The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud and the Great War (review)

Abstract

The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud and the Great War. By Raymond Jonas. (Berkeley: University of California Press. 2005. Pp. xiv, 217. $21.95 paperback.) In March 1917, at the height of World War I, Claire Ferchaud, a peasant girl from the pious region of western France, managed to arrange a meeting with Raymond Poincare, the president of the French Third Republic. Based on a series of visions of Jesus she had experienced over the past several months, Claire asked that Poincare dedicate France to the Sacred Heart and place its image on the French tricolor, long-standing Catholic requests that needed to be fulfilled if the nation were to win in its against Germany. Ray Jonas' study provides the biographical, political, and religious contexts that explain how such an unlikely meeting could have occurred, and thereby opens up a fascinating new perspective on the war. Jonas opens with two chapters that serve as context for Claire's story. In the first he reviews some of the different visions of circulating in Europe before 1914, and suggests that Claire's sense of its meaning merits comparison with the ideas of the artists and statesmen who are generally more familiar to historians. After a brief overview of the early stages of the Jonas shifts his focus to the personal story of Claire. Extremely devout, Claire claimed to have had visions and conversations with Jesus even as a child of three. Her spiritual development encouraged by a friendly local priest, Father Audebert, whose support led her to further clerical connections. By the end of 1916 her visions of Jesus and her call for the dedication of France to the Sacred Heart had generated extensive publicity in the local press and a pilgrimage movement which bringing thousands to her small village of Loublande. An episcopal investigation chaired by Bishop Humbrecht of Poitiers interviewed Claire in December 1916, but produced no definitive ruling, and thereby encouraged the popular movement surrounding her campaign. With the help of a local politician, Claire finally reached Paris in February 1917, a stay which culminated in her interview with Poincare, who listened politely, but took no action in response to her request. In the second half of his study Jonas concentrates on a variety of initiatives coming from the French episcopacy and laity aimed at accomplishing the same goal generated by Claire's visions. As Jonas writes, Claire's campaign was merely one manifestation of a popular movement that had pursued victory from the opening weeks of the war (p. …