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Claire Ferchaud (5 May 1896 - 29 January 1972), in religion Sister Claire of Jesus Crucified, was a French visionary and mystic, whose claims were ultimately rejected by the Catholic Church. She was linked to the Devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus during World War I.
Claire Ferchaud was born a few miles from Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, in the little village of Loublande, in the province of Vendée. She attended the school of the Sacred Heart and since her early childhood, she said she had had appearances from Jesus Christ, Mary (mother of Jesus) and Saint Joan of Arc. They ‘would come to meet her’ and would give her ‘messages’.
In 1916, during World War I, she lived in the convent of the ‘Rinfilières’ at Loublande, France. At that time, she claimed to have been given a vision of Christ himself, a vision of Jesus showing his heart "slashed by the sins of mankind" and crossed by a deeper wound still, atheism. She passed this on to the pastor of the town, the Abbé Audebert.
Ferchaud believed she had been appointed to undertake a mission by Christ, namely, to contact the President of France, Raymond Poincaré, beg him to convert to the right path of Christian civilization, namely Catholicism, to give a good example by rejecting Freemasonry, to display the image of the Sacred Heart on the flag of France and that of the French Army and to allow the carrying of this emblem on the uniforms of the soldiers. On all this, she claimed, would depend the victory over the enemy.
Ferchaud expressed all this in a letter which was delivered to the President of the Republic on 16 January 1917, as acknowledged by his Secretary, Mr. Sainsère.
As a result of the insistent intervention of Armand Charles de Baudry of Asson, member of Parliament a royalist for the seat of Vendée, it was formally received on 21 March at the Élysée Palace, where she came to deliver her message. She declared that, “The Sacred Heart is the official patron of France. France must recognize God for its master.” “France must show that religion is no longer being persecuted by agreeing to paint the Sacred Heart on its flag.”
The President explained that he alone could not change France's anti-clerical laws, and that he was not permitted to change anything on the national flag. He seems to have promised her to refer the question to the Chamber of Deputies of the Third Republic, but nothing further was done. Claire Ferchaud therefore wrote to him a second letter on 1 May, which also had no effect.
On 7 May 1917, Ferchaud then addressed a letter of warning to 14 generals of the French Army, calling for ‘the image of the Sacred Heart, sign of hope and salvation’, to be inserted onto ‘our national colors’. Fifteen copies of this letter were written and sent to the following generals:
And also to Generals: Édouard de Castelnau, Robert Georges Nivelle, Marie Émile Fayolle, and Ferdinand Foch.
It is known today, from two sources which attested to the fact (that of the curé of Bonbon, the abbé Paul Noyer and that of Father Perroy on 17 November 1918), that only General Foch, (Commanding the 20th Corps in Nancy and later the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces) ‘consecrated’ the armed forces of the French and their Allies ‘to the Sacred Heart’ on 16 July 1918, during a private ceremony.
The Sacred Heart was, in fact, invoked during this conflict by millions of faithful Catholics, but was never placed on the Flag. In fact, the image of the Sacred Heart, was broadcast very widely. Millions of copies were distributed. It was commonly found in the trenches, to the point that a circular from the Minister of War of 6 August 1917 (countersigned by Philippe Pétain) prohibited its exhibition.
Retiring to her native region of Mauges, Ferchaud organized a religious community of "Virgins of Reparation" which received, at first, the support of the religious authorities. On 12 March 1920, however, a decree of the Holy Office disavowed her revelations and stated that belief in the visions of Loublande could not be approved. The Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Léon-Adolphe Amette declared that regretfully he was unable to discover a supernatural inspiration in her statements. [1]
Philippe Pétain was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World War I. For the conflagration, Marshal Pétain became known as "the Lion of Verdun". Born Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain, he served as head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II. Pétain, who was 84 years old when he became Prime Minister, remains the oldest person to become the head of state of France.
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is predominantly used in the Catholic Church, followed by high-church Anglicans, Lutherans and some Western Rite Orthodox. In the Latin Church, the liturgical Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated the third Friday after Pentecost. The 12 promises of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus are also extremely popular.
Our Lady of Fátima is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus, based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. The three children were Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. José Alves Correia da Silva, Bishop of Leiria, declared the events worthy of belief on 13 October 1930.
Ferdinand Foch was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became the Allied Commander-in-Chief in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive, which pushed the Allies back using fresh soldiers and new tactics that trenches could not withstand. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts into a coherent whole, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
According to Christian tradition, the Image of Edessa was a holy relic consisting of a square or rectangle of cloth upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus had been imprinted—the first icon ("image"). The image is also known as the Mandylion, in Eastern Orthodoxy, it is also known as Acheiropoeiton, or "icon not made by hand".
Robert Georges Nivelle was a French artillery general officer who served in the Boxer Rebellion and the First World War. In May 1916, he succeeded Philippe Pétain as commander of the French Second Army in the Battle of Verdun, leading counter-offensives that rolled back the German forces in late 1916. During these actions he and General Charles Mangin were accused of wasting French lives. He gives his name to the Nivelle Offensive.
Margaret Mary Alacoque, VHM, was a French Catholic Visitation nun and mystic who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form.
The Brothers of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic lay religious congregation of Pontifical Right for Men founded by the Reverend Fr. André Coindre (1787–1826) in 1821. Its Constitution was modeled upon that of the Jesuits, while its Rule of Life was based upon the Rule of Saint Augustine. Its members bind themselves for life by simple vows of religion. Its members add the nominal S.C. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation.
Since the Crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary, a number of people have claimed to have had visions of Jesus Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding his mother, Mary, who is often known as the Virgin Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited controversy. The Catholic Church endorses a fraction of these claims, and various visionaries it accepts have achieved beatification, or even sainthood.
Lutgardis of Aywières is a saint from the medieval Low Countries. She was born in Tongeren, known as Tongres in French, and entered monastic life at the age of twelve. During her life various miracles were attributed to her, and she is known to have experienced religious ecstasy. Her feast day is June 16.
The Roman Catholic tradition includes a number of devotions to Jesus Christ. Like all Catholic devotions, these prayer forms are not part of the official public liturgy of the Church but are based on the popular spiritual practices of Roman Catholics. Many are officially approved by the Holy See as suitable for spiritual growth but not necessary for salvation.
Marie Eugène Debeney was a French Army general. He commanded a corps at the Battle of the Somme then, in the second half of 1917, served as chief of staff to the French Commander-in-Chief Philippe Pétain. He then commanded the First Army which, fighting alongside British Empire forces, played an important role in the mobile fighting of 1918, including at the Battle of Amiens and the Storming of the Hindenburg Line.
The Red Scapular of the Passion of Our Lord and the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary is a Roman Catholic sacramental scapular associated with the Vincentians. It is often just called the Scapular of the Passion or simply the Red Scapular but it should not be confused with other similarly-termed scapulars described below.
The Scapular of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic devotional scapular bearing an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the front panel, and an image of the Virgin Mary as Mother of Mercy on the panel which hangs at the wearer's back. In its current form, the design and the formal church approval for its use are due to Estelle Faguette, a French domestic servant, who in 1876 claimed to have received a series of apparitions during which the Virgin Mary showed this scapular and spoke about its use.
Mary of the Divine Heart, born Maria Droste zu Vischering, was a German noblewoman and Roman Catholic religious sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. She is best known for having influenced Pope Leo XIII to consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Leo XIII called the solemn consecration "the greatest act of my pontificate".
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary refers to the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The Villa Bethania was constructed in the French village of Rennes-le-Château between 1901 and 1905 as part of the former estate of the Abbé Bérenger Saunière, in the name of his maidservant Marie Dénarnaud.
The flag of the department of Vendée was created by French designer Michel Disle.
Army Group Centre was a grouping of French field armies during World War I, which was created on June 22, 1915. The army group covered the Western Front roughly between Rheims and Verdun.
