Madeleine Delbrêl

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Madeleine Delbrêl (born October 24, 1904 in Mussidan , † October 13, 1964 in Ivry-sur-Seine ) was a French writer and Catholic mystic .

Life

Childhood and youth

Madeleine Delbrêl was born on October 24, 1904 in the town of Mussidan in the south of France . Her father was a railroad clerk who was gifted as an artist and writer and would have preferred to become a journalist. His eccentric character put a strain on the Delbrêl family life. In addition, his anti-clerical- liberal attitude towards life and the atheistic ways of thinking of his friends influenced Madeleine's childhood and youth. Her mother, the daughter of a factory owner, came from the middle class and embodied their values. By the time she was 9 years old, Madeleine changed her place of residence nine times due to her father's job. It was a difficult time for the girl as she didn't feel at home anywhere and couldn't build solid friendships. Since regular school attendance was impossible, she received private tuition and developed her talent in the fields of writing, music and art.

When Madeleine was ten years old, the First World War broke out. In the face of the terrible events and influenced by her father's atheist friends, she confessed to atheism at the age of 16. At that time she was already studying art and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris .

Contact with Christianity

In Paris she met Jean Maydieu, and the two fell in love. The engagement was announced on her 19th birthday. Madeleine Delbrêl came into contact with and dealt with Christianity through Maydieu . But Jean Maydieu, who had felt his calling earlier , left her and entered the Dominican novitiate . In addition, Delbrêl's father lost his eyesight, from which the whole family suffered. Madeleine Delbrêl got into a crisis and became seriously ill.

In processing this pain, Delbrêl searches for the deepest source of the love she had experienced in the relationship. In addition, she was impressed by the internal security and trust that Jean and his comrades lived from. She concluded that, logically, the existence of God was just as likely as his non-existence. It was in this situation that she decided to pray and was converted in these encounters with God. After her conversion, she considered entering Carmel . Since she was needed at home with her blind father, she finally gave up the idea.

Through contact with the parish, she got to know Abbé Jacques Lorenzo, who supported her on her way and suggested that she get involved in the parish. So she first became a group leader with the boy scouts . Delbrêl realized more and more that their life with God should be with people and without dividing walls. So in October 1931 she began training as a social worker at the Ecole Montparnasse , as she saw this profession as an opportunity to live her faith in the middle of the world.

Ivry

In the scout group, several members expressed the wish to found a Caritas group and live there as lay people a life according to the evangelical counsels . On October 15, 1933, Madeleine Delbrêl came to Ivry with two companions to begin this and to take over the social station there.

Due to the good location near Paris and the excellent infrastructure due to the railway connection and the location on the Seine, industrialization in the city experienced a great boom. Numerous factories were built and many workers came to Ivry . Because of the living conditions of the workers, the Communist Party had great political success as it promised to address the problems. Ivry was the first French city to be ruled by communists. Christian circles reacted with shock and initially distanced themselves. Despite the tensions, there were overtures and the Church created social institutions.

The more Madeleine and her companions came into contact with the living conditions of the workers, the less they could understand the indifference of believers, especially Christian employers, to injustice. The only authority dealing with the plight of the workers was the communist party; so they also worked with this one. They had a long friendship with the communist adjunct of the city's mayor, Venise Gosnat.

In 1936, the communists and Christians united against the fascists in the action “The Outstretched Hand” . In addition to social actions, this also enabled the church to meet the unbelievers in the city. Overall, communism was a great temptation for Madeleine at this time. Because of the social actions, she considered joining it. However, when, through studying the gospel and the writings of Lenin, she discovered that Marxism was deeply atheistic, she distanced herself from communism.

Madeleine and her companions saw their most important task in fulfilling the double commandment of love. They lived in a community that renounced all religious rules , vows and clauses . They wanted to lead a contemplative life in the middle of the city. Together with the communists they stand up for social justice, but also want to bring the message of the gospel into this atheistic environment by living according to it.

Second World War

Even before the war began, Madeleine experienced the danger posed by National Socialism on a trip to Germany, anticipated the war and was ready to fight against the regime as a welfare worker in Ivry. Now during the war she was entrusted with the management of social services for the entire region, which she later continued under the communists. These years were marked by evacuation campaigns, help for those threatened with arrest, family reunions, the creation of facilities, training courses for the necessary welfare workers and repairing the damage caused by the bombings.

Mission de France and labor priest

In addition to the material and social problems, this time was also marked by a de-Christianization of the population and a further spreading atheism. The consequences were the reform movement of the Catholic Church in France, which Madeleine welcomed. At the suggestion of Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard , a seminary was founded, which trained priests to work and also to live in de-Christianized areas, the so-called worker priests . This new movement, which was called Mission de France and was founded on July 1, 1943, was very popular, especially after the end of the war, and expanded rapidly. Finally, it was no longer limited to priests; numerous religious and lay people also join it. The question for Madeleine's group was whether they should formally join the Mission de France. But they feared the consequences of institutionalization and decided to stay connected to the Mission de France without formally joining.

After there were increased tensions in the community due to her political commitment, Madeleine resigned her position in the town hall in 1946 and withdrew from the public service. From now on she ran the household for the community and took care of the numerous guests. She supported single mothers with children, the unemployed, striking workers, Spanish resistance fighters and campaigned for the release of political prisoners in Spain and the USA .

In 1952, after the prohibition of cooperation between worker priests and communists, which had already been passed, the crisis in the workers' mission intensified. The worker priests lost the support of the Roman Catholic Church, which was skeptical from the start, and on the other hand were accused by the political left of being “hostile to communism”. Madeleine traveled to Rome to pray for the Mission de France and the worker priests. But in 1953 the church broke off the experiment of the worker priests. Madeleine made a second trip to Rome and also received an audience with Pope Pius XII. , where she also got to know the Secretary of State, who in 1958 played a major role in the church's recognition of Madeleine's way of life and her community.

In 1954 the "Mission de France" was permitted again with restrictions, but banned again in 1959. In addition, Madeleine was hit by the death of her parents and other loved ones and was ill almost constantly.

In 1961 Madeleine was asked by Archbishop Victor Sartre of Antananarivo to help prepare for the John XXIII. to participate in the announced Second Vatican Council . Finally she sent the archbishop notes on the subject of “The relationship between faith and history, between temporality and eternity”. Madeleine Delbrêl died of a stroke on October 13, 1964.

Beatification process

Pope John Paul II opened the process of beatification in 1993 , the diocesan preparations for which were completed in 1990 by Bishop François Frétellière . On January 26, 2018, Pope Francis awarded her the heroic degree of virtue and thus elevated Madeleine Delbrêl to the venerable servant of God . A prerequisite for beatification is the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession.

literature

Works (in German translation)

  • Mission of the Christian in the world without God . Complete and revised new edition, Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg 2000.
  • We neighbors of the communists. Diagnoses. Transmission and foreword by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg 1975.
  • Prayer in a worldly life. Selection, foreword and translation by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg, 5th edition, 1993.
  • Free to God. About lay communities in the world. Foreword and translation by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg, 2nd edition 1991.
  • Life against the current. Food for thought from a consistent Christian. Transfer from Katja Boehme, Herder, Freiburg 1992

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Madeleine Delbrêl: Order of the Christian in a world without God. Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg 2009. p. 18.
  2. ↑ Madeleine Delbrêl: Order of the Christian in a world without God. Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg 2009. P. 62 ff.
  3. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , January 27, 2018, accessed January 27, 2018 (Italian).

Web links

Wikiquote: Madeleine Delbrêl  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Delbrêl, Madeleine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Mussidan
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1964
Place of death Ivry-sur-Seine