He was a Man of God (I)

Edmond Fricoteaux, founder and president of the Confraternity of Notre-Dame de France (Our Lady of France), was at the origin of a movement of Pilgrim Virgins, which spread into 120 different countries around the world, from Le Puy-en-Velay (France) on September 8, 1995 to the all night vigil for the 2000th Christmas in Bethlehem (December 24, 1999), which led to the "Mary of Nazareth" Project. Edmond died on Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, of a heart attack, while vacationing in Guadeloupe with his wife and most of their children and grandchildren. The news of his death has deeply affected the friends of Notre-Dame de France and all those who knew Edmond. Just recently, his friends and relatives were glad to see Edmond enjoying good health, new projects, and planning to go into a well-deserved retirement in early 2008, at the age of 70 years old. Edmond was a lawyer in the old city of Saint-Denis (near Paris). He had been filled with love for God and a contagious enthusiasm for the Blessed Virgin Mary since his radical conversion one morning in April 1984 in Rome, one of the tens of thousands, invited by Pope John Paul II to launch the World Youth Day rallies. While he was in Rome merely to accompany his wife, feeling almost indifferent to the event, a few words of Cardinal Gantin's sermon at the Basilica of St Mary Major pierced his heart - and he rushed to the confessional - of which he came out "thirsty for God." Back at home in Saint-Denis, he devoured as many books about the lives of the saints as he could get his hands on, as well as two other special books that helped him make up his mind once and for all to give his whole self to the Church: Le père Lamy, prêtre et mystique (Father Lamy ? Priest and Mystic) and The Secret of Mary by Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, which he found at first "inconsumable" and "incomprehensible." But he spent a lot of time praying at Father Lamy's grave, in La Courneuve, where his law profession often took him, fervently asking the saint the favor of giving his heart "immoderate love" for the Blessed Virgin. His prayers were heard and he was suddenly "awash with love" for the Immaculate Conception, and The Secret of Mary became his favorite book. He went deep into Monfortain spirituality, and became a tireless evangelizer, a man who didn't hesitate to talk about God to all the clients that visited his law firm. He actually touched several hundred people in this way and some of them eventually agreed to follow Edmond on the many pilgrimages that he led to Marian shrines.