Eleventh point. The mission in the chablais

Her answer on the eleventh point was :

I declare that it is well and generally known that our Blessed Prelate was sent into the Chablais for the conversion of the people who had fallen into heresy about seventy years before. When Bishop de Granier desired him to do this, he remained silent for a moment, then answered him exactly as I have told you that he did the first time the Bishop commanded him to preach : At your word I will let doiun the net. Speaking on this subject to me, he added, I think, that relying only on God, and on the virtue of obedience to Him and to His servant, he went away to labour in the town of Thonon, where at first there were not more than six or seven Catholics. In this same town of Thonon, where our Blessed Founder chiefly resided, he preached and instructed his little audience as assiduously as if it had been a crowded congregation, and God gave him a special consolation, which was this. One day on the Feast of St. Stephen, when he was preaching on the Invocation of the Saints, one of these seven Catholics, who was much disturbed by the doubts which he entertained as to the prayers of the saints, was absolutely confirmed in faith as regards this point, and also in his belief in the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion, and told the holy Prelate this, thereby strengthening him in his resolution never to abstain from preaching because of the smallness of his audience.

He was for three whole years engaged in this work, in great peril of his life, as we may easily believe from the temper of the heretics, who, seeing that another doctrine than their own was brought amongst them, were often stirred with indignation, as I have been told by an eye-witness, a person most worthy of belief. The same person told me that on one occasion Pere Esprit, a Capuchin, arriving at Thonon, went to hear a heretical sermon, at the conclusion of which he entered into a heated argument with the preacher, our Blessed Father being also present; upon which several people took up stones to stone them. The late Madame de Vallon, who was among the company and one of the most noisy, has since declared, that what put an end to the disturbance was the presence of our Blessed

68 Saint Sane JK tie (fljantaPs depositions

Founder, who, by his sweet and gentle counte nance, calmed the fury of the heretics as soon as they looked upon him. She herself, not long after this, was converted to the faith, and so efficaciously that she became his spiritual daughter, and was by him guided to such per fection that she lived, and a few years later died, in a most holy manner.

It is impossible to enumerate the dangers, fatigues, and toils which our Blessed Founder endured, in the course of the three years during which he laboured incessantly for the conversion of these people. He lived entirely on his own means, generally speaking, quite alone, and when, as was very rarely the case, he was assisted by his cousin, the before-mentioned M. Louis de Sales, he always defrayed his expenses also, doing the same when he left him in his place while he himself went, as he occasionally did, to visit his father.

The number of Catholics increased marvel lously, and this determined our Blessed Founder to seek an audience of the Duke of Savoy at Turin, to beg his assistance both in regaining possession of the Churches in Thonon, and also in providing new labourers in the work and means of subsistence for them, all which he obtained. The result was that in a very short time, this region was converted to the holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Faith, several thousands of people being so converted. All this I learned from the before-mentioned M. de

Sales and Roland,* both being eye-witnesses of the fact, and our Blessed Founder also told me something on the subject. This is true, &c.