Our Servant of God rests finally, again, in the peace of the Lord. In a climate of great familiarity, operations were all completed to save Leonie making it possible to anchor the body within a glass sheet.
This then allowed Mother Maria Guadalupe, Sister Marie-Christine, Sister Cecilia, Sister Monique-Marie of the Community of the Beatitudes and a seamstress from Caen to make Leonie a religious habit of the Visitation. it was obviously not easy: many hours of patient work have finally yielded a satisfactory result.
The face of the Servant of God was then covered by a mask The emotion was palpable … everything happened in an atmosphere of reverence and prayer, shared by all members of the team of Prof. Luigi Capasso, who for the past few months,worked to ward off any possible future degradation of the remains of Leonie.
In the presence of Mgr. Jean-Claude Boulanger, Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, a few priests of the Community and a small group of loyal friends , the body of the Servant of God has been entered in a glass shrine, which was then sealed, until the body can be placed in the new tomb in the Chapel of the Visitation Monastery. This will allow the faithful greater access to the tomb and preserve the body of the Servant of God for the future.
In the crypt, in the introduction to prayer, we sang the Beatitudes “Blessed are the pure in heart,” and then read the Gospel according to St. Matthew (11.25 to 30) and sang Psalm 83. Finally, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, 94 years old, read the letter that the Servant of God sent to the Carmel of Lisieux September 20, 1915, a few days after staying in Carmel for the Canonization Process of her sister Saint Therese
The Postulator invites every community of the Visitation to not let this opportunity pass in silence to spread everywhere the sanctity of life and the virtues lived in heroic degree by Sister Francoise Therese Martin. It could be a witness as requested by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Constitution Dei Vultum quaerere
Source: translation of Postulator’s letter of Aug 12, 2016