the Carmel
character

V. Armandine Madam

Who is Armandine, of whom Zélie speaks at length in her letters CF 128 and following?

In her letter of January 17, 1875, Zélie mentions "Armandine V." , and later in his letter: "I immediately wrote to the parish priest of Banner, where the little one is from."
However, there is no municipality bearing the name of Banner in the Orne. There is however in Mayenne a commune of Bannes, distant of 97 km from Alençon. Zélie, in her letter 145, speaks of "people who live 30 leagues from here", which could correspond (1 league = approximately 4 km). We do not have the originals of Madame Martin's letters; it seems that the copyist considered the final 's' to be a final 'r', hence Banner.

On the site of the departmental archives of Mayenne, there is in 1866 the birth certificate of an Armandine Eugénie born on April 30, daughter of Jean Baptiste Velleau aged 29, stone breaker and Perinne Guiard aged 30 years.
Armandine V. would probably be this Armandine Velleau - the ages match since Zélie speaks in her letter 127 of an 8-year-old child.
Amandine Velleau died in Levallois (le) Perret on 9-6?-1953.

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