The article is posted in honour of St Martin of Tours, divinely appointed patron of the “work of reparation”, on his feast day.

The WM Review is publishing below the “prayers of reparation” to the Holy Face, revealed to Sister Marie of St Peter, a Carmelite nun of the convent of Tours, in a series of private revelations between 1843 and 1848.

In a new series of articles, we will be examining these remarkable revelations in depth. Here we wish to provide the texts of these prayers, and then relate the origins of the devotion and summarise the approvals given by ecclesiastical authority.

THE PRAYERS OF REPARATION

The texts of the prayers below (with the exception of the Chaplet) are taken from The Golden Arrow: The Autobiography and Revelations of Sister Mary of St. Peter on Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, which was published with Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur in 1954.

In the revelation given to Sister Marie on the Feast of Candlemas, 2 February 1844, Our Lord directed that the following saints should be considered patrons of the “work of reparation”: St Michael the Archangel, St Martin of Tours and St Louis, King of France.

The Daily Prayers

Members of the Holy Face Confraternity – and those who wish to join in its spirit – should pray (in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy) one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be every day, along with the Golden Arrow prayer. On Sundays and feast days all the prayers of reparation ought to be said.

The Golden Arrow 

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven, on earth, and under the earth by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

Offering of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father in order to appease his justice and draw down mercy upon us

Eternal Father, turn away thy angry gaze from our guilty people whose face has become unsightly in thine eyes. Look instead upon the Face of thy beloved son, for this is the Face of him in whom thou art well pleased. We now offer thee this Holy Face, covered with shame and disfigured by bloody bruises in reparation for the crimes of our age in order to appease thine anger, justly provoked against us. Because Thy Divine Son, our Redeemer, has taken upon his head all the sins of his members, that they might be spared, we now beg of thee, Eternal Father, to grant us mercy. Amen.

An aspiration to the Eternal Father to be frequently recited throughout the day

Eternal Father, we offer Thee the Holy Face of Jesus, covered with blood, sweat, dust and spittle, in reparation for the crimes of communists, blasphemers, and for the profaners of the Holy Name and of the Holy Day. Amen.

Prayer to reproduce the image of God in our souls

I salute thee, I adore thee, and I love thee, O adorable Face of my beloved Jesus, as the noble stamp of the Divinity! Completely surrendering my soul to thee, I most humbly beg thee to stamp this seal upon us all, so that the image of God may once more be reproduced by its imprint in our souls. Amen.

Prayer to obtain the settlement of all our needs

O Eternal Father, since it has pleased our Divine Saviour to reveal to mankind in our present century the power residing in his Holy Face, we now avail ourselves of this treasure in our great needs. Since our Saviour himself promised that by offering to thee, O Eternal Father, the Holy Face disfigured in the Passion, we can procure the settlement of all the affairs of our household, and that nothing whatsoever will be refused us, we now come before thy throne.

Offering to thee, O God, this adorable countenance, disfigured with painful bruises and covered with shame and confusion, we beg through the merits of this Holy Face to obtain these, our most pressing needs.

Grant us pardon, Eternal Father, for the worst crimes of our age, which are atheism, blasphemy, and the desecration of thy holy days.

Avert from us destruction by war and its consequences which loom through the malice of revolutionary men who have risen up to stamp out religion from the face of the earth through false indoctrination, and who now stand ready to impose their wicked designs with militaristic force. May this offering of the Holy Face of our Saviour before thy throne of majesty obtain for us deliverance from these evils.

Send us, O God, zealous and enlightened labourers, by conferring many vocations to the priesthood and to religion, so that by their prayers, their works, and their sacrifices they may spread the blessings of thy Church and confound thy enemies. Amen.

Prayers said by Sister Marie against Communism

May God arise and let His enemies be scattered, and let all those that hate Him flee from before His face!

May the thrice Holy Name of God overthrow all their plans!

May the Holy Name of the Living God split them up by disagreements!

May the terrible Name of the God of Eternity stamp out all their godlessness!

Lord I do not desire the death of the sinner, but I want him to be converted and to live. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

The Chaplet of Reparation

This chaplet is often prayed to make reparation for the injuries and insults suffered by the Holy Face of Our Lord during his Passion in each of his five senses. It consists of five sets of one large bead and six small beads. During each set of beads, meditate on the suffering caused to Our Lord in one of his five senses. The Chaplet can of course be prayed without the special beads.

On each large bead pray: 

My Jesus, mercy. Glory be…

On each small bead pray:

Arise O Lord and let Thine enemies be scattered, and let those that hate Thee flee from before Thy face.

On the final three small beads pray again:

Arise O Lord and let Thine enemies be scattered, and let those that hate Thee flee from before Thy face.

This prayer is thus prayed thirty times in honour of Our Lord’s thirty-three years of life.

The Origins and the Approvals

Sister Marie of St Peter entered the Carmel of Tours in 1839. In 1843 she had the first of a series of revelations in which Our Lord made known to her that he desired the foundation of a “work of reparation” in atonement for the sins of blasphemy, including attacks on religion and the Church, and for the desecration of Sunday and holy days. The revelations, which occurred over a period of four years, fall into three distinct phases:

• First, Our Lord reveals his desire that reparation be made for blasphemy, and that a confraternity be founded to carry out the “work of reparation”
• Second, he reveals that his Holy Face is to be the exterior object of adoration for the “work of reparation”
• Third, he reveals that he intends to punish mankind through “the malice of revolutionary men” and particularly by means of Communism, and that this evil can be averted by the “work of reparation”.

We will explore each of these aspects in more depth in the weeks to come.

Early ecclesiastical approval

Sister Marie of St Peter’s revelations were regarded by her superiors as genuine from very early in the sequence. They were accepted by her confessor, by the superior of the Carmel of Tours, and – most importantly – by Mgr François-Nicholas-Madeleine Morlot, Archbishop of Tours (Cardinal from 1853), who ordered 25,000 pamphlets containing prayers of reparation to be printed as early as 1844. 

After Sister Marie’s death in 1848 the “work” was continued largely by the efforts of a layman, Ven. Leo Dupont, often known as “The Apostle of the Holy Face” or “The Holy Man of Tours”. Dupont established a shrine to the Holy Face in his house, through which many certified miracles took place. In 1875 the Archbishop of Tours, Mgr Charles Colet, formally approved of the revelations and ordered Sister Marie of St Peter’s account of the events to be published. In 1876, after Dupont’s death, Archbishop Colet, established the shrine in Dupont’s house as the Oratory of the Holy Face. He also founded a new order, the Priests of the Holy Face, to serve at the shrine. Leo Dupont was declared “Venerable” during the pontificate of Pius XII.

Papal approval

Pope Leo XIII: In a brief promulgated in 1885 this pontiff extended the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face to the Universal Church and attached indulgences to various acts of devotion. In 1891 the same pontiff established a shrine of the Holy Face in Rome.

Pope St Pius X: This holy pontiff approved the celebration of the feast of the Holy Face in the diocese of Cambrai in 1908 and extended this feast to the archdiocese of Tours in 1909. Proper texts for the feast were approved by the Congregation of Sacred Rites in 1910.

Pope Pius XII: After further revelations concerning the Holy Face were made to Sister Maria Pierina, this pontiff approved a medal of the Holy Face and, shortly before his death in 1958, he extended the feast of the Holy Face to the Universal Church.

In the succeeding parts we shall explore these revelations – and their relationship with the evils of revolution and communism – in more depth.