Thirty-fifth point. His zeal and his many sermons

Her answer on the thirty-fifth point ivas :

It is well known that our Blessed Father instituted the Catechism classes in this town, arranging what he wished to teach. Every week he catechised, with so much devotion and such delightful charm of manner, that people thronged to hear him. His teaching was interwoven with anecdotes and illustrations so appropriate to his subject, that all who listened profited greatly, and each could carry away something. He himself questioned the children with such fatherly tenderness and kindness that his audience, always a large one, was delighted. He ordered processions, singing Our Lady's Litany, and always took part in them himself.

After some years had passed, and when by his watchful care he had succeeded in establishing the Barnabite Fathers in this town, he gave over the charge of this catechising to them, and they discharged it most thoroughly, to the great profit of the young.

The holy Bishop preached the course of Lenten sermons for several years in his diocese, both in this city of Annecy and elsewhere, with out charging the towns in any way with his expenses. He preached one Advent course, and for a whole year on Sundays and feasts in this town, taking for his subject the Commandments of God. Moreover, whenever he happened to be in the neighbourhood, he generally preached in one of the Churches of this town on the Sundays and festivals. And truly he preached like an Apostle, such was his zeal and burning desire for the conversion and profit of souls. It was easy to see that in these sermons this was his sole aim. He never thought about being a great preacher, though he was one indeed, and was acknowledged as such by universal opinion, but he never aspired to the reputation of one.

He was as happy to preach in the humblest pulpits as in the grandest, provided he could do as much good in the one as in the other. Once when he was in Paris he wrote to me thus : " I am preaching here, before these Princes and

1 68 Saint 3fane $. tie etfjantal'* JBepostttons

Princesses, but I assure you that I do not do so better or more cheerfully than I did in our little Church of the Visitation." Indeed, it is certain that he sought only the profit of souls, not applause. He always entered the pulpit with great humility and dependence on the good pleasure of God. He was especially admired for the great ease and clearness with which he ex pressed himself, and for the simple and solid explanations which he gave of the deepest mysteries of our Holy Faith.

The last time our Blessed Founder went to Paris, he preached there the whole of the Lenten course of sermons, besides delivering an immense number of sermons in almost all the Churches.

During his first visit to Paris, when he stayed there for six months, he preached at least a hundred sermons, as eye- witnesses testify, in the great hall of the Louvre, as well as elsewhere. Very many heretics were converted by his sermons, especially the great family of the Raconis at Paris, whom he received into the Catholic Church, and two of whom are now great preachers, one a Capuchin.

He delivered a whole course of Lenten sermons at Dijon, where all admired and esteemed him as a truly apostolic man, whose exemplary life was as perfect a sermon as was his teaching. There he gained the hearts of all, and especially of some of the Members of Parliament. He also contracted a most close and lasting friendship with my brother, the

Archbishop of Bourges, assisting at his first Mass and receiving Communion from his hand, it being Holy Thursday; and this our Blessed Founder did with so much reverence and de votion that many who were present were filled with admiration. It was during this holy season of Lent that I had the unspeakable honour and happiness of becoming acquainted with this great Prelate, into whose hands, from that time forth, I confided the care of my soul absolutely and with perfect satisfaction.

He also preached two Lenten courses at Chambe' ry, before the Senate of Savoy, at his own expense, to the great contentment of all the people, as I have heard.

Again, he preached two Lenten courses and one Advent course of sermons at Grenoble before the Parliament, and it would be difficult to ex press the confidence which he inspired in the minds of both the great and the lowly, confirm ing the faith of those who were wavering on account of the heresy all about them, bringing profligates back to good lives, and increasing the number of his spiritual children by exercises of piety and devotion. I have even heard that the inhabitants of Grenoble have resolved to take him for the patron of their town, as soon as it shall have pleased His Holiness to beatify him. And in proof of their great veneration for his memory, I have noticed that both from the city of Grenoble as well as from Dauphine, a great concourse of people of rank as well as others

1 70 Saint Sane $. tie Cijantal's Depositions come to visit his tomb and to place votive offerings there. And in every place in which our Blessed Founder preached, he was esteemed and honoured as one like to the Apostles and more than human in his holiness. In all those towns he gave audience to every one who sought him, hearing the confessions of innumerable peni tents, delivering many conferences, giving instruc tion on the spiritual life, visiting the hospitals, prisoners, and the sick in their own homes. All this I have seen him do, during the Lent which he preached at Dijon.

He would never receive any present from the towns in which he preached, and I know for a certainty that he refused some silver plate which was pressed upon him at Dijon, and also a purse of money which, after he had preached in the Queen's Chapel at Paris, the Princess de Longueville, according to the custom of that city, offered him.

In short our Blessed Founder's zeal for the Faith and for the salvation of souls was inexpres sible. His incessant labours for that end, and the numbers whom he converted to the Faith, or brought back to the service of God, are sufficient proofs of this fact.

He wrote once as follows about a Priest who had gone over to England to become a heretic : " 0 God ! what sorrow fills my soul ! Truly in all my life so terrible a shock has never before fallen upon me ! Is it possible that this poor soul is thus lost ? My own soul cannot calmly look on, while the soul of this friend is perishing. Oh ! how happy are the true children of Holy Church, in whose bosom all the children of God have died ! My heart throbs with pain over this terrible fall, and yet at the same time with fresh courage to serve the Church of the living God, and the living God of the Church."

Again, on the same subject he writes : " Oh ! how vain are men when they believe in them selves : For it must needs be that scandals come, l>ut,^ nevertheless, woe to that 'man by whom the scandal cometh ! (Matt, xviii. 7). This young man would never govern himself as I wished' him to do; he always rejected the sweet and easy yoke of Our Lord. But courage ! I do not despair of seeing him one day recross the sea and come back safely to port [and this happened, for he has since returned to the Catholic Church]; still I weep over him from my very heart. He wrote to me about his fall, saying : / am separating myself from the Church, that I may retire into Eng land, whither, so he expresses himself, God calls me. Who would not groan over these words, since to separate oneself from the Church is to separate oneself from God. But let us take heart; God can make even the loss of those who abandon Him redound to His glory. I must conclude by telling you that God has cheered me, in the midst of all my grief over the fall of this young man, by a fresh infusion of sweetness, peace, and spiritual light, so as to make me admire more and more the excellence of the Catholic Faith."

172 Saint Sane fi. tie eKjjantal's depositions

" I must tell you," he wrote to me at another time, " that I am just now very sad at heart; for from Twelfth Day till Lent I have been strangely troubled. Miserable and detestable even as I am myself, it overwhelms me with grief to see so great a falling off in the devotion of my people, so many souls relaxing their efforts after holiness. These last two Sundays our Communions have been only half their usual number, which makes me very sad, for even if those who have been absent do not become wicked, why do they cease to do well for the sake of mere follies ? That is what I feel. Well, let us, then, invoke the blessing of God upon ourselves, and thank Him that we have resolved never to do the same. No, I do not think that we could thus of deliberate purpose delay one step on our road for all that the world might offer us. No, assuredly no, by God's grace, no."

I repeat, then, that it is impossible to express the ardent zeal of our Blessed Founder for the holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Faith, and for the preaching of the Word of God. This is well known.