Mystical France
Why did Magdalene appear to me in a dream?
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“But a thought comes into my mind: "Why did God give this light to a child who, if she had understood it, would have died of grief?" "Why?" Here is one of those incomprehensible mysteries which we shall only understand in Heaven, where they will be the subject of our eternal admiration. My God, how good Thou art! How well dost Thou suit the trial to our strength!”[1]
The Inception of Mystical France
Why did Magdalene appear to me in a dream? The context, I believe, holds meaning.
For four years before that vision, I had written devotionally about my love for the French heroines—Joan of Arc and Thérèse of Lisieux. Their hearts had already drawn me toward a hidden kingdom shimmering at the edge of France’s spiritual horizon. And then came Magdalene—the first light of that horizon, the inceptual flame of Mystical France.
Tradition tells us that after persecution arose in Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene journeyed to Provence, where she spent her final thirty years in contemplation at La Sainte-Baume. There, in solitude and silence, she became the apostle to France, carrying within her the fire of the Resurrection and the fragrance of the tomb she once anointed.
As the apostle to the apostles—the woman who knelt at the Lord’s feet, stood at the Cross, and beheld the empty tomb—Magdalene brought the first apostolic light to the shores that would one day become France. In her, the bond between Heaven and France was born—the first mystical pairing of France with the Kingdom of God.
Four centuries later, this divine thread wove through history again. Clotilda, the Burgundian queen, became the mother of Christendom through the conversion of her husband, King Clovis, the first Catholic king of the Franks. The seed planted by Magdalene had blossomed into royal soil.
Nearly a thousand years passed before Joan of Arc appeared, renewing the covenant of Mystical France. Before Charles VII, she proclaimed that Jesus Christ is the true King of France, and that Charles was but His lieutenant—a declaration that resounded like thunder across the Sky-Veil.
Two centuries later, King Louis XIII and Queen Anne consecrated France to the Blessed Virgin, sealing Joan’s proclamation in Marian light.
And two centuries after them, Thérèse of Lisieux appeared—the Little Flower whose hidden way of love made her the greatest saint of modern times, her fragrance still rising like incense from the heart of France.
Thus unfolds the sacred lineage of Mystical France—a golden thread woven through time, from Magdalene’s silent cave to Thérèse’s cloister. Each saint, each consecration, each revelation adds another gleam to the Kingdom’s tapestry.
France, in its mystical essence, stands as a mirror to Heaven—a land whose soil remembers the footsteps of the Magdalene and whose sky still shimmers with the light of the saints who followed her. It was there, in that lineage of sanctity and majesty, that I began to glimpse the radiance of the Sky-Veil—where the saints of France and the heralds of Heaven breathe as one.
Mystical France
Mystical France, she lifts my heart
Her spirit holds me by the hands
Of saintly sisters honored, who
Attend and guide me to their land
Mystical France, the Kingdom of
Our Lord and Queen who reign above
And here is where by Joan of Arc
Heaven kissed earth through fire and love
Here too, is where, since La Pucelle
Through Holy Spirit joyful, blessed
With earth enriched, now sweetly fresh
He cultivated Saint Thérèse
Mystical France, I love your saints
They hold us both, to us impart
Kinship and joy that renders you
The sanctuary of my heart
[1] Thérèse, The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. p. 46