Jacques Fesch was born at St-German-en-Laye in France, on April 6, 1930. On June 5, 1951, he contracted civil marriage with Piera Polack, just a month before the birth of their daughter Veronica. At that time, he had abandoned religious practice altogether.
On 24 February 1954, to fund the purchase of a boat, he went to rob Alexandre Sylberstein, a money changer, of gold coins. Sylberstein was struck but not unconscious, and raised the alarm. Fesch fled, losing his glasses, and shot wildly at Jean Vergne, a pursuing police officer, killing him. Minutes later he was arrested after managing to rob 330,000 French francs.
Murdering a police officer was a heinous crime and public opinion, inflamed by lurid newspaper reports, was strongly in favour of his execution. The Court d'Assise of Paris condemned him to death on April 6, 1957.
He was arrested and imprisoned for three years. Like another Saint Monica, his mother prayed intensely for his conversion, but she soon died of cancer in 1956. Jacques's reply to the prison chaplain was: "I am an unbeliever". But the priest gave him a book about Our Lady. On reading it, he was really converted and became a devout Catholic.
On September 30, 1956, he celebrated Catholic marriage with Piera. He had been condemned to death about five months earlier. Finally, after his conversion to Catholicism, like Saint Francis of Assisi, he welcomed "Sister Death".
An appeal for clemency to President René Coty failed. The death sentence was carried out on October 1, 1957. He was only 27. In 1993, the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, started the preliminary process for the beatification of this converted "Good Thief".
On 24 February 1954, to fund the purchase of a boat, he went to rob Alexandre Sylberstein, a money changer, of gold coins. Sylberstein was struck but not unconscious, and raised the alarm. Fesch fled, losing his glasses, and shot wildly at Jean Vergne, a pursuing police officer, killing him. Minutes later he was arrested after managing to rob 330,000 French francs.
Murdering a police officer was a heinous crime and public opinion, inflamed by lurid newspaper reports, was strongly in favour of his execution. The Court d'Assise of Paris condemned him to death on April 6, 1957.
He was arrested and imprisoned for three years. Like another Saint Monica, his mother prayed intensely for his conversion, but she soon died of cancer in 1956. Jacques's reply to the prison chaplain was: "I am an unbeliever". But the priest gave him a book about Our Lady. On reading it, he was really converted and became a devout Catholic.
On September 30, 1956, he celebrated Catholic marriage with Piera. He had been condemned to death about five months earlier. Finally, after his conversion to Catholicism, like Saint Francis of Assisi, he welcomed "Sister Death".
An appeal for clemency to President René Coty failed. The death sentence was carried out on October 1, 1957. He was only 27. In 1993, the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, started the preliminary process for the beatification of this converted "Good Thief".
Jacques Fesch was born at St-German-en-Laye in France, on April 6, 1930. On June 5, 1951, he contracted civil marriage with Piera Polack, just a month before the birth of their daughter Veronica. At that time, he had abandoned religious practice altogether.
On 24 February 1954, to fund the purchase of a boat, he went to rob Alexandre Sylberstein, a money changer, of gold coins. Sylberstein was struck but not unconscious, and raised the alarm. Fesch fled, losing his glasses, and shot wildly at Jean Vergne, a pursuing police officer, killing him. Minutes later he was arrested after managing to rob 330,000 French francs.
Murdering a police officer was a heinous crime and public opinion, inflamed by lurid newspaper reports, was strongly in favour of his execution. The Court d'Assise of Paris condemned him to death on April 6, 1957.
He was arrested and imprisoned for three years. Like another Saint Monica, his mother prayed intensely for his conversion, but she soon died of cancer in 1956. Jacques's reply to the prison chaplain was: "I am an unbeliever". But the priest gave him a book about Our Lady. On reading it, he was really converted and became a devout Catholic.
On September 30, 1956, he celebrated Catholic marriage with Piera. He had been condemned to death about five months earlier. Finally, after his conversion to Catholicism, like Saint Francis of Assisi, he welcomed "Sister Death".
An appeal for clemency to President René Coty failed. The death sentence was carried out on October 1, 1957. He was only 27. In 1993, the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, started the preliminary process for the beatification of this converted "Good Thief".
On 24 February 1954, to fund the purchase of a boat, he went to rob Alexandre Sylberstein, a money changer, of gold coins. Sylberstein was struck but not unconscious, and raised the alarm. Fesch fled, losing his glasses, and shot wildly at Jean Vergne, a pursuing police officer, killing him. Minutes later he was arrested after managing to rob 330,000 French francs.
Murdering a police officer was a heinous crime and public opinion, inflamed by lurid newspaper reports, was strongly in favour of his execution. The Court d'Assise of Paris condemned him to death on April 6, 1957.
He was arrested and imprisoned for three years. Like another Saint Monica, his mother prayed intensely for his conversion, but she soon died of cancer in 1956. Jacques's reply to the prison chaplain was: "I am an unbeliever". But the priest gave him a book about Our Lady. On reading it, he was really converted and became a devout Catholic.
On September 30, 1956, he celebrated Catholic marriage with Piera. He had been condemned to death about five months earlier. Finally, after his conversion to Catholicism, like Saint Francis of Assisi, he welcomed "Sister Death".
An appeal for clemency to President René Coty failed. The death sentence was carried out on October 1, 1957. He was only 27. In 1993, the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, started the preliminary process for the beatification of this converted "Good Thief".
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