Footnotes

1. A descendant of the illustrious houses of Listenais and de Coligny, Marie Agnes de Bauffremont was munificently endowed by nature and fortune; but, despising all these gifts, she sought the freedom of living poor and hidden for the love of Jesus Christ. At the age of eighteen a brilliant marriage was arranged for her, but the Holy Spirit chose that moment for inspiring her with a yearning for animmortalalliance. Faith- amidst the most painful difficulties. You should look upon contradictions in the step you are undertaking as a certain proof that His divine Majesty wills you to be His true and perfect servant. But for this, great must be your determination, that the spirit of humility, sweetness, submission, and charity may take firm root in you, making you supremely grateful to God for the favour He has done you, and to your sisters gentle and respectful. Then will you taste the sweetness of the good you possess, and become a true daughter of our Blessed Father. To him we have ful to the call, she asked to be received into the novitiate at the Visitation at Besan¢gon. Upon learning her design, the wrath of both her family and her admirers knew no bounds, and she was compelled to submit to be accompanied to the monastery by fifty musketeers and fifty arquebusiers. On. her reaching the enclosure door the nuns were presented with an order of Parliament forbidding them to receive her. The Archbishop, doubtful as to the motives of so unexpected a vocation, insisted upon her making a declaration of her choice in the public church before a numerous assembly. The Infanta Clara Eugenia, Gouvernante des Pays-Bas, now intervened in favour of the persecuted girl and decided that her wishes should be respected. Hence she received the veil on July 24, 1632. The year of probation passed in incessant conflict with the family of de Coligny, who would not relinquish the hope of recapturing her. When the day of her profession arrived, the Bishop of Macon, who was one of her relatives, interposed as such, and forbade anyone to receive her vows while forbidding her to pronounce them. Confident that such a decision could not be binding upon her, the young girl resolved to act independently of it; so, braving all, she pronounced her vows in the presence of the noblesse who were congregated in the church for the ceremony. But her opponents were not yet disarmed, and the nullity of these vows was next announced to her. Still undaunted, Marie Agnes appealed to the Holy See. Three bishops were upon this appointed by Rome to hear her case. Summoned before them, she underwent fresh interrogations, which, however, only resulted in giving her full freedom to bind herself irrevocably to Jesus Christ. Two years later the Bishop of Besangon, fearful that, under cover of the wars which were at that time desolating Burgundy, an attempt might be made to carry away the young religious, ordered Mother M. Marguerite Michel to take her with some other sisters to Fribourg in Switzerland. Here they were received, but only as refugees; however, some years later the great virtues of Sister Marie Agnes, even more than the prestige of her birth, induced the authorities of the town to give a willing permission for the establishment of a regular monastery. ‘ During fifty-three years of profession’ (says an old chronicle) ‘her fervour never flagged, and any of us would have esteemed ourselves happy in ending where she had begun. Prayer and mortification were the two wings she employed in following Him ‘who ran His course like a giant.’’ She died on February 7, 1686..—Unpublished History of the Foundation of Besangon. ↩