. Marie was born
Perrine Éluère on 4 October 1816 in
Rennes, region of
Brittany, to Peter and Frances Portier Éluère, and baptized in the Church of St. Germain. Her mother died when she was twelve and she was sent to learn dressmaking with two of her paternal aunts. On 13 November 1839 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of Tours, France, which had a particular devotion to the
Sacred Heart. Perrine had a special devotion to the Holy Infancy of Jesus. She was professed as a Discalced Carmelite nun under the name Mary of Saint Peter and of the Holy Family () on 8 June 1841. On 8 August 1843
Pope Gregory XVI promulgated a
papal brief for the erection of a confraternity under the patronage of
Louis IX of France for the reparation of blasphemy against the Holy Name of God. Louis IX, commonly revered as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. On 26 August
Leo Dupont, the "holy man of Tours", distributed among several of the communities of Tours, a prayer in honor of the Holy Name of God. The prayers had been circulated among all the religious houses of the city, but despite being on friendly terms with the Carmelites, Leo Dupont apparently forgot them. She invariably declared that these
"communications" were neither visions, nor apparitions; that the truths shown her were not exhibited under an eternal form, nor did she physically hear what she was commissioned to relate. From 1844 to 1847 Mary of Saint Peter reported that she had "communications" from Jesus about spreading devotion to his Holy Face. She reported that she experienced what her biographer, Janvier, terms "an interior vision". Repeatedly she describes that while at meditation "The Lord gave me to understand" particular insights. According to Marie of Saint Peter, Jesus told her that he desired devotion to his Holy Face in reparation for sacrilege and blasphemy, which he described as being like a "poisoned arrow." She wrote "The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion," which she said was dictated to her by Jesus. This prayer is now a well known
Act of Reparation to Jesus Christ. The devotion that she started was promoted by Leo Dupont. Dupont prayed for and promoted the case for a devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus for around 30 years. Documents pertaining to the life of Mary of Saint Peter and the devotion were kept by the Catholic Church. Eventually, in 1874
Charles-Théodore Colet was appointed as the new Archbishop of Tours. Archbishop Colet examined the documents and in 1876 gave permission for them to be published and the devotion encouraged. The Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus was eventually approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. Almost 50 years later, another French
Discalced Carmelite nun,
Thérèse of Lisieux wrote a number of poems and prayers in the 1890s that also helped spread the devotion to the Holy Face. In the 1930s, an Italian nun,
Maria Pierina De Micheli associated the image of the Holy Face of Jesus from the
Shroud of Turin with the devotion and made the first
Holy Face Medal. The first Holy Face Medal was offered to
Pope Pius XII who accepted it and approved the devotion in 1958 and declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics. ==The Golden Arrow prayer==