“The more a woman is holy, the more she is a woman.”

Léon BLOY (1846-1917)
Writer

“In truth Léon Bloy spoke like a man who had an extraordinary mission to fulfill, a mission from which nothing could distract him, and which was determined by one single focus, a sort of instinct, rushing toward its single goal, overcoming all obstacles, like a torrent which rips up boulders and trees from its banks, and carries them pele-mele with the silt and and the pebbles of its bed. Barbey d’Aurevilly, who was very close to Léon Bloy from 1867 to 1889, said of him, “Léon Bloy is a cathedral gargoyle who pours out the waters of the heavens on the good and the evil alike.” […] Léon Bloy could at times be a formidable and hardened pamphleteer, sometimes mistakenly unjust; he could be a vociferous town crier like the prophets charged to cry from the rooftops at the top of their lungs, and not necessarily with a voice that was gentle and agreeable. He could at times be a beggar, like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Benoît Labre, convinced, like them, that it is better to give than to receive; and he resembled them also in accepting what they had chosen, that is, the condition of one who receives out of love for a God become poor for our sakes. But ingrate and proud, Léon Bloy never was! No one could truly be his friend and not bear witness to this. Perhaps it’s true that his works in and of themselves are not always enough to make this clear to those who didn’t know him – but, after all, friendship alone is capable of such a fine-tuned understanding.”

Raïssa Maritain (1883-1960)
Philosopher and poet