Berthe Petit, Enghien,
Belgium, 1938
Status: Cause for Beatification Opened, Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat
awarded to messages, Promoted by Cardinals Mercier of Belgium and Bourne of
England.
Episcopal Remarks: The former granted an
indulgence of 100 days to the invocation “Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of
Mary, pray for us who have recourse to Thee” Ratified by Pope St Pius X in a
hand-written letter to the Cardinal.
His pastoral letter to the clergy and
faithful read “Fulfilling therefore, the ardent wish which has been expressed
to me, I shall consecrate in the very depths of my soul, during the Office of
Good Friday, our Diocese, and in the limits of my power, our dear Country, to
the Sorrowful and Immaculate of Mary. I exhort the priests to unite their
intentions to mine, and the faithful to repeat devoutly the invocation to which
I have already granted and indulgence of 100 days; Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who
have recourse to Thee.”
Cardinal
Bourne followed suit and not only granted an indulgence of 100 days for the
invocation but also prepared the way for a solemn consecration in accordance
with the demand made by Our Lord. His
pastoral letter of September 3, 1916 said “We should fail to honour duly Her
Divine Son, were we to forget and fail to honour, praise and use the power
which He has willed to bestow upon Her in return for the Sorrows which united
Her Heart so closely and so intimately with His in the supreme sacrifice of His
life. Nowhere in Christendom should honour be paid more readily to the
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary than here in England. Of old, in the
days of united Faith, Her purity and Her Sorrows were ever held in loving
veneration. In those days, England was in very truth Our Lady’s Dowry. It is
therefore, not with the idea of introducing any new devotion, but rather in
order to give fresh meaning and greater force to thoughts long cherished by us
all, and deep-rooted in the history of our race, that we desire to consecrate this
renewed effort of prayer, which the special circumstances of the moment so
urgently demand, to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
Corroboration by
Other Seers: -
Biographical Information: Berthe
Petit, was a humble Franciscan Tertiary, a victim soul and apostle of Devotion
to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Born January 23, 1870 in Enghien, Belgium and died 1943. She had been privilaged with visions of both
Our Lord and The Blessed Virgin Mary since the age of 4. These are the words that were spoken to her
by the Holy Infant Jesus as he traced a cross on her forehead, while she knelt
in front of the Tabernacle: "You
will always suffer, but I am with you."
At
the age of 10 she received her First Holy Communion. The effects of which had never left her. It may be said that her whole life was a
preparation for Holy Communion with Jesus and one of perpetual prayer and
thanksgiving. She was known to spend
long periods of time lost in prayer, meditation and thanksgiving after receiving
Holy Communion, oblivious to those around her.
Her
life-long vocation was revealed to her on this the day of her First Holy
Communion. She said to her teacher, a
nun, "I must suffer a great deal, I must be like Jesus." "Who
told you that?" asked the nun.
"The little Host which is my great Jesus," was the child's
immediate reply. And indeed, suffer she
did with a life history of painful illnesses, diseases and broken bones. Berthe's illnesses brought her to the brink
of death on several occasions causing her to receive the last rites seven
times. But by far the worst suffering
Berthe endured was the spiritual suffering, as she was continually beset by
diabolical persecution. Her soul was
tormented night and day by great fears, doubts and perplexities. And on one notable occasion she was
literally thrown down a flight of eighteen stone stairs by the devil and almost
died on the spot had it not been for miraculous intervention of Our Lord. The devil threatened her - hissing angrily,
"I shall fight you till the end, haunting the minds, hardening the hearts
and feeding the passions." But
through all her suffering, Berthe Petit maintained a countenance of
cheerfulness and sweetness with caring and great sympathy for other's
pain. This humble victim soul shunned
any public notariety in the least. And
few were her aquaintances or friends.
His Eminence Cardinal Mercier, one of the few who knew her personally,
had great reverance for her sanctity and knew of her personal holiness and
genuineness as reflected in his obedience to the divine warnings and request by
Our Lord for him to solemly consecrate his country to the Sorrowful and
Immaculate Heart of Mary and by his writings.
Almost
five years after the Germans had left Brussels, Berthe returned to her home
only to find it had been completely plundered.
Berthe was obliged to take up residence with the sisters of The Sacred
Heart at their convent in Overyssche and lived with them for some time. One of the nuns assigned to her room was
asked by her superiors to see if Berthe took food secretly in her room because
they found she ate nothing, save a little coffee in the morning and a small
glass of wine in the afternoon, which she promply rejected. For one whole year the sceptical nun
observed carefully everything Berthe did or said and was left with nothing but
admiration for this humble and virtuous soul.
Berthe, it was confirmed, lived on nothing but the Host. Jesus alone sustained her. As the sister testified, "The fact that
people came to know of her life without food, was a real mortification to
her." (Sr. Valesine, Trinitarian,
at Vevey, charged with Berthe at the convent during the Great War.)
Berthe
Petit was called to a duel mission. The
first was to offer her life of suffering for a good priest of God's choice
since she herself was not to become a sister.
In her younger days, she had desired with all her heart to become a
sister of charity of St. Vincent de Paul, but it was not to be, as her family
fell on hard times and she was forced to provide for them with her
earnings. As a young teenager Berthe
offered the sacifice of her dream to God that her sacrifice might be a source
of grace for a holy priest - which would one day bring back many souls to
God. God graciously accepted her
offering. And it was made know to her that she would one day meet the priest
she had sacrificed and suffered for.
The
second and most profound mission was revealed to Berthe during a pilgrimage to
the shrine of St. Anne, in Alsace, that her greatest mission was to
obtain: THE CONSECRATION OF THE
WORLD TO THE SORROWFUL AND IMMACULATE
HEART OF MARY. Berthe knew she would not to live to see the day of the
fullfillment of this great commission given her by Our Lord. At the end of her life, in excruciating pain
she was heard to say pitifully over and over, "Sitio" - "I
thirst". After having been
fortified by the rites of the Holy Catholic Church, Berthe Francoise Marie
Magdalene Ghislaine Petit entered peacefully into her eternal rest on Friday
March 26th, 1943.
References
1.
The Seven Dolors of Mary A Brief Biography of Berthe Petit -Apostle of
Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary
(http://www.7dolors.com/biography.htm)
The
Messages
Our
Lord, December 25, 1909:
"Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced by the very sorrows
which pierced Mine….Cause My Mother’s Heart, trnasfixed by sorrows that rent
Mine, to be loved”
February
7, 1910: the Seer saw Two Hearts were seen fused
together surmounted by the symbolical dove of the Holy Spirit, and on the
following say were seen to be surmounted by luminous rays of light The picture
is a facsimile of the one drawn by Berthe Petit at the express command of Our Lord." (From the book, "The
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary"). Our Lord said “My desire that
this picture, guided by My hand, be spread far and wide, simultaneously with
the invocation. Wherever it will be venerated, My Mercy and My Love will be made
manifest and the sight of Our Hearts, wounded by the same wound, will encourage
tepid and weak souls to come back to their duty."
Our
Lord, September 8, 1911:
“The Heart of My Mother has the right to be called Sorrowful and I wish this
title placed before that of Immaculate because She has won it Herself. The
Church has defined in the case of My Mother what I Myself had ordained – Her
Immaculate Conception. This right which My Mother has to a title of justice, is
now, according to My express wish, to be known and universally accepted. She
has earned it by Her identification with My sorrows, by Her sufferings: by Her
sacrifices and Her immolation on Calvary endured in perfect correspondence with
My grace for the salvation of mankind.
“In Her co-redemption lies the nobility of My Mother and for this reason
I ask that the Invocation which I have demanded be approved and spread through
the whole Church. It has already obtained many graces; it will obtain yet more
when the Church will be exalted and the world renewed through its Consecration
to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother.”
Our
Lady September 17, 1911:
Our Lady appeared to Berthe showing Our Lady’s forehead pierced and bleeding
with Her Hands and Heart transfixed. Our Lady said “You have the understanding
of the sorrows that My Heart endured of the sufferings of all My being for the
salvation of the world”
Our
Lady and Our Lord, March 24/25, 1911: “I am called The Immaculate Conception. With
you, I call myself the Mother of the Sorrowful Heart.; this title, that My Son
wants is the dearest to Me of all My titles and its through it that shall be
granted and spread everywhere graces of mercy of conversion and of salvation”
During this vision Our Lady miraculously healed Berthe of a serious condition
of an ulcer on her foot accompanied by periostitis. Our Lady told Berthe that a
torrent of grace was ready to spring from her wounded heart. Our Lord told
Berthe “It is co-redemption that My Mother was above all great; that is why I
ask that the invocation as I have inspired it, should be approved and diffused
throughout the whole Church…by consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate
Heart of My Mother, the Church shall be uplifted and the world renewed.”
Lady,
March 25, 1912: "I have called myself the 'Immaculate
Conception.'To you I call myself, 'Mother of the Sorrowful Heart' This title
willed by my Son, is dear to me above all others. According as it is spread everywhere, there will be granted graces
of mercy, spiritual renewal and salvation."
Our
Lord, July 12, 1912: Our
Lord told the mystic that the heir to the Catholic empire of Austria/Hungary
would be assasinated; a double murder. This came to pass when Archduke
Ferdinand was killed, which triggered World War I. Berthe spent the years of World War I in Switzerland . She
constantly predicted various events occuring during the war.
Our
Lord, 1914: “It is with an
unshakeable resolve that my Son wills souls to have recourse to my Sorrowful
Heart. With my heart overflowing with tenderness, I am awaiting this gesture on
the part of souls, that I may reiterate to the Heart of my Son whatever will be
confided to my own Heart, and thus obtain graces of salvation for all.”
Our
Lord, undated, 1918: Our Lord
told Berthe that without Our Lord’s intervention obtained by Cardinal Bourne’s
consecration of England to the sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary the
victory would have belonged to the other side “material force would have
prevailed over justice”
Our
Lord, January, 1918: “Let
My apostle Francis (Cardinal Francis Bourne) know that My favourable gaze rests
upon him and his flock. Let him renew with the faithful the solemn consecration
to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother – this time in thanksgiving,
for gratitude draws down still more favours. Let him confide to Me entirely his
country and the Church of which he is the shepherd, in the way I shall inspire
to you. Thus will My reign be established firmly in that nation; then more and
more souls will open their eyes to truth; peace and prosperity will reign there
and My Mother, glorified in a fitting manner, will extend to them Her Maternal
protection….Thus and in this way alone will the internal struggles die down.
And I shall scatter blessings upon that nation.”
Our
Lord, Undated 1919: “It
will soon become apparent how unstable is a peace set up without Me and without
the intervention of Him who speaks in My name, the Pope. The nation which is
thought to be conquered, but whose strength is only temporarily diminished,
remains a threat to your nation and France. Trouble and danger will spread to
all countries. It is because this peace is none of Mine that wars will blaze up
again everywhere: civil wars, racial wars, what should have been so great, so
true, so beautiful, so durable, is delayed…Humanity is rushing toward a
dreadful storm, which will divide the nations more and more. All human plans
will be annihilated, the pride of the Lords of the moment will be broken. It
will be clearly shown that nothing can subsist without Me and that I remain the
sole master of the destiny of nations”
Our
Lady, undated, 1922:
“Events have taken place, acts have been accomplished which will prove to be
the unassailable foundations of work which you serve. It will attain its end
with the full amplitude which is God’s will”
Our
Lord, Undated, 1941: “By
confident consecration to My Mother, the devotion to My Heart will be strengthened and, as it were, completed”
Our
Lord, April 25, 1942: “A
frightful torment is in preparation. It will be seen that the forces launched
in such fury will soon be let loose. It is now or never, the moment for all of
you to give yourselves to the Sorrful Heart of My Mother. By Her acceptance of
Calvary, My Mother has participated in all My sufferings. Devotion to Her Heart
united to Mine will bring peace, that true peace so often implored and yet so
little merited”
Our
Lord, undated: "It is
hearts that must be changed. This will be accomplished only by the Devotion
proclaimed, explained, preached and recommended everywhere. Recourse to My
Mother under the title I wish for her universally, is the last help I shall
give before the end of time."
Our
Lord, undated:"It is
as a Son that I have conceived this devotion for my Mother. It is as God that I impose it."
Our
Lord, undated:"The
safety of your country, internal peace and confidence in My Church will revive
through the spread of the Devotion and the Consecration which I wish in order
that The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother, united in all to My
Heart, may be loved and glorified.
Deliverance will thus be the work of our two Hearts, the triumph of our
love for the people upon whom this Consecration will bestow confidence according
to My promises."
Our
Lord, undated: "By
confident consecration to My Mother, the Devotion to My Heart will be
strengthened and, as it were, completed.
This Devotion, this Consecration will be, according to My Promise, a
renovation for My Church, a renewed strength for Christianity which is too
often wavering, a source of single graces for souls, who thereby will be more
deeply penetrated with love and confidence.”
Our
Lord, undated: "The
clear light to be granted, through recourse to My Mother, will bring about,
above all, the conversion of a multitude of straying and sinful souls: The pity of the Sorrowful and Immaculate
Heart of My Mother will implore Mercy for them from My Heart."
Our
Lord, undated: "The
title of Immaculate belongs to the whole being of My Mother and not specially
to Her Heart. The title flows from my gratuitous gift to the Virgin who was to
give me birth. My Mother has acquired
from her Heart the title of 'Sorrowful' by sharing generously in all the
sufferings of My Heart and My Body from the crib to the cross. There is not one of these Sorrows which did
not pierce the Heart of My Mother.
Living image of My crucified Body, her virginal flesh bore the invisible
marks of My wounds as her Heart felt the Sorrows of My own. Nothing could ever
tarnish the incorruptibility of her Immaculate Heart. The title of ‘Sorrowful’
belongs therefore to the Heart of My Mother, and more than any other, this
title is dear to Her because it springs from the union of her Heart with Mine
in the redemption of humanity. This title has been acquired by her through her
full participation in My Calvary, and it precedes the gratuitous title
‘Immaculate’ which My love bestowed upon her by a singular privilege."
Our
Lord, undated: "The
worst calamities which I had predicted are unleashed. The time is now ripe and
I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let
this prayer be uttered by every soul: ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary,
pray for us.’ Let this prayer dictated
by My Love as a supreme succor be approved and indulgenced, no longer partially
and for a small portion of My flock, but for the whole universe, so that it may
spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that will appease My
anger. This Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will
restore faith and hope to broken hearts and to ruined families: it will help to
repair the destruction: it will sweeten sorrow. It will be a new strength for
My Church, bringing souls, not only to confidence in My Heart, but also to abandonment
to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother."
Our
Lord, undated:"Teach
souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced with sorrow that transfixed My Own
Heart."
Our
Lord, undated:"My desire
flows from My love on Calvary. In giving John to My Mother as a son, I
entrusted the whole world to her Sorrowful Motherhood."
Our
Lord, undated:"My
Mother's Heart has the right to the title of Sorrowful. I desire that it be set
before her title of Immaculate because She herself has won it. The Church has
recognized what I Myself did for My Mother: her Immaculate Conception. Now it
is necessary and it is my wish, that this title, which is by right My Mother's,
should be understood and recognized. This title She earned by her
identification with all My sufferings, by her sorrow, her sacrifice, her
immolation on Calvary, and indeed for the salvation of man- kind."
Our
Lord, undated: “The
hurricane of calamity has not died down and grave dangers from within still
threaten all the nations”,
Our
Lord, At the beginning of the First World War: “The worst calamities which I have
predicted are unleashed. The time is now ripe and I wish mankind to turn to the
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let this prayer be uttered by
every soul: ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.’ Let this
prayer dictated by My Love as a supreme succour be approved and indulgenced, no
longer partially and for a small portion of My flock, but the whole universe,
so that it may spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that
will appease My anger.
“This
Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will restore faith
and hope to the broken hearts and to ruined families: it will help to repair
the destruction: it will sweeten sorrow. It will be a new strength for My
Church, bringing souls, not only to confidence in My Heart, but also to abandon
themselves to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother.”
Our
Lord, Two years into the Great War: “It
is through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother that I will triumph,
because having co-operated in the redemption of souls, this Heart has the right
to share a similar co-operation in the manifestations of My justice and of My
love. My Mother is noble in everything, but She is especially so in Her wounded
Heart, transfixed by the wound of Mine.
“Desiring
for Her Heart a radiant, dazzling, brilliant triumph, I have awaited this time
of universal distress which finds an echo in the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother,
a Heart universal as My own. To adopt this Devotion and to spread it, is to
accomplish My Will and to respond to the wishes of My Heart. Because, by prayer
and by the consecration made to this Heart, graces of light will be obtained. They
will gradually bring souls to the full knowledge of Our united Hearts, which
have been wounded by the same wound, the inexhaustible source of all good for
humanity, and the glory of which is now, and ever will be, the happiness of the
elect for Eternity.”
"This picture of Our Lady of Ollignies
is of a mysterious origin. It was discovered under peculiar circumstances in
1918 -- the year of the Armistice, in the Convent of the Bernardine nuns by
whom Berthe Petit had been educated. After the withdrawal of the German troops
from Belgium, consequent on the closure of the war, one of the sisters was
asked to put up the cellar in order. Among the various papers, she found a
piece of cardboard wrapped in an old newspaper, which she immediately tore off
as useless, to be burnt along with other rubbish; but to her astonishment she
found, underneath the cardboard, a beautiful picture of Our Lady. This was
reported to the Mother Superior; the whole Community felt that their safety
during the war was due to the special protection of Our Lady manifested by that
picture within the precincts of the Convent. But in spite of a thorough
investigation, they were never able to trace its origin. When it was shown to
Berthe [Petit] in 1919, after her return from Switzerland, she at once
recognized it as the picture of the two-fold symbol of the Sorrowful and
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The
image in the picture represents the Mother of God, holding in her left hand a
lily, symbol of her Immaculate purity -- the gratuitous gift of her Divine Son;
the finger of the right hand points out to her Sorrowful Heart surmounted by
flames and pierced with a sword. The far-away gaze of the penetrating eyes
seems as if the Blessed Virgin is beholding with sorrow the sins of mankind,
which have caused the suffering expressed on the gentle countenance of her
head, slightly inclined to the right. The gentle expression of the face is not
quite unlike that of the "Pieta," so often seen in our Churches. At
first, copies of this picture were distributed with discretion; but soon it
came to be widely known and eagerly sought after all over Belgium. It bore
"au verso," the Act of Consecration dictated by Our Lord Himself to
Berthe Petit, and used by His Eminence Francis Cardinal Bourne, Primate of
England, during and after the Great War, and the Imprimatur of the Bishop of
Tournai." (1)
Prayer
of Personal Act of Consecration to the Sorrowful Heart of Mary composed by the
seer:
Sorrowful
and Immaculate heart of Mary, dwelling pure and holy,cover my soul with your
maternal protection so that being ever faithful to the voice of jesus, it
responds to His love and obeys His Divine Will. I wish, O, my Mother,to keep unceasingly
before me your co-redemption in order to live intimately with your Heart that
is totally united to the Heart of your Divine Son. Fasten me to this Heart by
your own virtues and sorrows.Protect me always. Amen
References
1.
Messages taken from "The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Message of Berthe Petit, Franciscan Tertiary (1870-1943)" Translated from
the French by a nun of Kylemore Abbey, "The Art of Divine Love or Berthe
Petit." a biography written by Rev. I. Duffner, M.S.C. adapted from the
french by Rev. Louis M. Shouriah in 1955 and Peter Heintz A Guide to
Apparitions of Our Blessed Virgin Mary (Gabriel Press, Sacramento,
California 1995) p. 14-21)