A letter from Sr Claire Sykes, Vice Postulator for the Cause of Marie Madeleine d’Houët,
on the occasion of Marie Madeleine’s Feast Day, April 5th 2020
Dear Sisters and Companions in Mission,
These are unusual times for everyone, but they do give us a bit more time for reading and reflection. So, remembering it is Marie Madeleine’s feast day on Sunday I thought it good to send some resources that might help your celebration of the day. None are new but sometimes it is helpful to look again at things we have seen before.
I send the translation of the November 1970 document of promulgation, which declared Marie Madeleine to be ‘Venerable’. We have seen this document before and the text is in the re-edited Memoirs. This simple account of Marie Madeleine’s life, shows so clearly how she was a messenger of the Good News.
This document proclaims Marie Madeleine’s living of virtue as heroic. It concludes, ‘beyond any doubt, in the case of the Servant of God, Marie Madeleine de Bengy, Viscountess de Bonnault d’Houët the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity towards God and neighbour and the cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude and other virtues associated with them, were present to a heroic degree’. If ever we needed the inspiration of hope-filled lives, it is now!
May Marie Madeleine pray with us for our world and its suffering.
With love and in companionship,
Mary Claire Sykes fcJ
Vice Postulator
Read the translation of the November 1970 document of promulgation, which declared Marie Madeleine to be ‘Venerable’.
Read more about Marie Madeleine, her Life, the cause for canonisation, a pilgrimage on her footsteps, the beginnings of the FCJ Society in Amiens, or find further resources about her.
Marie Madeleine Newsletter Bicentenary Issue
