The Day that the Blessed Virgin Stopped Communism in France

	On December 8, 1947, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, France—victorious at the end of the war—was going through a serious internal crisis. (…) There was a general strike, sabotage was on the rise and clashes with the police were common. The social climate was one of civil war and a communist coup was a serious threat. It is precisely in this context that four young girls saw the Virgin Mary in l'Ile Bouchard, a village of 1,255 inhabitants situated between two branches of the Loire River, 42 kilometers south-west of Tours. Our Lady appeared to these girls for a whole week straight, from December 8-14. Was there a connection between the week of apparitions, during the octave of the Immaculate Conception, and the sudden end of the national crisis? In a letter dated September 21, 1983, Father Finet, Marthe Robin's spiritual guide, gave this testimony: “Marthe prayed a lot, because she was very pained by the speedy advance of communism in France. She feared the worst. On Friday, December 12th, after the Passion, Marthe told me that the Blessed Virgin had shown her that she had stopped communism on that day. They had been prevented from carrying out a coup (…) and seizing power. I was speechless when, a few days later, I learned that the Blessed Virgin had appeared in L'Ile Bouchard!…”
	The Mary of Nazareth Team Adapted from apparitions/bouchard/bouchard.htm