Madeleine Delbrêl (24 October 1904 – 13 October 1964) was a

French Catholic The Catholic Church in France, Gallican Church, or French Catholic Church, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. Established in the 2nd century in unbroken communion with the bishop of Rome, it was sometim ...

author, poet, and mystic. She came to the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

faith after a youth spent as an atheist. Delbrêl died unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage in 1964 and now has an open cause for

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

declared her

Venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

in 2018.

Biography

Madeleine Delbrêl was born in

Mussidan Mussidan (; ) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Mussidan station has rail connections to Bordeaux, Périgueux, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Limoges. Population Roundup of 16 January 1944 On 16 ...

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...

, France, on 24 October 1905. Her father and her paternal grandfather were railroad workers. Her father also had an artistic disposition and Delbrêl inherited his interest in and talent for writing. She gained notice for her poetry and was a gifted pianist. She lived in several different places in the course of her childhood and was never able to feel at home or make first friends. Her parents were not religious, so Delbrêl was an atheist by age of fifteen, experiencing life as absurd. At seventeen Delbrêl wrote a tract titled "God is dead--long live!" which expressed her view that death is the only certainty in life. Consequently, she lived life without any regard to middle-class values, writing and illustrating poetry, studying philosophy and art at the Sorbonne in Paris, designing her own fashions, and being one of the first women of her set to cut her hair short. When her fiancé suddenly decided to join the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

and her father went blind, her life fell apart. At the same time she began to notice that life did not seem absurd to her Christian friends, who still enjoyed life as much as she did. Suddenly, God's existence did not seem a complete impossibility anymore. Delbrêl decided to kneel and pray, and also remembered

Teresa of Ávila Teresa of Ávila (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada; 28March 15154or 15October 1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer. Active during the Counter-Re ...

's recommendation to think silently of God for five minutes each day. Delbrêl called the year 1924 the year of her conversion. For in praying she found God or, as she felt, He found her. To her God was someone to love, just like any other person. At first she considered joining the

Carmelite Order The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

, but then felt called to be in touch with people and help them lead happier lives. Delbrêl joined the

Girl Scouts Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of The Girl Guides ...

, then led a group of women in

Ivry-sur-Seine Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the ...

, a small working-class town, with the goal of simply caring, consoling, aiding, and establishing good contact with the people. She then took a degree in social studies and was employed by the city government of Ivry, where she worked throughout and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Her notable works include ''The Marxist City as Mission Territory'' (1957), ''The Contemporary Forms of Atheism'' (1962), and the posthumous publications ''We, the Ordinary People of the Streets'' (1966) and ''The Joy of Believing'' (1968). Delbrêl died unexpectedly from a

brain hemorrhage The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

on 13 October 1964.

Legacy

There is a movement advocating for her

beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...

. The

Diocese of Créteil In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

opened her cause in 1993. On 26 January 2018,

signed a decree that Delbrêl had lived a life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is the translation of a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs. The phrase is used by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman a ...

, giving her a status in the eyes of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

that accords her the title of

. Delbrêl has been cited by Cardinal

Roger Etchegaray Roger Marie Élie Etchegaray (; 25 September 1922 – 4 September 2019) was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church. Etchegaray served as the Archbishop of Marseille from 1970 to 1985 before entering the Roman Curia, where he served as Preside ...

as an example for young people to follow in "the arduous battle of holiness."

References

External links

Madeleine Delbrêl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delbrel, Madeleine 1904 births 1964 deaths 20th-century French women writers 20th-century Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism French Roman Catholic writers Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis