A mystic in the world” “

The life of Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964) symbolises the possible encounter and dialogue between atheism and Christianity in the service of the poor. French poet, social worker and mystic, with a process of beatification currently in course at the diocesan level, Madeleine Delbrêl, her life and her witness, were recently celebrated at a seminar devoted to her in Rome, promoted by the Faculty of Education at LUMSA (Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta) in Rome. The speakers included SUZANNE PERRIN and FRANCETTE RODARY , companions of Madeleine Delbrêl and continuers of her work among the poor in the suburbs of France. Her witness is more than ever relevant today in the light of what has happened in France in recent months. This is how Madeleine is recalled by her two friends. A “RATIONAL BUT VIOLENT” CONVERSION. Born into a secularised bourgeois family, Madeleine defined herself at the age of 15 as strictly atheist, to the point of writing a text in which she affirmed: “God is dead, long live death”, listing all her convictions on the matter. “But she wasn’t a depressed girl. She loved life very much. She loved dancing. She was almost engaged to Jean, who suddenly decided one day to become a Dominican monk”, recounted Suzanne Perrin. This decision turned her life upside down. She began to pray and to frequent a scout group where she began to think and to question herself about life. This is when her conversion took place, “rational but violent”. She would later describe it as “a moment of intense, blinding light, and of great happiness”. In order not to leave her mother alone, she gave up the idea of entering the Carmel and decided that the world would become “her monastery”. WITH THE MARXISTS OF IVRY. With two other girls, in 1933, she left for Ivry, a working-class Marxist suburb of Paris, where she discovered, for the first time, the direst poverty of families, and where she came into contact with a culture that excluded God from life and also caused social clashes between Communist militants and the few Christians of the quarter. It was an urban wasteland plastered with posters of Soviet propaganda, where people greeted each other with a raised fist and where the children of the quarter threw stones at any priests that happened to cross their path. Once a red flag was even hoisted over the bell tower of the church. There Madeleine understood that she and her companions “had to become witnesses of God in ordinary life”, explained Francette Rodary. She became a social worker and was hired by the town’s Social Services department. “She was assigned the role of social assistance in the five years of the Second World War – recalled Francette -. Her faith inspired her to be active and creative, inventing structures such as homes for single mothers and children, a service distributing meals for the elderly, dressmaking workshops, and so on. She campaigned for changes to the laws that were causing situations of injustice and poverty”. The work in common with the Marxists of Ivry gave rise to “very strong bonds, friendships respectful of other people’s convictions” and still to this day one of the teams set up by Madeleine Delbrêl, with its base just a few steps from the town hall, “continues to work for the homeless and immigrants”. According to Madeleine, who left behind her numerous writings that document her thought and her work, “the meeting with atheist Communists ought to sensitise Christians to the problems of social justice and vice versa prompt questions in them about the meaning of life, death and the life to come”. But to obtain all this, she explained, “you need to be genuine Christians, who act with evident disinterest and are ready to reply to questions in a language accessible to non-believers”. AT THE SIDE OF “ORDINARY” PEOPLE. Madeleine Delbrêl’s writings (which also include poetry), published in thousands of copies, have accompanied the spiritual quest of whole generations. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini called her “one of the great mystics of the 20th century”. Here is one of her most famous writings: “There are people whom God takes and puts on one side. But there are others whom he leaves in the midst of the crowd, and does not ‘withdraw from the world’. They are people who perform ordinary jobs, who have an ordinary family, or who live an ordinary life as celibates. They are people who have ordinary illnesses, ordinary bereavements. People who have an ordinary home, and wear ordinary clothes. They are people of ordinary life. People you encounter in any street. Such people love their door that opens onto the street, just as their brothers invisible to the world love the door that has closed forever behind them. We others, people of the street, believe with all our strength that this world where God has placed us is for us the place of our holiness. We believe that we lack nothing essential. Because if we were to lack anything essential, God would already have given it to us”. There are companions of Delbrêl in Paris and Amiens, while over 500 supporters, in France and elsewhere, have joined a committee of “Friends of Madeleine Delbrêl”. Info: www.madeleine-delbrel.net