Letter 835. To the same

[Paris] 30 March [1628]. Vive >& Jésus!

My dearest Daughter,—The Bishop of Geneva has at last resolved to withdraw Sister Anne Catherine, Superior at the faubourg,! and to employ her elsewhere. To this she has acceded with great promptitude, for she is a virtuous soul. His Lordship has proposed you in her place, and all true friends of our Blessed Father and of our house are delighted, especially the little sister of the town.? You ought then to prepare yourself to come with courage to this great worldly place and, through the grace that God has bestowed upon you, there to render Him and your Order good service by making the spirit of our holy Founder live and reign on all sides. I know that your repute will be unsurpassed, of this I feel confident, and it is the expectation of all those in Paris who await you with love, and who prize your virtue.

You will find a little flock of nine professed, most of whom are chosen souls, humble, gentle, and submissive, seeking

God alone in the simplicity of their hearts. There are three novices, and as many postulants will not be wanting. Oh! my very dear daughter, what joy and hope I have that our good God will be glorified by your coming to this city! Now you must set out with no delay the day after Easter Sunday, and come direct without passing through Lyons, for that would greatly detain you; besides, they do nothing but worry us in that town. You know who it is that does this. Our sister the Superior has written lately telling me that this good personage has said some extraordinary things about us to the Bishop of Chalons. If you cannot procure a conveyance, ask Sister [de Blonay] to send you the Lyons one on Holy Saturday. I leave it to you which sister to choose as your companion, or to take Sister de Vigny. Whoever comes must return in the same conveyance with the Superior of the faubourg. You can take a priest to accompany you, and if you have not money ask the Superior of Lyons to send you some. Everything will be duly repaid from here. You will soon receive your obedience from the Bishop of Geneva, so make your preparations quietly and unobtrusively. Come straight through without stopping, except for necessity, as I should like to await your arrival, and I ought not to be here too long—it means shortening the time for the other houses; for, unless I am at Annecy, the Bishop of Bourges does not wish to return there to conclude the affair of the beatification of our Blessed Father.

I will write to your successor, but I cannot do it to-day. It grieves me to hear of the illness of our poor professed sisters. If they are a charge to the house of Bourges, they should be sent back to Nessy. Write as soon as you can, and forgive me for not having written to you for so long a time. You know how I hold you in my heart. Our good Mgr. de Langres will soon go off to his diocese. He is a true servant of God, who each day grows holier. Iam very glad that, through the kindness of our sisters of Lyons, you will increase in numbers.

Good-bye, dearest daughter. A thousand greetings to all our sisters and to your beloved heart.

May God be praised, and may He bless us all. Amen.¹²

Footnotes

1. The great virtue of Mother Anne Catherine de Beaumont had won the goodwill and even the confidence of a number of persons of high rank. Anne of Austria and Maria de Medici in their intercourse with the holy religious forgot their royalty. ‘It is very easy,’ they used to say, ‘to honour the authority of God in her person, for she upholds it by an equableness of demeanour and a gravity that tells of the presence of the divine Host who dwells continually within her.’ Such words of praise and esteem roused the jealousy of certain commonplace souls to whom the virtuous Superior had always been affectionate and generous. So fiercely did the storm rage that Mother de Chantal, at the time sojourning at Paris, judged it prudent to offer no resistance, and hoped to restore calm by intimating to the sister (thus falsely accused) the Bishop’s order to set out for Annecy. This order broke the heart of Mother Anne Catherine; but, habituated to receive everything from the hand of God, she declined the intervention even of the Queen, who wished to oppose her departure, and did not allow herself to utter one word in self-defence. To those who wished to undertake her justification she said: ‘ All arguments that support the interests of self-love ought to be sacrificed on the same altar as that on which the victim’s liberty has been; else the holocaust is incomplete and the victim never immolated.’ ↩

2. Héléne Angélique Lhuillier. ↩