Venerable Marthe Robin (1902-1981) was a French layperson and mystic whose story is truly wonderous. Born in Châteauneuf-de-Galaure (Drôme), in France to a farming family, she would spend her entire life in her family’s farmhouse. Marthe met suffering early when at just 1 year old she lost her older sister to typhus and contracted the disease herself.

 As an adolescent, Marthe was struck by encephalitis, a swelling of the brain. By the age of 17, the disease paralyzed her legs. She suffered from headaches, pain in the eyes, fainting, fever, vomiting, and periods of coma. In March 1925, her arms also paralyzed, she offered a solemn prayer consecrating her life and her sufferings to God to help spread love in the world.
 
Marthe entered the Franciscan Third Order in 1928. Two years later the disease would paralyze her digestive track making it almost impossible for her to swallow. From this time on, she would survive on the Eucharist alone, unable to take any other nourishment. Beginning in October of 1930 she suffered an intense reliving of the Passion of Christ each Friday, bearing the stigmata, the wounds of Christ.
 
In 1939 her illness attacked her ocular nerve, and she was forced to live in near darkness until her death. Despite her confinement and suffering, Marthe led an intense mystical life and performed the ministries of listening, counsel, and compassion for the more than 100,000 people who visited her bedside.
 
With the help of Fr. Georges Finet, she founded the “Foyers of Charity”, homes of light and charity run by single people, couples, and priests living in community. Today there are 60 Foyers throughout the world. Marthe was declared Venerable on November 7, 2014, by Pope Francis. Venerable Marthe Robin, pray for us!