of the brave men of my battalion.
Moreover, my son, a young 19-year-old officer, twice wounded in conditions that could have been fatal, found himself miraculously protected, each time, by Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in whom he had put all his trust. It is the same for a young friend, also an officer, who, provided for five days, by the care of my wife, with a medal of Sister Thérèse, was miraculously protected, while he was resting in a wagon which was shattered by enemy grapeshot.
Because of these evident manifestations of an effective intercession with God, I make it a duty and an obligation of conscience to unite myself with more authoritative voices than mine in asking you earnestly, Most Holy Father, to kindly hasten the Beatification of the protector of so many brave men. Prostrated at your feet, TS Father, and commending myself to Your Holiness from my relative, Archbishop Gauthey of Besançon, who once blessed my marriage, I dare to implore your apostolic blessing for my family and for me. Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a son very humbly submitted to Our Lord
Count Pierre d'Audigné
November 2, 1916
Most Holy Father,
Allow that in the midst of the misfortunes of our dear France one of your most devoted sons comes to you, as to Him who takes the place of Christ for us and whom we always love to venerate as the Sovereign Shepherd of our souls.
Here, Most Holy Father, is the subject of the approach that I dare take with Your Holiness. As a Catholic and a Frenchman, especially as an adjutant in the French army, I come to ask you to hasten the beatification of the Servant of God, Protector of soldiers, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Personally, in Champagne and Aisne, she greatly protected me, even when I invoked her name. Several of my companions and chiefs have obtained great favors under the same conditions.
I will add that, at the moment, at my deposit, I saw myself in very bad shape and, four or five times, at the very moment when I touched his relic, I came out of it to my advantage. I trust, Most Holy Father, that you will deign to accept my humble request. I address it to you in the name of my family, one of whose members has the outstanding honor of being in the Carmel of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. And, also in the name of many soldiers who, like me, desire the glorification of the one who said so prophetically: "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth."
Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore your apostolic blessing for my family and for myself.
Corporal Hericourt
To the Armies, November 2, 1916
Most Holy Father;
I dare very humbly join my voice to that of the French soldiers who, I know, have asked Your Holiness to place soon on the altars their powerful protector, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux. This poem, rhymed in a moment of rest, will tell you, Most Holy Father, my feelings of gratitude and confidence in my celestial lawyer. Humbly prostrate at your feet, I pray Your Holiness to bless me and my family
Private Pasdeloup
To the Armies, August 24, 1918.
To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
In the midst of the turmoil that France is undergoing, I am happy, more than ever, to be part of the Roman Catholic Church, more than ever I believe in the Communion of Saints. Also, allow me, the humble French soldier that I am, Most Holy Father, to express to you the gratitude that I owe to the little Carmelite of Lisieux, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
I placed myself under his protection and during this terrible war, in many circumstances, under violent bombardments, I acquired the certainty that his protective hand was willing to ward off all danger from me. It is in these feelings of gratitude that, with all my heart and humbly, I ask your paternal kindness, in union with my comrades, to hasten the beatification of our dear Protectress.
Very humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I have the honour, Most Holy Father, to ask for your apostolic blessing for my family and for myself. Your son, very humbly and respectfully submitted in Our Lord.
Captain of St Basil
To the Armies, November 12, 1916
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, imbued with the respect and love that my pious and holy mother had instilled in me from my childhood for the august person of the Pope, I dare to pray to you, Your Father, as son of the Catholic Church and officer of the French Army, to soon include among the Blesseds the lovely little Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux.
Miraculously protected by her, whom I constantly invoked under a terrible bombardment which lasted several days in Verdun at the time of Pentecost, I did not have a scratch. His protection follows me everywhere; at least three times I was enveloped in whirlwinds of earth and flame from shells falling a few feet from me and yet I remained unscathed. On the choice of two vacant places, I got the one that was to save my life and the other saw my poor comrade fall.
It is therefore, Most Holy Father, in the spirit of immense gratitude, that I unite my voice to that of my many brothers in arms for the glorification of this young saint who fulfills her promise so well in our favor admirable to "spend one's heaven doing good on earth". It is also, TS Father, in the name of my pious wife who was marvelously cured by Sister Thérèse, almost two years ago, of typhoid fever, that I beg Your Holiness to make your Holiness shine as soon as possible in the firmament of the Church this radiant star, as a sign of heavenly peace in our troubled times.
Warrant Officer Flandin
To the Armies, December 2, 1916. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
Allow the humblest of your sons to come and present his request at your feet in his own name and in the name of comrades in the French Army.
With St Michel, St Clotilde, St Louis-king of France, and Blessed Joan of Arc, our dear Army has in heaven a holy protector whose intercession with the God of the Armies is manifested daily. Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in fact, sprinkled a shower of roses on the soldiers whom she protected so effectively. Her name is widespread as that of Joan of Arc. There is no part of the vast combat front where Sr Thérèse is not known, loved and venerated. Everywhere I saw his holy image among the combatants as well as among the civilian population, in Alsace, in Champagne, in the Somme.
This tells you, Most Holy Father, of the confidence that our Holy Little Sister inspires in everyone! How many soldiers religiously carry his blessed image and invoke him in danger! And his powerful protection does not fail them. My battery took part in the fighting on the Somme for 68 days. Subjected to almost daily bombardments, it lost only 3 men during all our stay in the storm; which is insignificant given the number and length of stay. Many saw death close to them, but Sister Thérèse wonderfully and visibly protected them. Under the emotion of the past danger, how many have said to me: Really, our little Sister Thérèse protects us!” Personally, I owe my salvation to her precious intercession and to the great confidence I placed in her.
This is why, Most Holy Father, we desire with all our heart as Christians and soldiers, to see glorified and beatified She who, from the height of heaven, guards us so well. We desire it not only out of gratitude and piety, but also for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of souls. We desire it for our dear France whom you love so much and who, following the example of the Prodigal Son, will return to You, we have the very firm conviction of this. Prostrated at your feet, Your Father, I implore for my family, for my wife, my children, and myself, for all my comrades, your Apostolic Blessing.
Your Holiness deign to accept the respectful homage of a humbly submissive and devoted son.
Sub-Lieutenant Batardy
On the campaign trail, December 1, 1916.
Most Holy Father,
Will you allow a little soldier from France to come, in his name and in that of many comrades, to tell you of the gratitude and love we have for the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Most Holy Father, we understand all your sorrows and we sympathize with all your anxieties.
It so happened that in these dark hours when all of true France is standing up to repel the foreigner from the sacred soil of the Fatherland, sectarians wanted to rekindle, by base calumnies, extinct passions and thus divide the defenders of the altars. and homes in the country. TS Father, these people are not from our country, and the true people of France are grateful to you for all that you have done for our unfortunate country. We know, TSP the ignominy of these campaigns, the pain they have caused you, and we come to tell you of our unfailing attachment to the Chair of St. Peter.
Despite misleading appearances for those who do not know it, France is still the Catholic nation, the apostle nation! she is, despite passing errors, the eldest daughter of the Church. This role, Most Holy Father, she will officially resume after the war. So much beautiful blood, generous and pure, flowed for this! Towards the sky rises the immense distress of its soil defiled by the invader, of its mutilated churches, of its slaughtered priests, of its exiled populations, of its sons who fall every day by the thousands. To so many sacrifices, Christ Jesus, King of the Franks, cannot remain insensitive. Pius X, of holy and revered memory, said: "France will be saved!"
And we, most holy Father, we who are the workers of reconstruction, we who fight and who fall with joy for God, the Church, the Country, come to tell you: Have confidence, France will find itself! Knowing, Most Holy Father, your goodness for us, I come to address to you, in the name of several comrades, a humble request. You were good enough, Holy Father, to allow the introduction of the Cause of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, so I come to tell you how much we love this Angel of purity and humility, and, in return, how much she visibly protects and guards us amidst the dangers of battle. Here, at the front, she is invoked by many. How many souls she brought back to God, how many lives she saved! the annals of the Carmel of Lisieux will be able to tell! Personally, she saved me several times from certain death!
On June 21, 1915, in an attack, a shell fell near me, killed many of my companions, causing me only slight injuries. In the hell of Verdun, from May 15 to June 13, 1916, I passed, with my men, in places where multitudes of others fell, I never had a scratch and not one of my men was touched . I always carried relics of Sister Thérèse and I put myself and my men under her protection. On July 25, 1916, I received the order to remove a very strongly defended enemy work, I put, me, my men and the operation which was entrusted to me under its safeguard. Everything succeeded beyond my expectations and not a man was touched. Here, most Holy Father, are examples of his protection, taken from among so many others, and I am ready to certify them under the faith of the oath.
Also, most Holy Father in my name, in that of friends, and of very many soldiers, I come to ask you to kindly hasten, for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, the Beatification of the gentle Carmelite, and to place her soon among the incomparable procession of the saints of the Fatherland! Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore for myself and for all those who are dear to me Your Apostolic Blessing.
Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a son humbly submitted to Our Lord
Marshal of Logis Henri Romagny
From a cave on the front, January 1917.
Most Holy Father,
Touched by the marks of sympathy which Your Holiness never ceases to show with regard to Our Motherland, we come, O most revered Father, as faithful children of the Holy Church, Christian France, despite certain appearances to the contrary, has not ceased to be so by the hearts of the little and humble who, in these days of mourning, turn their gaze to their beloved Pontiff. We know, Most Holy Father, that your heart bleeds at the sight of our devastated churches; of our fractured and defiled tabernacles, of our martyred cities and our ruined villages, of our battlefields where every day by the thousands, men made to love each other kill each other, fall and die.
We also understand how great your pain is at the sight of so many other churches, living ones, souls created by God and for God, which a formidable and powerful enemy has devastated; of these living tabernacles, made to receive Jesus-Eucharist, that the henchmen of Satan have fractured and defiled by their unhealthy and corrupt theories.
From all these pains, Most Holy Father, we will try to console you in the future, by fidelity to all our duties, because the trial that has come to visit us has called us back to the truth. Moreover, to help us in the midst of our distress, did not the good God "who loves the Franks" raise up, in our country, a humble Carmelite, who came to "smile" us and to "teach his little way to souls"? We no longer wanted to experience suffering, deprivation, pain, and Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in coming to our aid, taught us that, "for a suffering endured with joy, we will always love the good God more." Through her, we learned to love suffering as she loved it, and the 28 months we endured with resignation, almost with joy, despite the separation from those we love, from our wives and our children back home. invaded, in spite of the days sometimes painful, sometimes perilous, are a proof of it.
"I love France, my homeland, I want to preserve her faith" had said our "Little Sister". She did more, because I could name friends who owe her the return to faith after several years of mistakes. “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth,” said this angel of Carmel and not a day goes by without extraordinary things happening in our ranks. "The good Lord has loaded me with graces for me and for many others", she had said again, and it seems that from this point of view the soldiers are particularly privileged, if I believe the many letters addressed to me by my brothers in arms. I know something about it for my part and I am happy to express here, out loud, all the gratitude that I owe to Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
Also, Most Holy Father, would it be too much to ask you for a great favor for her in return for so many benefits? Oh ! you who heard the call of our invaded and brought them help, you who listened to the complaints of our brother prisoners and made their lot better; You who heard the groans of our gravely wounded and made them return to the Motherland, Deign to listen today to the pleas of those who suffer, struggle and die.
Allow us to find on our return to our homes, in our abandoned churches, the image of our Protector! That, placed on our altars, we can venerate her, pray to her. That, through her, we learn to love God more, "as she loved him", and to make her loved in our turn. May we walk in her footsteps in her "way of spiritual childhood" to deserve the heaven whose route she will have traced for us. Children of the Church, returned to our works, to life in the world, we will have a double reason to love our dear "saint". Didn't she promise to "let a fragrant rain fall on the Church Militant in order to give her victory"? So how great will be our confidence in the 'Little Queen'? who will have helped us, rescued us, in the most tragic hours that peoples have ever known.
Submitted in advance to your wise decision, Most Holy Father, it is with confidence that we await the verdict of the ongoing Beatification Process of Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and it is in this firm hope that on our knees , humbly prostrate, I implore your Paternal blessing for all mine, particularly for my wife and my son who remained in invaded countries, and for myself.
Commander Girault
To the Armies, December 28, 1916. To His Holiness Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
In the midst of the turmoil that France is undergoing, I am happy, more than ever, to be part of the Roman Catholic Church, more than ever I believe in the communion of Saints. Allow, TS Father, a French officer who has been fighting on the battlefield since the beginning of the war, to express to you the gratitude he owes to the little Carmelite nun of Lisieux, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. I placed myself under his protection and, recently, on a battlefield forever famous for our valiant army, hit by a bullet in the forehead, miraculously escaped death, and, again completely healed, I return to the fire.
It is in these feelings of gratitude that, with all my heart and humbly, I ask your paternal kindness, in union with my comrades, to hasten the Beatification of our dear Protectress. Very humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I have the honour, most holy Father, to ask for your apostolic blessing for my family, my brothers in arms and myself. Your son, very humbly and very respectfully submitted in Our Lord
Groundsel Lieutenant
Military School of Artillery, Fontainebleau, December 31, 1916.
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at your feet, I, the undersigned, Jean d'Agrain, lieutenant gunner in the 20th Dragoon Regiment, have the honor to request Your Holiness to kindly hasten the hour of the Beatification of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, so that we can honor this holy Carmelite on the altars as we pray to her in our hearts.
I credit his protection with having accomplished, me and my entire section, unscathed from wounds and disease, 470 days in the front line trenches, often under intense shelling. I trust that Sister Thérèse will continue to protect me and my section until the end. For my four children, too, I recognized the intercession of our little saint during very serious illnesses, and it is with all my heart that I very respectfully ask Your Holiness to admit Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus to the rank blessed ones.
May Your Holiness deign to accept the homage of my respectful devotion and grant me and my family his paternal blessing.
Lieutenant Baud
The 3 January 1917
Most Holy Father,
In these last years when the French faith had to undergo terrible assaults, I had the happiness of being brought up as a Christian and of learning to love both France and the Church. French officer, I served my country to the best of my ability and was wounded twice. As a child of the Church, I learned to honor his Head and to submit to him as God's representative on earth.
It is therefore with respect and submission that I come to ask you, Most Holy Father, in union with many French soldiers, to deign to honor once again the Church of France with your tender solicitude. Shortly before the war, I came to know the devotion to little Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. My family devoted themselves to it in a special way, and when the war broke out, entrusted me to the protection of the little saint. Since then, this protection has never failed, and I have placed in the hands of the Superior of the Carmel of Lisieux several testimonies of miraculous protection both for myself and for my men.
We have the firm confidence that the little Sister will continue to rain down on her country and on the Church the rain of spiritual roses which she promised at her death. This is why, most holy Father, we beg you to hasten the Beatification of our dear Sister, to make shine in a new way the Christian virtues of which she was the model, to restore to France through one of her children , the temporal and spiritual peace which she needs so much and to hasten the blessed day when a new France will consecrate herself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Sergeant Dennis
To the Armies, January 12, 1917. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
My Mother the Holy Church taught me from childhood to respect the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ. on earth, to obey him blindly, to follow his directives. It is in these feelings of filial attachment to the Vicar of JC that I come, as sergeant of the French army, to address a humble request to You. in spite of its particular character, I believe it is true to say that it has more than one echo among the great number of my comrades.
It is to the reading of the admirable life of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and to the imitation of her virtues, that I owe having found sweetness in the trials which would have been very bitter to me without the knowledge of the truth. Already, Most Holy Father, you have agreed to authorize a medal of Sister Thérèse. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, but we dare to ask you even more. Please, Most Holy Father, for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls, hasten the beatification of our dear Protectress.
Prostrated at the feet of Your Holiness, I implore for my family, my brothers in arms and for myself, Your apostolic blessing. Your son humbly submitted in Our Lord.
Captain M. Barbe
To the Armies, January 20, 1917
Most Holy Father,
In the midst of the painful anguish that grips your heart as Pontiff and Father, the most humble of your sons dares to come and place at the feet of Your Holiness the homage of his filial and respectful submission. Heir to that France always loved in spite of its downfalls, he has taken up with a pious transport the traditions of the past, and regards as his first duty, after the service of God, that of the Pope's Cause.
Most Holy Father, if official France appears oblivious of its rights, the Catholics of France want to avenge them doubly. Their hearts are wounded by every outrage hurled at your supreme dignity, for loving sons feel keenly the persecutions inflicted on their Father. Since they are the first to suffer from the pains caused to Your Holiness, you will see them, most holy Father, as purified by this deep pain and you will still love them as your favorite sons. They will personify in your eyes the real France, the one that God has chosen for you as your eldest daughter, the nation which has never refused its elite, to the greatest and finest causes.
It is thus, most holy Father, that France has always produced exquisite flowers of holiness for the Heavenly Kingdom. At such a tragic hour in which we live, it is sweet and comforting for us to raise our gaze to this Fatherland of Heaven to find there supports and intercessors with God. Among them, Most Holy Father, our hearts naturally seek an angelic soul, enraptured a few years ago on earth, and who since entering the abode of rest has not ceased to "descend" here below to console those who suffer and heal their wounds.
This flower of purity, blooming on the mountain of Carmel, is our own saint, soldiers. We love her as much as Joan of Arc, and she shows herself, in return, so good to us! We see in her, Most Holy Father, a messenger of peace, raised up by God in his mercy to come to the aid of wounded France, and then reveal to her the way to recover, by following her "little way" of love and of confident surrender. In the name of my brothers in arms and in my capacity as protege of the dear saint as well as all mine, I dare to pray Your Holiness to hasten the blessed hour awaited by us with so much impatience, when the Church will proclaim Blessed, little Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Carmel of Lisieux.
Humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I implore his paternal blessing for France, my family and myself, repeating to me your submissive and grateful son,
Baron Jacques de Leusse of Lyons
To the Armies, March 31, 1917
Most Holy Father,
Since love and gratitude must be proven by deeds, I am moved by my heart to speak to Your Holiness of the good that Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus has done us. Apart from a thousand rose petals that she sowed in our lives, what particularly struck me was her spiritual action on souls. She was sent by God at a time when revolutionary doctrines, engendering the cult of the person, had given birth in the mass of minds to an imperative pride in their own qualities. They were trained to rely only on themselves and their strengths. God, the center of all things, became a distant Being occupying only a very small place in their preoccupations, while they themselves became great, very great, in their esteem.
This evil has spread even among men of honest hearts and Christian thoughts, and many of them have come to lose sight of their weakness, of which God alone is the support. It was then that, by the grace of our Saviour, little Sister Thérèse came to give us the opposite example. She made herself small, saying that she could do nothing by herself, but expecting everything from her heavenly Father, and she took the path of trust and total abandonment in Him. His writings are filled with this thought; shortly before her death she said these words: "I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make the good God loved as I love him, to give my little way to souls. I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth."
She has already done a lot! and how many souls has she not transformed by engaging them in her "little way". This is indeed her true Mission as she affirms it. I was able to see it in many circumstances: Sr. Thérèse is a true propeller of love for Our Lord. The many people I know who invoke him are all marked with a special seal of trust and complete surrender. Devotion to the Little Sister seems to expand souls and transforms their love for the Savior by making him alive in some way.
The examples that I could cite are too numerous, however a few months ago I was able to introduce it to the men I met every morning at the Holy Table. They studied the "little way" and then confided to me that their souls had been enlightened by a warm light, that they understood God and loved him as they had not been able to do until then and that this doctrine of the saint had gave their hearts a peace, a joy they had never felt. I knew them before and after, they were transformed!
Most Holy Father, I owed it to Sr Thérèse to add my voice to those who asked you to glorify her as soon as possible, please God. I owed it to her for the good that I saw her do around me and for the good that she did to me. She was given to me as a model by a holy priest when I was 30 years old and, for years, seeking the way among the saints, I always retreated, frightened by the greatness of their souls so disproportionate to mine! The "little way" appeared to me as the only one I could follow. Peace has come into my heart! Since then I have done my best to follow it and, although still on the threshold of the road, I have found there such a rest of the soul and such a great love for God that I cannot silence my gratitude and would like to prove it by this act.
Most Holy Father, it is prostrate at your feet that I humbly place this petition in your hands. I act like your child because aren't you our Father? It is thus that I like to call you, it is under this name that, each day, I pray for Your Holiness, begging God that very soon He realize the dearest desire of our hearts by the reunion of the Father and the children. It is also like your son that I implore for my family and me your blessing and, if you will allow me, a place in your heart. Allow me also to ask for your blessing for all the obscure workers who work for the reign of the Sacred Heart: they are legion in France! and Our Lord assisting their efforts causes the seed to germinate in the furrows they have dug. Soon, we hope, through his love, and our patient labor, the harvest will be beautiful.
Your Holiness deign to accept the sentiments of the deepest respect with which I am your most humble but devoted son.
Mr H. de Boislaville
At the front, April 21, 1917
Most Holy Father,
Faced with the cruel sufferings that grip your heart at the sight of your children, will I dare, despite all my indignity, to have recourse to your paternal goodness, to your merciful charity, to help me in my impotence, to discharge the debt of immense gratitude contracted by my whole family and me in particular, towards the Angel of the Carmel of Lisieux, in whom we have had for many years a confidence which revives his merciful protection towards us all.
Providentially guarded by the beloved Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I am, with my five brothers, all six under the flag, I am and we are among those who wish to express with all their hearts, their immense gratitude, that so many other soldiers, officers and soldiers, regret not being able to express with all the enthusiasm of their faith. May I be permitted in the name of my brothers, just like myself guarded by the Angel of Carmel in the midst of the terrible storms of this dreadful war, to proclaim her very loudly our very beloved Protector. The six of us left with his precious relic as a backup, to Argonne, Champagne, Verdun, the Somme, the Vosges, to the rear, we were always able to return safe and sound after the painful hours.
This is why, echoing the sentiments of my brothers, I dare, Most Holy Father, to lay our gratitude at the feet of Your Holiness, and, uniting our respectful desire, we take the liberty of most humbly imploring Your Holiness to deign to hasten the hour so desired by us of the Beatification of She who has been such a sweet and faithful Protector to us. May the title of Blessed soon become for Her, and through You, the homage of all those over whom She deigned to watch over here below.
Humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, imploring from you, Most Holy Father, this immense favour, convinced that it will contribute to the greater glory of God and to the sanctification of souls, I dare, despite my unworthiness, to solicit for my brothers, my family and myself your apostolic blessing.
Lieutenant Gaillard
June 1, 1917. To His Holiness Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
To the many requests that have already been addressed to you with the aim of obtaining from Your Holiness the Beatification of little Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, allow me to add mine, which is very humble but very fervent.
Countless are those whom she has aided, protected, saved: all keep in their hearts a tender gratitude for her and their dearest desire is to see soon the "Little Flower" so humble and so pretty, occupy the glorious place that God reserves in his Heaven to the little ones. Personally, She saved my life in April 1915. Wounded very seriously, my injury suddenly worsened with erysipelas; my temperature reached 41°7, I was doomed. The little Franciscan Sister who cared for me, knowing that I had remained distant from the practices of religion for many years, adjured the little Saint not to let me appear like this before the Supreme Judge, then she placed under my pillow a relic of Sister Therese. A few moments later, I fell asleep. When I woke up, my temperature was only 38° and continued to drop to normal, I was saved. To this healing, it is necessary to add that of my soul which is indeed another healing because it did not
made suddenly, in a burst of gratitude; it matured slowly, but also surely, and it was only a year later that I approached the Holy Sacraments. I have found my faith again, and it is with all my heart that I cry out my gratitude to dear little Sister Thérèse for this double healing. Most Holy Father, with St. Geneviève, with Blessed Joan of Arc, whose feast we were celebrating a few days ago, my dear Country found in the humble Carmelite a powerful and devoted protector. If many are the bodies she has healed, still more numerous are the souls she has saved; for where she has passed, soothing and healing, remains the sweet perfume of her virtue which penetrates and captivates, so the great part which belongs to her in the return to the faith of our beautiful France will not be the least beautiful jewel of her crown of glory.
Prostrate at your feet, TS Father, I implore your Apostolic Blessing for the attentive sister and nurse who cared for me for more than two years with such dedication, for all those I love, for myself , for all our fighters. I beg Your Holiness to accept the very respectful homage of the most humble of his sons.
Warrant Officer Pasqualini
To the Armies, May 20, 1917. To our Holy Father the Pope, in Rome.
Most Holy Father,
In the hope that it may serve the greater glory of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I dare to report to Your Holiness the following fact. On January 21, 1917, I was with my section and a section of machine gunners in the CL sector. From 7 o'clock in the morning, a most violent cannonade was directed at the site occupied by the two said units. Our only shelter was the shell holes dug the previous days! Noon is coming: the cannonade was still in full swing. Around two o'clock in the evening, the cannonade is such as I have never seen the like since I have been at the front. Around 2:30 am, it was a real hell, only heaven could save us. I then invited my men to pray; I took out the pennant of the Sacred Heart and the image of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and we began to pray, passing the sacred emblems from hand to hand.
At five o'clock in the evening the bombardment ceased. I then made, with the two sergeants of the machine-guns, the reconnaissance of the front of our units. Bags, rifles, everything had been shredded! But, oh miracle! not a man had been hit. We have all attributed this grace to the Sacred Heart and to the intercession of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
Sub-Lieutenant de Crozé
St Julien Hospital, Laval January 29, 1917.
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrated at the feet of His Holiness, I dare, in union with so many other of my brothers in arms, officers and soldiers of the armies of France, to raise to Her my ardent supplication in favor of the privileged saint to whom God seems to have reserved such a glorious role in the painful times in which we are.
There is not a day when Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus does not manifest the credit which she enjoys in heaven, and the power with which God arms her arm. In the French trenches his name is invoked with a confidence justified by so many marks of marvelous protection. Many times, I have witnessed it with emotion and I have admired the great lessons that divine Providence gives us by exalting the humble Carmelite of Lisieux and making her, in a way, the Saint of the Fatherland and the always granted Protector of those who fight or who die for the great cause of Justice and Law.
I hasten to add that I was not only the witness of this astonishing power. I myself experienced the happy effects. Very seriously wounded during the glorious victory of Verdun, I was not only protected by her from certain death, but the application of a relic, coming from her blessed tomb on a painful wound from which I suffered horribly, was for me the beginning of a beneficial appeasement in my sufferings. By awarding Sister Thérèse the honors of Beatification, Your Holiness will crown the wishes of so many French people who owe her a recognition that nothing in the world can pay for.
Deign, Most Holy Father, to accept the humble homage of veneration of him who likes to call himself the very respectful, very submissive and faithful son of Your Holiness.
Captain Maurice de Rubiana
To the Armies; June 12, 1917
Most Holy Father,
Already an old officer of the Army of France having faced the dangers of war in Morocco and in the Metropolis, being intimately convinced of having been protected by the intercession with Our Lord Jesus Christ, of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus , I come to ask your permission to humbly place before you this request made with my heart as a pious and grateful soldier. Moreover, this desire, which I respectfully express to you, is also that of a large number of my fellow officers and soldiers, of my entire family, of a good number of my friends and acquaintances.
Personally, I should have disappeared a long time ago in the turmoil I went through if I had not had near me little Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. His relics never leave me; I have one on my heart and one on my arm with which I must show my men the way of duty. On January 5, 1917 at the Command Post, in Cléry, opposite Péronne, a 150 shell fell on the shelter where I was working. I had to be killed... and it wasn't the protection constituted by the earth that covered this shelter that prevented it, it was the divine, celestial protection of Sister Thérèse. I thanked her with all my soul, all my heart, for keeping me for my little boys who need me so much to live their life in which they are only just beginning to walk.
Most Holy Father, I kneel before you, and I beg you to allow me to ask you. In the name of my children, of my entire family, of my fellow officers and troops, of my friends and in my personal name, for the greater glory of God, for the sanctification of our piously repentant souls: to kindly hasten the Beatification of the pure Child, of the nun so good, so gentle, so pleasing to God, who before returning her beautiful soul to Our Lord Jesus Christ. humbly asked him with all his treasury of charity to allow him "to spend his Heaven doing good on earth", a sublime word which fills us with admiration and which strongly moves our grateful hearts!
Prostrated at your feet, TS Father, I humbly implore, for my family, for all my combat comrades and for me, your apostolic blessing which will be our safeguard in the accomplishment of the duty that we must fulfil, alas! no matter how painful. Deign to accept Your Holiness the most respectful homage from a son who is entirely, and with all his heart, submitted to you in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Captain Bessede
To the Armies, August 3, 1917. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
At a time when so much misery and mourning continue to befall our unhappy and dear country, allow me, in the name of the officers and soldiers of my Company, to come and lay at the feet of Your Holiness, the homage respectful of our complete submission and filial attachment. We recognize in you, Your Father, the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Catholic Church, the Infallible Doctor, the venerated Sovereign of our souls.
We have understood your anxieties for 5 years and as loving sons, we take a large part in all your pain. But we also share all your hopes, TS Father, and we have the firm confidence that so much pure and generous blood will not have been shed in vain; that so many victims, and there are some very fine ones, will not have made their sacrifices in vain: France will return to her God. Despite her wanderings, she did not deny her faith nor forget her mission, she will continue to give priests, missionaries and saints to the Holy Church. She will rise again and she will relive the glorious days of her history when she was on her feet and always ready to serve the cause of God, to defend the Holy See and the interests of the Church. Our Fatherland will see those beautiful days again, "the Sacred Heart will reign there in spite of its enemies" From the depths of our trenches, with complete confidence, we beg you, TS Father, to accept this assurance.
With the same confidence, knowing your goodness for us, we come to lay at the feet of Your Holiness a humble request. We no longer count the favors attributed to Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, our French saint. The rain of roses that she had promised fell on the earth, it spread in souls in the form of strengthened or aroused vocations, of unexpected conversions, of inexplicable cures, and of how many other benefits still! And this celestial rose seems more abundant since the beginning of the war. There are many happy people privileged by the attentions of Sr Thérèse! For our part, what gratitude do we not owe him for having kept us through the bullets and the shells, in multiple circumstances, in particular on September 6,13, 14, and 1916, 10 at one of the most critical moments of the battle of Verdun. Since that time we have had very rough days, February 15 and 1917, XNUMX in particular, and if we have to deplore the death of some of our comrades, we have at least had the consolation of seeing them leave armed for the most part. of the Sacraments, a grace that we like to attribute to the protection of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
Many of us know her and invoke her on the forehead, most holy Father, and our trust in her grows day by day, too, if it is for the vocation of a greater number of little souls worthy of the Love of Our Lord, for the increase in priestly vocations in particular for which Sister Thérèse prayed so much, for the extension of the glory of God, we dare to express to Your Holiness how happy we would be to see soon shining on the forehead of the "Little Thérèse" the white crown of the Blessed. Humbly prostrate at your feet, we beg you, Your Father, to hasten this happy day and we implore for ourselves, for our families and for all those who are dear to us, Your Apostolic Blessing.
Captain Lecouffe
September 29, 1917. To His Holiness Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
Many French officers and soldiers, including myself, owe Little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a nun of the Carmel of Lisieux (France), miraculous protection on the battlefield. Personally, I prayed to her in extremely critical circumstances: she miraculously protected me. I owe him life, faith and courage.
Allow me, Most Holy Father, both in my own name and in the name of my family and of some of my soldiers, to be good enough, for the greater glory of God, to hasten the beatification of the humble nun who, from heaven, does so much good on earth. Deign to accept, Most Known Father, the homage of my deepest respect,
Warrant Officer Jacoud
The 8 November 1917
Most Holy Father,
Allow a French soldier to express to you, both in his name and in that of many comrades, all their attachment and their love for the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It will be sweet for you to know, Most Holy Father, that if some of your sons have forgotten God and persecuted the Church, many have remained faithful to him and that France still has fervent Christians to defend its faith as it has heroes. to defend his land. Yes, France still remains, despite its oversights and its faults, the Catholic nation, the eldest daughter of the Church.
You gave us a new proof of your paternal affection, of your interest for our dear country, Most Holy Father, by allowing the Introduction of the Cause of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, but I come to ask you, in my name and in that of many souls, who like me have been the object of his protection, to hasten as much as possible, for the greater glory of God, the good of souls and the joy of Christian France the Beatification of the gentle and benevolent Carmelite who realizes so well her wish to "spend her heaven doing good on earth". Many and varied are the graces obtained through her intercession; very great also is the beneficent influence produced by the reading of his life and his poems: what sweet tears shed, what temptations vanquished, what sorrows dissipated by reading it! How one feels urged in one's school to love and praise God!
Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore for myself and all my loved ones Your apostolic blessing. Deign to accept Your Holiness the humble homage of a son submitted to Our Lord.
Warrant Officer Jacoud
Lt. Salin
To the Armies, November 11, 1917. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
The Cause of Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus is too dear to all good Frenchmen and even to the little soldiers of France for them not to come and loudly tell Your Holiness the very special favors they owe to your intercession near God.
I know the life and merits of the Carmelite saint before the present war and many spiritual and material graces had been obtained for me through her for my family and myself, but how much more did I feel the effects of her protection during this war, and in how many perilous situations, which seemed hopeless to me, did she not come to my rescue and miraculously protect me! I pressed to my chest the medal I had never stopped wearing, I invoked her more ardently at these critical times, and I am certain that it was her prayer that saved me.
To my testimony, Most Holy Father, I could add that of a stretcher-bearer priest who, during the relief of the wounded, felt time and again the protection of the "little saint" as he calls her, escaping the dangers war and obtaining unexpected graces of conversion and holy death for the lost poor. May Your Holiness accept these humble testimonies and above all hasten the day when we will be able to address publicly to our great protector beatified by Your Holiness the sentiments of our grateful hearts! On that day, Your Holiness will have responded to the supplicating wishes of mothers, wives, sons, who no longer count the roses received from heaven by Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
Rocked by this hope, I prostrate myself at your feet, Most Holy Father, asking for your apostolic blessing for my family and myself. Deign Your Holiness to accept the deeply respectful and grateful homage of your humbly submissive children of France,
Corporal James
To the Armies, November 12, 1917. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
I come, Most Holy Father, to present my humble request to you. At the front for 2 years, I have faith and trust in Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus who, from heaven, protected me on many occasions. I am in a regiment of Zouaves and, of course, it is not one of the least exposed, and again thanks to Sister Thérèse, I came out of all the fighting almost unscathed, whether in Belgium, in the Somme, in Champagne. , in Verdun, as well as in Lorraine.
At Verdun, I took part in an attack which, according to my comrades, was one of the toughest we have ever done. I put myself under the protection of the Little Sister, and from that moment it seemed that nothing could reach me. Shells fell next to me, without touching me. Buried twice, I was able to extricate myself, and did not receive a scratch as I saw my comrades killed beside me.
At this attack I received the Croix de Guerre and the corporal's stripes and I made it my duty to take them to my holy little sister in gratitude, as well as 2 copper vases made for her, on the forehead. Yet another fact: I have always put the cagna where I live under the protection of our little saint and it has never collapsed. Only a few days ago a shell fell on it and it wasn't even shaken, another shell hit above the door: the shrapnel fell at my feet but I didn't get anything.
Many of my comrades carry relics of Sister Thérèse and venerate her, but I will still make her known more. Also, Most Holy Father, in the name of my family, my comrades and my friends, I come to ask you to kindly hasten the Beatification of little Sister Thérèse who from up there does so much good on earth.
Your son submitted in Our Lord.
Lieutenant Colpin
To the French Armies in Italy, February 7, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at your feet, allow me to assure you of my complete and profound filial submission. Also deign to allow your child, Most Holy Father, to present a request to you, the result of which would fill him with joy and would fill a large number of French people with him with joy, if you saw fit to give him a favorable response.
The war has been a wide field open to the Merciful Goodness of God and the benevolent intercession of his servants, the Saints in heaven. Among those who have been invoked most often and whom a multitude of fighters know in France, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux, holds a remarkable place.
What wonders are attributed to him! What graces, what miraculous effects of his protection, both powerful and benevolent, are we not registering on all sides! For my part, what I can affirm in all loyalty is that "Little Thérèse" showed my family and me the most visible protection. My family, under the yoke of the invader, rarely gives me, alas! news, and for good reason! In none of the letters that I received from her, the Carmelite Saint is forgotten, and each time I am told of one or more graces obtained through her intercession.
Personally, I owe him many favors. to cite only two facts among many others, I will speak to Your Holiness only of the miraculous protection of which I was the object during the war. In February 1916, at the beginning of the great battle of Verdun, I was very seriously wounded. I only escaped certain death thanks to Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in whom I have the most blind confidence. In September 1917, the 22nd, charged with a perilous operation, I recommended myself to her, and recommended to her all those who with me and under my orders were part of the expedition. However, I left with his image on my chest... How many dangers did we not have to face! Injury or death awaited us at every step. Little Sister Thérèse brought us all back safe and sound.
These facts which are personal to me are not the only ones which one can attribute, I am sure, to the holy Carmelite. Also, it is in union with all his proteges, for the glory of God and also for the glory of this little French saint, that I beg you, Most Holy Father, to hasten the hour of her Beatification. This glorification will fill with hope and joy those who have venerated her for so long and who will finally see on the altars, object of public worship, She who still has for altars only their grateful hearts.
May it from heaven bless our approach and make it agreeable to Your Holiness, of whom I say to myself, in N. Lord Jesus Christ, the very humble and very obedient son,
Commander Goullard
Le Havre, 3 June 1918. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
Deign to allow one of your children in France to humbly address you the following request in favor of a Cause which is dear to him.
At the beginning of the current war, I got to know Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux, and the graces she granted to those who invoked her; I hastened to carry the relics with me, and to place all my confidence in his protection. On the patrol boat that I command, on a dark night, the storm was raging, my boat threatened at every moment to break on the rocks, it was enough for me to invoke Sister Thérèse and to call her to my aid to ward off the peril that threatened me. Suddenly, the storm calmed down, I saw as in
a vision the savior lighthouse; then the rain started to fall, the weather darkened, but I was saved. Because of this obvious manifestation of an effective intervention with God, I make it my duty to join voices more authoritative than mine in asking you, Most Holy Father, to kindly hasten the Beatification of the Protector of so many brave.
Deign Your Holiness to accept the respectful homage of a son humbly submitted to Our Bleeder.
Lieutenant of Laloubie
In the Armies, June 29, 1918, Feast of Sts Peter and Paul.
Most Holy Father,
By racial ties, but especially as an officer of France, this petition is for the sole purpose of expressing a desire, a more ardent wish, to obtain from Your Holiness a new ray of glory in the Church, by praying to take an interest in the Beatification of a French Carmelite: Sister Thérèse, of the Carmel of Lisieux.
From the Marne to the Yser, from Flanders to Verdun, from Alsace to the Orient, there is a whole valiant range of our men-at-arms, paying a hymn of gratitude to the one who was Little Sr Thérèse of the 'Baby Jesus! Deign, Most Holy Father, to hasten the progress of the Cause imposed by the numerous echoes of the graces received, so that our religious faith, skating our swords, may soon sing one more saint in our temples of victories.
Of Your Holiness, the respectful parent and most humble submissive son,
Lieutenant Louis de la Loubie
Marshal Brigadier
Belfort, July 17, 1918. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV
Most Holy Father,
Prostrated at your feet, I offer you the homage of the deepest veneration, of the most perfect attachment of a soldier of the French Army. I also offer you the homage of my comrades, unbeknownst to them it is true, but believe me that if their actions are sometimes disorderly, the substance is good. We resent the conduct of bad shepherds, but many of us, of course, seek the "safe path"... Hearts have their secrets. By a gentle effect of the mercy of God, I have found this way, but many others are waiting for the spark which must show them how beautiful and resplendent it is.
Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, as you know, Most Holy Father, won many hearts of soldiers because she carries her titles of nobility to delight and she knew how to raise the honor up to the sky. She is for us the most pure Virgin who sprinkles with fragrant roses the fields of great present suffering. Beauty forces us to raise our heads and those whom it has taken can no longer look away. What confidence she inspires and how she learns to love! By it a corner of the veil is lifted which lets Heaven be seen.
I know that many are asking you to hasten his Beatification. Allow me to add to so many others my humble suffrage, my ardent desire. Hasn't the time come to let its dazzling light shine in broad daylight? Since she does not want to remain inactive in Heaven and she proves it every day, help her, Most Holy Father, to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Let the balm of her sweet beauty flow to the full brim over all the wounds of war. Now that she enjoys blissful immortality, do not inflict upon her the trials of expectation that she experienced on earth. Pardon my insistence, it's no longer reason that speaks in me, it's my heart that wants to love him more.
Like herself in the past, I say: "Most Holy Father, I have a great grace to ask of you": Give our Little Sister in Heaven the official consecration of the Holy Church of which you are the venerated Head: beatify her. Give yourselves this joy that will fulfill ours.
I implore, Most Holy Father, for all those I love and for myself your apostolic blessing. Deign Your Holiness to accept the respectful homage of a humbly submissive son in NS
Captain Grillet
Most Holy Father,
Since the beginning of the horrible catastrophe which is testing the whole world, and especially our dear France, French Catholics have addressed their ardent supplications to God who alone can restore us to peace. Remembering that our country was once saved by a humble shepherdess sent from God, Catholics put themselves under the protection of many saints whom France venerates. The devotion of the officers and soldiers went to a humble Carmelite, Little Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and the graces obtained numbered in the thousands.
Personally, for the two years that I have had the pleasure of addressing myself to her, I have always been answered by her intercession; she protected me on the battle front, she cured several of my seriously ill children, I put my 7th child under her protection, asking her to give him a religious vocation. This is why, Most Holy Father, in the name of my family, in my personal name, I come very humbly to ask you, for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of souls, to kindly hasten the Beatification of the humble Carmelite, who, according to her promise, "spends her heaven doing good on earth".
Very humbly prostrate at your feet, I implore, Most Holy Father, for my soldiers, for my family and for myself, your apostolic blessing. Deign to accept Your Holiness the homage of a son humbly submitted in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mr Broca, engineer
To the Armies, August 15, 1918. To His Holiness Pope Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrated at your feet, I make it an honor and a pleasure, as a Catholic and as a Frenchman, to come and offer Your Holiness, in my name and in the name of my family, the profoundly respectful homage of our very filial affection.
If there are unfortunate people in our country who do not know you, if there are some who dare to do Your Holiness the inconceivable insult of seeing in the admirable sentiments of your noble heart an act of hostility or at least of indifference for our country, there are others, Most Holy Father, and these are the majority of French people, who love you with all their souls, who venerate in you the official Representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ. welcoming each of your directions so luminous, certain that by following you they will not be able to take the wrong road and aspiring to the blessed day, and which they hope will be soon when all of France will officially return to You, by returning to the good God and to his holy law.
Yes, we Catholics, we your very loving, very piously and very affectionately submissive children, we know that you have a very special predilection for our country, and deign, Most Holy Father, in the name of this predilection, to allow the humble soldier who addresses these lines to you, to present to Your Holiness a pious request. Among so many souls of Saints that France has seen born, there is one, beautiful and gentle among all, who, after having followed during his short existence here below the "little way of love", living with an angelic perfection the life of spiritual childhood taught by the divine Saviour, now spends its heaven doing good on earth, letting fall each day more abundantly its suave and mysterious rain of roses.
My beloved family and I owe Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus the most precious favors. In 1915, the youngest of our little boys was dying, prey to a pulmonary congestion complicated by measles. My dear wife, in despair, turns to the "little saint" and, overnight, our dear little one is miraculously saved. In 1916, my mother fell, struck down by a cerebral embolism. She was raised inanimate and, a few moments later, the priest who had been called in all haste administered the last rites to her, without her having regained consciousness. Again my pious wife begs the angelic little Thérèse to come to our aid again and now our dear patient is gradually regaining her senses and, a fortnight later, she was circulating through the city, to the amazement of those near whom she had passed for dead.
And me, personally, how many times, during this terrible war, did I not actually feel the all-powerful protection of the angelic little Carmelite of Lisieux? How many times, during terrible bombardments or under air raids, did I not call for my help, the one we love with a deep and constantly growing affection, this sweet and compassionate "little saint" with hands full of roses? And I can say, myself, that I have never implored her in vain.
And if sweet little Thérèse shows herself so generous when it comes to the body or to temporal interests, what can be said of the immense good she does in souls? When she enters a house she carries with her above all the love of God. There are many people for whom this thought of the admirable little Sister was the occasion for a return to prayer and to the practice of their religious duties.
Also, Most Holy Father, for the greater glory of God, for the good and sanctification of souls, for the regeneration of France which has seen this sweet and lovely flower of Heaven bloom on its soil, in my personal name, in the name of all my family, in the name of so many friends on whom Sister Thérèse unceasingly drops her rain of roses, I beg Your Holiness to deign soon, thus realizing our dearest wish, to gird with the halo of the Blessed , the so pure brow of the angelic little Bride of Jesus who, after having made herself so small here below, has become so great and so powerful in Heaven.
May this petition bring to your feet, Most Holy Father, a pious echo of the deep and very respectful affection of your children in France, and when Your Holiness, through the Beatification of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, has added a new and magnificent jewel in the crown of Saints, already so rich, of which our country has the right to be proud, the fervent friends of the angelic little Sister will not forget, in their gratitude, the august and beloved Pontiff who will thereby have added to the glory of God and to the honor of our country.
Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore for my dear family and myself the signal favor of your apostolic blessing. Of Your Holiness, most humbly submissive and respectful son.
Aide-Major Dayras
To the Armies, August 20, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate at your feet, I come to tell you after so many others my confidence in Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and to join my voice to all those who implore her beatification from you. For the greater glory of God, we ask you for this Beatification of the humble sister who has already brought to faith so many impious and brought back so many who have lost their way. For some as for others, his little path of trust and abandonment was the easy and sure path to the Heart of Jesus because it is the path of children, always so wide open to this Sacred Heart.
Unbelievers who were entangled in the fallacious objections of their proud minds have been saved from the day when they had the simplicity of stretching out their hands to the Father in confidence; and the pusillanimous who had the Faith without daring to practice it found the courage when they knew how to recognize their weakness. Since the war, the benefits of this little life have multiplied, it is so simple and natural to the soldiers - and the humble nun who leads them there is indeed the little sister of the combatants. For the soldier who feels so small in the midst of danger and so powerless to avert it, it is good to rely like a child, following the example of Sister Thérèse, on the omnipotence of the Father.
To the soldier who sees death approaching without having time to acquire merits for heaven that would make it less formidable, Sister Thérèse teaches the Christian acceptance and offering of the most humble actions which are thus transformed into precious pledges for the eternity. To the soldier who, at this very moment, mourns the immensity of his past faults, Sister Thérèse affirms that his confidence in God must not be shaken. Thus, every day, thousands of dying people slowly and surely accomplished the terrible passage through the little way of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. I know of no example of a man who has asked the little Sister for the grace of this confident resignation and who has not soon felt its sweet consolation within himself. For my part, as soon as a novena was started in my name at the Carmel of Lisieux, I felt this soothing calm in the midst of danger, this grace of invincible trust and absolute abandonment in the arms of Our Lord.
But the power of Sister Thérèse is not limited to these essential benefits in the spiritual order; many are those whom she has materially protected. For my personal account, while the novena started for me at Carmel was not yet finished, on April 18, my aid station was destroyed by a large caliber shell. No one was killed and those of my orderlies who were injured were only slightly injured like myself. Since that day, my trust in Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus has been unshakeable. This is why I humbly join in the prayers of all those who ask for his Beatification for the greater good of souls and the greater glory of God.
Kneeling at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore your apostolic blessing for my family, my friends, myself, and especially the pious person who initiated me into devotion to Sister Thérèse. Deign to accept Your Holiness the respectful homage of a son humbly submitted to Our Lord.
Second Lieutenant Maurice Vuillet
Cazaux Aerial Shooting School, August 25, 1918. To His Holiness Benedict XV.
Most Holy Father,
In the midst of the storm, allow one of your children to raise their voice to cry out their gratitude to the one who was their protector in battle, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux. As a Catholic and more especially as a soldier, I thank you, for me and my brothers in arms for having authorized the minting of the medal which we wear with great veneration and which in many circumstances has protected us in battle.
Full of gratitude, I therefore beg you, Most Holy Father, for the sanctification of souls, to hasten the beatification of the little nun who has so often supported and protected us. Your son very respectfully submitted in Our Lord.
Commander Pebay
To the Armies, August 30, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Fervent in the worship of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I take the liberty of joining my plea to the innumerable voices which ask you for the Beatification of this eminent and very pure Servant of God. For 4 years at the front, exposed to the greatest dangers, I have been miraculously preserved by her intercession, and I have complete confidence that she will protect me until the end of the war.
In the clear garden of this land of France which, we know, is particularly dear to you, the one which was called the little Spouse of the Child Jesus is one of the rarest and most fragrant flowers. You will be pleased, Most Holy Father, to invite the whole world to breathe in its fragrance and to place it among the official protectors of our dear country, whose blood flows freely, and which remains, despite the forces of evil, the keystone of the Christian Universe.
Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore for my family and myself, for my friends and comrades, your apostolic blessing. Of Your Holiness, the most humble and obedient servant
Sub-Lieutenant Nalin
In the trenches, August 31, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Deign to allow one of your sons of France to humbly send you the following request in favor of a cause which is dear to him in more ways than one.
In the course of this horrible war, I had the happiness, being wounded, of being treated in a hospital where I was introduced to the life of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. since that day, I have felt attracted by the perfume that exhales from it and I asked Sister Thérèse to kindly be my little Providence from now on. It is impossible for me to recount the multiple graces, small and large, which I have seen to be favored since. In the most painful situations, and sometimes the most desperate, at each invocation to my holy Protector I felt the beneficent effect of her invisible but certain protection. Among all I will cite only the following fact:
During the last affairs of the Aisne, July 1918, I commanded a section as Sergeant. After having received from the Carmel of Lisieux the medals which you kindly authorized to strike, I distributed them to each of my men, whom all, even the most recalcitrant ordinarily, accepted with pleasure. I begged Sister Therese to protect us all, promising to bring this favor to light with the signature of each of my men. We all came back, I am committed to keeping my promises, but having been appointed second lieutenant and thereby removed from my Battalion, I must content myself today with certifying for all.
Among them he was a "pagan", father of two little girls. He said to me: "If Sister Thérèse protects me, I will have my children baptized". He lives and will keep his promise. Other of my men were protected, including two of them wounded by a shell and who felt like they were dying. I recommended them to pray a lot to the "little Saint" and, against all odds, they were saved and were much better.
I therefore join, Most Holy Father, with the more authoritative voices that have preceded me, in begging you to hasten the beatification of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, our powerful Protector.
Lt. E. Connil
To the Armies, August 19, 1918
Most Holy Father,
What sweet emotion fills my heart at the thought that from the soil of our so painfully bruised Fatherland the filial memory of one of your dear sons will fly to you! Ah! Most Holy Father, be sure of it, the France which is currently suffering this long and patient ordeal is indeed that of our old Christian traditions and those who, brutally taking the helm, violated its noblest feelings, n will never prevent his children from being yours first. Whatever they do, you are, you will always remain the dear and revered Sovereign of the brave sons of Clovis and St Louis.
Soon the last wave of impiety will die on the beach and your noble heart which loves France, we know, will hear rising towards it, full of the accent of repentance and gratitude, the loving and faithful voice of all its dear children. As a Catholic and as an officer in the French Army, in the name of many of my comrades, I come, prostrate at your feet, to address a humble request to you. Your heart has guessed my thoughts and you already know that I have come to speak to you about our dear little Sister of Heaven, Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux.
Most Holy Father, if you only knew how touching the tributes paid to the beautiful little soul that God seems to have placed in his Heaven especially to protect us are! Her image knows the secrets of many wallets, her little medallion is no less widespread, and how often I have met our little saint, as we call her, forming alongside the family portrait, the intimate decor of our cantonments!
She is so good and she scatters so graciously her shower of roses over our miseries! His miracles are daily life. Who will ever recount all the favors she obtains for us and lavishes on us with so much generosity! I personally owe him very special thanks. She visibly protected me in the midst of daily renewed dangers, and quite recently, on August 4th, while going to take up an advanced position, I received shrapnel which struck my helmet with such brutality that in all elsewhere I would have been seriously injured; I had nothing, not even a scratch.
Never had my heart felt the attraction of the Heart of Jesus as it feels since I read the so simple, so pure, so sweet life of Little Thérèse. I now have unlimited confidence in her, I have made her my dearest confidant. Also, Most Holy Father, in the name of my family, many friends, comrades and soldiers, please hasten the Beatification of the humble nun, delicious flower of Carmel, who from Heaven continues to do so much good on the ground.
Lucien Courtin
Le Mans, September 4, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Currently on a hospital bed where I am being treated for a wound received during the last battles, I do not want to wait for my complete recovery to testify to Your Holiness the feelings of my most filial affection.
In union with all my comrades, my leaders, all the holy souls who have the happiness of belonging to the Apostolic and Roman Catholic Church, I prostrate myself, Most Holy Father, at your feet and humbly ask Your Holiness this favor of to see the Beatification of the Servant of God Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus pronounced as soon as possible. This request is a debt of gratitude to the Angel of the Carmel of Lisieux. Indeed, independently of the multiple favors obtained, thanks to her intercession, before 1914, I can affirm, in loyalty of conscience and before God, that during this war, Sister Thérèse really preserved me from death in several circumstances.
In April 1915, in Champagne, a bomb falling at my feet which, humanly speaking, should have crushed me, caused me no harm, while more distant comrades were injured. In June of the same year, a typhoid fever which I was suffering from, and which seemed malignant, was stopped dead when I prayed to Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. In September 1917, in the middle of a frightful melee, near Verdun, where 3/4 of my battalion disappeared, I attribute only to Sr Thérèse the grace of having escaped this massacre. Finally, during the last offensive, July 1918, when I was wounded, the bursts of machine gun fire were so violent around me that I can still only attribute my salvation to Sister Thérèse.
This is why, Most Holy Father, moved by the greatest gratitude towards the little saint, I would be extremely happy to see her honored on our altars. I have the honour, Most Holy Father, to ask you for my family, my comrades in arms, my leaders, your apostolic blessing. Your very loving and very respectfully submitted son in Our Lord
Achille Lesne
To the Armies, Sept. 10, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Children of God and of the Church, your humble sons, grateful proteges of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and soldiers, such are those who humbly and wholeheartedly beg your paternal goodness to hasten the Beatification of the little Carmelite of Lisieux, Sister Thérèse, to whom they are deeply grateful. Many are those who, with them, wish to see the happy day of his Beatification arrive!
We have the honour, Most Holy Father, to request for our families, our brothers in arms, and ourselves your apostolic blessing. Your sons very respectfully submitted in Our Lord,
Marquess of Langle
Château du Plessis by Tresboeuf (Ille et Vilaine), September 15, 1918.
Most Holy Father,
Your Holiness is the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth and it is with deep sorrow that the French see how much the government of our dear and unfortunate homeland wants to officially ignore your sovereignty. Our Lord will allow himself to be touched by the fervent prayers and immense sacrifices of his children and he will allow France to officially become his eldest daughter again.
As a Catholic and as an officer in the French army, I take the liberty of addressing a humble request to Your Holiness. During the months that I spent on the front line, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Carmel of Lisieux protected me to such an extent that I never had the slightest injury. In January 1915, my last little boy, aged 15 months, was seriously ill and for several days in a state considered hopeless by a great doctor.
I was then far away, on the forehead and I never had any worries because by praying to Sister Thérèse I had the impression that she would heal him. I knew in fact that my wife had entrusted him to Sister Thérèse and that the best had happened as soon as her image had been attached to her cradle. Finally, when fifteen months ago Our Lord sent me the terrible ordeal of calling back to Him my dear wife, very young, suddenly, without her being able to say a word to me or give me a recommendation, Sister Thérèse gave me the courage to bear this cruel pain.
Also, Most Holy Father, I come to ask Your Holiness, for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of souls, to kindly hasten the Beatification of the humble nun who, from Heaven does so much good on earth. Prostrated at your feet, Most Holy Father, I implore your apostolic blessing for my children, my family and for myself with the very respectful feelings of a son humbly submitted to Your Holiness,
General Allenou
10 September 1918
Most Holy Father,
Humbly prostrate before your Holiness, I implore your blessing for me, for all my family and for France, which has fought heroically for more than four years, champion of the freedom of the world. May your Holiness deign to favor the religious movement which draws a large number of souls to God through devotion to little Sister Thérèse of Lisieux; May she hasten the day when it will be permitted to invoke her as blessed, so that there will be a greater number of those who, following her example, will have absolute trust and abandonment in God, abandonment of true children in their Father. And so may France, converted, once again become the eldest Daughter of the Church and resume her place at the head of the nations for the glory of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart.
Please accept, T. St Père, the homage offered to you by one of your very respectful sons as a faithful Catholic and a Breton soldier.
Commander Etienne
Lisieux (Calvados), September 24, 1918
Most Holy Father,
Senior officer of the active army, having obtained, through the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Carmel of Lisieux, numerous spiritual and temporal graces, I have the honor to present to your Holiness the homage respectful of my filial devotion and to join all those who beg you, Most Holy Father, to hasten the Beatification of the Servant of God, and in particular to my military comrades.
After being unexpectedly cured of a long and serious illness, in Tonkin in 1915, through the intercession of Sister Thérèse, I have not ceased, since my arrival on the French front in November 1916, to receive, for my battalion and for me, graces of all kinds.
Last November, a child of an officer friend of mine, suffering from severe osteitis in the leg, was completely healed in a few days following a union of prayers at Little Thérèse. My wife, a nurse from the Society for the Relief of the Wounded, has observed rapid and sometimes unexpected cures in the wounded and sick, after introducing them to Sister Thérèse of Lisieux, and giving them pictures or souvenir bags of the little sister.
We are, for the 5th time since November 1916, on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Lisieux and each time we go to pray at the tomb of our protector, we see many civilians and soldiers from all walks of life and from various countries. , coming like us to testify their Faith and their Hope, to thank Sister Thérèse with the signs of a lively gratitude and to ask her, in full confidence, for new benefits.
Deign, Most Holy Father, to accept this humble request and accept the profound homage of your very respectful and very devoted son.
Commander Mestre
Last petition of Commander Mestre [who had started the project of these petitions in 1916]
Angers, December 21, 1921
Commander Mestre to His Holiness Pope Benedict XV, in Rome.
Most Holy Father,
We know the paternal affection You have for the eldest Daughter of the Church. You recently gave him further proof of this when, on August 14, You were good enough to promulgate the Decree on the heroicity of the virtues of the Servant of God, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and, in this circumstance, to call France the Mother of Saints.
By glorifying the little Carmelite of Lisieux, You have caused us great joy. As French people and as Catholics, we were very touched by this; we thank you wholeheartedly and we are deeply grateful to you.
But those whom You have made the happiest, those who thank You most warmly, are the soldiers of the Great War, who, during hostilities, repeatedly felt the protection of She whom we commonly called on the front lines: our dear Saint. Despite my unworthiness, I am among those She has visibly protected; and, as such, I feel a real pleasure in coming to express my sincere gratitude to you.
I had the honor of being the first, I believe, to ask You, during the war, to kindly hasten the beatification of little Sister Thérèse. The TRP Emmanuel Bailly, Superior General of the Augustinians of the Assumption, agreed to deliver my petition to You himself. Today, since, thanks to Your Holiness, the Cause is already on such a good track, I very humbly take the liberty of renewing my request to You.
If, on August 14, thousands of Combatants experienced a sweet satisfaction in saluting their celestial protector with the title of Venerable, their joy will be overflowing, I can confidently affirm it, on the day when the Servant of God will be proclaimed Blessed. We await this day with the greatest impatience, but also with absolute submission to the decisions of the Holy Church.
Please accept, Most Holy Father, with the expression of my thanks, the filial and respectful homage of my unalterable attachment to the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
Peter Mestre
Officer of the Legion of Honor
maimed in war
attached to the Military Sub-Intendance of Angers
