LEON DENIS - THE CONSOLIDATOR OF THE SPIRITIST DOCTRINE
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Following Spiritism’s codification by Allan Kardec, one of its most prominent disseminators was another Frenchman, Léon Denis, who is often referred to as the Consolidator of the Doctrine, or the Apostle of Spiritism. Leon Denis lived during approximately the same time period as Allan Kardec (Kardec 1804-1869, Denis 1846-1927). From an early age, he felt the influence and guidance of "invisible friends" and was always interested in the pursuit of meaningful study, focusing, in particular, on Design, Geography, and Accounting, sought answers to questions of philosophic and religious issues. He studied with enthusiasm both History and Social Sciences. Through the course of his extensive travels and studies, Denis became a self-taught intellect and a well known speaker. |
From the moment he purchased his first copy of the "The Spirits' Book", at 18 years of age, he took great interest in Spiritism, whereby he continued his studies of Kardec's works and soon became one of Spiritism's greatest students, defenders, and propagators. As a seeing and writing medium, Denis received communications from Sorella (who he later discovered to be Joan of Arc, about whom he wrote a book), from a Spirit nicknamed “Blue Spirit”, and from his own spirit guide, Jerônimo de Praga. As a disseminator of Spiritism, Denis developed several conferences in which he demonstrated and shared his profound knowledge of the doctrine. He spoke at several International Spiritualist Conferences in which he defended the Doctrine's philosophy and objective, and he wrote several books of great value to its study.
In his book, “Basic Spiritism”, Barbosa includes this quotation from the preface to Herculano Pires’ book "Life and Work of Léon Denis" :
"Léon Denis was the consolidator of Spiritism. His role was not merely to become a substitute for Allan Kardec or to carry on his work, as is generally thought. Denis had a mission nearly as grandiose as that of the Codifier. It was up to Denis to develop doctrinal studies, to continue the mediumistic research, to promote the Spiritist movement in France and around the world, to deepen the moral aspect of the Doctrine, and above all, to consolidate it in the first decades of the Century." (Pires in Barbosa, 1987)
Check out these two books by Léon Denis, available in English: |
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Barbosa, Pedro Franco. "Léon Denis, O Consolidador" [Leon Denis, The Consolidator]. Espiritismo Basico [Basic Spiritism]. 3rd ed. Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil: Federação Espírita Brasileira [Brazilian Spiritist Federation].1987. 59-65.
Bibliography of Léon Denis found on the website for the Leon Denis Spiritist Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (ww.celd.org.br)-- consisting in text from José Basílio, based on the book “Pages from Léon Denis” by Sylvio Brito.