You have written about two nuns who received revelations about devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. Can you tell me more about these nuns and the revelations they received?
The nun who first received revelations from God about the devotion to the Holy Face was Sr Marie of Saint Peter (1816-1848). She was born Perrine Éluère on 4 October 1816 in Rennes, France, to Peter and Frances Portier Éluère. On 13 November 1839 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of Tours. When she was professed in 1841, she took the name Marie of Saint Peter and the Holy Family.
From 1844 to 1847 Sr Mary had messages from Jesus in her prayer about spreading devotion to his Holy Face. Jesus told her that he desired the devotion in reparation for sacrilege and blasphemy, which he described as being like a “poisoned arrow.” In answer to this poisoned arrow, Jesus dictated to her the “Golden Arrow” prayer, which is an act of reparation for blasphemy and the profanation of the Lord’s Day, the two sins that most offended him.
He called this prayer the “Golden Arrow” because those who recited it would pierce him with delight and heal those other wounds inflicted on him by the malice of sinners. Sr Mary saw streaming from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, delightfully wounded by this “Golden Arrow,” torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners. The prayer reads: “May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable 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.”
The other nun was Sr Giuseppina Pierina de Micheli (1890-1945). Born near Milan in 1890, she was aware from an early age of the Holy Face devotion promoted by Sr Mary of St Peter and the Holy Family. Giuseppina joined the Congregation of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception in 1913, taking the religious name Maria Pierina. She was sent to the motherhouse in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where her devotion to the Holy Face grew stronger. In 1921 she returned to Milan and was eventually elected Mother Superior of her house, where she began to spread the devotion.
On the first Friday of Lent in 1936, she had a vision of Christ, who said: “I will that my face, which reflects the intimate pains of my spirit, the suffering and the love of my heart, be more honoured. He who meditates upon me, consoles me”. In further apparitions, Jesus and Mary urged Sr Maria to make a medal with the Holy Face of Jesus.
In 1938, she was sent to Rome, where she met the community’s chaplain, Benedictine Fr Hildebrand Gregori. After some effort, in 1940 she managed to obtain permission to reproduce the photograph of Christ’s face on the Shroud of Turin and authorisation from the Curia in Milan to produce what became known as the Holy Face Medal.
The medal has a replica of Christ’s face on the Shroud of Turin, surrounded by the words, Illumina, Domine, vultum tuum super nos (Ps 67:2), “Shine, O Lord, your face upon us”. On the reverse is an image of a radiant Sacred Host, the monogram of the Holy Name (IHS), and the inscription Mane nobiscum, Domine (Lk 24:29), “Stay with us, Lord”.
The medal was sent to Pope Pius XII, who approved the devotion and the medal. Sr Maria told the Pope that Jesus requested a special feast in honour of the Holy Face, to be celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday, preceded by a novena of prayers. In 1958, the Pope established the feast of the Holy Face of Jesus, to be celebrated on Shrove Tuesday, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
In 1941, Sr Maria wrote in her diary: “I feel a deep longing to live always united to Jesus, to love him intensely because my death can only be a transport of love with my Spouse, Jesus.”
God called her to himself on 26 July 1945 in Milan. Her fame of sanctity led to her cause of beatification being opened, and in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI formally recognised a miracle attributed to her intercession.
She was beatified on 30 May 2010, and the following Sunday in his Angelus address Pope Benedict spoke of her “extraordinary devotion” to the Holy Face of Jesus.
