Hamlet

Emeline d'Yèvres, a 12th-century Cistercian hermit in Champagne, embodies the contemplative life and humble prophecy: radical penance, silent listening, and gifts of discernment placed at the service of the humble. Documented life and local memory meet in the account of her life at the barn of Perthes Sèches (Yèvres-le-Petit), her recognized prophecies—notably by Baron Symon de Beaufort—and her iconographic disappearance. Her example today questions our ability to discern divine signs in everyday life and to live an authentic asceticism, without pomp or the quest for recognition.

Born in 1807, a Catalan weaver who became a typographer and then a priest, Antoine-Marie Claret traveled throughout Spain and Cuba, rosary in hand, distributing brochures and religious images. Founder...