Letter 346. To Mother Anne Mane Rosset

I wrote you by M. de Saint-Satur! a word of consolation on the departure of the Archbishop [of Bourges]. We must conform to whatever God wills, and ever trust more and more in Him alone.

Unless you were acting under good advice you ought not to have received that lady; but should the Father Rector and M. Perrote or similar reliable persons counsel it, you cannot do wrong in following their advice. If Sister knows you to have done so it is wrong of her to worry: and it was still more wrong of her to say before the sisters that you were doing it out of your own head, for, if that were the case, it is not to the community that it should be mentioned. In such important affairs the sisters ought to be consulted, and nothing done without their consent; but, if their resistance is unreasonable, those who counsel you should make them understand the rights of the case, yet in a very kind way, without showing any division of opinion, and then they ought to yield. As to the girl from Vendome, you must take time and test her so that you may have a true knowledge of her character, for there is often much trickery amidst many excellent qualities. If her vocation is from God, neither corporal exercise nor necessary intercourse with people will harm her. On the contrary, it will be an excellent way of finding out if her spirit is good. Take the advice of the Father Rector; but in my opinion it would be well to make an outsister of her, and if she will not accommodate herself to the work there, on account of her great recollectedness, I should fear that for the same reason she would not in the end work in the kitchen nor anywhere else. In a word, the spirit of God does not

I send my salutations to the Countess de Fiesque. Assure her that I am her very humble servant. Hers is true virtue. I salute all our sisters. Adieu, my dearest sister.¹