By:
Edited By Heymen Wreford
By The Editor
The Peasant Woman of Trequier
ON Friday, June 19th I left Plymouth by the good little steamship “Devonia,” for Tréquier, in Brittany, on my way to Tremel, to see Madame Lecoat.
Having to wait some hours at Tréquier before the train left for Lannion, I walked about the town, and seeing the Cathedral door open, I walked in, and wended my way around the building. Passing by the various tombs and chapels, I came at last to a wax model which arrested my attention. At the top and on either side were represented two hands with nail prints in them. Just below these two hands was a cross resting on a pedestal, that in its turn rested on the “sacred heart,” which was represented as bound around with thorns. Below the heart, and on either side of it, was the wax impression of two feet, each one pierced with a nail. On the top of the wax model above the hands was this text: — “Ils out percemes mains et mes pieds” (Psa. 22. 16). At the bottom of the model below the feet was the following text: — “Il m’a aime et c’est Eyre pour moi” (Gal. 1:2020Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. (Galatians 1:20)).
Kneeling on a chair close by was a peasant woman who had been praying, and was now watching me as I read the texts. Seeing her intent gaze I pointed to the text beneath the feet, and as she read the words I said, “C’est bon; c’est vrai.” She gazed a moment longer, and then softly said, “Oui.”
I then, still looking at the words, pointed to myself and said, “Pour moi,” and then, pointing at her, I said, “Pour vous.” She reverently bent her head, and shortly after went slowly out of the building, and there in that Catholic cathedral I prayed for her; not to the Virgin Mary, or to the saints, but to the blessed Lord Himself. I felt happy to think that she would remember the words, and perhaps come again to read the inscriptions, “They have pierced my hands and my feet,” and “He has loved me and given Himself for me.” God give her to know in her soul that the words are “good” and that they are “true,” and may the message “FOR YOU” lead her to those pierced feet to confess the sins that nailed Him to the Cross, and may those wounded hands rest in benediction on her head forever. I felt sure God had sent me into that building to speak to her, and I shall still pray that not only the peasant woman of Tréquier, but many of my readers may believe that He loved them and gave Himself for them.