Twenty-fourth point. His faith

Her answer on the twenty-fourth point was :

I have already mentioned in the second point that it is a well-known fact that our Blessed Founder was brought up and nourished by his parents from his childhood, in the most holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Faith; that he persevered therein to the very end of his life, and was by all who knew him admired for this constancy and perseverance. His actions, his words, his sermons, his books, the fatigues and toils which he underwent from the time when he was first called to the Holy Order of the Priesthood, the very great number of heretics whom he converted to the Catholic Faith, and of Catholics whom he reclaimed from an evil life, as well as the frequent controversies which he held with the heretics until the very end of his life, proclaim this truth aloud. As I have already said, it is well known that for three whole years our Blessed Founder laboured for the conversion of the heretics of the Chablais, and was generally called the Apostle of that district.

The holy Prelate on his return from this mission wrote to me as follows : " I have just returned," he says, " from the very extremity of my diocese, which borders on Switzerland, having completed the establishment of thirty-three parishes, in which, eleven years ago, there were only Ministers and heretics. For three years I was quite alone there, preaching the Catholic Faith, and God has granted me on this journey the very fullest consolation, for whereas formerly I could only find a hundred Catholics in the whole of the Chablais, I was now not able to find a hundred Huguenots." And this is true, &c.

With regard to this same twenty-fourth point, I declare that it is certain that all those who had intercourse Jvith our Blessed Prelate, observed his wonderful understanding and illumination in all the mysteries of our holy Faith, feeling con vinced that he had received this gift of under standing in an eminent degree. Indeed, one day when he was instructing me on this subject, he told me most admirable things about the excel lence of the holy Catholic Faith, adding that God had endowed him with much light and knowledge for the understanding of its mysteries, and that he thought he possessed the mind and intention of the Church respecting the mysteries which she teaches to her children; and indeed there could not be a soul more closely united to the Faith of Holy Church than was his. I know his tender, fervent love for Holy Church, and

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82 Saint Sane $. to Cental's that he honoured and obeyed her in her smallest commands.

The learned who conversed with him declared, that God had imbued his mind with extraordinary light and knowledge for the explanation of the most difficult passages of Holy Scripture, which he made clear and easy of understanding alike to the wise and to the simple, so that both were perfectly satisfied. The Reverend Father Dom Jean de Saint-Francois, General of the Feuillants, the Reverend Father Louis de la Riviere, Minim, and the Reverend Philibert de la Bonneville, Provincial of the Capuchin Fathers, all bear open witness, in the books which they have written concerning his life, to this truth.

For my own part, I saiv plainly that this gift of Faith bestowed upon our Blessed Father was accompanied by great clearness and certainty, and by extraordinary spiritual savour and sweet ness. Indeed God had shed into the inmost recesses of his soul so clear a light, that he saw the truths of the Faith with unclouded vision; and I know that he submitted his understanding to those truths with an absolute subjection of mind and will; he called the place in which this light reigned, the sanctuary of God, into which nothing might enter but the soul alone with God.

On one occasion, our Blessed Founder being in company with the deputies of the Most Christian King, in the bailiwick of Gex, which belonged to his diocese, whither he had gone to re-establish the holy practices of the Catholic Religion in several parishes, wrote — and I have seen and read the letters written with his own hand — as follows : " Alas ! I see these poor wandering sheep, I draw near to them, and see and feel how blind they are. Oh my God, the beauty of our holy Faith is so overwhelming, that I shall surely die of love for it, and I know full well that the precious gift which God has bestowed upon me should be safely treasured and stored in a heart full of devotion and sweetness. Thank this divine light, which sheds its rays so mercifully within my heart, that the more I find myself in the midst of those who have it not, the more clearly and distinctly I see its splendours and its sweetness. May God, my helper, make use of mo and of my acts for His glory, even as I wish it."

At another time, our Blessed Founder, writing about the conversion of two heretics, persons of distinction, to receive whom into the bosom of the Church he had travelled a distance of about fifty miles, says : " What thanks ought I not to render to the great God that I, beset by so many dangers of falling into heresy, tempted by so many allure ments when I was young, frail, and feeble, and living so long in the very midst of heretics, yet never have wished even to gaze upon heresy except to express my contempt for it, and that my weak and youthful mind was never in the very least disturbed by this wretched disorder whilst perusing all their most poisonous works

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Oh my God ! when I think of this immense benefit, I shudder at my own ingratitude."

Thus it was, that when life was ebbing away, and he was asked if he had any doubts as to the Faith, since many Saints had in their last moments been troubled by such temptations, he replied humbly but firmly: That would indeed le high treason on my part.

A person told me that, having battled for two whole years with a strong temptation against belief in the most Holy Sacrament, she was delivered from it the very first time she spoke of it to our Blessed Founder, and I myself, after years of a similar struggle, only obtained relief from it through his instructions, and I firmly believe that it was through his prayers that I at last obtained entire deliverance from it. He assured me with incredible firmness, that the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Faith was the one and only path to heaven, that there was no other, and that whatever difficulties we might meet on the way, we must still always follow it. He told me these things and many others so firmly as to give me extraordinary strength against this temp tation, and henceforth I remained encouraged and wholly satisfied on the subject. All this is true.