The incorrupt body of Marie-Louise Nerbollier, the visionary from Diémoz

Summary:

Marie-Louise Nerbollier was born in 1859 into a poor but devout Lyonnais family. From childhood, she suffered from poor health. Before she was ten, a terrible case of cervical arthritis forced her to wear a corset on a regular basis. As an adolescent, she spent several periods in the Croix-Rousse hospital, and was regularly admitted, from the age of twenty onwards. She was soon forced to drop out of school, and trained as a weaver, which landed her a job in a local factory, where working conditions were so appalling during the industrial revolution that she soon had to give up the job.

In March 1884, the Virgin Mary appeared to Marie-Louise in Lyon, on rue d'Égypte (later rue Charles Dullin). Previously, the young woman, a practising Catholic who was well liked by her family and parishioners, had never had a single mystical experience. The Virgin asked her to take up residence in a garret on rue Bonnet where, two years earlier, Anne-Marie Coste (1861-1924) had also seen the Mother of God, in order to continue Coste's mission to the poor and sick of the neighborhood.

Over the course of the apparitions (19 in all), a genuine relationship developed between Mary and her protégée who, according to the accounts of the time, turned her entire life towards the Gospel. At the Virgin's request, Marie-Louise went to Diémoz (a village south-west of Lyon) where she was to find support and comfort, another prophecy that was fulfilled: she arrived, confident, at the home of the wealthy Madame Piellat, whose son, Amédée, a devout Catholic, supported missions and had known Sister Joséphine Rumèbe (d. 1927), a mystic who died in the odor of sanctity.

On November 19, 1884, at 10:30 am, Marie-Louise had an apparition in this village: Mary, surrounded by magnificent roses, appeared under the title of "Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary". She asked Marie-Louise to ask the clergy to build a chapel there. This request was fulfilled. The words of the apparition were fully compliant with the teachings of the Catholic Church: love, conversion, praying the Rosary. Marie-Louise described the Virgin touching a spring of water with her hand, in a place unknown to her (located behind the place of the apparition), which she discovered after the vision. Finally, the apparition asked her to have a medal engraved with the inscription: "Forsaken Mother, pray for me".

Marie-Louise was never abandoned in Diémoz. In addition to Amédée Piellat, she was surrounded by Fr. Germanet, the village priest, local residents, including the family's many regulars, and several nuns, none of whom previously indicated the slightest inclination or interest for mystical phenomena. Yet it was in this village that Marie-Louise regularly experienced the Passion of Christ in an extraordinary way, particularly on Fridays of Lent and during each Holy Week. The stigmata appeared on her hands, feet and head (crown of thorns). They were witnessed by several hundred people, believers and non-believers, religious and lay people, doctors and the merely curious. Witnesses described open wounds that appeared and disappeared mysteriously, without suppuration or infection, and pouring out incredible quantities of blood. These wounds appeared during long ecstasies, during which Marie-Louise saw the successive scenes of the Passion, not as a spectator at a theater or cinema, but as a full participant in these evangelical moments, as if she were going back in time to the time of Christ. Jesus and Mary sometimes spoke to her.

During her lifetime, Marie-Louise endured a great deal of criticism and unfounded accusations. Journalists working for Le Petit Lyonnais and Le Courrier de Lyon came to her bedside to try to unmask a deception, and some came away with the idea that Marie-Louise was a "hysteric", a catch-all phrase and category used to label women at the time, by Doctor Charcot at La Salpêtrière (a charitable public hospital in Paris) and his emulators. Except that every aspect of Marie-Louise' life proved them wrong: the quality of her relationships was never called into question by anyone; she was exceptionally patient in the face of illness; obedient to the Church (she was a member of a small Franciscan third order); always practical, and she obtained many graces for the visitors to Diémoz.

Marie-Louise died on a very significant date, August 15, 1908, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. She was initially buried in the Loyasse cemetery, on Fourvière hill in Lyon, where she had grown up, in a thirty-year plot. In April 1939, a providential event occurred: this plot was not renewed, which meant Marie-Louise's body had to be moved. She was exhumed on July 10, 1939. On that day, those present, who had all signed a formal report, were amazed to see that her body was in perfect condition, with no rigidity or deterioration; her skin was supple and fresh. Persuaded of her sanctity, people touched their rosaries to her hands. The following day, she was buried a second time in the cemetery of Pouilly-lès-Feurs (France, Loire).

Beyond reasons to believe:

Marie-Louise Nerbollier's painful stigmata and deep moral suffering were the signs of a rare and powerful spiritual activity, centered on self-sacrifice to make reparation for sins: this is why she considered herself an expiatory victim. She didn't know this mission and spiritual category from books, as her socio-cultural background was very modest, but from experience.

Going further:

René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, "Lyon II", in Dictionnaire des apparitions de la Vierge Marie, Paris, Fayard, 2007.

More information:

• Archives diocésaines de Lyon, Marie-Louise Nerbollier file: I. 1911.
• Abbé Théotime de Saint-Juste, Les Capucins de Lyon, de la fin de la Révolution française à nos jours, Lyon, Petit Messager de Saint-François, 1942.
• Article in Aleteia 5 Stigmatics you might not know about
• Catholic Encyclopedia's page on "Mystical stigmata"