The Conversion of Robert Hossein

As unlikely as it may seem, the French actor Robert Hossein, born in 1927, has produced a large number of movies and plays with a religious theme in the past thirty years. This is because he suddenly discovered the Catholic faith in 1971, on a visit to San Damiano, a small town in Lombardy, Italy, where the Blessed Virgin appeared for the first time on October 16, 1964. The "seer", a fifty-four year old peasant woman called "Mamma Rosa", died in 1984. The Blessed Virgin asked Mamma Rosa to turn her garden into a place of worship and to invite crowds of people to come and pray the Rosary there. Now each month French trains and buses leave Paris carrying pilgrims on their way to spend 3 days in San Damiano. Robert Hossein has never joined these "organized pilgrimages". In fact, on the day of his conversion, he simply decided to visit San Damiano while vacationing in the area of Plaisance, Italy. Since that day, he has kept a photo by an amateur photographer in his wallet taken of the village in 1971. The photo shows the sun strangely deformed, which believers in San Damiano do not hesitate calling an apparition of the Blessed Virgin. The photo was appraised at that time by technicians from Leiz, France, and they certified that it is authentic. Robert Hossein asked to be "re-baptized" after this experience and he has assured the public on many occasions that he truly lives his faith.