Madeleine Delbrêl exhibition held at Meeting di Rimini

The Meeting di Rimini hosted an exhibition dedicated to Madeleine Delbrêl, a French social worker declared ‘venerable’ by Pope Francis in 2018. Born in 1904, Delbrêl was once a self-declared atheist who famously wrote, ‘God is dead, long live death!’ during her youth.

Her life underwent a significant transformation through her encounters with Christian youth, leading her to find faith while working in the secular and communist environments of Ivry-sur-Seine. She focused on living a simple, fraternal life alongside the working class, witnessing faith through presence and community rather than through formal religious structures. Cardinal Martini once described her as ‘one of the great mystics of the 20th century.’