niece - more

Marthe Marie Louise Dehon - niece of Léon Dehon

Reading Dehon's letters in which he talks to his niece Marthe (17.8.1865-1951) or writes about her, we can discover a new Dehon, tender, humorous and interested in the years of Marthe's childhood and later on in the difficult years of her husband's illness and death (André Malézieux +1893). Dehon was faithful, consoling and caring.

When Marthe was almost one year old, Dehon (himself then 23 years old) writes from Rome to his parents: "Embrace for me my little Marthe and tell her not to eat too much sugar so that later on she won't have to suffer as it happens sometimes to her uncle." (8-12-1866)

The same affection, but another style and another context, appear in the letters of the 1890's. Dehon's niece meanwhile has two children (Henri and Jean). In 1892 André Malézieux falls very ill and dies the following year in June, 1893. During this period Léon Dehon writes regular letters to his niece in order to console her by turning her attention to the children and to her faith.

“I prayed a lot for both of you in Lourdes. I will continue to pray that the Holy Virgin grant André good health. Tomorrow I will send a small blessed statuette of Our Lady of Lourdes to André, which he can always carry in his pocket. Above all however: We must not become despondent during the tests we have to face. The best consolation comes from our religion. Distractions and feasts may let us forget the suffering for some hours, but afterwards it returns, almost more real and painful. The only effective medicine is: prayer, pious readings and to abandon oneself to Divine Providence." (30.08.1892)

We can hear in these words one who, himself, experienced a great deal of suffering in the 1880s and 1890s. After the death of Marthe's husband, Léon Dehon tries to console his niece again and again - even humorously referring to the children: "I often think of the two rogues. One day they will visit Italy and they will be instructed by the great monuments of the past. Rome is interesting only for those spirits, who are matured by studies. Jean loves the beautiful Guignol of the Tuileries more than the great ruins of the Coliseum. And I also have the suspicion that he appreciates the monuments created by the excellent confectioners of Paris much more than those buildings constructed by the architects in Rome. I embrace these dear little ones quite cordially and send you all hearty greetings." (10.3.1894)