Feast of BLESSED JEANNE OF TOULOUSE

While her feast is still listed in the 2004 Roman Martyrology on its traditional date of March 31st, it is no longer included on the Discalced Carmelite calendar. Blessed Jeanne of Toulouse is considered the first Third Order Carmelite.

Blessed Jeanne of Toulouse, glorious among the Virgins of Carmel, was born about the year 1210. Her father, Baudouin, had scarcely time to embrace her after baptism when he was cruelly slain by his own brother, Raymond VI of Toulouse, a heretic. Called by the enemies of the Church a traitor, he was in truth a martyr. He was the son of Raymond V and Constance, sister of Louis, King of France. Blessed Jeanne, therefore, belonged to the highest nobility; she was a Princess whose piety equalled her beauty and intelligence. Princes sought her hand, but she despised honors and craved only to belong to God.

She went often to the “Feretra” (a quarter so-named of her native City) and prayed there at the hermitage of the Carmelite Fathers situated on the Garonne, a majestic river. It was a famous Monastery, where many miracles were chronicled. The story is quite fascinating as told in a learned work of l’Abbé Baurens de Molinier, Postulator of the Cause of Blessed Jeanne. With incredible patience, he has restored her memory, bit by bit, until her gracious image, mutilated by time, stands before us in its ancient beauty, and her cultus has taken on new vigor. It is astonishing what he has found of records and documents, but the history is too long for this meagre sketch. Suffice it to say that St. Simon Stock, then an octogenarian, visited Toulouse, and Jeanne, who had been persistently refused the habit of Carmel, threw herself at his feet and implored it of him. Her refusal had been because she was a woman, and the Prior did not know, as did St. Simon Stock, that women had been admitted to the Order. The Saint hastened to clothe her in the habit, and permitted her to make her vows in his hands.

While her cousin reigned over the domain of her ancestors, she took poverty for her portion. She did not have material cloister, but she “kept intact the mystic cloister of the heart.” St. Simon Stock remained her Father and Director, and learning of the Scapular from his lips, she was the means of establishing the Confraternity in Toulouse, where over five thousand of both sexes became aggregated.

The last years of her life were spent in almost continual contemplation, living rather in heaven than on earth; many authors attest her holiness, and her long hours of prayer. She died March 31, 1286, and was buried in the Church of the Carmelite Fathers in the Chapel of St. Martial. Miracles at once gave proof of her sanctity, and she was publicly venerated in Toulouse and elsewhere.

Her sacred remains, hidden through fear of desecration in 1793, were found in 1805 by workmen who were demolishing the magnificent ruins of the Carmelite Church which had been secularized when the Fathers were killed or dispersed, during the Revolution. There, in the wall, lay the sacred body of Jeanne, surrounded by aromatic plants wonderfully preserved; on her breast was a parchment with documents and the prayers she was accustomed to say. The city was stirred with emotion. The Civil Authorities bore the body to the Capitol, but the Church intervened and claimed the Saint. She was placed in the Cathedral of Toulouse in the crypt of St. Vincent de Paul, and a slab commemorated the fact.

It was not until September 15, 1892, that steps for the canonization were taken. On that day Leo XIII said to l’Abbé Baurens de Moulinier, “I order you to occupy yourself with Canonizations. This work is my work of choice (par excellence). The intercession of the Saints at whose causes you labor will save France.” This command seemed to fall from heaven, and so inflamed his zeal that, with redoubled ardor and augmented courage, the Postulator determined that Blessed Jeanne should not remain unknown. As a result of his efforts, Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops, sixty-six Communities of Monks and Nuns, petitioned the Holy See; prodigies, favors, and miracles, made clear the Divine will; devotion spread with increasing rapidity, and the decree of Beatification was signed February 11, 1895.

Taken from the book “Carmel: Its History, Spirit and Saints”