Letter 189. To Mother Marnie Jacqueline Favre
Believe me, my daughter, it is no small mortification to write to you so seldom and so briefly; but, verily, if you knew in the midst of what bustle it has to be done, you would indeed excuse me. I hope somebody writes you all our news, for I can only send you this line. We are founded, thanks to the great God.t_ There are always two or three sisters ill, and none are perfectly well; but God is our expectation and our providence.
May He be blessed for the way in which your affairs are falling into shape. Now I tell you this: we are bound to love M. de Saint-Nizier. I have always done so, but will do now more than ever, please God. Pray assure him of this. Our Francon has been wavering on account of worldly prospects. I expect her decision to-morrow—say nothing about it. Oh! my daughter, live, I beseech of you, in holy generosity and observance. Ah! truly, but that it is His holy will, we should grieve at the loss of my dearest Sister Barbe Marie.? I feel this blow deeply. God be blessed; abide in peace. Write and tell me howit happened. May the Lord place her dear soul in Paradise. Yrs. etc.123
Footnotes
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Mother de Bréchard so promptly fulfilled this obedience that the three sisters arrived at Bourges on Holy Thursday, March 28. D ↩
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The Paris foundation was not made without many difficulties. For a month Mother de Chantal and her daughters had to endure not only the most distressing conditions of poverty but the most unheardof contradictions. ‘The appearance of a humble Institute consecrated to the hidden life, to obedience, and to the interior spirit of Nazareth was looked upon as intolerable to a society given up to pomp and display. Even good people, priests and religious, tried to insist upon Mother de Chantal taking up exterior works—amongst others, the charge of a house of penitents called the Magdalens. But St. Francis, without altogether rejecting the proposal, replied: ‘‘ It is not yet time to take over work of this kind—the fruit is not ripe enough; when it is our daughters will undertake it.”” Ten years later his words were verified. All these obstacles, however, disappeared as if by miracle, and the new community had no more devoted friends than its former adversaries. Its installation took place on 1 May, St. Francis de Sales performing the ceremony in presence of an immense number of visitors, who manifested every mark of satisfaction.’—History of the Foundation of the First Monastery of Paris. ↩
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Madame la Présidente Le Blanc, known in the Order as Sister Barbe Marie, had just died. In writing to Mother de Chatel, St. Francis thus expresses himself about her: ‘So Madame la Présidente Le Blanc is no longer with you. I believe she is with the angels. She wasa rare woman, a great servant of God. Grenoble has lost in her a great example of virtue.’—Unpublished History of the Foundation of Grenoble. ↩
Chapter 18 of 252