Ivry-sur-Seine The House of Madeleine Delbrêl

Madeleine Delbrêl, a young poet who came to faith at nineteen, arrived in Ivry in October 1933 with two companions to live the Gospel in a working-class town run by the Communist Party. She stayed thirty-one years, as a social worker and a neighbor, and wrote about holiness in the ordinary streets of the city.

She died at her desk in the house at 11 rue Raspail on October 13, 1964. Pope Francis declared her Venerable in 2018. The house, kept by those who continue her work, receives visitors and groups.

Madeleine Delbrêl dated her conversion to March 29, 1924. She came to Ivry at the request of the parish priest, with Suzanne Lacloche and Hélène Manuel, to run a parish social center in the Plateau district, and in April 1935 the small community moved into 11 rue Raspail. The women called their group “la Charité.” By 1945 it had about fifteen members living as a team, and after her death it continued as the Équipes Madeleine Delbrêl. In 1957 she published Ville marxiste, terre de mission, an account of her experience in Ivry. Pope Francis recognized her heroic virtues and declared her Venerable on January 26, 2018.

The house was renovated in 2019. It is run by the association Les Amis de Madeleine Delbrêl, whose volunteers receive several hundred visitors a year. Her bedroom has been rebuilt as it was before her death. In the living room, wooden plaques carry passages from her writings, and books by her and about her are sold on site. In the garden, five gazebos hold large photographs of her, each with one of her texts on the back, which visitors can also hear read in her own voice. A plaque on the façade records that she lived in the house from 1935 until her death in 1964.

• The house at 11 rue RaspailHer room, her desk and the garden; groups are received by appointment.
• Saint-Dominique, Paris 14th arrondissementThe Paris parish where she met Father Jacques Lorenzo; a crypt there is dedicated to her.

• Via CaritatisThe Way of Charity, seven daysDay II, Ivry-sur-Seine and Noisy-le-Grand

Metro line 7 to Mairie d’Ivry, about twenty minutes from the center of Paris.

• Issy-les-MoulineauxThe Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, about 5 miles as the crow flies
• Noisy-le-GrandNotre-Dame-des-Sans-Logis, about 8 miles as the crow flies
• Saint-DenisThe Basilica of Saint-Denis, about 9 miles as the crow flies
• PontoiseThe Carmel of Pontoise, about 21 miles as the crow flies