Oratory of the Holy Face
Encyclopedia
Oratory (worship)
An oratory is a Christian room for prayer, from the Latin orare, to pray.-Catholic church:In the Roman Catholic Church, an oratory is a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass...
in Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
France. It is the site where devotions to the Holy Face of Jesus
Holy Face of Jesus
The Holy Face of Jesus is a title for specific images which some Catholics believe to have been miraculously formed representations of the face of Jesus Christ...
started in Tours by Venerable Leo Dupont
Leo Dupont
Venerable Leo Dupont , also known as "The Holy Man of Tours," or the "Apostle of the Holy Face", was a religious figure in the Roman Catholic faith who helped spread various Catholic devotions such as the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and nightly Eucharistic Adoration...
based on messages reported by Sister Marie of St. Peter. It receives many Catholic pilgrims every year.
The site was originally the drawing room of Venerable Leo Dupont
Leo Dupont
Venerable Leo Dupont , also known as "The Holy Man of Tours," or the "Apostle of the Holy Face", was a religious figure in the Roman Catholic faith who helped spread various Catholic devotions such as the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and nightly Eucharistic Adoration...
where he continuously burned a vigil lamp before an image of the Holy Face of Jesus
Holy Face of Jesus
The Holy Face of Jesus is a title for specific images which some Catholics believe to have been miraculously formed representations of the face of Jesus Christ...
based on a painting of the Veil of Veronica
Veil of Veronica
The Veil of Veronica, or Sudarium , often called simply "The Veronica" and known in Italian as the Volto Santo or Holy Face is a Catholic relic, which, according to legend, bears the likeness of the Face of Jesus not made by human hand The Veil of Veronica, or Sudarium (Latin for sweat-cloth),...
. Dupont also used to invite people to pray in front of the image of the Holy Face of Jesus at the oratory. Dupont was inspired to pray to the Holy Face of Jesus based on the messages of the Carmelite nun Sister Marie of St. Peter.
When Leo Dupont died in 1876, his house on Rue St. Etienne in Tours was purchased by the Archdiocese of Tours and turned into a prayer oratory
Oratory (worship)
An oratory is a Christian room for prayer, from the Latin orare, to pray.-Catholic church:In the Roman Catholic Church, an oratory is a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass...
. Archbishop Charles-Théodore Colet
Charles-Théodore Colet
Charles-Théodore Colet was a French Roman Catholic Archbishop.He was born in Gérardmer in France and was ordained a priest in 1831. He was appointed Bishop of Luçon in 1861 and the Archbishop of Tours in 1874....
of Tours then approved of an order of priests called the Priests of the Holy Face
Priests of the Holy Face
Priests of the Holy Face is a Roman Catholic religious order. It was canonically erected on December 8, 1876.The order was started in 1876 by Archbishop Charles-Théodore Colet of Tours in order to administer the Oratory of the Holy Face, where prayers to the Holy Face of Jesus are recited...
to administer the chapel. The order was canonically erected in 1876 and Father Peter Javier, a friend of Dupont, was appointed as its director.
The oratory, and Dupont's prayers have been associated with a large number of reported cures.
The Dublin Review
Dublin Review (Catholic periodical)
The Dublin Review was an influential Catholic periodical founded in 1836 by Michael Joseph Quin, Cardinal Wiseman and Daniel O'Connell. Quin had the original idea for the new journal, soon persuading Wiseman to lend his support, and next enlisting O'Connell whose Catholic Emancipation campaign he...
of 1885 reported that Mgr. Paul Guerin testified to having himself seen over 6000 certificates of cures wrought by virtue of the miraculous oil from the lamp in the oratory.
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
who approved of the Holy Face devotions in 1885 also expressed a desire to establish a similar oratory in Rome.
A number of well known Catholics have prayed at the oratory, e.g. Blessed Louis and Blessed Zelie Martin
Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin
Blessed Marie-Azélie "Zélie" Martin née Guérin was a French laywoman and the mother of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. Her husband was Blessed Louis Martin.-Early life:...
, the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Saint Therese was introduced to the devotion by her blood sister Celine and was later called Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. The poems and prayers she wrote helped to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
External links
- Tourism info on the oratory http://www.gralon.net/tourisme/a-visiter/info-oratoire-de-la-sainte-face-tours-2250.htm