Alphonse Ratisbonne

| | HFR-1-RATISBONNE 1/32 11/03/06 13:17 pm⅜ Page: 1 “Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary . .” Alphonse Ratisbonne Alphonse Ratisbonne was born in 1814 into a wealthy and aristo- cratic Jewish family inAlsace,France.Endowed with exceptional intelligence and charm, he seemed destined for a brilliant career in the family’s bank.Then,at the age of twenty-seven,shortly before his marriage, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him, and everything ⅜ changed.He immediately entered the Catholic Church,became a priest, and spent the remainder of his life in the Holy Land, establishing religious communities and charitable works, and working and praying for the conversion of the Jews. Fortunately,he left a lengthy letter describing his conversion—one of the most dramatic of modern times— from which the following is drawn. It is followed by an extract from another account written by his friendTheodore de Bussières,who was an eyewitness to many of the events. I began my schooling on the benches of the grammar school of Strasbourg, where I made more progress in the corrup- tion of the heart, than in the training of intelligence. Then, From Marie Théodore Renouard Bussières, Conversion de M. Marie- Alphonse Ratisbonne: Relation Authentique (Paris: A. Bray, 1859). The original letter was addressed to M. Dufriche-Desgenettes, director of the Archcon- fraternity of Our Lady of Victories. 1 ⅜ | | HFR-1-RATISBONNE 2/32 11/03/06 13:17 pm⅜ Page: 2 2 honey from the rock around 1825 (I was born on May 1, 1814), my brother The- odore, on whom great hopes were laid, declared himself a Christian; and, soon after, in spite of the most fervent pleas and the great sadness which he caused, he went even fur- ther: he became a priest and exercised his ministry in the same city before the inconsolable eyes of my family. As young as I was, this behavior of my brother revolted me and I began to hate his cassock and his character. Raised among young Christians who were as indifferent as I was, I had till then neither sympathy nor antipathy for Christianity, but the conversion of my brother, which I saw as inexplicable madness, made me to believe in the fanaticism of the Cath- olics, and I was horrified by it. I was withdrawn from the college in order to be placed in a Protestant institution, where the sons of the best Prot- estant families went to be trained for the fashionable life of Paris and to give themselves over to pleasure far more than ⅜ to science. More by luck than by merit, I nonetheless man- aged to attain a Bachelor of Arts degree. I was the master of my family inheritance, because I lost my mother in infancy, and a few years later, my father. I was left with a kindhearted uncle, the patriarch of my family, who being childless, lavished all his affection on the children of his brother and became a second father to me. This uncle, extremely well known in the financial world for his integrity and exceptional talent, wanted me to join the bank of which he was the director, but I first got my law degree in Paris, and then, with my lawyer’s diploma and gown, was called back to Strasbourg by my uncle who tried everything to keep me by his side. I could not num- ber all the signs of his prodigality: horses, carriages, voy- ages, a thousand generosities were shown me, and he would not refuse me any caprice. To these signs of his affection ⅜ | | HFR-1-RATISBONNE 3/32 11/03/06 13:17 pm⅜ Page: 3 alphonse ratisbonne 3 my uncle added a more positive proof of his confidence: he gave me power of attorney over his firm and promised me, in addition, a partnership—a promise that he fulfilled on January 1, 1842. It was in Rome that I received the news. My uncle reproached me only one thing—my frequent trips to Paris. “You are too fond of the Champs-Élysées”, he would say kindly. He was right. I loved only pleasures; business irritated me, the atmosphere of offices suffocated me; I thought that we are in the world to enjoy it; and, even though a certain prudishness kept me away from the basest pleasures and company, I nonetheless dreamed only of parties and enjoyments, which I indulged in with passion. Happily, at this time a good work presented itself to me, which I took warmly to heart. It was the “regeneration” of poor Jews, as it was inappropriately called, since I now under- stand that something more than money is needed to regen- erate a people without faith. But at the time I believed in ⅜ this form of regeneration, and I became one of the most zealous members of the Society to Find Work for Young Jews, a society that my brother the priest had founded in Strasbourg fifteen years earlier, and which had survived despite a shortage of resources. So I worked hard on behalf of my poor coreligionists, even though I had no religion. I was a Jew in name only; I did not even believe in God. I never opened a religious book, and neither in my uncle’s house nor at my brothers’ and sisters’, was the least prescription of Judaism observed. A great void was in my heart, and I was not in the least happy, in the midst of an abundance of riches. Something was missing, but this, too, was given to me—or at least so I thought. I had a niece, the daughter of my older brother, who was destined for me since we were both children. She grew ⅜ | | HFR-1-RATISBONNE 4/32 11/03/06 13:17 pm⅜ Page: 4 4 honey from the rock in grace under my eyes, and in her I saw my whole future, and the hope of all the happiness that was to be mine. This is not the place to sing the praises of the one who was my fiancée. It would be useless for those who do not know her, but those who do, know that it would be difficult to imagine a sweeter, more lovable or gracious girl. She seemed to me an entirely special creature, made uniquely to com- plete my existence, and when the wishes of my entire family, as well as our own mutual feelings, finally set the date for this so-long-desired marriage, I thought that finally nothing more was lacking for my happiness. In fact, after the celebration of my engagement, I saw my entire family overflowing with joy. My sisters were so happy! They had only one reproach, that I loved my fian- cée too much, and they claimed to be jealous, for I must say here that there are few families more loving than mine. The most intimate union, the tenderest love, reigns and will ⅜ always reign between my brothers and sisters, a love that almost amounts to idolatry. Oh, my sisters are so good, so loving! Why are they not Christian? There was only one member of my family that I hated: my brother Theodore. But nonetheless he too loved us; his religious habit repelled me; his presence offended me; his somber and serious words made me angry. One year before my engagement, I could no longer restrain my feelings, and I expressed them in a letter to him that should have severed forever any relations between us. This was the occasion: a baby being at the point of death, my brother Theodore was not afraid openly to ask the parents for permission to bap- tize him, and may have been about to do so, when I found out about it. I saw the undertaking as shameful and despi- cable; I wrote to the priest that he should go after adults and not infants, and I accompanied the words with so many ⅜ | | HFR-1-RATISBONNE 5/32 11/03/06 13:17 pm⅜ Page: 5 alphonse ratisbonne 5 invectives and threats that still today I am amazed that my brother did not say one word in return. He continued relations with the rest of the family, but, as for me, I no longer wanted to see him. I nourished a bitter hatred against priests, churches, monasteries, and above all against the Jesuits. The mere name provoked my fury. After this incident, I had no more contact with The- odore, I thought no more of him, I forgot him . all the while that he, he was praying for me! I must note here a certain revolution in my religious ideas during the period of my engagement. As I said, I believed in nothing, and in this total nothingness, in this negation of all faith, I found myself in perfect accord with my friends, Catholic or Protestant, but the sight of my fiancée awoke in me a mysterious sense of the dignity of man; I began to believe in the immortality of the soul; even more, I instinc- tively began to pray to God. I thanked Him for my hap- ⅜ piness, yet I was not really happy. I could not account for my own feelings; I saw my fiancée as my good angel, and often told her so; and, in effect, the thought of her raised my heart toward a God that I did not know, and to whom I had never prayed or invoked. It seemed appropriate, given that my fiancée was only sixteen years old, to delay the wedding, so it was decided that I would take an extended tour while awaiting the hour of our union.

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