Letter 1458. To a great Servant of God.4

My very dear Mother,—Your last letter greatly consoled me; it is so full of kindness and true affection. Ever since

We are told in the Memoirs of the Visitation that the delay in this longed-for beatification was the greatest sacrifice of St. Jane Chantal’s life. Having heard of it and having made her act of resignation, offering it to God, she sent for her secretary, Sister Frangoise Madeleine de Chaugy, and said to her these touching words: ‘ Outside the will of God, which I adore in all events and which will ever be the rule of my life, I have in this sad disappointment but one consoling thought, and it is that I leave you in full vigour and health, and I charge you, I expressly command you, to sacrifice everything to this holy cause. In a word, never let any difficulty turn you aside from this undertaking, nor set it in the background. Every obstacle should, on the contrary, reawaken your confidence and reanimate your courage. Many years’ experience has taught

I have been hoping that you will continue sometimes to do me the like favour and to give me news of you. That of our two Annecy families is, thank God, good. I can tell you in confidence, dearest Mother, God showers truly great graces upon them. In this monastery we have very many chosen souls and amongst them several who have been raised to a solid and purified state of perfection. The whole family lives in great peace and union. Their Superior, good Mother Péronne Marie de Chatel, leads them admirably. May God, the author of all good, be thereby glorified! The second house is an innocent family, pure? and punctual in observance, as is also this one. Methinks the great and divine Master takes pleasure in conferring choice blessings upon these two monasteries, and the accounts I receive of our other houses fill me with self-confusion and with everlasting gratitude to Our Lord. Our good Mother and I have but one heart. I try to follow the community in all its practices, but (as is my way) imperfectly, and they try not to let me do it, and pay me so much honour and deference that it is burdensome to me. Yet, through obedience, I endeavour to submit to it. Our good God, while giving me so much reason for satisfaction in these dear souls, has sent me such an interior trouble that if His goodness did not me that often enough God is pleased to confound and humiliate the feebleness of His creatures by making the strength and the power of His arm triumph all the more gloriously when humanly speaking we give up hope.’

In reading the note to Letter 1830, on page 399, we see with what devotion and success Mother de Chaugy obeyed the Saint’s command.

1 “ Few people,’ says the Founder of the Visitation, ‘ can say my heart is pure.’ The meaning of these words is thus explained by the Saint’s friend, the Bishop of Belley. The purity of heart, he tells us, of which St. Francis here speaks does not constitute any lack of temptation against chastity, for that would be to make the virtue consist in insensibility, and what do those who are not tempted know about the matter? (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales (pp. 142-43), by his friend, Jean Pierre Camus, Bishop of Belley. London: Burns and Oates, 1910.) The virtue of purity, according to St. Francis, is to be found, not in any temperamental exemption from colour or passion of soul, but in a domination of the higher nature over the lower till both colour and passion are wrought into a flame of pure love, a love that is custodian of the inward world of the soul. This virtue is born of self-conquest, and is no outcome of inertia or of ignorance. Such is the meaning of the word when on the lips of St. Francis or St. Chantal.

with His own hand uphold me I should wither under it. With all my feeble strength I submit to His just judgments.

Protest to Him often for me, I conjure you, dearest Mother, that I should do no more to offend Him, and that the only grace I ask of Him is to do and suffer all according to His good pleasure. I say this without light and without relish, but with my whole heart I desire it. You see how I need your and our dear sisters’ prayers! Procure them for me, my good Mother, and likewise those of friends whom you know to have good credit with our most amiable Saviour; so that I may in His great mercy be eternally united to Him in immortal glory.

My dearest Mother, I feel quite sure that you will consider this letter as for yourself alone, like my other letters. Writing thus confidentially I cannot keep any secret from you because I know your genuine goodness of heart towards me. I blessed God when I heard that our very dear Mother of the Most Holy Sacrament was reinstated. Thus does the great Governor accomplish His designs when He pleases, and all these contradictions that He permitted turn to His glory and the good of souls. Yours, etc.¹²

Footnotes

1. See Appendix. ↩

2. There is an unfortunate lacuna in the correspondence of St. Jane Frances de Chantal during the year 1636, the most regrettable omissions being those in connection with the beatification of St. Francis de Sales. It was in this same year that Pope Urban VIII forbade any official report concerning the virtues and miracles of persons who died in the odour of sanctity to be begun at Rome until fifty years after their decease. This decree obliged Pére Dom Maurice (the postulator of the Cause) to suspend his labours, and on March 17, 1636, he left Rome, having consigned all the papers connected with the beatification of St. Francis to the Archives of the Congregation. ↩