Letters 2–10

Letter 2

To Sister Mary de Taillepied,(1)Lay Sister of the Abbey of the Holy

Trinity at Caen. On the Solemnity of Jesus ( 2 )

[January 1634]

In the name and on behalf of Jesus Who is your All and mine, dear Sister, in His person, spirit and love I give you, for the current month and for eternity, the great Solemnity of Jesus which we are celebrating on the twentieth(3) of this month.

It is one of the three great festivities which take place continually in heaven. If Our Lord summons you to join Him soon,(4) you will celebrate it there with great happiness and rejoicing while we are observing it here below in sorrow and anguish. We shall be solemnizing, you and I, the same feast, but alas! in a very different way.

I cannot think of this without sadness. Alas! who would not sigh and weep bitterly? I weep not for you, but for myself. Ah!! my dear and beloved Sister, if you have the least urge of charity toward your poor Father, beseech Our Lord, when you are in His presence, to take me soon from this abode of sin and imperfection to that place where I may love Him purely, perfectly and endlessly.

While awaiting the time when you shall celebrate the Solemnity of Jesus in heaven, I want to celebrate it for you on earth, or rather I implore Jesus to honor and glorify Himself in you, i n whatever way He wishes. I entreat Him to accomplish this in such a manner that all (1). Sister Mary de Taillepied was a member of a noble French Norman family. Out of humility she became a lay sister at Holy Trinity Monastery. Cf. Georges, op. cit., P. 33. (2). A special feast celebrated by the Oratorians on January 28. The Mass and Office were composed by Cardinal de Bérulle. When St. John Eudes founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, he continued to celebrate the Solemnity of Jesus. With the establishment of the Feast of the Sacred Heart in 1 6 7 2 the Saint suppressed the Oratorian feast in his Order. Cf. Oeuvres Complètes du Bienheureux Jean Eudes, Vol. 11, p. 591. (3). This is an oversight As indicated in the preceding note the Solemnity of Jesus was celebrated on January 28. (4). Sister Mary de Taillepied was very ill at the time.

that has ever been, is now or ever shall be in you, in your body and soul, in your thoughts, words and actions, in your temporal and eternal life, may render homage and glory to all that is in Him, in His body and His holy soul, in His divinity and humanity, in His temporal and eternal life. Finally, I implore Him to annihilate you entirely and to establish Himself perfectly in you; to draw and consume you completely within Himself; to be all in you, that one may no longer see anything but Jesus in your exterior and interior life, in time and eternity; to dwell in you, live and function i n you, suffer and die in you, adore and glorify Himself in you in whatever way He desires. That, m y dear Sister, is what Jesus wishes to effect in you through this feast, or rather through this great mystery which encompasses all the other mysteries and feasts, and which I give you on His behalf. Surrender yourself to Him with this sole intention, and I will do the rest for you.

Also on His behalf and in His name, I assign you as a virtue, this month and always, the holy love of Jesus, that you may live and die in His love. I implore Him to love Himself in you; offer a little prayer frequently to Him for this intention. I also beseech the Father of Jesus, the Holy S pirit of Jesus, the Mother of Jesus, and all the angels and saints of Jesus to love Him for you and to bestow upon Him a hundredfold all the love you should have given Him during your whole life. Say alittle prayer also to these saints and divine persons for this intention.

This morning at Holy Mass I renewed the union that Our Lord has given your soul with mine. Now do the same, I beg of you, in Our Lord's presence, by an act of the will, so that you may love and honor Him for me in heaven, if you attain it first, while I am striving to love and honor Him in your place on earth.

Farewell, my dear and beloved daughter. I am ever yours in Jesus and for Jesus, to Whom I pray unceasingly for you, even though I dare not ask Him to give you health. May this most amiable Saviour do whatever is pleasing to Him, provided He grants us the grace to love Him perfectly before long. Please make some reply to whoever reads this to you, telling her what you wish to have written to me.

Live Jesus and Mary.

Letter 3

To Sister Mary de Taillepied. On the feast of Easter

What shall I say to you, my dear Sister, in this moment of joy and consolation, save what St. Paul says to us: "Rejoice in the Lord always; Again I say, rejoice!" (1)

Truly what an occasion we have for joy, beholding Jesus so full of glory, of grandeur, of felicity and contend Surely we have very great reason to rejoice; there could be no one in the whole world with so great a cause for happiness.

What have worldlings to motivate their joy? Mud, dust, wind and smoke; whereas the reason for our joy is the same which gives jubilation to the Eternal Father, the Holy Spirit, the angels and the saints.

Therefore rejoice, repeating with the Blessed Virgin Mary: "My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."( 2) I no longer wish to find happiness in myself or in created and perishable things, but in Jesus my Saviour. He is my All and I desire to belong wholly to Him. It is the most extreme folly and delusion to look elsewhere for any true happiness. Let us, then, vehemently and courageously renounce all other things and seek only Him.

Live Jesus and Mary

(1). PH. 4, 4 (2). Luke 1, 47

Letter 4

To Sister Mary de Taillepied. The Saint reprimands her for having

used a worldly expression in writing to him, and directs her how to

celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin

I am sending you all that you asked of me, and something more. I like very much the ingenuousness and simplicity with which you write me; nevertheless, there was a worldly phrase that escaped in your letter. It was the expression, kissing of hands, which I had forbidden you to use. I advise you, -for th at, to make seven or eight minutes of prayerful meditation on these words which Jesus spoke in referring to His own: "They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world . " ( 1 ) Adore Jesus in His perfect separation from the world, as much in His manner of speaking as in all other things. Adore Him pronouncing those words. Give yourself, as well as us, to Him, beseeching Him to separate us completely from the world, both in its manner of speaking and in all else; and kiss the ground as many times as there are words in this sentence: "They are not of the world." Do not think, however, that you have committed a grave error by having spoken in this fashion, perhaps unthinkingly. It is just that it makes me very happy to have you honor these words of the Son of God. Alas! my sins arc more grievous than such as this. Live Jesus and Mary, who alone are free from error and sin.

I am ever and increasingly at your service, my dear Sister, in this same Jesus.

Exercise for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Render full honor today to the first moment of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary on earth. 0 moment, worth more than all the centuries which preceded it since the beginning of the world! 0 life dearer and more precious to God, in that single moment, than all the lives of the (1) John 17, 16.

angels and the greatest saints! Who could ever comprehend the relationship of God with this little girl who has just been born, and hers with God! What an abundance of graces and blessings does He diffuse in the soul of this child! What zeal and love for God, what union with Him! She gives Him more love and honor at that moment than has been tendered to Him during five thousand preceding years! 0 holy Virgin, let all the moments of my life, all my eternity, pay homage to that first instant of thy life!

At this very moment, my dear Sister, let us begin a holy and celestial life with the Blessed Virgin in honor of her holy and divine life.

Live Jesus and Mary.

Letter 5

To Sister Mary de Taillepied. On her illness

What shall I say to you, my dear Sister, to comfort you? Shall I say what the world usually says to those who are sick-that this illness is nothing, and you will soon be well again? But that i s not what you seek. Shall I tell you then that there is reason to hope that you will soon be free from the troubles of this earth and the exile you are suffering? But that is still not what you are seeking, since you wish to avoid any consideration of your own self-interest. What shall I tell you, therefore, to console you? I shall not speak to you at all about yourself, for we have to forget ourselves completely. I shall speak only of Jesus, Who alone should be the subject of our speech, our thoughts and our consolation. And what shall I say to you about this estimable and infinitely amiable Jesus? I shall tell you that He is all yours and you are all His, my dear Sister. What a consolation! What more could you wish? Live henceforth in peace, then, and fear nothing, for Jesus is wholly yours and you belong wholly to Jesus Who loves you infinitely, and Who has no thoughts or plans for you except those of love and goodness.

Do not be in the least troubled if you cannot recite your Office; say the prayers and perform your other exercises as well as you can because there are several persons who are doing these things for you. And what infinitely surpasses them is that Jesus Himself, your All, is unendingly absorbed in contemplation, praise and love of His eternal Father in your name. Finally, all things are yours i n heaven and on earth. Dwell in peace, therefore, and in complete and total surrender of yourself, your health, life, soul and salvation into the hands of your most amiable Father Who is Jesus.

Live Jesus and Mary

Letter 6

To Sister Mary de Taillepied. On her infirmities

Blessed be Jesus, my dearest Sister, for finding you a worthy subject in which to glorify Himself through the most excellent of all means, that of suffering. You have the opportunity to be a martyr if you wish. But you must love our dearest Jesus exceedingly and offer Him all that takes place within you, so that He may use it to your advantage. If your suffering continues, tell Madame(1) about it so that she may decide on the proper remedy. Always abandon and sacrifice yourself, nevertheIess, to the most holy will of Him Who loves you more than yourself, and Who has more concern for you than anybody else could ever have.

Live Jesus and Mary

(1).Madame de Budos, the abbess of Holy Trinity at Caen. See Letter 1, note 2.

Letter 7

To Sister Mary de Taillepied. On crosses,and afflictions

Blessed be Jesus, and may He bless your poor heart, my dearest Sister. May He live and reign in it, and implant in it the dispositions necessary for you to profit from your present condition.

Take comfort, dear Sister, and rejoice in our most amiable Jesus, for He is yours and you are His; He is in you and you are in Him. Therefore live always in Him, for there will you find your paradise. Withdraw your mind and heart from everything else so that you may captivate and enclose them sweetly in this divine paradise. It is the paradise of the eternal Father, in which He finds all His delights. Let all your happiness be also in Jesus, for He alone is capable of satisfying your heart. Embrace willingly all the sufferings and afflictions that it may please Our Lord to send you, since this is the most efficacious means of destroying ourselves and establishing Jesus in our stead.

Letter 8

To Madame de Budos. On the calumnies directed against him during

the Pleurtuit mission

[Plouer,(1) 1636] Here I am in a borough to begin a mission. I do not know what will happen to me, but during the last mission(2) I received some very fine epithets. (1).A small town in Brittany about seven miles from Dinan in the Côtes-du-Nord District. (2). Pleurtuit, a larger town than Plouer, about six miles from Saint-Malo. Most Reverend Achilles de Harlay- Sancy, Bishop of Saint-Malo, had requested the Saint to preach these two missions in his diocese. At that time Brittany was not so devoutly religious as it is today. At Pleurtuit Some lax and ignorant persons attacked the reputation of the missionaries, especially that of their superior, Father Eudes. Despite the efforts of these adversaries the mission was a definite success as this letter points out. The confessionals were literally besieged by people wishing to go to confession. Cf. Annales de Ia Congrégation de Jésus et Marie, Vol. 1, P. 30; BOULAY, Vie du Vénérable Jean Eudes, Vol. 1, p. 195.

Some people called me the precursor of the antichrist; others said I was the antichrist himself. Some characterized me as a seducer, a devil who must not be believed; and others condemned me as a sorcerer enticing everyone in his wake. Some of them contemplated driving me away and'might have carried out their plan, had not our Fathers arrived the same day. All that is but roses; the thorns that pierce my heart consist in seeing poor people sometimes follow me around for a week without being able to go to confession, although there are ten confessors here.

Letter 9

To Madame de Budos. On resignation in time of illness

[1637] Jesus, Mary

Madame:

May the grace and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you for ever.

I am filled with compassion for you at the sight of your incessant pains and weakness, and I should be filled with sorrow, too, if I did not perceive Jesus in your debility and suffering. In them I see only Jesus, only His goodness and love.

He is there, Madame; He abides within you. He is present in your anguish and sufferings. He i s there, all love and completely transformed into love for your sake. He is there, preparing and ordaining these sufferings through love of you.

He is there, guiding and leading you along the paths of His love, drawing you toward the perfection of love by means of these trials and severities.

He is there, bearing with you through His love all the anguish of mind and body that is yours to bear. Even though you may often be unaware of it, He is nevertheless infallibly present, for if He were absent, you would find it impossible to support even the least of the infirmities you are suffering.

He is still there, purifying and sanctifying you and preparing great things for you, provided you, on your part, give the cooperation He asks.

He is there for the purpose of filling you completely with love for Him, and much more so than you are filled with suffering. I will say even more: not only does He wish to imbue you with His love, but also to transform you entirely into love for Him through crosses and sufferings, as His Cross and sufferings transformed Him into love for us.

He is there, finally, with a most ardent desire to draw you to Himself, to perfect and consummate you in Himself, along the path of these same sufferings. St. Paul says that it was fitting that Jesus Christ should he consummated by suffering "For it became him . . . to perfect the author of their salvation, by his passion." (1)

0 dignity, 0 holiness, 0 admirable excellence of suffering used for the perfection and consummation of a God, for the perfection of Jesus, God and Man, for the consummation of Him Who i s the consummation and perfection of all things! Great humiliation of Jesus, Who humbled Himself to a state in which He was capable of being perfected and consummated! And the immense dignity of suffering, chosen and used by Him and His Eternal Father to achieve this perfection and consummation!

Is it not a great honor for you, Madame, is it not a great favor, and should it not be a great comfort to you to be consumed and perfected through suffering, as Jesus was consumed by suffering? Does not Jesus show a rare and singular love for you by using the same means for your fulfillment and consummation as He employed for His own? May Christ Crucified be for ever blessed for so giving you a share in the blessings of His Cross! I implore Him to crucify you completely with Him, and to do so through the same love which nailed Him to the Cross for your sake.

I see an infinite number of crucified persons in the world, but few who are crucified by the love of Jesus. Some are crucified by their self-love and inordinate love of the world, but happy are they who are crucified for the love of Jesus; happy are they who live and die (1). Heb. 2, io.

on the Cross with Jesus. You will be numbered among these, Madame, if you bear your cross lovingly, like Jesus, accepting, embracing and cherishing it with all your heart in honor of and in union with the same love with which He accepted and bore it for you.

To achieve that end, cast your eyes frequently upon Jesus Who is always with you, Who penetrates and pervades you much more do the pains and sufferings which seem to take complete possession you. See only Jesus in your pains and sufferings; see only His goodness and love, which are responsible for all that happens to you. here only to Him; be attentive only to Him. Forsake your wead and displeasure; disregard them utterly; ignore them entirely. Turn your mind gently and firmly from all thoughts and objects which may cause you to Worry. Turn to Jesus, Who is turned toward you, and always has His eyes fixed lovingly upon you. Cling closely to Him and His divine love, as to One Who is your All and outside o Whom you wish nothing. Let there no longer be anyone but yourself and Him in the world, and let yourself be entirely unaffected and unclaimed by anything at all that i s not He. Lose every thought and consideration of your own interests, of yourself and everything else. Yes, lose yourself hohly and happily in the abyss of this goodness and love of Jesus which encompasses, penetrates and possesses you, and is always considering you, always watching over you and all that concerns you; which is more zealous, more attentive, more preoccupied to an infinite degree in procuring your welfare and advantage in all things than you yourself are.

0 love! 0 bounty! 0 Jesus, God of love and bounty! Adore, love, bless Jesus so full of love and kindness toward you. Adore, cherish, glorify all His attentions, all His plans and all His desires i n your regard. Surrender yourself frequently to Him and offer Him your whole state of spiritual and bodily sufferings in homage to the sufferings of His body and divine soul. Adore, too, the peace and tranquility of that holy soul in the midst of its pains and torments, and pray Jesus to let you participate in that same peace and tranquility as well as in all the other dispositions with which He suffered.

These, Madame, are the practices and duties which Jesus asks of you now. They are the allegiance and honor you must render Him in

your present condition. I pray that He Himself may impress these thoughts and sentiments on your heart. I entreat Him to honor and glorify Himself in you. I implore Him, finally, to carry out all His plans and desires for you, allowing not even the slightest hindrance on your part.

And as for you, Madame, I beg only one thing of you, which is that you remember and put into practice something you said to me the last time I had the pleasure of seeing you. You told me that you no longer wanted anything except what God willed, and that you were submitting yourself unreservedly to all that it pleased Him to ordain for you. You spoke these words with a certain strength and energy which consoled me a great deal. I beseech you, therefore, not to contradict this statement, but to prove, whenever God may afford you occasion to do so, that you spoke those words not with your tongue alone but also with your heart and will.

You see, Madame, how freely I speak to you? But it is prompted by my zeal for your soul and my trust in your goodness. Let me say just one more thing, and that is to beg you to continue-for I believe that you are doing so now-to have something devotional read to you from time to time. I think that the acts of love(2) for Jesus which were recently sent you will serve the purpose. Have them read to you now and then, and dwell tenderly on them, without strain or exertion. (2). The Saint probably refers to the thirty-four acts of love that are found in The Kingdom of Jesus (New York, 1946), Part V, P. 223 ff. This first devotional work of the Saint was published that year and was dedicated to Madame de Budos. See "Epistle Dedicatory" to The Kingdom of Jesus, p. xxix. Cf. Oeuvres Complètes, Vol. 1, P. 34

Letter 10

To the Ladies of Mercy of Rouen.(1) On the Refuge(2) at Caen

Saint Malo,(3)July 19, 1642

Mesdames, my dearest sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ:

May the grace, mercy and peace of this same Jesus Christ dwell in you for ever.

The zeal and piety that I discerned in you while I was in Rouen so edified and consoled me that I cannot sufficiently thank Our Lord. I implore Him daily, during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to shower the holiest blessings of His divine mercy upon you and yours, as well as to preserve and enkindle in your hearts ever more and more the fire of His most ardent charity. I was at Rouen only three months in body, but I assure you that I am and shall always be there in mind and heart accompanying you to the prisons, hospitals and the homes of the unfortunate sick, while rejoicing with Our Lord, His most holy Mother and your guardian angels to behold you thus persevere in your performance of the works of God.

Yes, my dear sisters, you must know that by these holy actions you are rejoicing all paradise as well as augmenting the glory and accidental (1) A pious association of Catholic ladies who devoted their time and money to corporal works of mercy. They visited hospitals, prisons and the private homes of poor families in the city. The Saint wrote this letter to ask them to extend their charity in an institution for women who desired to reform their lives. These ladies responded generously to the Saint's appeal. Cf. Boulay, Vie du Vénérable Jean Eudes, Vol. I, P. 406; The origin of the Order of Our Lady of Charity, p. 12; Henri Joly, Life of St. John Eudes, p. 142. (2). As early as 1635 Saint John Eudes assisted in organizing a house for penitent women in the city of Caen. In 1641 the ladies in charge began to live a religious life under the direction of Margaret Morin, a Huguenot convert. Three years later Margaret Morin left the community and the Saint requested the assistance of the Visitation nuns of Caen to organize the religious community which eventually became the Order of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge. (3).The Saint was then preaching a mission at the Cathedral of Saint Malo in Brittany. Cf. Boulay, op. cit., Vol. 1, P. 416.

joy of God. If you but knew what happiness you afford your guardian angels by doing just what so many great saints of both sexes have done before you! Furthermore, you confound the evil one and enrage all hell. You bring down countless blessings from heaven upon your city, your families, husbands, children and yourselves. You spread the odor of piety and give to all France a virtuous example which will encourage many of your fellow creatures to imitate your charity. In short, you will revive in God's Church that primitive spirit of holiness which formerly flourished among the first Christians.

But the devil, who is enraged by all that is done for the glory of God, will not fail to do everything in his power to discourage you and force you to abandon this holy work. He will create many obstacles and oppose all your good intentions, particularly those regarding the house of Our Lady of Refuge, for he is driven to despair at the sight of these wretched souls, whom he employs to bring about the loss of many others, being snatched from his claws. But you must show, my dearest sisters, that your devotion and loyalty to the service of our good Master is greater than the rage of the demon against Our Lord and the souls He redeemed at the price of His blood. That malignant spirit sometimes labors thirty or forty years before he succeeds in bringing about the damnation of a soul by causing it to fall into mortal sin. Then do not grudge a little time, a little effort, a little material wealth, that you may thwart these evil works for the destruction of which the Son of God shed His blood. If you prevented but a single mortal sin from being committed in your city, you would be doing an incomparably greater good than if you delivered it from all the plagues and other temporal afflictions imaginable, since one sin alone is a greater evil than the combined ills of the world.

You should, therefore, consider yourselves fortunate that Our Lord is giving you the grace to use a portion of the temporal goods He has bestowed on you for the same purpose for which He gave His life's blood. What happiness for you to be chosen by God to be associated with Him in the greatest of His works, which is the work of the redemption of souls! To free a man who is bodily a captive i n the hands of barbarians is a noble deed, but to free a soul from the slavery of Satan is greater than to deliver all who are in corporal slavery.

Since it is so pleasing to God to build hospitals and sanitariums for the relief and assistance of those who are physically sick, think of the good accomplished by helping to establish a home and hospital for souls who are suffering from an infernal plague which will bring death to them and to countless others if not remedied. There are so many hospitals everywhere for the body; is it not right that there should also be some for souls who are more horribly and dangerously ill than bodies, and that persons who love God and know how dear to Him are souls should have as much concern for them as for physical needs, and even more? A single soul is worth more than a thousand worlds; therefore whoever wins a soul to God does better than if he were to conquer a thousand empires.

To give alms to the poor is very commendable and highly recommended by God in Sacred Scripture, but to cooperate in the conversion of a soul is greater, says St. John Chrysostom, than to give to the poor all the gold in the world, if it were yours. Now by assisting in the work of the Refuge, my dear sisters, you are doing both; you are giving spiritual as well as corporal alms. Judge for yourselves how pleasing this is to God, Who is all charity and mercy, and Who so loves mercy and charity that He is merciless in His judgment upon him who fails to exercise mercy; whereas, on the other hand, He withholds judgment while showing mercy to him who performs works of mercy.(4)

Many are envious, and rightly so, says St. John Chrysostom, of the fasts, vigils, hair cloths, chastisements and other penances and mortifications of religious who lead austere and solitary lives, but to deliver a soul from the clutches of the devil and return it once more to Jesus Christ surpasses all the austerities in the world.(5)

People admire miracles which affect the body, such as the restoration of sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb and life to the dead, but St. Gregory the Great assures us that he who cooperates with the grace of God in the conversion of a sinner performs a miracle greater than if he were to raise a dead person to life again.(6)

In short, the most divine of all divine functions, says St. Dionysius (4).James, 2, 13 (5). Oratio 5 contra Judeos. (6). Dialog., lib. 3, Ucap. 17.

the Areopagite, is to work with God for the salvation of souls(7). It is the continual occupation of God-Man; to it He devotes all His thoughts, all His efforts and all the powers of His divinity and humanity. It Is the employment He gives to His angels and His greatest saints, the Apostles. It is the fruit of so many labors, so much sweat, so many tears, so much pain and fasting, preaching and shedding of blood, so many holy actions and cruel sufferings in the life of God on earth-a life of thirty-four years, terminated for the same end by such an awesome death.

Is it not a great honor for you, dearest sisters, to participate in something so worthy, so exalted, so precious and divine? Should you complain or stint a little of this life in a cause for which God sacrificed Himself? How shameful for a Christian soul if Jesus Christ should reproach him at the hour of death for having spent on feasts, balls, pastimes, unnecessary clothing and a thousand other frivolities all the wealth that He had bestowed on him, while refusing to contribute anything to the salvation of souls for whom He sacrificed Himself!

Let each of you examine your conscience on this point, and there will be few who do not find yourselves guilty and have not great reason to fear the judgment of God. The goods and money you possess are not yours, but God's. Nevertheless, you have hitherto spent much of it on the world, on vanities, and consequently on the devil.

How can you expiate this sin? Henceforth do at least as much for Him to Whom you owe all as you have done in the past for His enemy, who is also yours. What you have used to gratify the world and Satan is lost, but whatever you give for Jesus Christ shall be returned to you a hundredfold i n this world, and shall acquire eternal life for you in the next, according to the infallible promise of the Son of God. There is not one among you who does not have a very special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of all purity. Remember, then, that you can do nothing more pleasing to her than to help maintain this poor little house dedicated to her under the title of Our Lady of Refuge, because it is a place of refuge for the chastity she dearly loves-a virtue which is so horribly persecuted i n our century.

When I began this letter, I had no intention of making it so lengthy, (7). De Coelesti hierarchia, cap. 3

but I believe that God wanted it so. Please accept all these counsels, therefore, not in the least as coming from me, who am nothing and wholly unworthy to be heard by you, but as coming from God. Read and re-read them, consider them attentively, and you will find them useful.

All goes quite well, thanks be to God, in the house of Our Lady of Refuge at Caen, and I assure you that it was a great comfort to me to find it so when, on my return to Caen, I called there to see how everything was progressing. For I found that God was being greatly glorified, both by the good order which is maintained there, and by the care being taken to establish these poor penitents firmly in the fear of God and the ways of piety, as well as to have them use their time profitably by keeping busy. Nevertheless, there are but three persons in Caen who are supporting this house, and they are not the wealthiest in the city. I implore you, my dear sisters, since you have more power in temporal things than those in Caen, to have also more charity. I very humbly entreat Reverend Father Angelique de Gaillon(8) to spare none of his zeal and piety for the advancement of the glory of our Master in this cause. Should some objection or obstacle arise, consult among yourselves and then appeal to his Lordship the Archbishop through his vicar general, Reverend Father Toussaint(9). I am quite sure that the love and most ardent zeal of this worthy prelate for the Church of God and the salvation of souls will move him to give you his powerful aid in every way possible.

In conclusion, do not forget me in your holy prayers. I remain with all my heart, in Jesus and Mary, Your most obedient and humble servant, JOHN EUDES, priest of the Oratory of Jesus. (9). Father Joseph Mary Ory is of the opinion that Father de Gaillon was an Oratorian. Cf. The Origin of the Order of Our Lady of Charity, p. 16. (10). «Father Toussaint, whose family name was Thébault, was certainly an Oratorian. A penitentiary canon as Well as vicar-general, he was interred in the cathedral of Rouen in 1 6 6 0 . » ibid., p. 16.