Day: February 15, 2018

Miracles of the Holy Face in the Home of Ven. Leo Dupont (1851-81)

From the “Life of Leo Dupont” (1882)

Below is a detailed account of many of the most astounding first-class miracles that occurred in the home of Ven. Leo Dupont in Tours, France during a span of 30 years, from 1851 to 1881. Many Catholics today have not heard of Ven. Leo Dupont and are completely unaware that these miracles tookplace, which were as astounding as those seen in Lourdes, France during the same time period. The miracles there all had the same commonality; they occurred to those who applied oil from a lamp burning in front of a Holy Face relic, saying Holy Face devotional prayers and asking for a cure. The Holy Face devotional prayers had been given to Ven. Leo Dupont just a few years earlier by a Carmelite nun named Sister Mary of St. Peter, who received them through a series of revelations directly from Our Lord, who wished devotion to His Holy Face be established worldwide. The miracles in Ven. Leo Dupont’s home became so numerous that Pope Pius IX declared him to be perhaps the greatest miracle worker in Church history, yet today many Catholics have still never heard of him. These same miracles later lead Pope Leo XIII to establish the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face in 1885, nine years after the death of Ven. Leo Dupont, which confirmed the authenticity of the revelations of Sister Mary of St. Peter.
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Saints Faustinus and Jovita
Martyrs
(† 122)

Faustinus and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and were zealous professors of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia in Lombardy, during the persecution of Adrian. Their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a glorious death for their faith.

Faustinus, a priest, and Jovita, a deacon, were preaching the Gospel fearlessly in the region when Julian, a pagan officer, apprehended them. They were commanded to adore the sun, but replied that they adored the living God who created the sun to give light to the world. The statue before which they were standing was brilliant and surrounded with golden rays. Saint Jovita, looking at it, cried out: Yes, we adore the God reigning in heaven, who created the sun. And you, vain statue, turn black, to the shame of those who adore you! At his word, it turned black. The Emperor commanded that it be cleaned, but the pagan priests had hardly begun to touch it when it fell into ashes.

The two brothers were sent to the amphitheater to be devoured by lions, but four of those came out and lay down at their feet. They were left without food in a dark jail cell, but Angels brought them strength and joy for new combats. The flames of a huge fire respected them, and a large number of spectators were converted at the sight. Finally sentenced to decapitation, they knelt down and received the death blow. The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons and possesses their relics, and a very ancient church in that city bears their names.

Reflection. The spirit of Christ is ever a spirit of martyrdom. It is always the spirit of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of Christ, the greater share we inherit of His Spirit, and of the fruits of His death. To souls mortified in their senses and disengaged from earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of eternal life, and ardent desires of possessing Him in His glory. This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, edited by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O. Cist., Ph.D. (Catholic Book Publishing Co.: New York, 1951-1955).