Claret de la Touche: higher daughter of a French noble family, nun in a contemplative order and all this during the transition from the prude 19th century to the early 20th century - the rock ´n roller motto does not necessarily come to mind as a description of her life. Nevertheless, "Live fast, love hard, die young" describes Claret de la Touche's path unusually well.

Despite the distance in time, Claret de la Touche's path is surprisingly topical. One possible explanation for this topicality is provided by André Frossard: Claret "is a real mystic, and like all of them she speaks of God in the most decisive way there is: from experience".

Let us follow the trail of these experiences and discover where they lead Claret de la Touche.

Live fast: the experience of restlessness

Claret de la Touche leads the varied, brilliant social life of a young woman from a prosporous family until she enters the monastery. Theatre, parties, dancing, travelling, marriage offers - in between serious upheavals caused by a serious illness and a sincere, abruptly ending love affair with a young officer.

Claret de la Touche, 22 years old, exchanges this full world life for another full monastic life. Instead of amusements, work, common prayer times and regular retreats are now part of her daily life. Soon they are joined by intensive experiences of the living closeness of Jesus, alternating with agonizing doubts and temptations. Her constitution, which was weakened from birth, caused her many physical and mental burdens throughout. These are aggravated by a relentless rule of the order.

Claret de la Touche finds her life as a religious anything but contemplative: "All sufferings of the body, the heart and the soul should come upon me and oppress me with their waves". At the same time she experiences a mysterious force in this storm: "Infinite Love should, like a lighthouse, lead me to the port".

The special charisma of Claret de la Touche does not remain hidden from the sisters. After she had been suspiciously regarded in the novitiate as a light-hearted comedian, she quickly makes a "monastic career" after the vows: assistant to the novice master, director of the novitiate, superior.

Claret de la Touche's "career" develops under dramatic external circumstances: The monastery is abolished and the order is expelled from France, a settlement is sought in Italy, the community moves three times in the region of Northern Italy within six years, and a new settlement is sought in Germany and Switzerland. The circumstances forces Claret de la Touche to make arduous journeys. She also spends seven months in Rome, where she presents the Work of Infinite Love to Pope Pius X in a private audience on February 5, 1914.  

After her return from Rome, she unexpectedly has the opportunity to settle in Vische, in the "Small House" (which Claret de la Touche had already seen in an inner picture long before).

The last months before her death are marked by the repeated attempts to found a new order in the Service of God, Infinite Love. On February 19, 1914 the authority to found a new order is finally granted. Already in March 1914 in Rome steps are taken against the foundation; the outcome of the proceedings is uncertain.

In this unresolved situation, Claret de la Touche dies on May 14, 1914 - consumed by a restless and tireless commitment to the Work of Infinite Love. 

Love hard: the experience of Infinite Love

The "fast life" of Claret de la Touche is filled to the brim with love: first with love for the world, with love for a man, and finally with the love of God. Claret de la Touche only sacrifices herself unconditionally and completely to this Infinite Love.

In her self-biography she summarizes her devotion to Infinite Love: "I believed in love that comforts, supports and delights. I believed in love that breaks, that crushes and empties".

She writes down her encounters with Infinite Love on the recommendation of her spiritual companions. The "Booklet of Infinite Love" unfortunately remains unfinished. It contains precious experiences of a woman with common sense and maternal feelings. This woman stands with both feet on the ground as a leader and at the same time remains in the Heart of Jesus as a praying woman. She lets herself be filled by Infinite Love and has only one desire: to transmit this fullness.

Claret de la Touche is increasingly aware that priests are involved in a special way in this flow of Infinite Love from the Heart of Jesus. They are an invention of Infinite Love, called to serve man. Priests should receive Infinite Love from the Heart of Jesus and, as "channels of Infinite Love", should renew and warm the world through this love.

Claret de la Touche has been writing down these experiences since 1903 in a book: "The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood". The publication of the book is always delayed. The first Italian edition is published in 1919, the first German edition in 1930. The book is translated into most European languages, including Polish and Ukrainian. There are also Chinese, Arabic, and Armenian translations.

Claret de la Touche herself always calls the book only "his booklet": "The divine master really takes care of himself of the booklet, and rightly so: he is its author".

Die young: the experience of the wheat grain

In the rock ´n roll scene an early death doesn't seem uncommon. “27 Club" includes Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and others. They all died very young, at the age of 27. What unites these young deceased: the early deadly end of a steep career seems a guarantee of "immortality". The members of "Club 27" became legends.

Claret de la Touche also dies relatively young (at the age of 47). She also goes through a steep "career". However, it is a spiritual "career", a mystical way of becoming aware and sacrificing.

Claret de la Touche also dies at a critical crossroads of this path: the practical consequence of her experiences, the foundation in the Service of Infinite Love, is only three months old and already extremely endangered by the interventions of opponents.

After her death, the opponents believe themselves empowered to interpret the death of Claret de la Touche as a sure sign that the foundation was not pleasing to God. For four years, the continued existence of the foundation is threatened by new hostilities. It was not until 1918 that the monastery "Bethany of the Sacred Heart" in Vische is finally confirmed.

To this day, the Work of Infinite Love, initiated by Claret de la Touche, has unfolded in four divisions:

The monastery "Bethany of the Sacred Heart" in Vische (with small settlements in Italy, Argentina, and Colombia) is the root that collects nourishment in secret and nourishes everything.

The "Union of Priests Friends of the Sacred Heart" is the tribe that holds and sustains everything and to whom everything is directed.

The "Missionaries of Infinite Love" (a secular institute with groups in Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia, Madagascar, Togo and Togo) and
 
the "Friends of Bethany" (a movement around the world); they both receive as branches life and drive from the tribe – and in turn give back to the tribe important help, like oxygen.

Death has not made Claret de la Touche "immortal" in the worldly sense. Rather, it refers to the mystery of the wheat grain, which must die in order to bear rich fruit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Credits for translation to DeepL