Leon Denis
was born
in a
village
called
Foug,
located in
the
surroundings
of Tours ,
in France
, on
January
1st, 1846
, of a
humble
family.
Very early
in life
out of
necessity,
he did
manual
works and
had to
carry the
heavy
responsibilities
of his
family.
From his
first
steps into
this world,
he sensed
that
invisible
friends
assisted
him.
Instead of
participating
in plays
relating
to his
youth, he
tried to
instruct
himself as
intensely
as
possible.
He read
serious
works,
thus
striving
through
his own
efforts,
to develop
his
intelligence,
and became
a serious
and
competent
self-didactic.
At the age
of 18, he
commenced
to work as
a sales
representative,
and
because of
this he
had take
frequent
trips.
This
situation
continued
up to the
time of
his
reformation
and
beyond. He
adored
music, and
whenever
he had a
chance, he
would
attend
operas or
concerts.
He played
well-known
arias at
the piano
and also
some
accords
from his
own
inspiration.
He did not
smoke, and
was almost
exclusively
a
vegetarian,
nor did he
indulge in
fermented
drinks. He
found
water to
be his
ideal
drink.
It was his
habit to
review
books with
interest,
of those
displayed
in the
bookstores,
at the age
of 18, by
“chance”
his eyes
glanced at
a work
with an
unusual
title: The
Spirits’
Book by
Allan
Kardec.
Having in
his
possession
the amount
needed to
purchase
the book,
he bought
it and
rushed to
his home
immediately
surrendering
eagerly to
the
reading.
The
comments
of Denis
after
reading
it: “I
found in
this book
the clear
solution,
complete
and
logical,
to a
universal
problem.
My
conviction
became
strong and
sound. The
Spiritist
Theory
dissipated
my
indifference
and my
doubts.”
The year
of 1882
marked, in
reality,
the
beginning
of an
apostolate,
during
which he
had to
face
successive
obstacles,
such as:
the
materialism
and the
positivism
that
viewed
Spiritism
ironically
and with
amusement,
and also,
the
believers
of other
faiths who
did not
hesitate
to align
themselves
with the
atheists
in order
to
ridicule
and weaken
Leon
Denis.
Denis,
however as
a heroic
paragon,
had no
fear of
facing the
storm. The
good
spirits
were
placed at
his side
to
encourage
and to
exhort him
in the
battle.
“Courage,
friend,”
the spirit
of Jeanne
told him,
“we will
always be
with you
to sustain
and
inspire
you. You
will never
be alone.
In time,
the means
will be
provided
to you, so
that you
can
fulfill
your
task.” On
November
2nd, 1882,
on the day
of the
commemoration
of the
dead, an
event of
capital
importance
occurred
in Denis’s
life: for
the first
time, the
spirit who
would be
his guide,
his best
friend,
his
spiritual
father,
Jeronimo
of Prague,
manifested
himself
saying:
“Go, my
son,
follow the
open road
before
your eyes.
I will
walk
behind you
to sustain
you.”
By 1910,
Leon
Denis’
vision was
weakening
day by
day. The
surgery to
which he
had
submitted
two years
prior had
not
resulted
in any
improvement,
but he
calmly and
with
resignation
withstood
the
implacable
march of
that
illness
that had
persecuted
him since
his youth.
He
accepted
everything
stoically
and with
resignation.
He was
never
heard
complaining.
Though,
one can
well
imagine
how
immense
his
suffering
must have
been. In
spite of
this, he
kept up
with a
voluminous
amount of
correspondence.
He was
never
upset,
loved his
youth and
possessed
a happy
soul. He
was an
enemy of
sadness.
Physical
illness
represented
a smaller
interference
to him
than the
anguish he
felt for
the fact
that he no
longer
would he
be capable
of
writing.
Various
secretaries
substituted
him in at
this work;
however,
the
greater
difficulty
for Denis
consisted
in
reviewing
and
correcting
the new
edition of
his books
and of his
writings.
Thanks,
however,
to his
incomparable
memory and
orderly
spirit, he
overcame
all those
setbacks,
without
the need
to call on
his
friends
for
assistance.
After
World War
I, he
studied
and
learned
Braille,
which
allowed
him to put
on the
paper the
elements
of
chapters
and
articles
that came
into his
mind,
because at
this time
in life,
he was
practically
blind.
It was a
Tuesday,
in March
of 1927,
at about
1:00
o’clock in
the
afternoon,
that Denis
breathed
with great
difficulty.
Pneumonia
had
attacked
him once
again.
Life
seemed to
abandon
him, but
his state
of
lucidity
was
perfect.
His last
words,
pronounced
with
extraordinary
calm, in
spite of
the great
difficulty,
were
spoken to
his maid,
Georgette:
“It is
necessary
to finish,
to
summarize
and to
conclude.”
He was
referring
to the
foreword
of the new
biographical
edition of
Kardec. At
this exact
moment, he
completely
lacked the
energy to
articulate
another
word. At
9:00
o’clock
his spirit
flew away.
His
countenance
seemed as
if he was
still in a
state of
ecstasy.
The
funeral
services
took place
on April
16th, 1927
. At his
request,
the
funeral
was very
simple and
without
the
participation
or
pronouncement
of any
confessional
Church. He
was buried
in La
Salle ’s
cemetery,
in the
French
city of
Tours .
Among the
great
apostles
of
Spiritism,
the
extraordinary
powerful
presence
of Leon
Denis
deserves a
very
distinctive
place,
particularly,
in view of
having
been the
logical
follower
of Allan
Kardec’s
work. We
can be
sure that
it
constituted
an
extremely
difficult
task to
write
about
Denis’
life,
given the
magnitude
of his
mission on
earth. It
is
difficult
to
determine
what to
point out
first,
whether it
be his
incredible
personality,
the good
sense of
reasoning
with which
he was
endowed,
his
commitment
to work,
his
dedication
to his
fellow
beings or
the
fervent
love he
consecrated
to the
ideals
that he
embraced.
Leon Denis
was the
consolidator
of
Spiritism.
He was not
just the
substitute
and
continuator
of Allan
Kardec, as
is
generally
supposed.
Denis had
a mission
practically
as
significant
as the one
of the
Codifier.
To him,
was
assigned
the
development
of the
doctrinaire
studies,
to proceed
with the
mediumistic
research,
to propel
the
Spiritist
Movement
in France
and all
over the
world, to
deepen the
moral
aspect of
the
Doctrine
and above
all, to
consolidate
it in the
first
decades of
the
Century.
In that
new Bible,
(Spiritism)
the role
of Kardec
is that of
the wise
person and
the role
of Denis
is that of
the
philosopher.
Leon Denis
was
nominated
the
Apostle of
Spiritism,
due to his
magnificent
work, and
the words
written
and spoken
in behalf
of the new
Doctrine.
He can
also be
denominated
its
consolidator,
the
Philosopher
of
Spiritism.
Possessing
accentuated
moral
qualities,
he
dedicated
his entire
existence
to the
defense of
the
postulates
that
Kardec had
transmitted
in the
books of
the
spiritist
Pentateuch.
The moral
aspect (religious)
of the
Doctrine,
the
superior
principles
of life,
the
instruction,
and the
family,
deserved
his
extreme
cares, and,
for that
reason,
his life
of
probation,
work
example,
perseverance
and faith,
is a
journey of
light to
every
spiritist;
we will
declare
further
more: for
all the
individuals
of
goodwill
of all
eras. With
these
words of
confidence
and faith,
Denis
himself,
summarized
the
mission
that he
had come
to
accomplish
in favor
of a noble
cause: “I
have
consecrated
this
existence
to the
service of
a Great
cause,
Spiritism
or Modern
Spiritualism
that will
certainly
be the
universal
faith, and
the
religion
of the
future.”
His
bibliography
is quite
extensive
and
composed
of
monumental
works that
enrich the
spiritualist
libraries.
It is due
to him
that the
spiritists
have been
blessed
with the
unique
opportunity
to see the
enlarged
new angles
of the
Spiritist
Doctrine's
philosophical
aspect,
because,
his works
generally
focused on
the
numerous
problems
that occur
to men,
and also
to the
perpetually
disturbing
subject of
the
survival
of the
human soul
in its
laborious
evolutionary
process.
Léon Denis
was
immortalized
in the
gigantic
task of
dissecting
problems
related to
the
afflictions
that
attack the
incarnate
beings,
supplying
valuable
information
which in
essence
throws new
light on
the
problem of
the
terrestrial
tribulations.
He left
behind the
concepts
that until
then had
prevailed,
to present
it
engulfed
in the
light of
highly
comforting
teachings,
which
resulted
from the
inexhaustible
sources of
the
Doctrine
of the
Spirits.
Being
devoted to
the
profound
study of
Spiritism,
in its
triple
aspect,
incorporating
science,
philosophy
and
religion,
he took a
long time
with
greater
persistence
in its
philosophical
aspect.
Together
with his
serious
studies in
that field,
he also
made a
valuable
contribution,
in dealing
and
studying
historical
subjects,
supplying
important
subsidies
clarifying
the Celtic
origins of
France and
concerning
the
dramatic
episode of
the
martyrdom
of Joan of
Arc, the
great
French
medium.
His
studies
didn't
stop there.
He worried
excessively
about the
origins of
Christianity
and its
evolutionary
process
through
the
times.
Among his
multiple
occupations,
he was
honorary
president
of the
Spiritist
French
Union,
honorary
member of
the
International
Spiritist
Federation,
president
of the
International
Spiritist
Congress,
reached in
Paris , in
the year
of 1925.
He also
had the
opportunity
of
directing
for many
years, an
experimental
group on
Spiritism,
in the
French
city of
Tours .
His
performance
in the
heart of
Spiritism
was more
diverse
than those
developed
by Allan
Kardec.
While the
Codifier
exercised
his noble
activities
in the
French
capital,
Léon Denis
carried
out his
dignifying
task in
the
country
side of
France .
His
unusual
intellectual
capacity
and his
clarity in
transcendental
matters,
led the
Spiritist
Movement
in France
, and in
the rest
of the
world, to
gravitate
toward the
city of
Tours .
After
Allan
Kardec’s
disincarnation,
that city
became the
point of
convergence
of all who
wanted to
make
contact
with
Spiritism,
and
receive
illumination,
because,
undeniably,
the
Pleiades
of Spirits
that had
as task,
the
success of
the
process of
revelation
of
Spiritism,
gave to
the great
apostle
all the
necessary
support so
that the
new
doctrine
could be
rooted
firmly in
a wide and
unrestricted
way.
While
Kardec
stood out
as a
personality
of
universal
proportion,
who made
his name
in the
Academic
World,
before he
became
devoted to
the
spiritist
research
and to
codify
Spiritism,
Léon Denis
was an
autodidactic
who
received
his
schooling
in
obscurity
and in
material
poverty,
to appear
suddenly
in the
intellectual
scene and
to impose
himself as
a lecturer
and a
famous
writer,
becoming
an
exponential
representative
in the
field of
the
doctrinaire
dissemination
of
Spiritism.
Denis
possessed
a robust
intelligence;
he was a
great
speaker
and
writer,
enjoying
an
appreciable
degree of
intuition.
Referring
to him,
one of his
contemporaries
Gabriel
Gobron,
wrote: “He
met true
victories
and those
who had
the rare
happiness
of hearing
him speak
in a group
attendance
of two or
three
thousand
people,
know
perfectly
well, how
charming
and
convincing
his
speeches
were."
Denis
never
studied in
an
accredited
academy;
however,
he
developed
in the
practical
school of
life. He
experienced
his own
pain and
that of
others. He
was not
well paid,
having to
undergo
heroic
deprivations,
which
taught him
wisdom.
For this
reason, he
used to
say: "The
ones that
have not
experienced
those
lessons
usually
ignore one
of the
most
moving
sides of
life ".
With the
resources
of his
uncommon
intelligence
he could
have been
spared
from
poverty,
but he
preferred
to live
within it,
as in his
opinion it
was
difficult
to
accumulate
selfishly
for
himself,
that which
he had
received
to be
distributed
among his
fellow
beings.
In a well
advanced
age, blind,
and with a
relatively
weak
constitution,
he still
lived full
of
tribulations.
Nothing,
however,
changed
his way of
proceeding.
In spite
of all
those
adverse
conditions,
he
received
everyone
with
deference.
From the
first
hours of
the
morning he
dictated
himself to
his
secretary,
in
answering
voluminous
correspondence,
replying
to the
pleading
of
countless
societies
that he
had
founded or
of which
he had
been named
honorary
president.
Whenever
he
attended
there, he
was always
designated
a place of
greatest
prominence,
a mark
achieved
at the
price of
deep
dedication,
perseverance
and
indefatigable
labor in
goodness.
Main works
of Léon
Denis:
"Christianity
and
Spiritism;
"Here and
Hereafter);
"Spirits
and
Mediums;
"Joan of
Arc;
“In the
Invisible;
“The
Beyond and
the
Survival
of the
Being;
"Spiritism
and the
Catholic
Clergy;
"Spiritism
in the Art;
“The
Celtic
Genius and
the
Invisible
World;
“The Great
Enigma;
“The
Invisible
World and
the War;
“The
Reason of
Life;
“Life and
Destiny;
"Progress;
“Experimental
tests of
the
Survival;
“Socialism
and
Spiritism.” |