Sister Josephine

Little Jeanne Rumèbe was born on 18 October 1850 in the village of Milha and lived in Aspet near Toulouse (France). Her childhood was marked by the divine favours and the attractions of grace...

When she was five years old, she said to herself: "When I grow up, I will sell everything I own and have enough to go to Jerusalem where I want to live and die. Indeed, she will live and die on the hill of Qiryat Yearim, in Abu Gosh, a large village in the local council of the Jerusalem district.

On 24 June 1857, her mother took her into the countryside and they both stopped under an apple tree. It was 11 o'clock in the morning. Jeanne saw a very large column rising from the earth to heaven. And on this very broad pillar she saw a throne on which our Lord was sitting. It was the feast of St. John the Baptist, and one might have asked for Joan: "What will this child be?"... She too, in the future, will be a forerunner!

She used to go to some solitary corner where she would be united to Jesus for hours. He taught her to adore him in the Blessed Sacrament. And later she would say: “I offered myself as a child. I wouldn't dare to do it again. I would be afraid. But the suffering was there. I don't ask him to heal me, but to relieve me” [1].

Filled with charity for the poor and for the souls in purgatory, at the age of 17 she made a pilgrimage to Lourdes to understand her vocation. A clear sign directed her in Marseille to "the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition [this refers to the apparition of the Angel Gabriel revealing to St Joseph the mystery of the Incarnation]". This order of missionary nuns had its mother house in Marseille.

The first two years were hard for the one who had been brought up very gently because she was always ill and not used to certain jobs.

“In the early days of her postulancy, as was the custom for a day of adoration, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in the monstrance before Mass. It was a feast day. In her account, the sister does not specify what the feast was. She had piously attended Mass and taken Holy Communion, calm and recollected, without anything extraordinary in her fervour. After returning to her postulancy, she raised her eyes to look at the monstrance. O miracle! It had disappeared, that is, she could no longer see it, but in its place she saw our Lord dazzling with glory and majesty. He had reddish flames under his feet which took the shape of a mountain. The Sister sighed, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ as Jesus filled her heart with abundant graces of love and divine light, and from that moment on she truly understood the Eucharist. The Saviour's arms were outstretched as if to say, ‘Come!’ [2].

What the mountain of fire meant, she would understand only 50 years later: at the blessing of the foundation stone of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant on the Holy Mountain of Qiryat Yearim in the Holy Land.

Admitted to religious profession, which was perpetual at the time, she took her vows on 26 November 1868.

At first, Sister Josephine went to the Holy Land to care for the sick, first in Jaffa and then in Jerusalem, but soon she was sent to Cyprus as a backup during a cholera epidemic, and she herself became ill. She was so ill that she could not express anything. It was then that Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified arrived at her side in an extraordinary way. She was then in the Carmelite convent in Bethlehem. Sister Josephine noticed, while talking to her, that her stigmata were shining and giving light, and that she saw her hanging in the air with her arms on the cross. Sister Josephine felt that she was suddenly healed.

In 1879, Sister Josephine returned to her house in Jerusalem. The Count de Piellat had started to buy land outside the city and he proposed to build the present St Louis Hospital. Sister Josephine was a great help to him in carrying out this project in 1880, and when setbacks prevented her from going beyond the ground floor, she completed the work and brought it to a successful conclusion [3]. She had even asked God to give her 10,000 francs to build a small house for dying adults. She soon received the necessary sum for her little annex. The doctor did not come to this antechamber of Paradise, but Sister Josephine knew how to prepare her dying patients to enter Heaven.

Sister Josephine devoted herself zealously to the foundation of the Houses of St. Joseph as well as to the foundation of several convent, the monastery of Latrun, and the convent of the Reparatrix sisters for the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which lasted for some twenty years before being bombed in 1948.

In 1901, the R.M. Celina, Superior General of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, visited the site and returned to Jerusalem amazed. She said: “I want Qiryat Yearim to be bought. I know Sister Josephine and I am entrusting her with this foundation. I give her all the permissions and I want the fund of Qiryat Yearim to be separate from that of the Hospital”.

Sister Josephine had received from a French cousin the sum of 5,000 francs in gold, which she immediately put under a slab in her room, happy to have the means to begin the foundation for which she was responsible. She went to the White Fathers whom she had known since their arrival in Jerusalem, and to whom she had often rendered great services, to ask them for the help of Brother Louis in this purchase of land. The latter signed the purchase for 20,732 fr. But Sister Josephine's modest sum was miraculously multiplied at the time of the purchase.

At first, as one can easily guess, Sister Josephine was very badly received. Several times, bullets whistled over her head, especially one day, while she was peacefully climbing the hill. In the property she had just acquired near the Benedictines, she had a dispensary built which she organised as best she could. People were soon astonished, then admired by this heroic worker of charity who lavished her care with such devotion and disinterestedness and without ever asking for a salary. On the contrary, she distributed gifts of all kinds that she received from France. The initial hostility of the villagers had thus disappeared, giving way to an atmosphere of respect and trust.

A native who was working on the hill discovered a line of stones outlining the apse of a church while clearing some brushwood. It was the Count de Piellat who brought the basilica to light. The foundations reveal that there was not only a basilica, the "Basilica of Flowers", but also a large monastery, the "Monastery of the Heavenly Whiteness". No sooner had the basilica been uncovered than an Ordo from the 7th century was discovered in Tiflis, Russia, with this heading: in Palestine, at Kariat-el-Enab [= Qiryat Yearim], feast of the Ark of the Lord on 2 July [4] which is also, in the past, the feast of the Visitation of Mary at Elizabeth's].

In 1912 the General Chapter took place in Marseille. Mother Célina Le Bouffo was re-elected Superior General. She immediately appealed to Sister Josephine to join the Mother House; her intention was to keep her in France, and no doubt to involve her in the government. Sister Josephine took the first boat and arrived in Marseille. But she begged the superiors to let her return to Palestine and was granted it.

Here she is back on the Holy Mountain, still active and even more prayerful. The convent of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition was completed in 1913, and the Welcome House was begun. Turning towards the West, Sister Josephine multiplied her calls to the Lord Jesus. She contemplated the sea in the distance and cried out: "Jesus! Cross the Mediterranean! Let yourself be carried on the waves: go to France to seek souls of love who will come to adore you on the Holy Mountain. Call, call souls of love! [5].

During the 14/18 war, Sister Josephine had to return to France and stayed in Lyon. She met the Revoil family, a widowed mother, two daughters (Anaïs and Julie) and a son (Joseph): she obtained the healing of the mother and announced her priestly vocation to Joseph. Anaïs became Sister “Marie de la Trinité”, and Julie became Sister “Marie de l'Arche d'Alliance”, both in the congregation of Saint Joseph of the Apparition.

After the war, the three of them gradually arrived in Qiryat Yearim, without any particular works, helped by Father Pel and by Sister Donatine, a Maltese sister who shared Sister Josephine's room in Qiryat Yearim.

It was also in Lyon that Josephine met Father Chevrier and Father Crozier, who had been a great friend of Charles de Foucauld. It was especially Father Pel, a professor at the college in Belley, who shared Sister Josephine's dream of the work of adoration planned for the "Holy Mountain". We will meet them later on the summit of Qiryat Yearim. For the time being, all these priests were eager to send Sister Josephine their girls, especially those who felt called to the religious life.

The time to return to the Holy Land finally arrived. Sister Josephine stopped at the Mother House in Marseille, where there were several elderly sisters. Pointing them out to one of her "daughters", Sister Josephine said: “You must have all these sisters in veneration. They have all been martyrs of duty...” [6].

Back in the same place as the house of Abinadab and the ruins of the first basilica of the Byzantine era, Sister Josephine continued to care for the poor sick who kept arriving from the surrounding villages. She was called "Sister Camomile" because with her good camomile tea (and her prayer) many of the sick felt better. At the same time she had the convent and the Marian shrine of the New Ark of the Covenant built.

The foundation stone of the basilica was blessed on January 8, 1920 by Cardinal Dubois, under the title “OUR LADY OF THE ARK OF ALLIANCE”. The parchment bears these words: “OUR LADY OF THE ARK OF ALLIANCE. TO THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN MARY, SYMBOLIZED BY THE ARCH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT” [7].

It was on the occasion of the laying of this first stone that Sister Josephine understood and felt that the red flames seen 50 years earlier under the feet of our Lord represented the Holy Mountain where Jesus wants to be adored, loved and consoled by souls of love.

The basilica is built in ashlar on the model of an ancient Byzantine church that was reconstructed in the 5th century; devastated by the Persians in 614, it rose from its ruins until the devastation of Hakem, the Caliph of Egypt in 1010. An ancient liturgical calendar of the 7th century mentions a festival in honour of the Ark of the Covenant. And oral Arab traditions still remember a convent or church "of the flowers" dating back to that time.

On the first Friday of February 1920, the "Holy Mountain" of Qiryat Yearim was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (text written by Father Leonide Guyot, Assumptionist, at the request of Sister Josephine). We can make this prayer our own.

“Lord Jesus, by right of conquest, as by the special gift of your heavenly Father, you are the only true King of the human race. Your divine Heart, which so loved mankind, hungers and thirsts to reign over all, to communicate to all the treasures of your mercies and the flames of your Love.

In order to respond to this ardent desire and to work more effectively for the extension of your Kingdom, your daughters, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, humbly prostrate themselves at your feet, O Jesus, and beg you to accept the homage of this work in Abu Gosh. They are happy to consecrate today to your most Sacred Heart this mountain and all the works that it will please you to establish there. Yes, Lord Jesus, may your most loving Heart take possession of this land and this work from this day forward, may He deign to make this land His resting place and this work the instrument of His divine mercies over all the surrounding country.

As far as it is in us, O our most sweet Redeemer, we also consecrate to you and submit to you in advance by the desire of our hearts, all this immense region and all those who inhabit it from the slopes of Carmel to the confines of Egypt: we offer to you more particularly the little children whom death is going to mow down and the sick whom more repugnant infirmities make more worthy of our compassion. O Jesus, remember, we beseech you, the burning thirst which consumed you on Calvary when you thought of all these souls, and do not allow our appeal to be useless to any of those we wish to reach. Since only in you can they find the way to truth and life, do not cease to stretch out your arms to them and to make the pure light and the vivifying warmth of your most Sacred Heart shine down upon them: from this Ark of the New Testament, as in the past, from the Ark of the Covenant, let a flower of blessing escape and carry everywhere around us the goods of peace and eternal salvation. From this summit, as from a throne of grace, O Jesus, command and reign at last over all this region by the charms of your divine charity.

In return, we beg you, Lord, to powerfully assist with your graces and to fill with your favours all the souls who will devote themselves to this work, all our families, our religious family and especially our most Reverend Mother General.

And may these waters of the Mediterranean, O most merciful Saviour, as they once carried the Gospel to all peoples, and as they still carry to three continents the blessings of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, receive from this summit consecrated to you and carry the blessings of your most Sacred Heart to all the countries they bathe, but especially to France, your favourite land after the Holy Land and the Kingdom of your Mother”.

The construction of the new church progressed rapidly.

The columns in the atrium are those that were dug up, mutilated, from the old church.

The beautiful white marble slabs conceal old mosaics with which all the naves were decorated. These old mosaics extend beyond the enclosure of the new church, to the right and to the left, to adorn, it seems, the space of a 4th and 5th aisles.

The choir is built within the exact limits of the former apse. A venerable stone, roughly hewn, lies there, obviously preserved on purpose, in the very sanctuary of the old church. In view of recent archaeological discoveries, it is reasonable to consider it a relic of the place where the Risen Christ appeared to the pilgrims of Emmaus.

The frontispiece bears at its top a stone cross inlaid with mosaics and containing a precious relic of the wood of the true cross [8].

Cross of the frontispiece,
containing a relic of the wood of the true Cross.

Thereafter, Sister Josephine often saw a large Host on the side of the Basilica. She then confessed that, while she was telling the Father about this apparition, a large Host radiating like the sun, with a celestial light, to which that of the sun cannot be compared, was formed on the side of the Basilica [10].

In October 1924, Father Pel returned to France, never to return. On 9 November 1925, Joseph Revoil, then aged 37, was ordained a priest in the basilica: the torch was raised. He died on "the holy mountain" on 25 March 1969, as he was about to give the Eucharistic salute.

In June 1927, when Josephine was in great pain, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus appeared to Sister Josephine during the night and told her how to heal her legs. She also told her "I take this house under my protection!" [11]

Josephine entered into agony at the moment when the Benedictine Fathers were singing the Mass TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE in the church on 31 August 1927. The next morning, 1^st September 1927, at about 2 a.m., Sister Josephine Rumèbe passed away slowly at the age of 77.

Let us add that Madame Calliope Abcarios, who visited Sister Josephine some time before her death, testifies to having seen a crown of thorns on her head, and she later describes Sister Josephine's expression as being very comparable to that of Jesus as painted on a banner of MERCIFUL LOVE, on his cross, wearing the crown of thorns of Jesus [12].

This "great woman", as the Arabs of Abu Gosh called her, was first buried next to the shrine, and her body was later transferred to the interior of the basilica on 19 November 1927. At her side will also be buried Madame Revoil, her two daughters Sister Marie de la Trinité and Sister Marie de l'Arche d'Alliance, her son Father Joseph, and Sister Donatine.

Next to his tomb are statues of St. John the Evangelist and St. Therese of Lisieux.

[1] Benoît STOLZ, osb, Chérubin sur la colline de Dieu, Vie de Soeur Joséphine Rumèbe, Fondatrice du Sanctuaire de Notre Dame de l’Arche d’Alliance à Kiryat Yearim. (Imprimatur, Jérusalem le 15 août 1971 + Jacobus Joseph Beltritti, Patriarche.), p. 99
[2] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit., p. 22
[3] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit., p. 35 
[4] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit., p. 35
[5] Suzanne-Marie DURAND, Sœur Joséphine de Jérusalem, Éditions St Paul, 1974, p. 86
[6] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit., p. 80
[7] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit., p. 83
[8] Sœur JOSEPHINE, leaflet produced in 1924 in preparation for the consecration of the basilica.
[9] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit., p. 89
[10] Suzanne-Marie DURAND, op.cit., p. 124-125
[11] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit. p. 84 
[12] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit. p. 60
[13] Benoît STOLZ, op.cit, p. 102