Unique Virgin, Watch Over Me!

Jacob was a well-known poet and painter in Paris until the day he had a vision of Christ and the Virgin Mary, in 1909. After further visions, he converted to Catholicism and was baptized in 1915. His friend Pablo Picasso agreed to be his godfather. Eventually Jacob withdrew from the temptations of Parisian life and chose the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire to lead a more religious life. In 1944, the Gestapo arrested him because of his Jewish origins and deported him to a concentration camp in Germany, which he never reached. He died of bronchial pneumonia in a holding camp in Drancy on March 5, 1944. "Praise to this little country girl Who deserved to be the Mother of God! It seems to me that she was born in Brittany And she lived there right before my eyes. ... She is unique. She was greeted by Gabriel; And she deserved to be: That is why God is over her. He is in her and He is around her; He is her Husband, her Son, and her Father; She is His wet-nurse and His mother; She is His queen, He is her King. Blessed Virgin, watch over me."