Skip to the text
Ember
PT

Letter 265. To Mother Mane Jacqueline Favre

Superior at Montferrand. [Paris] 17 July, 1620. Vive > Jésus!

Oh! my daughter, how disappointing it is not to know where to write to you. If you knew the addresses I should be so glad to have had them. ... May God be blessed for the good welcome you have received. But it is a pity the people attach themselves thus to the first superiors they see. I feel quite confident that you very well know how to give all possible recognition and deference to your ecclesiastical superior. You ought not, it seems to me, to speak of your departure, for it only increases the opposition. I had to have recourse to this plan here; and besides, I think the house of Turin? will not be founded, or at any rate not till later. You will do well to make as long a sojourn where you are as you think desirable. It is pitiable to have to treat with these timid souls. I have spoken to the young lady of whom you wrote to me; she said she would write to you. I did not say everything, but I said enough to discharge you of this affair, and you will do well to meddle no more in it. Oh! indeed, my daughter, I hope, by the grace of God, to see you again. Would to God that you could quite free yourself before starting for Lyons. Yet I do not think you will return there, at least not for a long time. But I will write of this to his Lordship. Our Sister Marie Aimée de Blonay is doing very well. All goes smoothly as usual, and Sister ’s character seems quite to fit in. The sisters ® are expected, but who is coming we know not. A house is on the point of being purchased; it is costing us a great deal of money, but the providence of God will not fail to provide if it please Him. Postulants abound, and on my feast day we received one of great quality * and of still greater reputation. She is giving fifteen thousand1234

Footnotes

  1. It was in reference to the pressing infirmities of this religious, who was obliged for three years to use crutches, that St. Francis de Sales wrote: ‘This little Jacobite [cf. Gen. xxxii. 25] whom the Lord has touched will go straighter to heaven on her bad legs than if she had been perfectly sound,’ ↩

  2. The monastery of Montferrand was founded June 6, 1620, Mother Favre being its first superior. It is evident, from the above letter, that her removal was contemplated almost immediately, though she did not actually leave until December 1622, when she became superior of the monastery of Dijon, founded by St. J. F.de Chantal in the previous May. On leaving Montferrand she had to resist the most determined opposition on the part of its inhabitants. ↩

  3. The monastery of Turin was not actually founded until February 1638. ↩

  4. The sisters destined for the monasteries of Nevers and Moulins went, however, direct to the latter town, and those for the foundation of Orleans took the road to Paris, * Mademoiselle Lhuillier, known to the Institute as Sister Héléne Angélique. crowns to help the foundation. But what gives me far more pleasure is that she has a good heart and a well-formed mind. Now you have the bulk of our news; for of a truth you are always my very dear and unique grande fille—and that is nothing new, unless it be news to you to know that I will for ever and ever look upon you as such. I believe our sisters will arrive at Nevers in eight days. ↩

Chapter 36 of 252