Old Age: Decrepitude or Glory? Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

Ambiences, Customs and Civilizations
Catolicismo, Campos (Rio de Janeiro), no. 23 – November 1952
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
How the modern world, caught up in sensuality, deceives itself when it sees only decadence in aging. When one knows how to esteem the spirit more highly than the body, growing old is to grow into what is most noble, the soul.
Although aging does entail bodily decadence, this is only the material element in the human person. The body may indeed lose its beauty and its vigor, but it may enrich itself with the translucence of a soul that knew how to develop and grow along the course of life. This translucence constitutes the highest beauty the human face may acquire.
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Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier was born in the island of Noirmoutier of pious parents on July 31, 1796, and received in baptism the name of Rose Virginia. She entered the community of the “Refuge” of Tours in 1814, and made her …More