Margaux Salcedo | 19 October 2021
Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot will be beatified in France on May 22, 2022. Pope Francis has appointed His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples, to preside over the beatification ceremony to be held in Lyon on May 22, 2022.
According to the Secretary General of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in France, Gaëtan Boucharlat de Chazotte, Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot will be raised to the honor of the altars in Lyon on the bicentenary of the foundation of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith (POPF), during a Eucharistic celebration to be presided over by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
Cardinal Tagle to Preside over Beatification Rites
While it is usually the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints that is in charge of the ceremony, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Tagle to preside over the ceremony in Lyon. This is a meaningful appointment as Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot established the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which eventually became the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the first of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which is under the office of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, of which the Prefect is His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.
Cardinal Tagle is in fact the second Filipino to preside over a beatification ceremony. Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, Archbishop Emeritus of Cotabato, was Pope Francis’ personal representative in 2016 to the beatification in Vientiane, Laos, of 17 martyrs, six of them members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).
Society for the Propagation of the Faith
Pauline-Marie Jaricot (1799-1862), foundress of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and of the Living Rosary Movement, was declared Venerable by Saint John XXIII on February 25, 1963.
Born in Lyons, France in 1799, even as a teen, Pauline led a life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Her prayer life was nurtured by her brother Phileas who was studying to be a priest and shared stories of the missions, telling her of the struggle to establish the faith in China and another large mission land of the time, the United States.
Circles of Ten; Living Rosary
At 18, Pauline had a prayerful vision: two oil lamps appeared, one empty, one overflowing. The overflowing oil was filling the empty lamp. To Pauline, the empty lamp was her home country of France, still struggling with its faith after the French Revolution. The overflowing lamp represented the young, vibrant faith of the New World whose stories could re-energize Europe. Her vision became her vocation: Pauline organized the workers in her family’s silk mill into “circles of ten”, asking them to gather weekly to pray and sacrifice for mission work around the world. Once established, each circle member was asked to find 10 more people to do the same. Within a year, 500 workers were enrolled; soon there would be thousands. This became the foundation for the Universal Solidarity Fund of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
In 1826, she founded the Association of the Living Rosary. The fifteen decades of the Rosary were divided among fifteen associates, each of whom had to recite daily only one determined decade.
Beatification
Pauline died on January 9, 1862 and was declared venerable on February 25, 1963.
On May 26, 2020, Pope Francis authorized the publication of the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to her intercession opening the path to her beatification.
The miracle approved by the decree of Pope Francis took place in 2012, on the 150th anniversary of Pauline's birth. Three-year-old Mayline Tran became unconscious due to suffocation caused by food. The little girl, hospitalized, was considered dead, but the family refused to stop artificial life assistance and began a novena to Pauline Jaricot. Shortly thereafter, the little girl woke up and, against all hope, completely recovered.
PRAYER WRITTEN BY PAULINE JARICOT
FOUND AFTER HER DEATH
My hope is in Jesus, my only treasure is the Cross...
I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall be always in my mouth.
I adore the will of my God.
What does it matter to me, O beloved and loveable will of God,
if Thou takest from me all earthly goods, reputation, honor, health, and life;
what does it matter that Thou maketh me descend into the depth of humiliations.
What does it matter- if, I find the hidden fire of Thy heavenly love?
How happy I should be if I could die for Thee and for my fellow creatures.
Jesus, Priest and Victim, I unite the sacrifice of my life and the cross I carry
to Thy Blood shed for me.
I shelter myself in Thy Wounds and I expect all strength from Thee.
My heart is ready, O Lord, my heart is ready.
I only wish to do all for Thy greater glory.
I rely upon Thy strength
when the supreme moment comes
and not upon my own.
I have put my hopes in Thy mercy.
I recommend to Thee all to whom I may die indebted,
and I beg Thee, that having given my life and my blood for them,
my friends will pay my debts after my death.
Mary, O my Mother, I am Thine!