The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud and the Great War

by Raymond Jonas

This is the moving and improbable story of Claire Ferchaud, a young French shepherdess who had visions of Jesus and gained national fame as a modern-day Joan of Arc at the height of World War I. Claire experienced her first vision after a childhood trauma in which her mother locked her in a closet to break her stubborn willfulness. She developed her visionary gifts with the aid of spiritual directors and, by the age of twenty, she had come to believe that Jesus wanted France consecrated to the Sacred Heart. Claire believed that if France undertook this devotion, symbolized by adding the image of the Sacred Heart to the French flag, it would enjoy rapid victory in the war. From her modest origins to her spectacular ascent, Claire's life and times are deftly related with literary verve and insight in a book that gives a rare view of the French countryside during the Great War.

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Roger Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am profoundly grateful to Jonas for this rivetting, poignant book - a book that led me to visit Loublande, home of Claire Ferchaud and even meet those who met her.

I regret I cannot give 5 stars to the book for reasons best described in a long review here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2010/...

Perhaps this bit from that review can indicate a little:


"It cannot be helped. After Loublande, this must perforce be a most personal of reviews.

For speaking very personally, Loublande changed a lot of things for me.

But among others, it changed my perspective on this book.

And what is Loublande? Loublande is a small village at the edge of the Vendée in Western France, where once Claire Ferchaud reported visions of His Sacred Heart during World War I, the so-called “War to end all wars”.

Now the author Raymond Jonas is hardly Catholic. At least, he is not a Catholic of faith. His writing rather strikes me as infused with the sort of Freudian reductionism, which is now de rigeur in the humanities. So Jonas is naturally sceptical of the claims of Claire Ferchaud.

And I was sceptical as well. Before I went to Loublande, at any rate."

Despite my docking the book a star, Jonas is a great writer- colourful, rivetting, often finding the perfect phrase to sum up his meaning in a single crisp phrase, where others might meander for paragraphs.

I've poured over this book again and again. But I would warn that traditional Catholics may be offended by his reductionism. Again, there is much more about this and other aspects of the book at the link above.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the rather moving story of a young French peasant girl, Claire Ferchaud, who was having visions of Jesus and felt him calling on her to join the Catholic movement in France during World War I which was wanting France to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart and its emblem to be placed on France's tricolor flag. This was happening during a time when France had been invaded and was in the fight of its life. The French public was deeply divided, between the believing Catholics on the one hand, and the anti-clericalists - Republicans & Socialists - who wanted a purely secular state for France. In 1905 the anti-clericalists had succeeded in separating church and state, but relations were still tense. Claire, while supported by many French Catholics, was a problem for the Catholic hierarchy as they walked a tightrope with the government, and eventually the Vatican silenced her and she lived out the rest of her life in her native village. She died in 1972 at age 75.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to be Joan of Arc in an age of industrialized warfare and a time when all women wear men's britches at some point.