A discreet light

Understanding the life and legacy of Elise Bisschop more clearly

This site gathers the essential milestones needed to discover Elise’s life, spiritual message, writings and the latest news about the cause.

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Essential paths

Quick entry points into her life, her message and the progress of the cause.

Summary of Elise’s life

Elise Bisschop is a French woman who died in 1964 at the age of 38. She lived mainly in the village of Mailly-le-Château in the department...

Summary of Elise’s message

Elise's main message is joy; this joy that God gives to the heart of man and that man is called to give in his turn. Elise's joy therefore...

What is the point of the process today?

A cause for beatification is part of canon law, that is, of the legislation of the Catholic Church. It is she who has the authority to reco...

The story of the rediscovery

Forty years of silence, then a gradual rediscovery

The timeline retraces the events that made it possible to recover Elise’s texts and better understand her place in the Church.

Élise Bisschop was born in 1925, 200 km south of Paris, in the Yonne department; she will spend her whole life there.

“Joy entered my life: I was little at than time! Had I been looking for or following it? It took me, and there you go!”

Élise has been ill since her childhood. A bronchial disease continued her throughout her life, with many hospitalizations.

“I consecrated myself to the Lord at the age of eleven, accepting both to be sick all my life and therefore not to marry.”

From the age of 13 Élise wrote poems and songs. They show her faith, her joy and her spiritual observation of creation.

“In the past, I believed that I would be desperate if I could no longer draw, sing, compose poems…”

When Élise was 16, Father André Générat became the parish priest of Mailly-le-Château. Élise gives him absolute confidence.

“You haven't forgotten the day you arrived in Mailly either, I'm sure… Father, from that day on I placed my soul in yours.”

Elise's best friend is called Victoria. Coming from a family of Spanish immigrants, Élise leads her to live in the faith.

“And yet, even separated, I find myself so happy to be able to count on your affection, and to think of you as my only “real” little sister.”

From the age of twenty, after the war, Élise began to teach catechism. She was already taking care of the group of girls with some friends.

“Do you know what was my first concern, when I realized that I was immobilized for a long time? My little ones.”

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To smile at everything and everyone out of love for Jesus

What shines through her

Joy, nature, childhood, friendship and spiritual message shape the main themes of her legacy.

Elise and the children

Until her last hospital bed Élise kept a child's heart. And that is undoubtedly the cause of her love for children. Throughout her life she sought to awak...

Elise and the nature

Élise had a link with nature that one could call from the origins, that is to say, all imbued with her quest for contemplation of the Creator. From the ea...

Elise and the joy

A specific charisma of Elise was that of joy. All of God's friends know joy; for Élise, however, joy was assumed in a very special way because it is the d...

Summary of Elise’s life

Elise Bisschop is a French woman who died in 1964 at the age of 38. She lived mainly in the village of Mailly-le-Château in the department of Yonne, which...

Summary of Elise’s message

Elise's main message is joy; this joy that God gives to the heart of man and that man is called to give in his turn. Elise's joy therefore received it fro...

Witnesses

The people who knew her help reveal more precisely her personality and spiritual fruitfulness.

Testimonials

Élise never tried to be known or to make herself known. Providence, however, made it possible on the one hand for essential testimonies to be written down...

Pastor Générat

Pastor André Générat became parish priest of Mailly-le-Château in 1941 when Élise was 16 years old. Élise appreciated him enormously, and he was her spiri...

Pastor Van Ede

Pastor Pierre Van Ede was parish priest of Châtel-Censoir, a neighboring parish. When Father Générat was appointed to Saint-Florentin in 1957, Pastor Van...

Pastor Girard

Father Marcel Girard became parish priest of Mailly-le-Château in 1959 and remained so until 1967. Very helpful and social, Father Marcel Girard quickly w...

Father Bochin

Elise knew Father Jourdain Bochin because a Dominican Sister spoke to her about the third order of Saint Dominic. Father Bochin was chaplain of a fraterni...

Elise’s mother

Elise’s parents had no family ties in Yonne. When Marie, Elise’s mother, died in 1979, the house was quickly sold by Pierre, Élise’s brother. After this d...

Resources

Writings, poems, letters, recordings and documents for going deeper into Elise’s world.

Listen to some of the poems of Elise

For english-speaking visitors: sorry, but this file exists for the moment only in french… Here you can listen directly the audiofile or you can download i...

Download the collection of Elise's poems

You can download the poems and songs in the French version by clicking on the link above. The text that you download does not contain, unlike the collecti...

Prayer for the Beatification

The official prayer to ask God for the grace of Elise’s beatification God Our Father, we thank You for having given Élise Bisschop a joy and a communicati...

The textes of Elise

There are two sources for Elise’s texts: the first is the collection of Poems and Songs and the second is her letters. What is extraordinary in the story...

Elise’s collection

The collection called Poesies and Songs was conceived by Élise herself : it contains the texts that she composed from the age of thirteen to 38 years old...

The letters of Elise

The story of Elise’s letters is, as already stated in the article on the writings, extraordinary. In August 2007 a friend of Élise, having heard of the ne...

The association’s newsletter

You can here download the association’s newsletter. It exists in French only.

Association

Join, support the cause and consult the association’s key documents.

Become member

Dear Internet user, On August 1, 2020 was born the association The Friends of Elise Bisschop (in French Les Amis d'Élise Bisschop) to promote the memory o...

Make a donation

It is a excellent thought to want to help us make Elise's smile shine, a model of transmitting true joy to children and young people, through your donatio...

Internal regulations

Future members, Before completing your membership form, we invite you to carefully read the internal regulations given in the attachment. In this document...

Legal Notice

Administrative support and editor: Friends of Élise Bisschop 6 Grande Rue 89560 CHARANTENAY Email: at the bottom of the page Site content This entire site...

News

Latest news

Recent publications and events connected with Elise Bisschop.

#93

Élise Day 2026

The morning opened beneath a radiant sky, bathed in gentle light, like a springtime offering to honor the anniversary of Élise’s departure.

#92

New French Edition of Selected Letters

Élise Bisschop, A Light for the Little Ones — For the very first time, the heartfelt letters of Élise Bisschop are being shared with the public.

#91

Centenary of the birth of Elise Bisschop

Since last September, we have been preparing to celebrate with gratitude the centenary of the birth of Elise Bisschop for the spiritual and artistic legacy she left behi...

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