Vénérable Anne-Madeleine Rémuzat, Apôtre du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus

Sister Anne Madeleine Remusat

Nun in the Monastery of the Visitation, Sister Anne Madeleine Remusat saved the Marseille fever, with the assistance of Bishop Belzunce. She spread the backups, images of the Sacred Heart, with the inscription: Stop The Heart of Jesus is there. His confidence was rewarded: more than

Once the scourge seemed to shrink from the holy image. She also requested the consecration effective faithful to the Sacred Heart.

Here also his story: "Our mother superior, she said, had asked me to pray to our Lord to deign to let us know by what means He wanted her to honor his Heart for the cessation of the plague which ravaged the city. I asked him just before the communion, out of its lovely inside a virtue that not only heals stains of my soul, but enlighten me on the subject of the application that I was obligated to do. He showed me he wanted to purge the Church of Marseilles errors which it was infected (Jansenism), by opening his heart lovely, source of all truth, he asked a feast day he had himself chosen to honor his heart, and that until him this honor, it was necessary that every believer is dedicated with a prayer the choice of the Bishop, to meet under the plan of God the Most Sacred Heart of her Son; by this means they should be delivered from the contagion, and, finally, all those indulge in this devotion does not help that when they fail in this divine Heart fail power. "

We know how Belzunce Bishop consecrated Marseille to the Sacred Heart in 1720 and saves the plague.

For us, Our Lord wants to bless us that we do a dedication to His Heart effective, not only with words but with habits of repair, love and sacrifice.

Ven. Anne-Madeleine Remuzat

Born at Marseilles, 29 Nov., 1696; died 15 Feb., 1730. At nine years of age she asked her parents to be allowed to enter the convent of the Visitation; the request was granted. From 1708 she began to experience severe sufferings which, during her whole life, she bore patiently for the salvation of souls. In 1709 her parents withdrew her, but in 1711 she re-entered the convent and on 23 Jan., 1713, made her profession. At this time she applied herself to prayer, and the "Spiritual Retreat" written then is a proof of her progress in the contemplative life. She experienced on 17 Oct., 1713, a "particular and extraordinary" revelation of Jesus "concerning the glory of his Sacred Heart". As the repute of her sanctity became known, Anne-Madeleine was consulted by many, and was thus the means of spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her influence actuated Mgr de Belsunce to establish at Marseilles the Association of Perpetual Adoration of the Sacred Heart, of which she wrote the statutes. As Jansenism and a spirit of moral laxity had then invaded the town Anne-Madeleine suffered keenly, and in reparation inflicted on her body continual mortifications; when her superiors interdicted these austerities, she begged our Lord to mortify her himself; and from that day she went into a painful decline, while her soul was abandoned to temptations. In 1720, during the plague at Marseilles, Our Lord enjoined her to institute a feast in honour of the Sacred Heart, which Mgr de Belsunce established on 22 Oct., 1720. From 1722 the veneration of the Sacred Heart spread throughout Provence, Lyons, Rouen, Constantinople, Cairo, Spain, Louisiana, Persia, Syria, and the Indies by her endeavours. In 1888 her cause was submitted to the Sacred Congregation, whose favourable vote was given on 18 Dec., 1890. Leo XIII signed on 24 Dec., 1891, the introduction of the cause of the Venerable servant of God.

Henri François Xavier de Belsunce de Castelmoron

Bishop of Marseilles

Bishop of Marseilles, b. 1671 at the Château de la Force, in Périgord; d. 1755 at Marseilles. His father was Armand de Belsunce, Marquis de Castelmoron and his mother Anne de Caumont de Lausun. He studied classics in Paris at the College de Clermont or Louis-le-grand and then entered the Society of Jesus. In 1699 he left the Society to become Vicar-General of Agen. The "Vie de Suzanne de Foix", his aunt, was written by him and published while at Agen, 1709. That same year he was made Bishop of Marseilles. The heroic charity he displayed during the plague of 1720 and 1721 has made his name a household word and won for him the title of "Good Bishop". When the plague broke out a large fleet was taking the Princess of Orléans to Italy where she was to marry the Duke of Modena. The suite of the princess took to flight, and with them all the notables of the city, but Bishop Belsunce remained with a few heroic friends, and together they battled against the plague with heroic self-sacrifice and devotion, till they conquered it. In his address to the Assembly of the Clergy in 1725, Belsunce stated that more than 250 priests and religious perished in their mission of Christian charity. But he was the soul of the rescuers and the praises bestowed on him by Pope and Millevoye ("Essay on Man" and "Belsunce ou la pestede Marseille") are not above his real merits. The King of France offered him, by way of recognition, the See of Laon to which was attached the first ecclesiastical peerage of the realm and afterwards the metropolitan See of Bordeaux. Belsunce refused both and contented himself with accepting the pallium sent him by Clement XII. During his incumbency Belsunce fought against another plague called Jansenism. He attended, 1727, the Synod of Embrun where Soanen was condemned. He opposed with all his power Colbert of Pamiers. In spite of the protest of the Parliament of Provence, he instructed his priests to refuse absolution to the appellants against the Bull "Unigenitus". Nearly all his pastoral instructions are against Jansenism. Belsunce was a writer of no mean power. Besides the "Vie de Suzanne de Foix" (Agen, 1709), and his pastoral instructions, we have from his pen "Le combat chrétien" translated from St. Augustin's "De Agone Christiano" and "L'art de bien mourir" translated from Bellarmine's "De Arte Bene Moriendi", also "Antiquités de l'Eglisede Marseille" (Marseilles, 1747-51). All these writings have been published by Jauffret under the title of "Oeuvresde Belsunce" (Metz, 1822).

From The Catholic Encyclopedia