Abbé Dégenettes, medium.

— The following fact was taken textually from the work entitled: Month of Mary, by abbé Défossés:

Here is how the divine work of the archconfraternity of the most holy and immaculate Heart of Mary was produced in the world, in a supernatural and celestial manner. Let us once again give the floor to Mr. Dégenettes. Who better than he could tell us what happened?

“The archconfraternity was born on December 3, 1836. Many people who judge only by appearances call us its founder. We cannot let this prejudice pass without combating and destroying it; we are not its founder. To God alone the honor and the glory. We had none of the dispositions of mind or of heart that could have prepared us for this. We must confess, asking pardon of God and of Mary, that, although a son of Mary, accustomed from a tender age to love her, to venerate her as the most tender of mothers, we understood nothing of the devotion to her holy heart, which we even avoided thinking about. We add further that a holy religious, Father Maccarty, having one day preached in our church of the foreign missions on the holy heart of Mary, we drew from his sermon no sentiment that would render our ordinary tribute to the eloquence of the preacher, but only displeasure, so great was the pride of our prejudice, because he had treated a subject that we thought to be no more useful to others than to ourselves. Such was our constant disposition until the day of December 3, 1836, the feast of Saint Francis Xavier. “On that day, at nine o’clock in the morning, I was beginning the holy Mass at the foot of the altar of the holy Virgin, which we afterward consecrated to her most holy and immaculate Heart, and which is today the altar of the archconfraternity. I was at the first verse of the psalm Judica me, [Psalm 42] when a thought came to take possession of my mind: it was the thought of the uselessness of my ministry in that parish; it was not strange to me and I had many occasions to conceive it and to recall it; but in that circumstance it wounded me more keenly than usual. As it was neither the place nor the time to occupy myself with it, I made every possible effort to drive it from my mind. I did not succeed, and it always seemed to me that I heard a voice, which came from within me and said to me: You do nothing, your ministry is null. See, you have been here four years; what have you gained? All is lost, this people no longer has any faith. Out of prudence you ought to withdraw!… “In spite of all my efforts to repel this unfortunate thought, it persisted in such a way that it absorbed all the faculties of my mind, to the point that I read and recited prayers without any longer understanding what I was saying. The violence I had done to myself had fatigued me and I experienced a most abundant perspiration. I remained in this state until the beginning of the canon of the Mass. After having recited the Sanctus, I paused a moment, seeking to restore my ideas; terrified by the state of my mind, I said to myself: “My God, in what a state am I?

How shall I offer the divine sacrifice? I do not have enough freedom of mind to consecrate. O my God, deliver me from this distraction.”

As soon as I had uttered these words, I distinctly heard these others, pronounced in a solemn manner: Consecrate your parish to the most holy and immaculate Heart of Mary. Scarcely had I heard these words, which did not wound my ears, but only resounded within me, when I immediately recovered calm and freedom of mind. The fatal impression that had agitated me so violently was at once effaced and no trace of it remained.

I continued the holy mysteries without any memory of my preceding distraction.

“After my thanksgiving, I examined the manner in which I had offered the holy sacrifice. Only then did I remember that I had had a distraction, although it was no more than a confused recollection, and for a few moments I was obliged to investigate what its object had been. I reassured myself, saying: “I did not sin; I was not free.” I asked myself how that distraction had ceased and the memory of the words I had heard presented itself to my mind. This thought struck me with a kind of terror. I sought to deny the possibility of the fact, but my memory confounded the reasonings I objected to myself. I struggled with myself for ten minutes. I said within myself: If I were to stop at this, I would expose myself to a great misfortune; it would affect my morale and I might become a visionary. “Fatigued by this new struggle, I made my decision and said: I cannot dwell on this thought; it would have deplorable consequences; besides, it is an illusion; I had a long distraction during the Mass, that is all. The essential thing for me is not to have sinned. I do not want to think about this any longer. I rested my hands on the prie-dieu on which I was kneeling. At the same instant, and I had not yet risen (I was alone in the sacristy), I heard pronounced very distinctly: Consecrate your parish to the most holy and immaculate Heart of Mary. I fell to my knees again and my first impression was a moment of stupefaction. They were the same words, the same sound, the same manner of hearing them. For a few moments I tried not to believe; at least I wished to doubt and I could no longer do so. I had heard, I could not conceal it from myself. A feeling of sadness took hold of me; the anxieties that had just tormented my mind presented themselves again. In vain I tried to expel all these ideas; I said to myself: It is yet another illusion, the fruit of the shock given to your brain by the first impression you felt; you did not hear, you could not have heard, but the inner sense said to me: You cannot doubt; you heard twice. “I took the decision not to occupy myself with what had just happened, to try to forget it. But these words: Consecrate your parish to the most holy and immaculate Heart of Mary, presented themselves to my mind incessantly. To rid myself of the impression that fatigued me, I yielded, exhausted, and said to myself: It is always an act of devotion to the holy Virgin, which may have a good effect; let us try. My consent was not free; it was demanded by the fatigue of my mind. I entered my apartment. To rid myself of this thought, I set about composing the statute of our association. As soon as I set my hand to the work, the subject became clear to my eyes and the statutes were not long in being drafted. This is the truth, and we did not state it in the first editions of our manual; we even concealed it from the venerable director of our conscience. Until that day we kept it secret, even from our most intimate friends; we did not dare to disclose it; and today, now that divine mercy has so authentically marked its work by the establishment, by the prodigious propagation of the archconfraternity and, above all, by the admirable fruits it produces, my conscience obliges me to reveal this fact. It is glorious — said the archangel Raphael to Tobias — it is glorious to reveal the works of God, so that all may recognize that to Him alone belong praise, honor, and glory.”

— The fact of auditory mediumship is here extremely evident. To anyone who would deny that it is a mediumistic effect and would consider it miraculous, we would reply that the character of the miracle is to be exceptional and above the laws of Nature, and that it has never been thought to give that quality to phenomena that occur daily; reproduction is a sure indication that they exist by virtue of a law and that, consequently, they do not depart from the natural order. Now, facts analogous to that of abbé Dégenettes are among the most common, among those of mediumship; communications by auditory means are exceedingly numerous.

If, then, according to the opinion of some, the demon is the sole agent of mediumistic effects, one would have to conclude, to be consistent, that the founding of the said archconfraternity is a work of the demon, since, in sound logic, the absolute analogy of effects implies that of the cause.

A very embarrassing point for the partisans of the demon is the incessant reproduction of all mediumistic phenomena within the very clergy and the religious communities, and the perfect similarity of a number of effects considered holy with those reputed diabolical. Thus, one is forced to admit that the evil Spirits are not the only ones with the power to manifest themselves, for otherwise the majority of the saints would be no more than possessed persons, considering that many owed their beatification only to facts of the kind that today occur among mediums. They extricate themselves from the difficulty by saying that the good Spirits communicate only to the Church, or that it belongs only to the Church to distinguish what comes from God or from the devil. Be it so; it is a reason like any other, which remains for each one’s appreciation, but which excludes the doctrine of the exclusive communication of the demons.

— Our colleague Mr. Delanne, who was good enough to transmit the above fact to us, joined to it the following communication, from abbé Dégenettes, obtained by Mrs. Delanne:

“My dear children, I respond with joy to your appeal; I will gladly give the details you wish to know, because today I am bound to the great phalanx of Spirits who have the mission of leading men in the path of truth.

“When I was on Earth, I worked body and soul to lead men back to God, but I had only a very weak idea of the importance of this great law, by which all men shall attain progress. Matter imposes grave obstacles, and our instincts often paralyze the efforts of our intelligence. When, then, of my audition, I did not well know what to think; but seeing that the voice continued to make itself heard, I concluded that it was a miracle. Despite this, I considered myself a true instrument, and all that I obtained through this intercession confirmed me in that idea. Well! in fact I had been an instrument; but there was no miracle; I was one of the men designated to bring one of the first stones to the doctrine, furnishing the proof of spiritual communications. “The times are near when great developments will be given to you concerning the things called mysteries, and which had to be so until the present, because men were not yet apt to understand them. Oh! a thousand times happy are those who today understand this beautiful and enviable mission of propagating the doctrine of revelation and showing a good and merciful God!

“Yes, my dear children, when I was exiled on Earth I possessed the precious gift of mediumship; but, I repeat it to you, I did not know how to give account of it to myself. From the moment that voice spoke to my heart, I recognized more especially and more visibly the protection of Mary in all my actions, even the simplest ones, and if I concealed from my superiors what had previously happened to me, it was still by the counsels of that same voice, which made me understand that the hour had not come to make that revelation. I had the presentiment and like a vague intuition of the renewal that is being effected; I understood that the revelation was not to come from the Church, but that one day the Church would be forced to support it by all the facts to which it gives the name of miracle and which it attributes to supernatural causes. “I will continue another time, my children. May the peace of the Lord be in your souls and grant you a tranquil sleep.

Q. — Should we send Mr. Allan Kardec this communication and the facts that occasioned it?

Answer. — Did I not tell you that I was one of the propagators of the doctrine? My name is of no great value, but I do not see why I would not authorize you to do it. Besides, it is not the first time that I communicate; you may, then, transmit to the master my simple instructions, or, rather, my simple accounts.

Dégenettes.”

Observation. – Indeed, abbé Dégenettes communicated several times, spontaneously, and dictated words worthy of the elevation of his Spirit.

As far as we recall, it was he who, in a sermon preached in the church of Notre-Dame des Victoires, recounted the following fact [see The agéneres]: A poor working woman without work came to pray in the church. On leaving she met a gentleman who approached her and said to her: “Seek work; go to such an address, ask for Mrs. so-and-so; she will obtain some for you.” The poor woman thanked him and went to the indicated place, where she did indeed find the person in question, to whom she recounted what had just happened. The lady said to her: “I do not know who could have given you my address, because I did not ask for a servant. However, as I have something to have done, I will entrust it to you.” The poor woman, catching sight of a portrait in the parlor, answered: “Look, madam, this is the gentleman who sent me to your house,” and she pointed to the portrait. “Impossible — said the lady — that portrait is of my son, who died three years ago.” The working woman answered: “I do not know how this came about, but I recognize him perfectly.” Mr. abbé Dégenettes believed, then, in the apparition of souls after death, with the appearance they had in life. Facts of this kind are not unusual and we have numerous examples of them. It is not presumable that abbé Dégenettes would have related this one from the pulpit without authentic proofs. His belief on this point, joined to that which came to him personally, comes in support of what he said of his present mission, to propagate the Doctrine of the Spirits.

A fact such as the last one referred to would necessarily have to pass for marvelous. Only Spiritism, through the knowledge of the properties of the perispirit, could give it a rational explanation. It proves, by this very fact, the possibility of the apparition of the Christ to the apostles, after his death.

[1] [DESFOSSÉS (l’abbé Gustave), né en 1816. — Manuel des enfants (le Marie.

Ouvrage extrait des œuvres de M. Desgenettes, et contenant l’exposition complète de toutes les indulgences, par l’abbé G. Desfosses. In-18.

Sarlit. 3 fr. — Mois de Marie de Notre-Dame des Victoires.

In-18. 1861. liuffel. 1 fr. 50 c. — Nota: M. l’abbé Desfossés a publié les Oeuvres inédites de l’abbé Dufriche Desgenettes. — Mois de Marie de Notre-Dame des Victoires ou méditations sur les grandeurs … Par Charles-Éléonore Dufriche Desgenettes — Google Books.]