Elisabeth Leseur - Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur

The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur

The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest

Elisabeth Leseur

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur is a combined edition of My Spirit Rejoices (Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 1996) and Light in the Darkness (Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 1998).

Copyright 2002 Sophia Institute Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Theodore Schluenderfritz

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leseur, Elisabeth, 1866-1914.
[Journal et penses de chaque jour. English]
The secret diary of Elisabeth Leseur : the woman whose goodness changed her husband from atheist to priest.
p. cm.First work originally published: My spirit rejoices. c1996. 2nd work originally published: Light in the darkness. c1998.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-928832-48-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Leseur, Elisabeth, 1866-1914 Diaries. 2. Catholics France Diaries. 3. Wives France Diaries. 4. Catholic Church Apologetic works. I. Leseur, Elisabeth, 1866-1914. Vie spirituelle. English. II. Title.BX4705.L6117 A3 2002
282.092 dc212001008051

Chronology

Elisabeth Leseur

Felix Leseur

At home in Paris, 1910

The lives of Elisabeth and Felix Leseur

1861
March 22: The birth of Felix Leseur.

1866
October 16: The birth of Pauline Elisabeth Arrighi.

1879
May 15:
Elisabeth receives her first Holy Communion, followed the next day by Confirmation.

1887
Elisabeth meets Felix at the home of mutual friends.

1889
May 23: Elisabeth and Felix are officially engaged.
July 31: Elisabeth and Felix are married.
September: Elisabeth falls ill with an intestinal abscess, which never fully heals.

1893
Elisabeth and Felix travel to Italy.

1896
April-May: Elisabeth and Felix travel to Tunisia and Algeria. Elisabeth experiences a crisis of faith and abandons religion.

1897
Elisabeth and Felix tour the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1898
Elisabeth returns to the practice of the Faith.

1899
Summer: Elisabeth and Felix visit Russia, Turkey, and Greece.

1899
Spring-Summer: Elisabeth and Felix travel to Spain, Morocco, and Germany.

1901
Summer: Elisabeth and Felix visit Holland; Elisabeths liver problems begin.

1902
Elisabeth and Felix construct a summer house at Jougne.

1903
March: Elisabeth meets Fr. R. P. Hbert, O.P., her future spiritual director.

1903
April: Elisabeth and Felix travel to Rome for Holy Week; she has an audience with Pope Leo XIII and formally consecrates her life to God in St. Peters.

1905
April 13: Elisabeths sister Juliette dies of tuberculosis.

1907
Autumn: Elisabeth suffers renewed liver troubles; her doctors require her to adopt a regimen of rest and quiet.

1911
April 10: Surgeons remove a cancerous tumor from Elisabeths breast.

1912
June: Accompanied by Felix, Elisabeth makes a pilgrimage to Lourdes.

1913
February-March: Symptoms of Elisabeths cancer recur. July: Elisabeths final decline begins.

1914
May 3: Elisabeth Leseur dies in the arms of Felix.

1915
Felix reconciles to the Catholic Church.

1917
Spring: Felix publishes Elisabeths Journal et penses de chaque jour.

1919
Felix enters the novitiate of the Dominican order.

1923
March 23: Felix takes final monastic vows.

1923
July 8: Felix is ordained to the priesthood.

1924-1942
Felix travels throughout Europe giving talks about Elisabeths doctrine and her apostolate and publishes more of her writings. At the urging of Felix and others, the Church initiates the process for Elisabeths canonization. World War II and Felixs declining health soon interrupt these efforts.

1950
February 27: Felix Leseur dies.

1990
The Church reopens the cause for Elisabeths canonization.

The cause for the canonization of Elisabeth Leseur is being handled in Rome by:

Fr. Innocenzo Venchi, O.P.
Postulator Generalis
Curia Generalizia dei Padri Domenicani Convento Santa Sabina (Aventino)
Piazza Pietro dIlliria, 1
00153 Roma (Italia)
Telephone: (39) 6 57 941
Fax: (39) 6 57 50 675
e-mail:

In Memoriam

by Felix Leseur

My God, have pity on us, on me!
(Elisabeths prayer during her suffering)

By the time this volume appears, I shall have left the world, and entered the novitiate of the Order of Friars Preachers. The evolution of my soul and of my whole existence since the age of four and a half years will then have reached its logical termination.

It is always wonderful and impressive to contemplate the action of Gods grace, and to see how sweet and strong and at the same time how simple and human are the means He employs to guide a man to the path designed for him from the beginning. God alone acts, utilizing and rewarding the prayers sent up, the sacrifices and sufferings accepted and sometimes voluntarily sought and offered up for the conversion of a soul. He alone takes possession of the soul and claims it for His service.

My beloved wife, Elisabeth, prayed incessantly for my return to the Faith and to the practice of religion; day by day for this intention did she accept and offer up all her privations, sacrifices, trials, sufferings, and at the end, even her death.

But she did this secretly, for she never argued with me and never spoke to me of the supernatural side of her life, save by her example. She carried out herself the advice that she gave in her Journal: Let us not think that by our personal action we can hasten the coming of Gods Kingdom in souls. As soon as the divine hour has come, our efforts will be useless, or rather they will only be an active prayer, an appeal to Him who transforms and saves. Nevertheless, let us make this appeal to Him with the humble conviction that He alone will do what must be done, and will bring life to the souls for which we act and pray.

I have, since her death, learned to appreciate the eloquence and persuasive power of her silence. God heard the constant prayer that it concealed and, when the sacrifice was fully accomplished, answered it abundantly. In His infinite goodness, He allowed the silence to be broken after Elisabeths death, so that she spoke to and instructed me in my innermost thoughts, as she would never have done in life, and very often I might have exclaimed, Being dead, she speaketh. But above all, her intercession, when it became more direct and more powerful, called forth our divine Lords grace and mercy, so that He let my poor soul hear His voice.

God has completed the conversion which was begun in me by the shining influence of my holy companion, Elisabeth, and which was determined by reading her writings, particularly her Journal and Thoughts, which I found after her death and which are presented in this volume, along with a number of her other writings.

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