Memoriale Beneficiorum Dei: Memoir of the principal favors which I have received from God (2)

82. In 1666 we also gave four other missions:

The first in the diocese of Lisieux, in the parish of Mesnil-Durand.

The second in the diocese of Coutances, in the parish of Cerisy-Montpinchon. Its cost was borne by some private individuals.

The third in the château at Caen, for the soldiers.

The fourth in the parish of Saint Eny, in the diocese of Coutances, at the expense of Father de Meautis, a priest, and the inhabitants of the place.

Sit nomen Domini benedictum, ex hoc nunc, et usque in saeculum.

83. In 1667 we continued the mission at Evreux which we had begun during the preceding year 1666, and which we finished on the Epiphany. It was given through the zeal and at the expense of His Lordship Henry de Maupas du Tour, Bishop of Evreux. In the course of this mission we established the feast of the Most Holy Heart of the Blessed Virgin in several of the churches of Evreux, and His Lordship granted permission for this to be done throughout his diocese.

84. At the conclusion of this mission, His Lordship established our seminary at Evreux, purchasing, paying for and furnishing the house, and endowing it with an income of two thousand livres. Father Le Doux, the dean of Évreux, donated to us his house and garden, and the Priory of the Wilderness, known as St. Susan's Priory.

Te Deum laudamus, te Dominum confitemur.

85. During that same year we gave four other missions:

The first at Besneville, in the diocese of Coutances, near Saint Sauveur-le-Vicomte, at the expense of Father de Gourmont, the archdeacon of Coutances.

The second at Percy, in the diocese of Coutances, through the efforts of Madame de Matignon.

The third at Brucheville, near Le Grant-Vey, in the diocese of Coutances. It was requested by the pastor of that parish.

86. Previous to these last two missions, we had given one in the cathedral of Rouen which was paid for by Mr. Le Cornier, head of the exchequer, and several other persons of piety who had contributed to it. It began on Septuagesima Sunday and ended during the octave of Easter, suffering many trials and setbacks at first but yielding abundant fruits.

Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.

87. God in His goodness was pleased to grant me, that same year, several extraordinary crosses, for which may He be eternally praised and blessed.

88. From the closing days of 1667 until Lent of the following year, we also gave a mission at Marigny, in the diocese of Coutances, through the efforts of Fathers Eleine and Chardin, priests of that locality.

Deo gratias.

89. In 1668 we gave one during Lent at Carentan, in the same diocese, chiefly through the Cure de Brevands; during the summer, another at Montfarville, in the parish of Le Plessis; one i n 1669, during Lent, in the borough of Montsurvent, in the same diocese; and in die month of July, one in the borough of Cenilly and at Quettehou.

90. At the end of the same: year and the beginning of the following one, we conducted a long mission in the city of Rennes, in Brittany, which lasted from the first part of Advent until the Octave of . Easter. It was singularly blessed, thanks to the zeal and generosity of His Lordship de la Vieuville, Bishop of Rennes who, at the conclusion of this mission, established us at Rennes, donating to us a house, a garden and an income of two thousand livres.

Quis loquetur potentias Domini, auditas faciet omnes laudes et . us?

91. In that same year 1670 we gave three other missions in the diocese of Rennes: The first at . . .(37)

The second at ...

The third in the city of Fougères.

Soli Deo honor et gloria, in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

92. In that year, too, Our Lord was pleased to favor me with several good crosses, for which may He be eternally blessed. May He grant me the grace to be able to say for evermore:

Mihi autem absit gloriari, nisi in Cruce Domini.

93. In the same year 1671 His Lordship the archbishop of Paris sent us to give a mission at Versailles, during the jubilee. It was the wish of the King, who took care of its cost. There, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed, God granted me the grace to deliver two powerful exhortations before the Queen, while I was holding the monstrance, and a third one of even greater force in the King's presence.

Domine, salvum fac Regent, et exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus te. That year I was accompanied everywhere by crosses. Eternal thanks be rendered to the most lovable Crucified Saviour and to His most Holy Mother and mine.

94. Throughout the year 1672 I was almost always laden with crosses, (37). The names of the parishes where St. John Eudes preached these two missions are left blank i n the copy of the Memorial which has come down to us.

in the midst of which divine Bounty granted me so many graces that I was able to say:

Repletus sum consolatione, superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione mea. Circumdederunt me canes multi. Pater, dimitte illis.

95- In x673 the King and Queen had us give a mission during the Easter fortnight at Saint Germain-en-Laye. It was most fruitful, and their Majesties appeared highly pleased with it.

Domine, salvum fac Regem.

96. Also in the year 1673 we gave a mission at Elbeuf, diocese of Evreux, by the command of His Lordship of Evreux. Its expense was shared by His Lordship, by the pastor of Elbeuf and by Father Le Sueur, his curate. Two extraordinary things happened during the course of this mission:

First of all, on June 11, the fourth day of the mission, as I was preparing to take my place i n the pulpit to preach, there was a fearful clap(38) of thunder which filled every heart with a great fear, and penetrated into the church, scattering violence everywhere in its wake, even at the high altar; but it left the altar of the Blessed Virgin completely unscathed. This was attributed by a number of persons to the fact that the mission had been dedicated on its opening day in honor of her most Holy Heart. Two small stone columns on either side of an embossed image of the Blessed Virgin, which is on a small door leading into the nave of the church, were shattered, but the image remained intact. The lightning did strike a priest, who was carried out half dead, his shirt having caught fire underneath. After regaining consciousness, he made his confession and received all the sacraments, dying a Christian death. Only the one priest was killed, but other persons were injured; among them, a scrivener or notary who had been praying with one knee testing on a small low box and the other off the floor. The thunder prostrated him, to trach him the respect with which one should address His Divine Majesty, and it injured both his knees, to punish him through the things in which he was deficient.

The second event which occurred during that mission was what I am about to relate. On the second day of July I preached on the subject (38). The Saint relates this fact in a letter to Mother St. Henry, a religious of Montmartre. See Letter 169.

of the most Blessed Virgin Mary. As I began to speak, toward the end of my sermon, against that vice which is incompatible with devotion to the Queen of Virgins, everyone became aware of something that sounded like frightful thunder coming from the vault of the church, although the weather was quite calm and cloudless. It seemed at first, nevertheless, to be thunder; but as people realized that i t was lasting a long time, that is to say, for about the length of a Miserere, and that it was coming from the vault of the church, they believed that the roof was splitting open and was about to collapse, and that everyone there would be crushed to death. And then you would have witnessed the most fearful desolation in the world; the whole church resounded with the most pitiful cries, tears, groans and lamentations. Some were crying for mercy, others were calling upon the Blessed Virgin and the saints to help them, while still others prostrated themselves on the floor, and some cast themselves at the feet of nearby priests, beseeching them to absolve them from their sins. At last the noise ceased and everyone withdrew from the place more dead than alive. As for myself, I knelt down in the pulpit to adore divine Justice and do what I should for my listeners and myself.

The cause of this incident was never ascertained. For, as soon as the noise ceased, people hastened up to the vault, but they could discover nothing at all there. However, everyone deemed it to have been a manifestation of the fury of the devil against the mission, but the confusion was =tied against him, for God employed these two kinds of thunder as a means of softening hardened hearts and preparing them to receive the grace of the mission, the fruits of which were many.

Benedicite fulgura Domino: ignis et spiritus procellarum, quae faciunt verbum ejus.

97. In the same year 1673 Her Royal Highness Madame de Guise donated twelve thousand francs to us to be used in building the Church of the Most Amiable Heart of Jesus and Mary in our house at Caen, in the manner and according to the conditions imposed by the contract drawn up i n Paris, in the presence of Notaries Du Chatelet, Després and Gallois, on June 3, 1673.

Tibi laus, tibi honor, tibi gloria in aeternum, 0 Cor amantissimum Jesu et Mariae.

98. Toward the end of that year and at the beginning of the following 1674, divine Providence favored me with several great trials,(39) greater in some respects than all the preceding ones. For, first of all, in an attempt to destroy our Congregation, my enemies turned the King against me by persuading him that I had committed serious acts against his Majesty's interests, although I had never even thought of such things; but this had been foretold to me a year or so previously. Secondly, in order to Prevent us from obtaining confirmation of our Congregation from the Holy See, they sent a document from Paris to Rome which was crammed with calumnies and lies about us.

99. In the years 1675 and 1676 our most lovable Crucified Saviour honored me with several weighty crosses by permitting defamatory libels,(40) filled with atrocious insults and slanders, to be published against me practically throughout the whole of France. These accused me of a great number of heresies, from which, thanks be to God, I am far removed. However, all that vanished into thin air.

Deo gratias et Mariae, super inenarrabilibus donis ipsorum. Pater, dimitte illis.

100. In 1674 our dear Father James de la Haye de Bonnefond,(41) who had gone to Rome, returned with several Bulls(42) for us from our Holy Father Pope Clement X: a Bull which authorizes us to give missions (39). Father Boniface, a Flemish priest, had been sent to Rome by St. John Eudes to obtain the formal approbation of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. This was not granted. Wishing to secure some return for the very great expense which his mission put upon the Eudist Fathers, Father Boniface, i n the year 1662, presented a petition to the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in which he suggested that, as a barrier against heretical opinions that were creeping into many countries, the members of this Congregation were ready to add in their obligations a vow binding them to uphold all opinions and doctrines tending to favor the authority of the Holy See, even if they were doubtful. Twelve years later this petition was found by the Saint's enemies, who brought it in the notice of Louis X1V as an attack on the pretensions of the French King. Although St. John Eudes made a formal declaration that he had no pan in Father Boniface's petition, he fell under Louis's displeasure. Father Boniface also declared on two different occasions that the Saint had nothing to do with the petition. The King refused to be appeased. Through the intervention of His Excellency Harlay de Champvallon, Arch. bishop of Paris, King Louis XIV finally consented to receive the Saint. See Letter 202. (40). The most defamatory of these libels was Lettre à un docteur de la Sorbonne, by Father Dufour. See Letter 183. (41). See Letter 126, note 1. (42). See Letter 179, note 1.

anywhere in France, with a plenary indulgence; a Bull confirming the statutes of our Congregation; and six other Bulls for our houses at Caen, Rouen, Coutances, Lisieux, Evreux and Rennes, giving us the power to establish Confraternities of the Most Holy Heart of Jesus and Mary in our churches and chapels, with many indulgences. From the lips of our Holy Father, and consequently from the adorable lips of Our Lord Himself, these churches and chapels received the name, in the aforesaid Bulls, of The Churches and Chapels of the Divine Heart of Jesus and Mary, which afforded me extraordinary consolation in the midst of all the above-mentioned troubles.

Gratias infinitas, immensas, aeternas, amantissimo Cordi Jesu et Mariae.

101. In the years 1674, 1675 and 1676 we gave several missions in the dioceses of Bayeux, Coutances, Lisieux, Evreux and Rennes. God lavished His choicest blessings upon them, particularly on the one that we gave at Saint Lô in 1676, our third time there, during which divine Bounty converted a considerable number of Huguenots.

Deo gratias et Mariae.

102. In the year 1676 Our Saviour bestowed upon me many painful crosses, for which may He be blessed for all eternity

A very painful affliction turned into consolation. From the 25th of November, in the year 1673 to the 17th of June, 1679 I suffered a terrible affliction as the result of a thoroughly false calumny against me which had been implanted in the King's mind. It accused me of having presented a petition(43) to our Holy Father the Pope, requesting permission to render obedience to him etiam i n iis quae dubium movere possunt;(44)which is something that has never entered my mind. Nevertheless, the King was persuaded to regard it as a crime, and this threatened to bring about the destruction of our Congregation. But God in His goodness prevented it, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, in the following manner. Having made a vow to God to dedicate one of the principal chapels of our church in Caen in honor of her Immaculate Conception, I received a letter three days later from His Lordship Claude Auvry, a former bishop of Coutances, addressed to( (43). The Boniface Petition.- See note 39 (44). Even in matters that might raise doubts.

me at Caen on behalf of His Lordship the archbishop of Paris, and stating that the King had lost the unfavorable impression that he had been given of me, and that I should come to Paris to thank his Majesty. I went, and upon being presented to the King by His Lordship of Paris, I spoke to him as follows:

"Sire, I have come to your Majesty's feet to render you my most humble thanks for your kindness in granting me the honor and consolation of seeing you once more before I die, and to protest to you that there is no man in this world who has more zeal and fervor than I where your Majesty's Service and interests are concerned. This is the sentiment in which I desire to spend and use the little time left me in this life. I also beg of you most humbly, Sire, to honor us with your royal protection, and to continue to honor us with your graces and favors. This is what I hope from that wonderful benevolence which rejoices and delights the hearts of all who have the honor of speaking to your Royal Majesty, and which never fails to send them away filled with joy and comfort." The King's reply. The King, having listened very attentively and with a kind expression, spoke to me in the following manner:

"I am very pleased to see you; I feel quite sure that you are doing a great deal of good in m y Kingdom. Continue to work as you are doing. I shall be very pleased to see you again, and will help and protect you on whatever occasions may arise." Those words of the King filled me with an inexpressible happiness. So it was, then, that after a desolation of six years' duration, the Father of Mercy and God of consolation deigned to dry my tears and change my most bitter anguish into unbelievable joy, for which may He be blessed and praised for all eternity, Immortal thanks and praises, too, be given the Mother of graces and blessings, through whose hands pass all the blessings that divine Bounty grants to us.

Another affliction.

103. On my return from Paris I developed a hernia as the result of the jolting of the coach i n which I was riding, as it traveled along a very rocky road. This caused me a great deal of physical pain, but far

greater suffering of mind, inasmuch as it deprived me of the power to labor on missions for the salvation of souls.

Gloria tibi, Domine, qui natus es de Virgine.

104. In the year 1680, during the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi, God granted us the grace to convene the first general assembly of our little Congregation, with the purpose of electing someone to replace me, particularly after my death. Father Blouet de Camilly(45) was unanimously elected to be Superior General of the Congregation for life. This was a very great consolation to me, and all the greater because it has been preceded by very acute sorrow and anguish, for reasons I cannot record here.

Te Dominum Jesum laudamus, te Dominam Mariam, Matrem Jesu dignissimam, et Matrem nostram amantissimam, benedicimus. Nos cum Prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria.

105. Today, July 25th of the same year 1680,(46) God granted me the grace to finish m y book, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God.

0 sacrosancta Trinitas, aeterna vita cordium, Cordis Mariae sanctitas: In corde regnes omnium. Amen. (45). Father John James Blouet de Camilly, eldest son of James Blouet and Anne Le Haguais. Father Blouet entered the Congregation of Jesus and Mary on February 8, 1655, at the age of 23. He died on August It, 1711. See Letter 11, note 2; also Letter 76. note 1. (46). St. John Eudes died on August 19, 1680.