RT Article
T1 Catholic Patriotism and Suffering in the Wartime Letters of the Belgian Mystic Berthe Petit
JF Trajecta
VO 29
IS 2
SP 161
OP 189
A1 Osselaer, Tine van
LA English
PB Amsterdam University Press
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1814741542
AB This article focuses on the use of patriotic feelings and shared experiences of suffering to promote a new devotion. Studying her wartime letter-writing campaign, we examine the strategies that the Belgian mystic Berthe Petit (1870-1943) adopted to promote the devotion of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. By examining the letter writing of Petit and her father confessor during the Great War, we will show how, in 1909, the campaign initially focused on her own mystical experiences and corporeal suffering, but shifted during the war to emphasize that the future of Belgium, France and Britain, was linked to their consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Stressing the historicity of the mystic, we show how the war (1) provided new opportunities for mystically inspired, non-approved devotions; and (2) how the uncertainties and sorrows of the Great War offered female mystics new openings and lines of thought to explore.
K1 Belgium
K1 World War I
K1 Devotion
K1 Mysticism
K1 Suffering
DO 10.5117/TRA2020.2.003.VANO