Virgin unique, watch over me!

Max Jacob (1876-1944) was a French painter and novelist. Born of Jewish parents who were tailors and antique dealers, he became a renowned poet and painter, until he had a vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in 1909.

After a series of visions, Max Jacob was baptized in 1915, and Picasso, the renowned Spanish painter, agreed to be his godfather. From 1921 to 1927, Jacob retired from Parisian life and moved to Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (Loiret, central France). In 1944, the Gestapo arrested him on account of his Jewish origins. He was interned first in the Orleans prison, then transferred to the Drancy internment camp, where he died on March 5th, 1944.

Among the poems he wrote is this beautiful prayer to Mary:

"Praise be to this little country girl, who merited to be the mother of God! It seems to me that she was born in Brittany and that she lived there before my eyes .... She is unique. She is greeted by Gabriel. She deserves it: That's why God is on her, in her, around her. He is her spouse, her son, her father. She is his nursemaid and his mother. She is his queen, He is her king. Virgin unique, watch over me!"

The Marie de Nazareth team