We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!
Editor: This article was originally published in the La Salette Missionary, August, 1931, pgs. 127-128.
_01a.jpg)
Ernest Psichari (Sept. 27, 1883-Aug.22, 1914) was an author, religious figure and a Lieutenant in the French Army.In a private audience granted on November 18th, 1912, to His Lordship, Monsignor Maurin—at present Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons—and to his Vicar General, Monsignor J. Giray, actually Bishop of Cahors, speaking of the miracles wrought by the Blessed Virgin at La Salette, His Holiness Pope Pius X remarked that miraculous conversions are more important and more difficult than miracles of bodily cures.
These miraculous conversions—or spiritual cures—seem indeed to be especially those which it has pleased the Blessed Virgin to work when invoked under the title of Our Lady of La Salette. Does it not seem that by her intercession before her Divine Son for erring souls, the Blessed Virgin herself thus wishes to justify her beautiful title of Reconciler of Sinners? A title which naturally evokes the memory of her merciful Apparition on the Mountain of La Salette on September 19, 1846.
It is a conversion of this kind—and one of the most striking—which we recount in the following lines. He who was the happy subject of this conversion has narrated it in moving terms in the course of his work: Le Voyage du Centurion (The Centurion's Journey). As often as possible, we will quote his own words.
Ernest Psichari was the grandson of the too celebrated and impious Ernest Renan (1823-1892). Brought up in ignorance of God in surroundings “Voltairean and even worse,” already at the age of twenty he was wandering about “without convictions, in the poisoned gardens of vice.” As a young officer, on his leaving the military school of St. Cyr, disgusted with everything, he began to wander about the world, finding contentment nowhere.
Ernest Renan (1823-1892), an influential writer on the origins of Early Christianity and his political theories.But at this time, Ernest was alone in the darkness, and there was no one to sustain him in his weakness. Even had he wished to rise up, he had no one to help him. “Vain, to all appearances,” he himself concluded, “has been this Apparition of the Virgin in tears, at the beginning of my journey through the desert. Vain, this strange salutation from her who is surrounded and crowned with roses.”
After having read this card, Ernest left it on the sands and the wind carried it away. But she will return to him again—this Virgin—one evening after long hours of guilty indulgence. For, “as he was returning one night to his tent, he suddenly thought of his friend Pierre-Marie, and the image of that tearful Virgin appeared to him. This time he felt within him a great sorrow, a sorrow he had never known before.
The Reconciler of Sinners had done her work. Ernest was a Christian. He was not able to go and thank his Benefactress on the Holy Mountain; but, in the presence of Fr. Humbert Clerissac, O.P. (1864-1914), and of some intimate friends, happy witnesses of the resurrection of this beautiful soul, Ernest Psichari insisted on renouncing his errors before a statue of Our Lady of La Salette and making a profession of his ardent faith whereby “he was adoring what his grandfather had denied,” and by which he was going to expiate the past of Renan the renegade.
The following brief French-language video from 2012 commemorates a memorial to Ernest Psichari’s life and final sacrifice for his home country of France.
Ernest Psichari (Sept. 27, 1883-Aug.22, 1914) was an author, religious figure and a Lieutenant in the French Army.In a private audience granted on November 18th, 1912, to His Lordship, Monsignor Maurin—at present Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons—and to his Vicar General, Monsignor J. Giray, actually Bishop of Cahors, speaking of the miracles wrought by the Blessed Virgin at La Salette, His Holiness Pope Pius X remarked that miraculous conversions are more important and more difficult than miracles of bodily cures.These miraculous conversions—or spiritual cures—seem indeed to be especially those which it has pleased the Blessed Virgin to work when invoked under the title of Our Lady of La Salette. Does it not seem that by her intercession before her Divine Son for erring souls, the Blessed Virgin herself thus wishes to justify her beautiful title of Reconciler of Sinners? A title which naturally evokes the memory of her merciful Apparition on the Mountain of La Salette on September 19, 1846.
It is a conversion of this kind—and one of the most striking—which we recount in the following lines. He who was the happy subject of this conversion has narrated it in moving terms in the course of his work: Le Voyage du Centurion (The Centurion's Journey). As often as possible, we will quote his own words.
Ernest Psichari was the grandson of the too celebrated and impious Ernest Renan (1823-1892). Brought up in ignorance of God in surroundings “Voltairean and even worse,” already at the age of twenty he was wandering about “without convictions, in the poisoned gardens of vice.” As a young officer, on his leaving the military school of St. Cyr, disgusted with everything, he began to wander about the world, finding contentment nowhere.
Introduced to the Weeping Mother of La Salette
In order to try at the last moment to restore “a little tone to his life”, in 1909 he fled to the desert, to Morocco and to the Sahara. There, once a month only, “the mail arrived, bringing to the exile news of his native land.” And then one day “a card came to him which he read with mingled pleasure and disquietude. It was a picture of the Weeping Mother of La Salette, and, on the reverse, were written these simple words: 'We have prayed for you on the Holy Mountain. It seems to me that she weeps over you, this Virgin so beautiful, and that she longs for you. Will you not listen to her? Your friend and brother, Pierre-Marie'".He received a simple card
Ernest Renan (1823-1892), an influential writer on the origins of Early Christianity and his political theories.But at this time, Ernest was alone in the darkness, and there was no one to sustain him in his weakness. Even had he wished to rise up, he had no one to help him. “Vain, to all appearances,” he himself concluded, “has been this Apparition of the Virgin in tears, at the beginning of my journey through the desert. Vain, this strange salutation from her who is surrounded and crowned with roses.”After having read this card, Ernest left it on the sands and the wind carried it away. But she will return to him again—this Virgin—one evening after long hours of guilty indulgence. For, “as he was returning one night to his tent, he suddenly thought of his friend Pierre-Marie, and the image of that tearful Virgin appeared to him. This time he felt within him a great sorrow, a sorrow he had never known before.
His change of heart
This heart of his, always eaten with remorse, was learning a new suffering, a mysterious indescribable suffering, where in the same grief heaven and earth were mingled;” and adds Ernest himself: “he could not turn away his eyes from that Lady so far away, whom the sins of the world had brought to tears.” Three years later, Psichari returned to France. Filled with hope, smiling on life, he was singing within his soul the song of return: “Poor man, rise up! Behold, Jesus is not far away!"The Reconciler of Sinners had done her work. Ernest was a Christian. He was not able to go and thank his Benefactress on the Holy Mountain; but, in the presence of Fr. Humbert Clerissac, O.P. (1864-1914), and of some intimate friends, happy witnesses of the resurrection of this beautiful soul, Ernest Psichari insisted on renouncing his errors before a statue of Our Lady of La Salette and making a profession of his ardent faith whereby “he was adoring what his grandfather had denied,” and by which he was going to expiate the past of Renan the renegade.
An Unfortunate Casualty of War
With a view to this reparation, Ernest Psichari was planning to enter the Dominican Order when the War of 1914 broke out. He became a third-order Dominican. As an officer on active service he was obliged to leave for the front, and he fell mortally wounded in the battle at Charleroi, Belgium, and died on August 22, 1914.The following brief French-language video from 2012 commemorates a memorial to Ernest Psichari’s life and final sacrifice for his home country of France.