July 29, 2014 - 120 years since Blessed Louis Martin entered into life. A celebration at Alencon.

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Celebrate at Alençon the 100 years since Blessed Louis Martin entered into life.

The programme:

- 12 noon:  Mass at the Basilica of Notre-Dame, followed by a picnic lunch at the Providence Center

- 3:30 p.m.: A presentation on the great “Trial of Louis Martin” by Father Thierry Hénault-Morel, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Louis Martin’s death.

- Pilgrimage to the Butte Chaumont, where Louis loved to go on foot.  (By car from Alençon to the foot of the Butte Chaumont, then on foot.

- 5:00 – Solemn Vespers in the church of Roche-Mabile

[The above article is translated with thanks to the Web site of the Shrine at Alencon.  Read it here in French.]

Interestingly, Father Thierry Hénault-Morel is a lateral descendant of Louis Martin.  He is the great-grandson of Adolphe Leriche, Louis's nephew.  Adolphe's mother, Louis's sister Fannie, died when the child was very young, and Adolphe lived with Louis and Louis's parents in the house on the Rue Pont-Neuf.  In 1870 he purchased the watch-shop from Louis and was in business there until his death in 1894.  His daughter, Berthe Leriche, married Victor Hénault-Morel; she was the grandmother of Father Thierry Hénault-Morel , who, until recently, was the rector of the Basilica of Notre Dame in Alençon.  Could Louis ever have imagined that his parish church would be raised to the rank of a basilica after he and Zélie were declared blessed, or that a descendant of his family would one day be rector there?  Or that, 120 years after his death, a member of his family would speak about his great trial?