Theodelinda Dubouché {1809 - 1863}

Feast day December 1

Theodelinda was born at Montauban, May 6, 1809, at a very uneasy time in history. It was after the horrible French Revolution! Many had lost their Catholic Faith, or did not have much interest in it. Her parents were very weak Catholics, who loved worldly things. But in spite of this, Theodelinda was still baptized a Catholic and received some training in the Catholic Faith.

When she was a little girl, her mother would allow an altar to be set up in their garden, for one of the places of Benediction on the Feast of Corpus Christi. On these occasions, Mme. Dubouché would dress her little girl like an angel and have her act as flower-girl in the procession.

When Theodelinda was ten years old, she was sent to a convent school, but she was not happy there, so her mother took her home. Even during that short stay at the convent school, the nuns gave the girl some good training. Shortly after, when getting ready for her First Communion, the little girl spent three days on her own retreat, hiding in the attic of their house!

During her attic retreat, Theodelinda had resolved to be a practical Catholic, even when there would be problems in trying to keep this resolution. She was a practical Catholic, but not a very fervent one. The young girl had some of the fears of Jansenism and up to the age of twenty-five, she was afraid to receive Holy Communion more than four times a year.

Theodelinda developed a talent for painting and reading at an early age. This gave her a chance to get away from the worldly surroundings of her home. She desired to lead a quiet life but her mother often warned her about having too much piety. However, God did not allow the girl to take on the cold religious ideas of her mother. When Theodelinda was sixteen, her parents sent her to Orleans to take lessons in painting. During this time also, the young girl studied for Confirmation, and had herself Confirmed.

Shortly after that, her parents moved to Paris so that their daughter could become a more successful painter. After Theodelinda studied art in Paris for a while, she took up the great work of painting pictures of the martyrdom of St. Philomena. She also helped her fellow students become better Catholics and formed them into a group, calling it the "Guild of St. Luke." On the Feast of St. Luke, they would go to Mass and Communion and after spending the day at the girl's home, would go in the evening to visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

Later, Theodelinda wrote, "At this time I lived in the midst of a care free, pleasure seeking world, and daily heard the most shameful stories. The evil passions which we are supposed to fight against were shown to me as something necessary in life. However, not only my will, but even my imagination remained pure and untouched by any impure desire. By the grace of God, I knew what company and what reading I must avoid."

About this time she had a misunderstanding with her adopted brother. Her heart was wounded and she consoled herself by praying, and reading the Bible. When reading the Holy Scriptures, it was as though God spoke to her. This filled her soul with a greater desire to love God, and do His Holy Will.

Mme. Dubouché was failing in health, so Theodelinda took care of her sick mother. The girl used her spare time to pray and visit the sick. She didn't like visiting the sick poor who lived in unclean homes but she prayed, and God helped her, to overcome her difficulties.

When Mme. Dubouché realized that her daughter had become extremely pious, she flew into a rage and scolded Theodelinda so severely that the poor girl fell into a faint. After she had calmed her sick mother, the young girl went for consolation to the Blessed Sacrament and during this hour, God performed a miracle. When Theodelinda returned home, Mme. Debouché had some good news to tell her daughter. "God has given me a wonderful grace. I have been away from the church and the Sacraments for fifty years, and I now want to see a priest so that I may come back into God's favour."

Theodelinda was extremely happy! Mme. Dubouché's conversion was sincere. During the next two years that she lived, she advanced in holiness, bearing her sufferings in reparation for her sins. When Mme. Dubouché died, Theodelinda was broken hearted. She loved her mother, but she was consoled by the fact that her mother had returned to the Sacraments before she died.

At her mother's death, the girl's father made her promise that she would never leave him. Theodelinda devoted herself to her father with such love and prayer, that two years later, she had the happiness to see him also return to the Sacraments and the practise of the Catholic religion.

During this same time, Theodelinda was giving the poor money, food and clothing. Their needs became so great that she had to go back to her painting, in order to earn money for them. She loved art, but now she had to sacrifice her own tastes in order to paint portraits of people, because portraits brought in more money for her beloved poor. She loved the poor so much, that she adopted two orphans, and one of them later became a nun!

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament gave Theodelinda the grace and strength to carry on with her excellent works of charity. One Holy Thursday as she was visiting the Blessed Sacrament, she felt that the crowd of people had come more to look at the decorations, than to pray. She hurried to the store, bought a large bunch of candles, and brought them to the chapel of the Sisters of Charity. She then lit all of them with the intention, "that all these candles would shine for Jesus only." As she knelt down to pray…the candles and altar suddenly disappeared, and Theodelinda had a beautiful vision of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. God had rewarded His faithful servant for the great act of charity she had made, in reparation for the people who didn't want to pray.

Theodelinda was always getting terrible headaches. One day she was at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and suffering from a frightful headache. She offered up the pain of this headache to Jesus, in reparation for the sins of the carnival. That night she saw in a dream, the head of Jesus crowned with thorns. Jesus spoke to her, "Thou art my beloved; I have chosen thee; these two drops of blood from my mouth, I give thee for sinners."

From then on, Theodelinda could not forget about the vision of the thorn-crowned head of Jesus. This boosted her desires to belong to Jesus entirely, as a religious nun. She wanted to become a Carmelite Nun, but her father still needed her. The Prioress of the Carmelite Convent encouraged Theodelinda to move with her father to a house beside their convent. The young lady loved the Carmelites with their religious atmosphere. She used her home to keep many young women, who were anxious to enter the religious life.

When the Revolution of 1848 broke out, Theodelinda desired to make reparation for the outrages committed against the Catholic Church. She was inspired by God to paint a picture of the thorn-crowned head of Jesus, as it appeared in her dream. She got the Carmelites to expose the picture for forty days in their chapel, where a Mass of Reparation was said before it every day.

Theodelinda then invited many people to come and spend as much time as possible before the Blessed Sacrament, during the days of this Revolution, in order to make reparation to Jesus, for all the sins committed by the dreadful revolutionaries. Many people came and many begged Theodelinda to make this association permanent. Later, when she told Archbishop Affre about her desires, he encouraged, "I promise to give you every support necessary, if you are able to get enough people to promise to devote themselves to the work."

Theodelina was delighted and she worked so hard at getting people to support the work that by June of 1848, she had collected 2000 names of people who would help.

Suddenly good Archbishop Affre was dead! He had died a martyr for the Faith! But Theodelinda was not discouraged. She begged the martyred Archbishop to make the new society a success, because she believed that he would answer her prayer.

The event came about through the days of trial for the Church in France. That year in 1848, the Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated in the midst of trouble. All the priests were afraid to expose the Blessed Sacrament in their churches because of all the disturbance. The only place where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed was the little Carmelite chapel that Theodelinda lived near. She and the Carmelites, and some other devout people prayed much there during these dreadful days.

Eight days after the Feast of Corpus Christi, the devout women begged to have the adoration continued for one day longer. During this last night, she seemed to hear Jesus speaking these words in her heart, "I desire these adorations and expiations to appease the justice of My Father."

Theodelinda talked over the matter with the Prioress of the Carmelites. The nuns decided to set up a Third Order of Carmelites, with perpetual exposition and adoration. Theodelinda was placed in charge of six of her best friends, who came to join the Third Order. She then made the vows of religion and took the name Marie Thérèse.

Marie Thérèse still wanted to become a cloistered nun at the nearby Carmelite Convent. Mr. Dubouché even released his daughter from her promise to remain with him. Cardinal de Bonal asked Marie Thérèse to found a Third Order Community at Lyons, France, and it was fully operating by January, 1851. She then returned to the house in Paris to paint pictures, so that she could earn some money for the poor community.

Before long, the new community was declared an independent congregation. They received so many vocations, that they had to move to a larger home. Here, Mother Marie Thérèse used her talents to paint and decorate the chapel. But the paint was hardly dry when on the night of November, 1855, a curtain near the Altar caught fire, and soon all was aflame. When Mother Marie Thérèse ran to the chapel to save the Blessed Sacrament, she was very badly burned and never fully recovered from her injuries.

Because of her poor health, Mother Marie Thérèse resigned as Mother Superior. However, she still received many more crosses and sufferings. Her friends gradually left, one by one, and before long her work was discredited. But in July, 1863, another community opened at Châlons and she moved there. Mother Marie Thérèse died on August 30, 1863. Let us all hope and pray that one day we will be able to say St. Theodelinda, pray for us.

The End

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