Letters 41–50

Letter 41

To Sister Mary of the Assumption, Eustace de Taillefer.(1) The Saint

urges her to prepare to be professed

Paris, March 11, 1651 J. M. J.

My dearest daughter: May Jesus, the most Holy Heart of Mary, be ours for ever.

I should like to have you make your profession as soon as possible, (1). See Letter 16, note 1.

and if it were left to me, you would already have done so. But first you must have some Sisters with you, and you shall have them soon. Therefore be patient until then, my dearest daughter, and prepare yourself meanwhile for this holy act.

I beg Our Lord and His most Holy Mother to help you with your preparation, and to fashion you entirely after their own Heart. It is in the love of this most holy Heart that I remain, both to you, m y beloved daughter, and to all my dearest daughters, Devotedly yours, JOHN EUDES, missionary priest.

P. S. I gave Madame de la Porte the book of The Heart, ( 2 ) along with the signature and your letter. She seemed very pleased with them and told me that she would write to thank you. (2). See Letter 39, note 5.

Letter 42

To Father Simon Mannoury, in Coutances. Regarding a postulant

admitted to probation

(Corbeil,(') April or May 1651)

You will take care to form him according to the spirit of Our Lord, which is a spirit of detachment and renunciation of oneself and all things; a spirit of obedience and abandonment to the divine will, manifested to us by the rules of the Gospel and the regulations of our Congregation, which are simply an expression of the evangelical maxims, and by the behavior of those who act in God's stead; a spirit of pure love for God which inclines us to do nothing save only to please Him; a spirit of singular devotion to Jesus and Mary, to the mysteries of their lives, and to all the saints most closely associated with them; a spirit of scorn and aversion for the world, which is the body of Satan, and of all that the world loves; a spirit of love for the Cross of Jesus, (1). A small town situated on the Seine River about 20 miles south of Paris.

that is, for scorn, poverty and sorrow; a spirit of hatred and horror for every kind of sin, which should incite us to wage war on it unceasingly and destroy it in ourselves and others; a spirit of humility, contempt, hatred and annihilation of self, as indicated in these words from the Imitation of Christ: "Love to be unknown and to be esteemed as nothing; (2) spirit of cordial and fraternal charity toward our neighbor, especially toward those of our Congregation and the poor, and of zeal for the salvation of souls; a spirit of virtue, in order to love all the virtues and practise them steadfastly i n the spirit of Jesus, as is stated in the book The Kingdom of Jesus,(3)the reading and practice of which you should strongly recommend to those under your direction; a spirit of love, esteem and respect for the Church and all that pertains to it, as well as for all the religious Orders in the Church, for we should have a Catholic, that is to say, a universal, spirit-one that embraces, honors and loves all that is of God, for the sake of God; and we should hate and despise only sin and ourselves; finally, a spirit of prayer and piety, that we may perform all our actions in the spirit, that is, in the dispositions which are those of Our Lord.

Study these dispositions as carefully as possible, with the grace of Our Lord, and impart them to others by your example, prayers, discourses and meditations, readings and other exercises. Above all, implore God to grant you the spirit of meekness and watch yourself particularly on this point, that you may make yourself loved, and win hearts in which you may afterwards instil what God may grant you for that purpose.

Keep this letter and read it over from time to time. (2). Imitation of Christ. Book 1, verse 3. (3). Treatise on Christian perfection by St. John Eudes published by Peter Poisson at Caen in 1637.

Letter 43

To Father Simon Mannoury, in Coutances. On the mission at Corbeil.

Corbeil, May 18, 1 6 5 1 .

All our brethren here in Corbeil send affectionate greetings to their brethren in Coutances. Our dear brother Father Jourdan(1) is ill with a fever. We are here among a "stiffnecked" people but the mission is bound to convert some of them. (1). Father Peter Jourdan (1607-1661) was One Of the first five Eudists. He was a zealous missionary and took part in the great mission given in Paris at St. Germain-des-Prés in 1661. He died on December 27, 1661. Cf. Boulay, op. cit., Vol. 3, PP. 307-309. Les Fleurs de la Congrégation de Jésus et Marie, Vol. 1, p. 13.

Letter 44

To Father Simon Mannoury. On the mission at Bernay. ( 1 )

June 2, 1651 We are leaving tomorrow for Bernay, to begin the mission there on Sunday. It seems to me that it will be a good thing for Father Saché (2) to come on this mission, but first have him make a three-day retreat. (1). See Letter 33, nov 3. (2). Father Stephen Saché ( 1 6 1 5 - 1 6 7 8 ) was born at Aseville, in the diocese of Coutances, Normandy, in 1615. He entered the Congregation of Jesus and Mary in 1650. An intelligent and cultured priest, Father Saché won the hearts of all by his simple and pleasing personality. For twenty years he was assistant superior of the Seminary and College of Lisieux. He died on January 9 , 1678. Cf. Les Fleurs de la Congrégation de Jésus et Marie, Vol. 1, P. 48

Letter 45

To Father Simon Mannoury. The Saint asks him for helpers for the

mission at Bernay

(Bernay, June 1651)

wrote you to send us Father Sache, but you have made no reply to me about it. This is a mission which begins where the others end, and we have a great dearth of workers for it. I was afraid that we should not have any crosses on this occasion, but God has provided, for our dear brother Father de Montaigu (1) has been ill since Sunday morning with a continuous fever, and Father Jourdan is kept busy taking care of him. Hurry and send us Father Sache. Could you do without Father Le Mesle(2) so that he could come to help us? I am leaving it in your hands. Write to the pastor of St. Gervais(3) and importune him to send us some of his good workers for this mission. Ask him , however, not to send any except those whom we have already seen. (1). Father John Baptist de Montaigu (1610-1681) met St. John Eudes at Autun in 1647 and asked the Saint to be admitted into the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. In addition to his missionary activities Father de Montaigu was for eight years superior of the Seminary of Coutances. He died at the Rouen Seminary in 1681. Les Fleurs de Ia Congrégation de Jésus et Marie, Vol, 1, p. 61. (2). See Letter 14, note 1. (3). The parish priest of St. Gervais Church in Coutances. Cf. Boulay, Op. Cit., Vol. 2, P. 466.

Letter 46

(1)To Father Simon Mannoury, in Paris. On the opportuneness for a

mission in Coutances, and the concessions to be made to His Lordship

Edward Molé, the Bishop of Bayeux

(Summer of 1651)

I have written to his Lordship the Bishop of Coutances(2) to ask for his approval of our giving a mission in Coutances at this time. Press him for a reply so that we may begin as soon as possible, for there arc a good many persons who desire this work, and it would be fitting for us to render this service to God and to the public at the outset of our establishment there . . .

I beg of you not to leave Paris until you have used to advantage, as much as possible, all the means that the providence of God has placed and will place at your disposal to win over his Lordship the Bishop of Bayeux and his father.(3) Concede to his Lordship everything he wishes except the authority to appoint the superior of the seminary; he must be persuaded to consent to his election by the Community. (1). Father Mannoury had gone to Paris on business, probably to request the Bishop of Bayeux to lift the interdict on the chapel of the Caen Seminary. (2). Bishop Claude Auvry, who was in Paris at that time. (3). Matthew Molé, a magistrate of repute and a personal friend of Cardinal Mazarin, the Prime Minister. Cf. Boulay ibid., VOL 2, P. 297

Letter 47

To His Niece, Mary Herson,(1)afterwards Sister Mary of the Nativity.

On the dispositions with which she should take the veil

September 3, 1651 My dearest niece and daughter in Our Lord Jesus Christ:

With all my heart do I bless our most amiable Saviour for the good sentiments He gave you during your retreat, and I beseech Him to grant you the grace to be faithful to Him by using them well, as He wishes you to do.

It is a mortification for both of us that I shall not be present at the ceremony of your clothing, but it will be better that way and greater blessings will result, since it is quite certain that the more crosses there arc in the affairs of God, the more advantageous it is for us. But that will not prevent my being present in mind and heart in order to supplicate Our Lord and His most Holy Mother to use their own holy hands to divest you of yourself and all earthly things, that you may be clothed instead with their spirit and virtue.

On your part, there are eight things you must do:

The first is to enter into an ardent desire of wholly renouncing yourself and everything that i s not God, and of giving yourself perfectly to Our Lord, that He may command of you all that is pleasing to Him, without reservation.

The second is to offer yourself to the holy Virgin with a fervent desire to serve, honor and imitate her as your dearest Mother, and to cultivate a special devotion to her most amiable Heart.

The third is to consecrate yourself to the Son and the Mother, that (1)She was the eldest daughter of the Saint's sister and was born on March 5, 1629. At the age of twelve she entered the Monastery of Our Lady of Charity of Caen. Nine years later, on September 8 , 1651 she took the habit and received the name of Mary of the Nativity. She became superior of the Community and did much to spread the Order and in establish regular observance. She worked with the ecclesiastical superior, Father Legrand, parish print of St. Julian of Caen, at the revision of the Constitutions and at the composition of the Custom-Book. She died on June 4, 1709 at the age of eighty-five. Cf. Ory, The origin of the Order of Our Lady of Charity, pp. 65, 194, 269.

you may occupy yourself according to their most holy will with the salvation of lost souls who are so precious to them.

The fourth is to protest to Our Lord that you wish to do all these things, particularly on the feast of the Nativity of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not for the sake of rewards from heaven, nor earthly merits and consolations, but purely for His love and glory, and to accomplish His most adorable will.

The fifth is to remember that you are to perform an act which has previously been performed in such a holy manner by many saintly religious of both sexes, and to unite yourself to their holy dispositions, asking them to grant you a share in them.

The sixth is to pray to St. Joseph, St. Gabriel, your guardian angel, the holy guardian angels of your house, and all the saints who had a particular zeal for the salvation of lost souls, to help you perform this act.

The seventh and principal one is to humble yourself profoundly at the sight of your own unworthiness, wretchedness and lowliness, and earnestly to beseech the Blessed Virgin to obtain for you from her Son the grace to regard and treat yourself always as the lowliest of anyone in the house, and to be willing to be regarded and treated as such by others. That, my dear daughter, is what I particularly recommend to you; implant it so deeply in your heart that it may never escape, and i n that way you will truly be one of the daughters of the Mother of love and humility.

The eighth is that, after you have done everything possible on your part to prepare yourself for so great an act, you place no reliance upon it and depend in nowise for support upon your own efforts and preparations, but that you offer and give yourself to Jesus and Mary, imploring them to do for you all that you yourself should do, and to prepare you themselves in their own way and according to their most holy will.

Lastly, all the sentiments of our good Mother are so precious to me that I can wish only what she wishes. Hence I am very pleased that you will bear the name of the Nativity of the most Blessed Virgin, so that you may regard that feast as the day of your rebirth into a whole now life--a day on which you may begin to live, with the Mother of sweet love, a life in imitation of hers.

Ask our good Mother to look to the needs of each of the Sisters, as well as to whatever else may be expedient, and to have these purchases made, and I will gladly settle for them.

I am writing to my nephew, your brother,(2) that I am glad he is coming, but I shall not be able to see him, for I cannot come out of seclusion and it would be inopportune for him to come here. Do not forget to ask him how he is behaving whether he goes frequently to confession and to a good and regular confessor, whether he kneels to say his morning and evening prayers, and whether he goes to catechism instructions and sermons. Give him this good advice: 1. To fear offending God above all else;

2. To live in peace and charity with everyone; 3. Never to lie or swear when buying and selling; 4. To place all his trust in God; 5. To have devotion to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.

I greet our dearest Mother and thank her with my whole heart for all her care and trouble i n your behalf, and I beseech Our Lord and His most holy Mother to thank her for both of us. I also send greetings to all our dearest Sisters and recommend myself to their prayers. I remain, in the sacred love of the most holy Heart of Jesus and Mary, my dearest niece and daughter in Our Lord, Devotedly yours, JOHN EUDES, missionary priest.

P. S. Do nor forget to ask your brother for news of your little sister(3) -how she is getting along, and how much he could give her if she wished to become a religious. (2). John Herson. (3). France Herson entered the Order of Our Lady of Charity and made her profession as a lay sister on July 25, 1662. She took the name of Sister Mary of St. Francis.

Letter 48

To Mother Margaret Frances Patin.(1) On various matters

(1651) My very dear and good Mother:

May Jesus, the most holy Heart of Mary, be ours for ever.

It is always a great pleasure for me to receive letters from you, but even if you did not write me at all, I could never doubt your most cordial charity toward me, any more than your participation, in company with our dear Sisters, in my small afflictions. I thank you with all sincerity, my dear . est Mother, and beseech you to obtain for me from Our Lord the grace to bear them in His spirit.

I entrusted your letter for his Lordship of Bayeux to Mr. Le Tardif, who is well acquainted with the matter, and who can say whatever is necessary and fitting. He offered of his own accord to deliver it. Pray God to bless this affair, and to let His most adorable will be done in all things.

I am delighted that our dear Sisters are travelling so happily and courageously along the paths of heaven through the practice of sound virtues. I beseech them always to continue their advancement, especially in humility, obedience and mutual charity, and in the love of our most amiable Jesus and His most worthy Mother. It is in this same love that I send greetings to one and all, and that I am with all my heart, my dearest Mother, Devotedly yours, JOHN EUDES, missionary priest. (1). In 1644 St. John Eudes asked the Visitation Nuns of Caen to assist him in the training of the first sisters of Our Lady of Charity until his spiritual daughters would be able to choose from among themselves a sister qualified to govern them. On August 10, 1644, Mother Margaret Frances Patin, a Visitation Nun, became superior of the Refuge of Caen. For twenty years she guided the nascent community and trained the young sisters that were destined to govern the order. Mother Patin died the death of a saint on October 31, 1668. Cf. Ory, ibid., P. 32 ff; George, op. cit., p. 204 ff.

Letter 49

To Mother Margaret Frances Patin, Superior of Our Lady of Charity. The Saint speaks to her of Sister Mary des Vallées and gives her some spiritual advice.

(January 1652)

My dearest Mother, whom I love most cordially in the sacred love of the most holy Heart of Jesus and Mary:

May they be the heart of our hearts for ever.

Our dear Timothy(1) is now undergoing extraordinary sufferings, and it is therefore impossible to speak with her about anything. As soon as she has returned to her normal state, I will read her your letter, and if she gives me any message for you, I will not fail to convey it to you. However, I can assure you, my dearest Mother, that she loves you deeply and sincerely, and that you and all your dear Community have a very special place in her heart.

As for your own condition, after I had recommended you to Our Lord and given myself to Him, that He might direct me what to tell you, this is what came to my mind.

It is true, my dear Mother, that the miseries of the children of Adam are infinitely great beyond the power of speech or thought, for we bear within ourselves two unfathomable abysses of wretchedness: the first is the abyss of our nothingness, and the second is that of sin. God permits you, or rather He gives you the special grace, to see in yourself some portion of these two inexhaustible sources of miseries, and for two reasons:

First of all, He desires you to use this means to close all the approaches of your heart to that accursed vanity which so singularly ravages many souls who profess to be virtuous and pious, and who even aspire to perfection; and which, alas! precipitates many into the fires of hell. Then too, it is to preserve, strengthen and increase within you the most essential of all virtues, that of humility , which shapes the souls (1). Mary des Vallées. See Letter 17, note 3.

it possesses according to the Heart of Our Lord and His most Holy Mother.

Secondly, it is to render you conformable to our most adorable Master, Who is Jesus. According to the testimony of the Prophet Jeremias, He says this of Himself: I am the man that see m y poverty."(2) For His humanity perceived perfectly and clearly that of itself it was nothing, and that, having sprung from nothingness and from Adam, it would have been born in original sin and consequently would have been capable of falling into all the miseries of the children of Adam if it had not been preserved by the great miracle of the hypostatic union. It penetrated even to the depths of these two abysses of nothingness and sin, a sight which. caused Our Lord the most profound and inconceivable humiliation, as well as inexpressible pain.

Adore that divine humanity in this state, my dearest Mother. Thank Our Lord for having deigned to assume it for love of you. Give your~ self to it so that you may accompany it on whatever road it may please to take you. Offer it your little troubles in thanksgiving for His immense trials. Pray it to make good use of them in your name. Finally, abandon yourself with your whole heart to Divine Providence, that He may lead you wherever He will and in His own way. On your part, remain always humble and submissive to the guidance of God, but take care never to become discouraged; rejoice, rather, and give thanks to Our Lord for the graces He grants you. For I repeat, my dearest Mother, what I perceive quite clearly to be true, that your present state, as you describe it to me, isa great gift from God. "Blessed is he," says St. Paul, "that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth.»(3) For it frequently happens that, when one feels and believes himself to be very good, he is not good; and when he thinks himself quite wicked, it is then that he is most worthy in the eyes of God. But let us abandon ourselves entirely to the judgment, will and guidance of Him Who knows and loves us infinitely more than we ourselves do. Let us dwell in the house of our nothingness and await with patience, humility, simplicity and submission Him Who desires only nothingness as the material and substance with which to do whatever is pleasing to Him. (2). Lam. 3, 1. (3). Rom. 24, 22.

With my whole heart do I deliver you, my dearest Mother, to His omnipotent bounty, beseeching Him to annihilate you so completely that He may be all things in you. Please offer the same prayer for me.

Lastly, I send affectionate greetings to all our dear Sisters, imploring them not to fail to visit faithfully the most lovable infant Jesus every day during these forty days that commemorate His sojourn in the stable of Bethlehem, that they may adore, praise and love Him, give themselves to Him, and supplicate Him to grant them the spirit of His divine childhood, which is a spirit of innocence, humility, poverty, simplicity, obedience and charity. They should also call upon His most worthy Mother to thank her, give themselves to her and ask her to obtain for them this same spirit of her dearest Son. Then let them offer proportionate supplications to St. Joseph for the same intentions.

Father de Montaigu(4) told me that Mr. de Taillefer's bond(5) must be ratified by his sonsin-law, and that so far he has taken all the steps to have this done and will give it his whole attention, but that we must wait until Mr. de Taillefer comes here. However, if you desire him to return it to you, he will do so.

I will convey to Timothy, as well as I can, everything indicated in your letter.

I remain with all my heart, in Jesus and Mary, my dearest Mother, Devotedly yours, JOHN EUDES, missionary priest. (4). See Letter 45, note I. (5). The Saint refers to the dowry that Mr. de Taillefer was to offer the Community before the profession of his daughter, Mademoiselle Renée Eustace de Taillefer. See Letter 16, note 1. Also 0euvres Complètes du Bienheureux Jean Eudes, Vol. 10, P. 503

Letter 50

To the Queen Regent.(1) On the appointment of the bishop of Bayeux

(1653) Madame:

Having learned that the abbe de Sainte Croix(2) has declined the Bishopric of Bayeux, I should deem myself extremely culpable if I did not follow the advice given me by several great servants of God and point out to Your Majesty that, from time immemorial, no episcopal visitation has been made by the bishop in this diocese; that this negligence has produced disorders and profanations of greater duration than would have been caused had armies inimical to the Christian name passed through it a number of times. This voluntary resignation of such a wealthy benefice seems to be a warning to Your Majesty that God, Who has numbered even the hairs of our heads, does not permit such an extraordinary thing in these miserable times of corruption (when men do not scruple to renounce the benefice of eternity to acquire or keep one far less valuable than the bishopric of Bayeux), save with the intention of giving Your Majesty an opportunity to render justice to the blood of His Son Who, by shedding it to the last drop, acquired the domain and ownership of all the souls in this diocese, with a much better and indisputably more just claim than those who buy slaves at the cost of money, over whom they nevertheless have absolute power.

These considerations, Madame, incomparably more important than those which determine the government of the greatest monarchies on earth, demand of Your Majesty a saint as bishop of this diocese. You are obliged by the Holy Council of Trent, under pain of mortal sin, to nominate to all the benefices which have charge of souls, not merely those whom Your Majesty considers worthy, that i s to say, saints, but rather the worthiest, that is, the greatest saints. All the more, Madame, (1). Anne of Austria, Mother of Louis XIV. She was Regent of France from 1643 to 1661. (2). Appointed bishop of Bayeux in 1653, the abbé de Sainte Croix, who was Bishop Molé’s brother, resigned almost immediately, even before having been consecrated.

are you obliged to do so in the case of a diocese as neglected as the one to which I refer, whose needs are infinitely greater than I can describe to Your Majesty. I am acquainted with these conditions through the numerous missions I have had the privilege of conducting in many of the localities there, and through the sighs and complaints which are wrung from many souls moved by zeal for the glory of God, during a long succession of years, over such deplorable conditions. This knowledge, coupled with my ardent desire to see showered upon this State(3) and the sacred person of Your Majesty as many blessings as the misfortunes that a justly provoked heaven seems to be preparing for us, has given me the courage to cast myself at Your Majesty's feet, in the name of all the people of this diocese, even the least and unworthiest of them, to try to obtain from you, in your kindness, the consent to a request so important to the glory of God, so necessary to the salvation of the souls for whom He delivered His own Son to death, and to a death on the Cross, and so capable of loading Your Majesty and the sacred person of our incomparable Monarch, that admirable God-given one, with all sorts of prosperity. It would atone in one respect for the abuse to His glory in this diocese, while i n other respects His enemies and yours, who are those of the State, are committing outrages against Him which can be expiated only in the fires of hell.

I implore God in His goodness, of which you will one day partake, Madame, to shower upon Your Majesty the plenitude of His graces necessary to lead you to the heavenly land. (3). The kingdom of France.