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Julie Savoie (1860-1927). A victim of leprosy in search of freedom
1906

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Prayer of a leper
Lord, you came, you asked everything of me and I gave it all to you.
I loved reading and now I am blind.
I loved to run in the woods and now my legs are paralyzed.
I loved to pick flowers in the springtime sun and now I have no hands.
Since I am a woman, I liked looking at the beauty of my hair, the slenderness of my fingers, the grace of my body, and now, I am almost bald and in the place of my beautiful slender fingers, I have but bits of rigid fingers.

Look Lord at how my gracious body is now damaged.
But I do not fight it.
I give you grace.
I will give thanks for all eternity for if I die tonight, I will know that my life was full.
Knowing your Love, I have been satisfied far beyond what my heart desired.
O my Father, how you have been good to your little Véronique.

And tonight my Love, I pray to you for all the lepers in the world.
I pray to you especially for those who are destroyed, mutilated and beaten by moral leprosy.
They are the ones I love most and I offer myself to them in silence because they are my brothers and sisters.
O my Love, I give to you my physical leprosy so that they never know the disgust, the bitterness and the coldness of their moral leprosy.

I am your little girl, O my Father, take me by the hand like a mother guides her baby.
Hold me next to your heart like a father holds his child next to his heart.
Submerge me in the abyss of your heart, and may I remain there for eternity with all the ones I love.