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A  Man of  Letters

Early Years

It was in the heart of France, at Ambrault, in the Indre Department, that Raoul Auclair was born on March 4, 1906. He was baptized on April 1st in the village church. His parents, Anatole Auclair and Germaine Chemineau, had a second son, Robert, who was born 14 years later.


Little is known of Raoul’s childhood. However, he often mentioned that he made his solemn Communion on May 13, 1917, the day of Mary’s first apparition at Fatima. This “coincidence” will mark, with a Marian seal, his entire life on earth and, no doubt, his celestial destiny as well.


At one point, Raoul’s father, who was a bricklayer by trade, became the manager of a hotel-restaurant in the village, the Hôtel du Commerce.

 

 

“Chez Germaine”

His mother, being an exceptional cook, the restaurant’s renown grew rapidly to the point where “Chez Germaine”, as the restaurant was now called, became well known and was listed in the Michelin Guide, an authoritative tourist guide. It was in such an environment that Raoul lived the better part of his childhood and all his adolescence.


At the end of his adolescence, Raoul left the family home to continue his studies in Paris at the National School of Arts and Modelling.


There, he developed his talent for drawing and his knowledge of architecture, which then gave him the opportunity to work as a draughtsman at several different jobs.

 

 

Marriage

Then, still in Paris, he worked as a sales representative for surgical equipment in the service of a certain Mr. Delacroix. That is where destiny awaited him, for he met this latter’s daughter, Suzanne. A relationship quickly developed and they were married on May 10, 1932, at Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge in Paris. They never had any children.


An enthusiastic man, Raoul was interested in literature, art, history, music and so many other disciplines. He had a sense of beauty. He appreciated elegance and refinement. He himself designed his wife’s wedding gown, as well as other dresses, which would then be sown by a tailor. On another level, he had a passion for real astrology and he prepared, among other things, his own “astronomical chart” and that of his wife.

 

 

Effusion of Light

 

When the Second World War broke out in 1940, Raoul and Suzanne moved to Marseille in order to get away from the front and for more security.


That is where the major event of his life would occur. On October 9, 1941, as he was sitting at the terrace of a cafe, Raoul received an effusion of light similar to that experienced by Saint Paul, Ratisbonne, Claudel or Frossard. In an instant, his life was transported outside of time, and he saw himself as if plummeted into the divine intelligence. Having returned to reality, Raoul summed up for himself what he had just experienced, and he said simply: “I have complete knowledge!” This immersion in God occurred a second time, three days later. Raoul also kept a souvenir of those very special graces by tracing an “astronomical chart” of those two days of October 9 and 12, 1941. Raoul was then 35 years old.

 

 

First Book

 

It was shortly after those events that he began to write, uninterruptedly, the 144 chapters that would make up the book Le Livre des Cycles [the book of cycles]. With this book, he would receive the honor of a first prize in literature. He also began a conference tour of various regions in France.


The year 1941 also marked the beginning of his work with the O.R.T.F. (the French radio and television network) in whose employ he would remain for 30 years. He wrote several plays, directing and producing the broadcasts himself.

 

 

Lozère-sur-Yvette

A few years later, after the liberation at the end of the war, Raoul was transferred to Paris. There he settled in the very charming neighborhood of Lozère-sur-Yvette in the southern part of Paris. He himself drew up the plans for the large house he had built. Very interested in botany, he also saw to the floral landscaping around the house.

 

One day, his employers at the O.R.T.F. asked him to come up with a series of broadcasts out of the ordinary. So it was that he began to give an account of Mary’s seven major apparitions, in the form of dialogues. Those radio plays were recorded on gramophone records and the texts were published in the form of a book entitled: Les Épiphanies de Marie [the epiphanies of Mary].


Over the years, Raoul received numerous literary prizes, in particular that of the “Mérite National Français” [French national merit], that of “l’Ordre International de la renaissance des arts et des lettres” [International Order for the renaissance of arts and letters], and many others...

 

 

Moral Sufferings

 

In spite of all the honors conferred upon him, Raoul suffered much. Wilful but morally distraught, he had committed himself to a path along which sublime joys would intermingle with deep suffering. Several times, in the darkest moments, he would disappear, seeking refuge at a shrine or in a monastery.


In a few letters dated between 1957 and 1962, of which Raoul had kept a draft copy, we discover just how much he considered himself to be contemptible and not very generous. To one correspondent he wrote: “The old man in me is buried so deeply in those ‘garments of skin’ with which it is said Adam was clothed after his fall that, stripped of one, I immediately see another one appearing.”


Elsewhere, he also wrote: “What my will said, the ‘fiat’ it uttered, was able to commit the only thing that belongs to me, my freedom as a man. It did not kill, for all that, the stubborn old man I am, turned in on myself, sarcastic, who, in the back of his head, is always ready to jump up and, under the terrible sifting of reasoning, examine all the impulses and upsurges of my heart.” (May 19, 1960) 

 

 

Travels

 

Raoul also spent some time in Lourdes, La Salette and Châteauneuf-de-Galaure where Marthe Robin informed him that a mission awaited him. It was during his retreat at Châteauneuf that Raoul consecrated himself to Mary in a complete and absolute elan, according to the formula proposed by Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort.


He also travelled abroad. In Rome, he met Pope Pius XII; at San Giovanni Rotondo, Padre Pio. To a friend, Raoul wrote: “Must I henceforth remember the half serious, half ironical warning given me by the most venerable Padre Pio: ‘You, write, but write well, otherwise beware’.”


His travels also led him to Garabandal, Fatima, and to a number of other shrines dedicated to the Sacred Heart, Saint Michael, etc.

 

Great Renown

 

Raoul’s great renown also brought him to mix with high society people in France. Among his good friends were the members of the royal family in Portugal.


In 1959, Raoul became a member of the Militia of Jesus Christ, an order of chivalry founded by Saint Dominic. Having later become the Commander of the Department of the Rosary, it was in this capacity that he gave lectures and that, on February 19, 1966, he spoke of the apparitions of the Lady of All Peoples which had occurred in Amsterdam between 1945 and 1959. The topic interested everyone and the Order immediately introduced the Lady’s prayer into its ritual. The following year, in 1967, Raoul published a new translation of the messages of the Lady of All Peoples.


That same year, thanks to his vast knowledge of Marian matters and his book Les Épiphanies de Marie, Raoul was invited to participate in the Eucharistic and Marian Congress organized for the fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions in Fatima, a congress held at Fatima and presided over by Cardinal Maurice Roy of Canada.

 

 

Publications

 

During the ten years that followed, Raoul published many books, all of an eschatological and Marian nature: Kérizinen (1968), La Prophétie des Papes (1969), La Fin des Temps (1973), Histoire et prophétie (1973), a book that was honored by the French Academy of letters, Prophétie de Catherine Emmerich pour notre Temps (1974), Le Jour de Yahvé (1975), Les Centuries de Nostradamus (1975) and Mystère de l’Histoire (1977).


All of these books constitute an important and rich analysis of history which Raoul sets in relation with the prophecies, and which leads him to get a glimpse of Mary’s exceptional role in these latter times.

 

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