Léon Denis Léon 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 Léon 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 fulfil 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, Léon 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.