HER FIRST GREAT SINNER TO PRAY FOR
A few days later, Therese was presented with a privileged opportunity to put her resolution into practice. On July 13, 1887 Henri Pranzini, a convicted murderer, was condemned to death. The newspapers of the time insisted on the criminal’s particularly rebellious character. Despite the overwhelming charges that weighed against him, he manifested no sign of repentance. In fact, he boldly proclaimed his innocence.
It is unlikely that Therese had read many articles about Pranzini in the papers although she did not refrain from doing so. However, everyone was talking about the criminal. “Everything led to the belief that he would die unrepentant,” Therese recalled, “I wanted at any cost to prevent him from falling into hell.” Her concern was to save a great sinner from the mortal danger he was in. By persevering in his dishonesty and impenitence, he might be deprived forever of the joy of living with God.
A picture in the chapel in Saint Pierre’s Cathedral where Therese attended Mass every morning reminded her that, in a flash, the Good Thief had become a model of repentance. She had no right then to despair of Pranzini’s salvation. He too could receive the grace of conversion “in an instant”.
She multiplied prayers and sacrifices to obtain his conversion and had a Mass celebrated for him. Although she was certain that Jesus would answer her, she asked Him to give her a sign of Pranzini’s genuine conversion. “Simply for my consolation,” she said to the Lord, “because he is my first child!”Thus she was jubilant to read the account of what happened at his execution in the September 1 edition of ‘La Croix’. At the last minute, Pranzini had asked for the chaplain’s crucifix and had kissed it twice. In writing her memoirs eight years later, Therese recalled that he made this gesture “three times”. This sign of repentance had a special significance for Therese because it was before the wounds of the Crucified Christ that her heart began to burn with the desire to save many souls.