In the late summer of 1875, Estelle Faguette was at the Château de Poiriers, home of the Count and Countess de La Rochefoucault, with whom she was employed as a governess. Her peritonitis had worsened and she had also contracted tuberculosis.

Aware that her condition left no hope for the future, Estelle wrote a letter to the Virgin Mary in September, and had it deposited in a grotto of Lourdes that the Count and Countess had had built in the grounds of the château. She asked the Virgin Mary to cure her so that she could continue to provide for her parents.

As her illness worsened, she received Extreme Unction. By the grace of the sacrament, although until then she had not resigned herself to dying, on 20 December she wrote a prayer of abandonment to the Father’s will, full of confidence.

Like Estelle, you too can leave your prayer intentions in a basket at the Montbel grotto, to be entrusted to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and carried in the prayers of the contemplative sisters of Saint-Jean and the pilgrims.

You can also send your prayer intentions to intercession@pellevoisin.net or using the form.

You can get to the Montbel cave on foot (5 km, or 1h15 – 1h45 round trip) or by car (4 km).

Access map to the Montbel cave

“O my good Mother, here I am again prostrate at your feet. You cannot refuse to hear me. You have not forgotten that I am your daughter and that I love you. Therefore, grant me from your divine Son the health of my poor body for his glory.

Look at the pain of my parents, you know that they have only me for resources. Can I not complete the work I have begun? If you cannot, because of my sins, obtain for me a complete cure, you can at least obtain for me a little strength to be able to earn my living and that of my parents. You see, my good Mother, they are on the verge of having to beg for bread; I cannot think of this without being deeply distressed

Remember, then, the sufferings you endured on the night of the Saviour’s birth, when you had to go from door to door asking for asylum! Remember also what you suffered when Jesus was laid on the Cross. I trust you, my good Mother; if you want, your Son can heal me. He knows that I have longed to be one of his wives, and that it is in order to please him that I have sacrificed my life for my family, which needs me so much.

Please listen to my supplications, my good Mother, and repeat them to your divine Son. May He restore me to health if it is His good pleasure, but may His will be done and not mine. May He at least grant me complete resignation to His designs and may this serve for my salvation and that of my parents. You have my heart, Holy Virgin, keep it always and let it be the pledge of my love and gratitude for your maternal goodness. I promise you, my good Mother, if you grant me the graces I ask of you, that I will do all that depends on me for your glory and that of your divine Son.

Take my dear little niece under your protection, and protect her from bad examples. Do, O Holy Virgin, that I imitate you in your obedience and that one day I may possess Jesus with you in eternity.”

September 1875

“You know my needs, you know what I need, you love me better than I do. Give me, O my God, what I do not know how to ask of you: I do not want to ask you for my healing, nor do I dare to ask you for it: I only come to you, I open my heart to you.

Strike me or heal me.

I adore and will always adore your will without knowing it; I resign myself, I remain silent, I sacrifice myself, I give myself and I abandon myself: from now on I have no other desire than to do your holy will in everything.

Help me to suffer with patience; let the complaints that may escape my lips be a prayer from my heart and let it rise to you.

Your dear Son Jesus, my Saviour, suffered for me; it is only right that I should forget myself for Him. He had the strength of a God and I have only the weakness of a creature.

So teach me to pray, or rather pray yourself for me who cannot.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you.

Our Lady of Pellevoisin, pray for the Church, for France and for the whole world.

O Mary, Mother of all Mercy, pray for us.

(Composed by Estelle Faguette in Pellevoisin in December I875)