Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1869

One of our subscribers from the Hautes-Alpes Department, writes us the following:

"For some time, there has been a lot of talk in the Queyras Valley about a parish priest who, without medical studies, cured a crowd of people of various illnesses. He has been acting like this for a long time, and august figures are said to have consulted with him, while he was head of another parish in the Basses-Alpes. His cures made noise, and it is said that, as punishment, he was sent as parish priest to La Chalpe, a neighboring town of Abriès, on the border of the Piedmont. There he continued to be useful to humanity, relieving and healing like in the past.

There is nothing remarkable about it to the Spiritists; if I tell you about it, it is because, in the Queyras Valley as elsewhere, he makes a lot of noise. Like all serious healing mediums, he never accepts anything. S. M. the heir Empress of Russia would have offered him, I was told, several banknotes that he refused, begging her to put them in the donation box if she wanted to give them to his church.

Another individual once slipped a twenty-franc coin with his papers; when he noticed it, he brought him back by the pretext of giving him new indications and returned his money.

Many people talk about these healings in person; others do not believe it; I know about the fact from those that are the least favorable.

The parish priest had been denounced for the illegal practice of medicine; two policemen came to his house to take him to the authority. He said to them, "I will follow you; but give me a moment, please, for I did not eat. Have lunch with me, and you will watch me.” During the meal, he said to one of the policemen:

-You are sick.

-Sick? not now; three months ago, I do not deny.

-Well! I know what you have, and, if you want, I can heal you right away, if you do what I tell you. - They talked and the proposal was accepted.

The parish priest had the policeman suspended by his feet, so that his hands could rest on the ground and support him; he placed under his head a bowl of warm milk and administered what is called a milk fumigation. After a few minutes, a small snake, say some, a large worm according to others, fell into the bowl. The policeman, grateful, had the worm put in a bottle, and led the parish priest to the magistrate to whom he explained his case, after which the parish priest was released. I would like to have seen that parish priest," adds our correspondent, "but the snow in our mountains makes the paths too difficult in this season; I am forced to be satisfied with the information I am giving you. The conclusion of all this is that this faculty is developing and that the examples are multiplying. In the municipality I am quoting to you, and in our valley, this has a great effect. As always, some say: Charlatan; others, demon; others, sorcerer; but the facts are there, and I have not missed the opportunity to express my way of thinking, explaining that facts of such kind have nothing supernatural, nor diabolical, that we have seen thousands of examples since the former times, and that it is a way of manifestation of the power of God, without any breach of his eternal laws.”