Letter 1750. To Mother Jeanne Sévaphine de Chamousset

I thank God that they have applied to you, dear daughter, to provide for the foundation of Vercelli, for I own to you it has lifted a burden off my shoulders, as they came to us and strongly urged us to undertake it. I have been somewhat anxious and doubtful as to whether she whom you have named to be Superior is sufficiently well grounded and has enough discernment of mind. But after all, she will only have two professed under her, and Sister Francoise Catherine,

1 « Francoise Catherine was the daughter of Count Solar, Equerry to the Infantas of Savoy, to whom Frangoise was maid of honour. ‘‘ Truly,” says Mother de Chaugy, ‘‘ although these princesses did not observe religious enclosure, they lived very virtuously under the habit of the third order of St. Francis. Theirs was indeed a holy Court.”’ They secretly led lives of great austerity, and when frequenting entertainments wore haircloth beneath their worldly attire. Their goods, their persons, and their lives they consecrated to the poor. Mademoiselle Solar did not find it easy to obtain permission to leave their Court. Helped, however, by the advice of Pére Dom Juste Guérin, who was director to the princesses, she surmounted all obstacles and quitted the commodious and luxurious palace to shut herself up in the very incommodious and very poor monastery of Aosta. In this house a few years after her profession she was given the care of the novitiate. In 1638, at the time of the foundation of Turin, Saint Jane Frances de Chantal spent several days at Aosta. While there she told the Superior that she ought to esteem the new mistress as a rare treasure, for in her she found “‘ deep humility and high perfection, together with an eminent degree of union with God.”

who is well qualified and firm, will have the care of the novitiate. I greatly esteem her for these qualities and for her virtue. She ought to be Assistant as well as Mistress of Novices. The third you give should also be capable, so that in her turn she can be Superior, for in Italy they like the Superiors to change every three years. So you see, dear daughter, those who make foundations must not be attached to sisters, for the best pillars should be given, above all, in places of this kind and when giving so few professed. Tell the future Superior and Mistress of Novices that the Piedmontese have a great tendency to piety, but they must be very gently led to it, and with no stint of affection. Impress upon these dear sisters the necessity, above all things, of preserving their simplicity, humility, and love of lowliness. Engrave on their hearts as deeply as you can an inviolable resolution to keep strictly to the observance, for, dear daughter, the happiness of houses depends, in a measure, on the good habits formed at the commencement. The temporal advantages of this foundation are very good, the spiritual is all that needs to be well established; lay stress on this with them. And when they are at Vercelli you must often write to them, encouraging them to be very faithful in the service of God, this being a matter of very great importance. I salute them and beg of them, in the name of Our Lord, to be so humble, generous, and faithful to all the observances of the Institute, that the good odour of the

« Assoon as there was question of establishing the monastery of Vercelli, the Infanta Marie, who gave her patronage to the new foundation, expressed a wish that her former intimate and confidential friend, Mademoiselle Solar, should be one of the foundresses. The wisdom of her choice was soon justified, and met with the approval of St. Jane Frances. Not satisfied to see the souls entrusted to her enter upon the ways of divine love, the young mistress required of them the achievement of it, for her desire was that it should destroy in them all that was not of God. Her example still more than her precepts brought home to her novices the meaning of those words of the Canticle of Canticles, Arise, my beloved, and come. ‘‘ Go,” she said to them, ‘‘into the cavern, into the desert, so hateful to the senses and to nature, stript of all, dead to all, souls of prayer and of sacrifice, abandoned to the divine good pleasure: there you will find the cleft of the rock to which Jesus calls the daughters of the Visitation.” After fourteen years of religious life Sister Frangoise Catherine went to her reward.’—History of the Foundation of the Monastery of Aosta.

spirit of their holy Founder may be diffused in the hearts of all who come in touch with them.

May our good God bless them at their departure, and may He accompany them on their way, and help them by His holy grace to do well the work His goodness has committed to them. I hope they will give us a share in their prayers and let us know all details of their news. Yours, etc.