Letter 228. To St. Francis de Sales

My very honoured Lord and best of Fathers,— Yesterday I heard through M. Vincent,! who has more reverence for you than it is possible to put either into words or thoughts, all about the project of inducing you to go into France. The most religious and judicious minds have considered the proposition, and, weighing all the reasons on both sides, are very doubtful as to what will be most for the glory of God. M. Vincent, when he told me this yesterday, added that it seemed as if God had put you as a bulwark against that miserable Geneva, and as an impregnable wall between France and Italy to prevent heresy from entering therein. Or, he said, you may be destined by God to come here and be, as on the theatre of the world, an example and a light for all the prelates of France; for in so large a vineyard such a workman would be of great use, more so than in a little corner of the world. They say that you ought to weigh this question, and to feel yourself what God desires of you. You are greatly praised because you have referred this matter to the Pope,? provided, say they, that you fully explained the whole affair to him. In fact, my best of

Fathers, these men are of opinion that they must not only manage their own affairs, but those of everyone else besides. Let me know if I am right in having told you this, or if I ought to have been silent about it. Had I kept it back it would, it seems to me, have been on my conscience. I must say once for all that, when I look at you from the Annecy point of view, I feel a very strong inclination that you should remain where you are; but if I look at the question from here, I think that perhaps God calls you to Paris for His greater glory, and I become indifferent about it, desiring above all that Our Lord should accomplish His holy will in us.

You oblige me greatly by telling me so freely the thoughts and plans of your good and gentle heart. Do this always, my Father, I beg of you; it is a great consolation to me. But, should I not tell you candidly that I have two or three times had little feelings of self-love because you have answered me nothing at all in regard to anything that I have asked you about myself in particular, and my own lamentations? You have done very wrong, my dear Father, for my self-love will be fed thereby. Eh! but I have always had my bagful of this miserable self-love! May God empty it.

Thank you very much for your kindness to my children. I need to be relieved and supported in this charge. It comforts me to know that they possess your valuable and holy assistance with God. This I would not relinquish for any good fortune, etc.¹²

Footnotes

1. St. Vincent de Paul. ↩

2. In 1619 St. Francis de Sales refused the abbey of Sainte Geneviéve and the coadjutorship of Paris with the right of succession. In 1620 solicitations redoubled: Louis XIII, as formerly Henry IV, endeavoured to draw the Saint into France by offering him a more honourable and lucrative position and one with less labour attached to it than that of the bishopric of Geneva. St. Jane F. de Chantal, kept au courant of the plans at Court by St. Vincent de Paul, faithfully informed her Blessed Father of them, ↩