Letter 1291. To His Royal Highness Victor Amadeus

Duke of Savoy, at Turin. [Annecy, 1634.] Vive >h Jésus!

I should not, Monsignor, have presumed to address your Royal Highness had I not been urged, and assured that in your kindness you would not be displeased thereat.

My very humble petition is that you will, on our behalf, acquaint the gentlemen of the Senate and the authorities of this town with your determination regarding the erection of a second monastery of our Order [at Annecy]. The Senate is unwilling to put in force the patents which your Royal Highness has been pleased to grant us for that purpose, and upon the faith of which, together with your known goodwill in this matter (Pére dom Juste having many times assured us of it), we have, by the advice of the Bishop of Geneva, purchased some barren orchards in the faubourg de la Perriére, where the air is very good and the space open, to build a monastery. Neither are the Annecy people pleased at our purchase. They would have us build now on one side of the town and now on another, according as they wish to sell their places and houses to us. And when we are unable to accede to their wishes they stiffen up and form parties against us to prevent our carrying out this good work. In all truth, Monsignor, I protest to your Royal Highness that it is solely for the glory of God and the consolation of the families of this country that we wish to found this second house; whereby, in a few years’ time, we hope to provide two houses to which the daughters of those families who may aspire to the religious life can retire. And besides, help has been promised us for the building of this second monastery from our houses of France and Burgundy, which divine Providence has so inspired. We, however, desire no further endowment for it than what it has pleased your Royal Highness to confer on this house; for, by the grace of Our Lord, it is not with the perishable goods of this life that we wish to see it enriched.

Prince Thomas shows himself very favourable to the erection of a second house, as he has seen how small our present building and gardens are and how impossible it is to enlarge them. Upon which the gentlemen of the Senate and the people of this town say that we must build a monastery large enough to receive all the subjects that present themselves, and then pull down this one, a proposition, Monsignor, which your Royal Highness will see to be unthinkable. We would rather die than yield on this point, because this convent is the source and the principal house of all our Order, and because it has been consecrated by our holy Founder, who chose it for his place of burial, and he laid its foundation stone in the name of Madame, the most serene Infanta, the Duchess of Mantua. And, Monsignor, over and above these reasons, our Rule does not allow us to receive more than thirty-five or forty religious at the most in each house.

We abstain from mentioning to your Royal Highness the things said against us in this town, by means of unbecoming queries and replies, for those who so speak deserve pity, and that more especially from all the rightminded and honourable people of Annecy. There is not one single accusation that is not a manifest untruth, and this I would not state to your Royal Highness if it were not so.¹

Footnotes

1. The History of the Foundation of Troyes tells us that Mother Claire Marie Amaury desired to build a regular monastery, and for this purpose went out of enclosure to look for a suitablesite. She chose onein the neighbourhood of the Carmelite convent, and profited by the opportunity to pay a passing visit to these holy mothers and to receive edification from them. ↩