Madeleine Sophie's travels since her death
As Clare Pratt (Superior General 2000-2008) reminds us in her Letter to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 21st November 2007 :" We are well aware that Sophie made many journeys during her lifetime, but since her death she has also traveled. Now she is about to move again.
We are familiar with her “itinerary”. Along with over 2,500 of her sisters she too left France at the time of the expulsions. In 1904 her body came to Brussels.
The reliquary containing Madeleine Sophie's incorrupt body.
|
In 1909, after her beatification, a reliquary or “châsse” was made to hold her incorrupt body and was placed in a small chapel at Jette-Saint-Pierre. But this was not a final resting place. When, in 1994 the community left the adjacent building, the châsse was transferred temporarily to the “Petit Chateau”, a smaller building on the property of Jette, where some of the community had moved. It remained there until 1998 when it was moved to the community chapel of Rue de l’Abondance, situated in an immigrant neighborhood in another part of Brussels. |
| Even in death the earthly body of Madeleine Sophie has been present to her sisters as they responded to a changing social reality: first, journeying with them as a “political refugee”, then, during the past nine years, present among immigrants, who, in large part are Muslim. This “most recent stop” was, however, from the beginning, seen to be temporary -- at most 10 years -- and so a question has been asked with increasing urgency: Are we going to continue to move the chasse from place to place as houses open and close, or can we offer it a more stable setting? What would be a permanent and suitable resting place for the body of our foundress? |
|
After much consultation and research, Françoise Belpaire, provincial of Belgium-Netherlands and Françoise Greffe, provincial of France, made a presentation to the Assembly of Provincials in Uganda (November 2006) proposing that the châsse be placed definitively in the church of Saint François-Xavier, Boulevard des Invalides, Paris. This church is across the street from where Madeleine Sophie lived and died, and is close to our community and provincial offices at Avenue de Lowendal.
|
Saint François-Xavier is a public place: a parish church which is open every day, making the chasse accessible not only to RSCJs from all over the world, but also to alumnae, those who work with us, and the many who frequent the church. It is a very alive parish with many young people, and it is responsible for the chaplaincy of the Lycée Victor- Duruy (located in our old Mother House, where Madeleine Sophie died). There are additional reasons (geographic, historical, cultural and pastoral) for the choice of this particular church. (...) |
2009 is a significant year since it marks 100 years since the end of the expulsions from France, the last Religious of the Sacred Heart having left Conflans in 1909.
May the sanctity of Madeleine Sophie and her presence among the People of God continue to inspire young and old for many years to come! "
|
Chronology from Madeleine Sophie’s death until the present (Word document) |