Letter 329. To Mother Claude Agnes Joly de la Roche

Superior at Orleans.

Paris, 6 June, 162¹. Vive > Jésus!

Here is my dearest nephew: make much of him, circumspectly, cordially. I am very well, thank God. I have had, it is true, a bad cough, and they bled me profusely, for my blood was all infected, and overheated, so much so that [sllegible words]. Ask God to let me live no longer save to serve Him alone for [«llegible words] useless the past time. Yes, certainly, if the spiritual father permits it you can admit this girl to her trial. If she be from Orleans, test her well, and in any case, should she not be considered suitable, dismiss her. The good estate of our houses does not consist in: having many subjects, but in having good ones. Oh!

verily, how our little Superior of Nevers longs to have a great number—it is a malady. On starting houses we fill them with everyone we can get hold of, and then when good subjects present themselves there is no room for them; and the worst of this is that it is the ruin of the religious family. What cruelty to stifle a child in its birth! Let her know that I said this, but not in regard to her, for I also will soon tell her. It is a long time since I have had news of her.

I am glad you have seen the good Carmelites. Yes, indeed, I too shall go to see them unless I am forbidden. My greetings to the good mother, for whom I have a greater affection than I can tell you, and I long to pay my homage at the tomb of her holy mother,! to whom I should like to have a great devotion. Ask her to pray for me. His Lordship told me that he had written to her. He has begun to write something on the Gospels.” But he tells me that he is overwhelmed. Each one wants just but a word, asks only for a short note, and all his time goes in this way.

I wish they would leave him in peace. Adieu. This is a day very dear to our Congregation. Oh! but we have a splendid subject for the white veil!²

Footnotes

1. According to her desire Saint de Chantal went to Pontoise to pray at the tomb of the Venerable Mother Marie of the Incarnation Carmelite, who died in the odour of sanctity April 18, 1618, and was proclaimed Blessed by Pius VI, May 24, 1791. This great servant of God, the counsellor and oracle of many chosen souls, had the happiness of enjoying for some time the direction of St. Francis de Sales, who, in speaking of her, said: ‘I do not look upon her as my penitent, but as a vessel that the Holy Spirit has consecrated to His service.’ ↩

2. The holy Bishop himself explained to Dom John de S. Francis, General of the Feuillants, his project of undertaking an exposition of the Holy Gospel and a History of the Church in the following words: ‘If God spares me, I will first make a simple, clear translation of the four Gospels in the vulgar tongue, harmonising them so as to form a true Life of Our Lord; that done, I will prove the truth of the Catholic Faith, and at the same time refute the errors of those who claim to be reformers by a faithful reproduction of the words of Our Lord in the holy Gospel, on all points that are a subject of controversy. Finally I will draw from the Gospel a series of maxims that will form a course of instruction for Christian perfection. These three works, of dogma, of controversy, and of morals, will be completed by a course of history on the primitive Church, embodying the entire Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul. The four volumes will appear under the name of Oeuvve théandrique, or Manifestation of the Man-God. I also propose undertaking another work—namely, a treatise on the four loves—that is, the way in which we ought to love God, ourselves, our friends, and, lastly, our enemies,’ ↩