The ninth art at the service of the mission of the Martin couple

17th June 2020

The Louis and Zélie sanctuary in Alençon welcomed, on June 17, 2020, Olivier Malcurat, co-screenwriter with his wife, of the comic strip dedicated to Saints Louis and Zélie Martin.

Mgr Habert, bishop of Séez and author of the preface, Father Thierry Hénault-Morel, rector of the sanctuary, Camille Lorthiois, from Artège editions and Olivier Malcurat each presented a facet of this work during a press conference.

Bishop Habert recalled that canonization is not a personal reward, but a gift for humanity of new friends and intercessors. Those recognized as saints continue their work of prayer, service and witness in Heaven.

In this same perspective, Olivier Malcurat, through the story of his journey with the Martin family, brought his stone to the sanctuary: a material but also immaterial sanctuary, which the spiritual ties forged with Louis and Zélie edify in an ever-increasing number of hearts. .

The dedication of the comic book on the square in front of the basilica was a new opportunity to bear witness to the fruitfulness of the holiness of the Martin parents.

Among the many people who came to have a copy of the comic strip signed, several spoke of the links between their family and the Martins: such a young girl, touched by "the way the Martin spouses went through the trials of life and their benevolence", remembers that his own grandmother was perhaps born following a vow to Saint Thérèse, and that his great-great-grandmother had seen this same saint on her deathbed. A couple gives thanks to Louis and Zélie's prayer for their meeting or for the arrival of a child... of the Martin spouses.

The delicacy of their attention to others, their ability to reach any person in his life and his personality, remains as vivid today as in the time of their earthly life.