The life of Father Louis Lallemant

Father Louis Lallemant was born in Champagne at Chalons-sur-Marne, in 1588. He was the only son of a bailly of the comte de Veriue, which was. formerly an appanage of the princesses of France. His father sent him from his tenderest years to Bourges, to commence his studies at the College of the Fathers of the Company of Jesus.

God had bestowed upon him all the dispositions, both of nature and of grace, which were necessary for the accomplishment of the great designs which He had respecting him ; a mind of a superior order, and one capable of acquiring every species of knowledge ; a judgment at once penetrating and solid ; a nature gentle, open, and obliging ; great fondness for study ; an extreme borror of vice, and especially of impurity ; a lofty idea of the service of God, and a peculiar attraction for the interior life.

Mere child as he was, he practised interior recollections without knowing it. "I must always remain within myself," he used to say ; " I must never altogether go abroad." This maxim, which he had learnt of the Holy Spirit without having been taught it by man, was graven so deeply in his heart that, even thus early, he kept continual watch over himself, and avoided nothing so much as an unguarded effusion.

The devotion which he had for the Holy Virgin made him desire to belong to the Congregation consecrated to her at the College of Bourges, where, it may be said, he passed the first novitiate of that religious life which he already contemplated.

The image of perfection which God had disclosed to him presented itself unceasingly to his mind under the most delightful attractions ; and the desire which he felt for it often caused him, even in the midst of his recreations with his companions, such powerful transports, that his countenance appeared all on fire, his eyes sparkled, and he was compelled to leave the company, to go and abandon himself in secret to the movements of -grace.

Having finished his humanities, and passed a year in rhetoric at Bourges, his father took him away to send him to Verdun, there to make a second year's study of rhetoric. He did so with much success; and after this, having asked permission to join the Company of Jesus, he was admitted therein, and entered the novitiate at Nancy on the 10th of December, 1605, being then in his eighteenth year.

God gave him grace to conceive from the first the true idea of that perfection which St. Ignatius proposes to his children. The life and conduct of this holy patriarch was the model which he undertook to imitate ; and he studied especially, after his example, to mortify the activity of his mind, and like him to subject all the movements of his heart to grace. And in this he very soon made such great progress that those who had known him before were astonished to see that he had acquired in so short a time that tranquility and evenness of mind which characterizes perfect virtue.

After his novitiate, they made him enter immediately on his philosophical and theological studies at Pont-a-Mousson ; a constant suffering which he experienced both in his head and stomach not permitting the superiors to employ him in the superintendence of the lower classes and the humanities, as was usual in the Company.

In the year lGlfi, the Colleges of Champagne, Burgundy, and Lorraine, having been detached from the province of France, in order to then form, ing for the future a province of themselves, to beai the name of Champagne, F. Louis Lallemant remained in that of France, and made his solemn profession of the four vows at Paris on the 28th October, 1G21. He taught the speculative sciences in several places; philosophy three years, mathematics four years, moral theology three years, and scholastic two years, at Paris. After this he was four years head of the novitiate, and master of novices, three years director of the second novitiate, prefect of the higher studies, and a few months rector of the college at Bourges.

Such was the course of his life, and the order of his employments ; of which he acquitted himself so admirably, that he may be ranked among the most illustrious members of the Company. But although he was capable of everything it is nevertheless true that government and direction were the two offices for which he had received from Heaven the rarest talents.

The Holy Spirit, whose will it was»to make of him an accomplished superior and director, and one capable of forming many others, had Himself acted as his master, and had instructed him in the spiritual life from his earliest years, as we have already remarked. He had attached him to Him-p^lf by that special devotion which He had inspired him with towards His own adorable Person. He iiad discovered to him all the most secret mysteries of grace. He had made him enter profoundly into the knowledge of His gifts, and had communicated them to him with that profuseness which He emplo}rs only in the case of souls which He intends to raise to the most eminent sanctity.

The fear of the Lord, which is the basis of all other gifts, and the foundation of the whole spiritual edifice, was always in him, as it is in the true children of God, grounded upon a solid humility, and accompanied with the other virtues which it introduces and preserves in souls, viz., innocence, purity, mortification, and disengagement from earthly things.

The knowledge which he had of his own nothingness, of the corruption of nature and its miseries, of the greatness of God, and the dependence of creatures upon the Creator, kept him in a continual abasement before His Sovereign and Adorable Majesty. The mean opinion he had of himself made him love his own abjection ; and the love of abjection led him to seek all occasions of humbling himself and being humbled, and to embrace with joy those which presented themselves. The spirit of annihilation shown by the Son of God in Lis Incarnation was the model of humility which he proposed to himself ; and the Sacred Heart of the Incarnate Word was the school in which he studied the practice of this virtue. In this school and from this divine Master it was that he learned thai sublime lesson of humility, of forgetting self and remaining buried in his own nothingness, to such perfection, that he occupied himself with his concerns, and spoke of them, and thought of them, no more than if he was not in existence, unless necessity obliged him, or a manifest movement of grace led him to do so.

His exterior and whole deportment breathed humility. Everything he did he did quietly, and without eagerness, as if he would have wished to hide it from himself; so humble was he. and so averse to ostentation. For the same reason, he was more willing to co-operate secretly in the good works of others than to undertake them himself ; and although he may not have appeared in their execution, he often had the largest share in them, either by having been the author of them, through his advice or exhortations, or by having given them the support of his own credit and authority ; or by having contributed more than any one else to their success by his management and care. He considered that Superiors ought to act thus towards their inferiors, interesting themselves in their labors, assisting and favoring them in their holy enterprises, employing them on any occasions which present themselves of promoting the glory of God and the good of souls, without wishing to do everything in their own persons, and burdening themselves with a multitude of external occupations, which commonly prevent them from applying themselves, as much as they ought, to the government of their house. He said that this way of acting on the part of Superiors is extremely winning to inferiors, and encourages them to do their duty well, seeing themselves assisted and seconded in their functions by those who stand to them in the place of God.

The spirit of filial fear which he had from his childhood was the faithful guardian that preserved to him undefiled the robe of innocence which he had received in baptism, and the precious treasure of virginity. The Father who heard his general confession in his last illness — a very able man, and of singular discretion — declared that he would not fear asserting on his oath, if occasion needed, that he had never committed mortal sin ; and that he was so chaste that he seemed to have no part in the corruption of nature. He never suffered temptations or movements contrary to purity.

His great maxim was, that our advancement in perfection is in proportion to the progress we make in purity of heart ; that this is the shortest and the surest way of arriving at divine union, and the infallible means of disposing ourselves for large communications from God. This he knew by his own experience ; and there was nothing to which he more applied himself than to keep his soul pure, not willingly suffering the least spoS which might be displeasing to the eyes of God. It was for this reason that he kept a continual watch over his own interior, that he examined so carefully all the movements of his heart, and confessed every day with the greatest exactness.

Daily confession was one of the points which he most strongly recommended to such of our Fathers as he perceived to be touched with a particular desire for their own perfection. He advised them to present themselves every day at the tribunal of penance, in order to accuse themselves of the least inrperfections in their life, and to give account of everything that concerned their spiritual direction.

This was his own practice ; and as he always brought to confession all the requisite dispositions, i lively faith in the presence of Jesus Christ in the persons of his priests, a perfect confidence in the power which has been given them, an humble and loving contrition for his faults, a sincere zeal to repair them and to make full satisfaction to God, he experienced sensibly the effects of the sacrament, the peculiar grace of which is purity of conscience.

He was so faithful to grace that he never committed a deliberate fault. As soon as he perceived the shadow of the least sin, he retreated from it with all his strength ; and F. Kigoleu testifies that in his recreations it was sometimes remarked that lie was suddenly silent, in obedience to the light which showed him some imperfection in what he was beginning to say.

So far from allowing his body any gratifications which could soil the soul, he thought constantly only how to mortify it in all its senses. It is certain that his corporal austerities exceeded his strength ; and in the judgment of his most intimate friends their severity considerably shortened his life.

As for interior abnegation, which is the most noble part of the spiritual sacrifice, he practised it psrseveringly with an extreme rigor, combating all his inclinations, or subjecting them to the Spirit of God. So that by a complete victory over his passions, he had arrived at that happy state of death, in which nature, being perfectly subjected to grace, offers no more obstacles to the divine life which the Holy Spirit desires to communicate to the soul.

He loved poverty as much as the world ordinarily eschews it. From the time that he bound himself to follow Jesus Christ, he would make use only of such things as were absolutely necessary, the meanest, the most worn, and the least convenient in the house. The whole furniture of his room consisted only of a wretched little bed without hangings, a table, two chairs, a priedieu, a Breviary, a Bible, and three or four other books which he could not do without. He took a pleasure in being always in want of something, that he might keep himself in the constant exercise of poverty ; hiding his wants and little discomforts with more care than misers hide their treasures, for fear the charity of Superiors or officials should deprive him of the opportunity of enduring them. But the idea he entertained of evangelical poverty was not confined to the stripping himself of exterior things. He carried it to the highest degree of which it is capable, that is, to a complete detachment from all creatures, and that perfect nudity of spirit wrhich, rising even above the graces and the gifts of God, seeks but God alone, looks but to God, and clings to Him only. This was one of the sublime points in his doctrine by the practice of which he had attained to pure love.

He was naturally possessed of great courage, and that firmness of mind which is hindered by nothing in the execution and pursuit of its designs. But his principal strength proceeded from a gift of grace, which, arraying him in the Spirit of God, made him undertake everything and suffer everything, where the interest of God was concerned. To this he felt himself so powerfully moved that nothing could stop him ; neither the difficulties of the enterprise, nor the labor it entailed, nor the opposition of the world, nor considerations of human prudence, nor fear of ill success. It was enough for him to know that this was what God ■desired of him to engage him to embrace it, and to make him believe that he should accomplish it.

Although his health was none of the strongest, he did not spare himself the least, laboring unceasingly in his employment, and in all those works to which obedience and charity called him for the glory of God and the service of his neighbor. Fervor of spirit made up for feebleness of body, and so supported him that he seemed indefatigable.

Patience and gentleness are among the noblest effects, as they are also the most solid proofs, of strength. Father Lallemant excelled both in one uDd the other. He suffered with so much sweetness, that to see him suffer, no one would have thought he was suffering anything. As he was perfectly master of himself, no one ever remarked in him an unevenness either of mind or temj-er. He possessed his soul in perfect peace, and his countenance was always serene. He never at any time raised his voice.

That supernatural courage with which he was animated made him ask of God, like St. Ignatius, to be contradicted and thwarted in his designs by all the world, not only to have the opportunity of suffering, but also that the success of his undertakings might conduce so much the more to the glory of God, as the difficulties were greater which he would have had to surmount in order to their accomplishment.

He entreated during three years to be sent out on some foreign mission, and especially that of Canada, although fewer conversions were made there than elsewhere ; because it was more fruitful in labors and crosses, because it offered a less brilliant career, and contributed more than any others to the sanctification of the missionaries. This was what made him prefer it to all others ; and failing to obtain permission to go there in person, he always exerted himself to procure fervent laborers for that mission, and to render it in France all the service that lay in his power.

His love of missions sprang out of that spirit of piety which made him look upon souls as images of God, bearing the fair stamp of His likeness, and redeemed by the Blood of His Son, and tilled him with a sensible grief at their ruin, arid a burning desire for their salvation. For it is the gift of piety which infuses into the heart of Saints that most tender love and zeal which they experience for God and for their neighbor. This it is which imparts t „ charity an attraction and a sweetness which other wise it lacks. It is a gift as rare as it is precious, and one that is necessary for men of letters and evangelical laborers, to prevent study and the turmoil of acth- employment producing in them dryness of spirt Father Lallemant was filled with an unction of piety which appeared in all his actions, and particularly in such as had immediate reference to God, as when he recited the Divine Office, celebrated Mass, administered the Sacraments ; and even in the smallest things, as when he made the sign of the Cross, or took holy water. His manner of performing these acts betokened a depth of devotion as tender as it was solid.

He had no greater delight than entertaining himself familiarly with God, calling prayer his happiness on earth, and giving to it more time than to any other of his occupations. Sometimes he would thus employ several hours of the nightt which he stole from sleep. One day, being alone with a friend before the fire, he confessed to him that he had no difficulty in raising his mind to God ; that it was as easy to him as to cast his eyes on the dogs which supported the wood upon the hearth.

Nothing interested him which was unconnected with God. His whole interior occupation was to discover what were the designs of God in every particular thing; and when he had ascertained them, to give himself up to Him, to execute them according to the lights of grace imparted by the spirit of Jesus Christ.

He always sensibly experienced the direction ut the Holy Spirit in prayer, even before he had W> rived at that state which the mystics call passive or supernatural, because the soul in that state simply consents to the operation of God in a manner which is not natural to it. Thus, no sooner did he betake himself to prayer, than he found himself illuminated by a divine light, which laid open before him the subject and the points of his meditation, and suggested to him all its acts, as he testifies in one of his writings.

His great devotion was to the Incarnate Word. All the powers of his soul were engrossed with the thought of His adorable Person, His different states and mysteries. That of the most Holy Eucharist was the object of his special homage, and the most frequent subject of his conversation; when speaking of it he was carried out of himself. All his exercises of piety were directed to the Man- God, or had reference to Him ; and the love of our Lord formed the ground of his every action. Nothing made virtues appear more amiable in his eyes than the considering them as deified in Jesus Christ. Seeing them in this light, those which are naturally the most repulsive, or the most difficult, had for him the greatest attraction.

Everything bearing the mark of the Son of God, everything connected with Him, or in immediate contact with Him, was infinitely dear to him ; hence he cherished an inconceivable tenderness for the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, and maintained a most familiar and loving intercourse with such among the angelic choir as are especially devoted to the Incarnate Word and His most holy Mother.

It was observed that he every day recited a portion of the Rosary ; but he honored the Blessed Virgin far more by the exalted sentiments of veneration, respect, love, and confidence, which he entertained for her, than by exterior practices.

He was gifted with an extraordinary grace for inspiring everybody with a devotion to St. Joseph ; and his advice to persons who desired to enter on the ways of spiritual perfection was, to take as their model of humility Jesus Christ, as their model of purity the Blessed Virgin, and as their model of the interior life St. Joseph. It was after these divine patterns that he labored at his own perfection ; and it was easy to perceive how happily he had wrought them out in his own person.

Every day, in honor of St. Joseph, he observed four short exercises, from which he drew wonderful profit. The two first were for the morning, and the two other for after dinner. The first was to raise himself in spirit to the heart of St. Joseph, and consider how faithful he was to the inspirations of grace ; then turning his eyes inward on his own heart, to discover his own want of fidelity, he made an act of humiliation, and excited himself to perseverance. The second was, to reflect how perfectly St. Joseph reconciled the interior life with his external occupations. Then, turning to observe himself and his own occupations, he perceived wherein they fell short of the perfection of his model. By means of this exercise he made such progress, that towards the close of his life he remained in an uninterrupted state of interior recollection ; and the attention which he paid to external things, instead of weakening his union with God, served rather to strengthen it. The third was, to accompany in spirit St. Joseph, as the spouse of the Blessed Virgin, and to meditate on the wonderful knowledge which he had enjoyed of her virginity and maternity, in consequence of the humble submission with which he received the announcement of the Angel respecting the mystery of the Incarnation. By this exercise he excited himself to love St. Joseph for his love of his most holy spouse. The fourth was, to figure to himself the adoration and homage of love and gratitude which St. Joseph paid to the Holy Child Jesus, and to beg to participate therein, that he might adore and love this Divine Infant with all the sentiments of the deepest reverence and the tenderest love of which he was capable. He wished to carry with him to the grave some tokens of his devotion to this great Saint, and requested that an image of his beloved patron might be put with him in his coffin. It was observed on many occasions that St. Joseph never refused him anything he asked; and whenever he wished to induce persons to honor him, he used to assure them that he did not possess a single grace which he had not obtained through his; in±e**cession. Thus he acted in the case of F. TV?! Ragueneau and F. James Nouet, who were regents of the lower classes at the College of Bourges. At the time he was rector, observing in them excellent dispositions to virtue, he took particular pains with their spiritual advancement. As the Feast of St. Joseph approached, he sent for them both, and promised that they should obtain everything they asked through the intercession of this great Saint, if they would exhort their scholars to be devout towards him, and to do something more than ordinary on his feast-day. The two young regents engaged to do as he said, and brought all their scholars to communion on that day ; ttiey then went to communicate to the father rector what each wished St. Joseph to obtain for them. F. Nouet asked for grace to speak and write worthily of our Lord. But the next morning, on seeking F. Lailemant, to tell him that upon due reflection he was anxious to ask for another grace, which he thought more conducive to his perfection, the Father replied that it was too late to ask for another grace, that the first had been already granted, and that he had pledged himself only for that one. This grace was conspicuously displayed throughout the whole course of F. Nouet's life.

His sermons and writings are proofs of it, and above all, his great work on our Lord Jesus Christ, which cost him the labor of many years, and which he finished only a short time before his death. "With regard to F. Ragueneau, who recounted all this to Madame Marin, a Benedictine religious of Mont Martre, he would not say what favor he had asked of St. Joseph from F. Lallemant. It was apparently some interior grace which his humility obliged him to conceal, like so many other favors and precious gifts which he had received from Heaven. For he was a perfect religious, of great largeness of mind, remarkable discernment and solidity of judgment, an heroic courage, and capable of the greatest achievements, a holy simplicity, a wonderful confidence in God, and most perfect experience in spiritual things ; a man completely detached from all temporal interests, and one who breathed only the love of God and zeal for souls. He was one of the first missionaries of New France ; and I was informed by F. Joseph Poncet and F. Francis le Mercier, two holy religious who had been his colleagues in his apostolical labors, that there was no one who rendered more service to the Church of Canada, or more justly merited the title of an apostle. Returning afterwards to France for the purpose of acting as procurator to his beloved mission, he then displayed that rare talent for direction with which God had endowed him. Providence conducted to him an immense number of devout souls, and especially such as were being led by extraordinary ways ; and he devoted himself with a boundless charity to assist them both by word of mouth and by letters. Persons wrote to him from all quarters, and his replies carried the light and unction of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those to whom they were addressed. He died a holy death at Paris, on the 3rd of September, 1680, at the age of 75. It were much to be wished that some one would undertake to collect his letters with a view to publication. But let us return to F. Louis Lallemant.

He agreed in opinion with those who believe that when the Incarnation of the Son of God was communicated to the angels, besides the homage which all the faithful amongst them paid to the Man-God, there were some who devoted themselves especially to Him and the Virgin Mother of whom He was to be born ; that they habitually attended upon both one and the other during their mortal life ; and that one of their offices is to inspire souls with a devotion to them, and to assist in every way such as most religiously practise it. On this account he paid particular honor to these holy angels, and entered into a spiritual alliance with them to honor and love Jesus and Mary, to make them known and loved by all the world, and to promote the increase of their glory. He never said Mass without beseeching the angels of the Incarnate Word to accompany him to the altar ; and when he commenced reciting his Office, he invited the angels who form the court, of the Blessed Virgin to unite with him in chanting the praises of God.

From the time that he formed the design of entering the Company of Jesus, he began to regard St. Ignatius as his father, entertaining for him the sentiments of a son, and having recourse to him with confidence in all his needs.

He possessed the gift of piety in its fulness, and it wrought in him all those effects which it habitually produces — a filial submission to his Superiors, a paternal kindness towards his inferiors, and a fraternal charity for all the world.

It is piety which perfects obedience, making a man see only God in his Superiors, and feel towards them as a child. F. Lallemant was a man of this disposition ; and his delight was to regulate his employments and all his conduct by obedience, as the true interpreter of the will of God. To enable himself to do this with more perfection, he asked for nothing, refused nothing, not even allowing himself the liberty of liking or disliking, always ready to do what was the most laborious or the least to his taste, as soon as he perceived what his Superiors wished, without waiting till they gave him an express command.

Obedience was what he especially enjoined upon his novices, and he made them take this virtue for their particular examination five or six months together. "Do not think it irksome, my brethren," he used to say to them, "if I keep you so long on obedience. If you can make yourselves perfect in it, be assured you will be in the direct and certain way to holiness."

His exactness in observing the rules sprang from the same principle, because they marked out to him in detail what God desired of him ; he regarded them with peculiar veneration, and kept them with that spirit of love which is the characteristic of perfect religious.

But the point on which his spirit of piety displayed itself most conspicuously was in his behavior towards his equals and inferiors. In this one may truly say that he could hardly have been surpassed.

Charity in him displayed all those qualities which St. Paul ascribes to it. Nothing could be more patient, more gentle, more humble, more disinterested, more condescending, or more obliging- His excellent disposition, his amiable and engaging manners, his singular modesty, his composed deportment, a mixture of sweetness and hob gravity, that heavenly expression which breathed in his countenance and in his words, gave him a ready entrance into all hearts. It sufficed to listen to him once, to make men eagerly desire to hear him and converse with him.

He knew so well how to accommodate himself to those whom Providence directed to him, to bear with their defects, to seek opportunities of serving them, and to gain access to their minds, that in the end, by this holy condescension and by this .patience, he acquired a complete influence over them.

At whatever moment he was applied to, however occupied he might be, he received every one that came with a smiling countenance and an open heart ; and he seemed never to have anything else to do but to listen to those who wished to speak to him, without ever betraying in his manner any signs of weariness.

F. Rigoleu remarks in one of his letters, that some of the Fathers who made their second novitiate under this holy director at the same time with himself, were at first rather opposed to his views, but that he so won upon them by his sweetness, kindness, and humility, that before three months had elapsed, there was not a single one who did not yield himself implicitly to his guidance, one and all without exception declaring that they had never met with such a Supeixoi.

However, God not seldom so permitted it that some of those who, as his Superiors, ought to have treated him with more kindness, or who, as his inferiors and disciples, were bound to show him more respect and submission, should somewhat forget themselves in their conduct towards him and be a cause of trouble to him. But far from showing resentment at this, or making any complaint, he rejoiced at it, and was the more willing to take pains to serve them. His revenge confined itself to desiring more ardently their spiritual progress, and he declared one day, in confidence, to a friend, that this desire was so strong wdthin him that he was consumed V it, and could scarcely endure its violence. In fact, they who knew him best were persuaded that the burning zeal with which he was inflamed contributed no less to shorten his life than the rigor of his penances.

A short time after he wTas rector of the College of Bourges, a brother who performed the office of baker came to him one day, and rather rudely complained of having too much to do, desiring him to see to the matter, and put some one else in his place. The Father listened to him calmly, and promised to relieve him. He then went himself quietly into the bake-house, and began kneading dough with all his might. The brother, when the first heat of his excitement was over, was very much surprised, on returning to the bake-house, to find there the father rector doing his work for him. He immediately threw himself at his feet and begged his pardon, full of confusion for his fault, and overcome with the sweetness and the humility of so compassionate a Superior.

It was thus he acted on similar occasions, employing lenity with so much prudence, that all j hearts readily conceded to him all he wished. He used to say that experience taught him every day more and more, that rule should be exercised in the Company with extreme mildness; that the Superiors ought to study how to make themselves obeyed rather from love than from fear; that the way to maintain regularity is not by rigor and penances, but by the fatherly kindness of Superiors, and their diligence in attending to the wants of their inferiors ; and in preserving and increasing amongst them the interior spirit and prayer.

His great ability drew to him as much the esteem and confidence of souls, as his tender charity won their affections. Besides the natural lights of a superior understanding and a true and sound judgment, as well as those which he had acquired from a profound study of theology and personal experience, he was wonderfully illuminated with those infused lights which God gives to his ministers, either for their own direction or for that of others.

He was learned in the science of the Saints, as he has himself described it in his instructions on the Holy Spirit. What he says on this subject shows plainly enough that he must be numbered among those men who have been the most deeply versed in the spiritual life. He used to discourse concerning it divinely ; and the Fathers who made their third year's novitiate under his direction were wont to admire in him that rare talent of infused science, that rich and varied knowledge of supernatural things, which, it was evident, could come only from his union with God, of which it bore the marks. For he had no leisure for study, and spent so much of his time in prayer and in talking to his novices, that he had scarcely any left for preparing the exhortations and conferences, which he gave every day ; nevertheless they were so full and so beautiful, that any one would have said he had passed his whole time in composing them.

The oldest and most eminent of the Fathers were so delighted with his discourses, that they would have preferred going without a moment's recreation to being deprived of the advantage of hearing him speak of spiritual things. A very able Father declared he had never conversed with thi& holy man without carrying away from the conversation some fresh light, either as to the meaning of Scripture, of which he had a profound knowledge^ or on some point of theology or spiritual science.

F. Julian Hayneuve, who, by his writings as well as heroic virtues, has deserved universal respect and veneration, when rector of the novitiate at Rouen, at the time that F. Lallemant was director of the Fathers wh"> were passing through their* third year's probation in the same place, from a desire to bo one of the disciples of so accomplished a master, assisted as though he had been a novica at all the exhortations and instructions, which he declared were full of a light and an unction which he met with nowhere else.

It is impossible to conceive what influence hii? discourses exercised and what impression they produced upon souls. That heavenly gift, which St. Paul calls the grace of speech, was conspicuous in him, whether exhorting or warning, encouraging or consoling. It was often observed that a single word from his lips would calm a troubled soul or convince an obstinate intellect.

Some have considered with much reason that F. Louis Lallemant held the same place among the Jesuits of France, which F. Alvarez occupied among those of Spain. He certainly united in an eminent degree, as did that celebrated director of St. Theresa, the knowledge and the practice of mystical I theology, and, like him, numbered among his dis« I ciples the most spiritual and interior men whom the Company has ever had amongst us. It has since been remarked, that all those who made their first or second novitiate under him, were commonly distinguished above others by a religious deportment, which corresponded with the excellent lessons they had learnt from him, and especially by the love of recollection and the interior life.

He himself acknowledged that God had given him a particular talent for the direction of those belonging to the Company, and that He made known to him His designs in their regard, the impediments which they threw in the way, and the road by which they had to walk in order to arrive at perfection. He declared that the holiness to which the members are called surpasses all imagination ; and that could any one behold the graces which God has prepared for each of them, he would conclude they were destined only for a St. Ignatius or a St. Francis Xavier.

He had, as it were, an habitual gift of discernment and counsel, by the light of which he was enabled to distinguish in everything what was the best, the most suitable to time and place under existing circumstances, the most conducive to the end which was aimed at, and the most agreeable to God. It was in accordance with this light that, seven or eight years before his death, he made that generous vow, so far above human weakness, of doing in all things that which he deemed most perfect.

In this, however, he acted with so much discretion, that in choosing what he esteemed the best, he did not reject what was less good, provided it was exceedingly good.

He used to say that what we ought to endeavor to imitate in the conduct of Saints is not that which strikes us as most splendid in the rare examples of their virtues, but their constant fidelity in following grace in all things, even the least ; and that if we were as courageous and as faithful as they were, we should become equal to them in merits, although we neither did nor suffered the same things as they did and suffered. His method of governing was wholly supernatural. The spirit of policy had nothing to do with it. He lamented over those communities in which the Superiors were guided by this spirit ; which is, he said, the destruction of obedience and of the confidence which inferiors ought to have in those who stand to them in the place of Jesus Christ in order to lead them to God.

He never did anything hastily, nor took a single resolution without consulting the Holy Spirit; considering an eager zeal, which forestalls the movements of grace, and a too impetuous fervor, which does not give sufficient heed to the interior light, one of the defects which most hinders the operation of God in spiritual persons, and robs the evangelical workman of the fruits of his functions and of the labors of his ministry. Never throughout his whole conduct was there observable any fault against prudence.

The highest lights which souls enjoy come from the gifts of understanding and of wisdom. The Holy Spirit communicated them in their fulness to F. Louis Lallemant, as He has done to the greatest masters of spiritual doctrine ; and it would be difficult to find any one who had penetrated more deeply into the understanding of the mysteries of our religion, and especially that of the Man-God. He might say with St. Paul, that he had received grace to make known to the world the unsearchable riches of Christ.

He did not stop, as is commonly done, at the outside, and what may be called the body, of the mysteries of the Incarnate Word and of the actions of the Saints. The gift of understanding enabled him to penetrate the spirit of them, and revealed to him the admirable dispositions of the interior of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and all the Saints. To this it was that he chiefly applied himself. The lofty idea which he entertained of the most Holy Virgin was founded on the knowledge he had gained of her incomparable perfections, and of the marvels which were wrought in her from the moment of her immaculate conception, and during the whole course of her life, but especially when she was raised to the divine maternity in the mystery of her Annunciation. He considered that she was exempted not only from original sin, but also from the debt of its contraction. Of all the Saints, St. Joseph and St. Ignatius were the two of whom he had the largest and most distinct knowledge. It seemed as if the latter had given him his spirit, and had obtained for him from God the power of communicating it to his children. He used to say that what had been manifested to the world of the virtues and graces pf this great Saint, and what his biographers had observed of them, was almost toothing in comparison with the interior perfection which lay hidden in the depth of his soul.

He had a particular grace for explaining Holy •Scripture, and penetrating its various senses. He was ever reading it, and made it almost his sole <study. But it was rather by means of prayer than by consulting commentators. Prayer was his resource in all the difficulties he encountered in reading the Word of God ; and he would sometimes during the space of a whole year petition our Lord to enlighten him on the meaning of some passage.

The gift of understanding is not limited to divine things, although they are its first and principal object. It extends also to human actions, and to things of this world, with a view of ascertaining the designs of God in them, and how far they conduce or are opposed to His glory. But it is only pure souls, and such as are detached from all self-interest, recollected within themselves, and intimately united to God, that are capable of this divine penetration. As he looked only to God and sought Him alone in all things, the presence of God, and the purity of his own intentions, served him as a torch to penetrate through the artifices and disguises of the human mind, to disentangle the designs and interests of God from among the affairs and intrigues of men, and to distinguish in each thing what there was of God, and what of the creature.

He was wont to say, that they who keep a strict watch over themselves, and take pains to observe and regulate all their internal movements, acquire a peculiar capacity for obtaining an insight into the secrets of hearts ; either because God is pleased to reward with this favor the diligence with which they have studied their own interior, or because experience of what they feel in themselves teaches them to form an accurate judgment of what passes in others.

No wonder, then, that he penetrated as he did the depths of men's hearts, and discovered even the most secret thoughts which they wished to hide from him.

One of our own members has deposed that once, when confessing to him, the holy man told him of a secret sin which he was omitting to accuse himself of ; and that another time he revealed to him the thoughts which he was revolving in his mind, and detailed all the circumstances of a temptation with which he was assailed.

Another had sought him with the intention of disclosing to him some secret wound of his soul ; but as he entered his room, overcome with shame, he suddenly changed his mind, and began talking of some other subject ; when the Fattier, knowing the evil he was concealing, answered as distinctly to the point on which he had been afraid to speak, as if he had opened all his heart to him.

One day, seeing a young religious approaching him at a distance, who, for some human consideration or other, was afraid of appearing in his presence, and sought different pretexts to avoid meeting him, he called him to him, and told him all that was passing within him, as if he had seen it with his eyes. The young man, greatly surprised that the Father should have penetrated his thoughts, candidly acknowledged his weakness, and recovered at once his former confidence.

If this way F. Lallemant preserved several of his spiritual children from the evil into which they were about to fall ; some who were wavering in their vocation he confirmed, others who were beginning to relax he excited to renewed fervor.

The gift of wisdom perfects that of understanding, giving it an unction and a sweetness without which all the knowledge it imparts would be dry and insipid.

It was by the way of wisdom that F. Lallemant received the lights of understanding. He experienced the fulfilment of our Lord's promise to His disciples. The unction of the Holy Ghost was his teacher ; and the heavenly visions, the sweetnesses, the divine consolations with which he was often favored in prayer and at the altar, seemed to place as it were in broad light the most obscure truths of faith, discovered to him the sense of Scripture, and unfolded before him that which is most hidden in the mysteries of our religion.

One night our Lord awoke him, and told him it was the hour at which the mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished ; that He was about to confer upon him some small participation of that grace which was bestowed on the Blessed Virgin in that great mystery, bidding him therefore dispose himself for its reception. He arose and began to pray ; and in the fervor of his prayer he felt himself interiorly, as it were, invested and wholly penetrated with the Man-God, by an intimate union, which purified him both in soul and body after an inexplicable manner. At the same time the Blessed Virgin appeared to him, and calling him her son, assured him she loved him tenderly, and exhorted him to be especially devout to the Sacred Humanity of her Son, which, said she, is almost forgotten by all the world. He ventured to ask two favors of her ; the first, that he might always be mindful of her, for it was to him a cause of pain if sometimes he let pass any noticeable time without thinking of her ; the second, that he might never be separated from that Adorable Humanity to which he had consecrated his heart. The Blessed Virgin promised him both favors ; and, in fact, he ever after en* joyed equally the presence of the Son and of the Mother, Some time after, finding himself assailed by a temptation to distrust and doubt of his salvation, he repulsed it by the remembrance of the assurance which the Mother of God had given him, that he should never be separated from the Sacred Humanity of her Son. But afterwards, reflecting on the reliance which he placed on this assurance, ho ' was seized with a fear that there was something o. presumption in it. While he was in this uncertainty the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and relieved him of his fears, pointing out to him that his confidence was not presumptuous, inasmuch as he relied not on himself, but on the grace which had been promised him ; that this kind of promise is always conditional, and supposes that they to whom it is given will not be wanting in fidelity ; that should he happen to fail in this, he would certainly be lost, notwithstanding the favor which she had obtained for him from God.

During the third year of his novitiate our Lord gave him a second Angel of a superior order to be his teacher and guide in the spiritual life.

One of his two Angels, or some Saint, used to awake him sometimes at night, and invite him to pray ; but more often it was our Lord Himself, or St. Ignatius, who conferred this favor upon him.

St. Ignatius miraculously cured him of a disorder which he had when a student in philosophy ; and during his second novitiate he obtained for him from God a complete deliverance from an habitual headache, which for nine years had troubled him at his studies.

One day, being attacked by an importunate and violent temptation, he betook himself to prayer, when St. Theresa appeared to him, and putting the enemy to flight, restored peace to his soul. The same temptation afterwards re turning, he1 had re course to prayer as usual, and beheld St. Ignatius and St. Theresa, who, chasing away the devil, freed him forever after from that sort of attack.

One day, as, he was praying to God in the church of the novitiate at Rouen, he was visited by St. Joseph, and received favors from him which are not known any more than the great number of other heavenly visits by wThich he was instructed in his doubts, consoled in his troubles, strengthened in his labors, and encouraged in those enterprises with which God inspired him for His glory.

It is known for certain that he had several revelations of the state of the souls in purgatory. He witnessed their sufferings, learnt the cause of them, and often had the consolation of beholding the pomp of their triumphal entrance into heaven : how some Saint, St. Ignatius for example, presented to the Elessed Virgin the soul of one of his children, released from its sufferings ; how the Blessed Virgin presented it to our Lord ; in what mannef Jesus Christ received it ; the welcome which the Angels and the Saints gave it, and how its angel-guardian accompanied it to the throne of glory on which the Saviour placed it. In his prayers, spiritual readings, and studies, he was ordinarily favored with consolations and sweetnesses of grace ; and the unction of the Holy Spirit distilled from his lips, and made itself felt in his words.

It may be well supposed with what perfection he practised in his own person that which he so much recommended to others, entire self-abandonment to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He had given himself up to it from childhood, and the wThole course of his life was but one continual reliance on the direction of this Divine Spirit, who, having filled him with His gifts, made him correspond to all His movements with wonderful facility.

The Holy Spirit was his master in mystical theology. He did not learn it from men ; and although he had for his directors religious of great virtue and capacity, he never derived from them the advantages which F. Seurin and F. Eigoleu found in him, and which made them what they were. The same Divine Teacher was his guide in those sublime ways of the spiritual life in which he made such marvelous progress. The interior law which the Holy Spirit had graven on his heart was his principal rule. His whole life was supernatural. His sentiments, his words, his actions, seemed to now from a depth wholly filled with God. Not a fault was perceivable'; in him the interior and the exterior perfectly corresponded. His inner life was all hidden in God with Christ ; and the Spirit of Jesus sensibly manifested itself in his outward life as in a mirror, so that it was impossible to look at him without feeling touched with devotion and disposed to recollection.

He passed without contradiction for one of the most perfect Jesuits of his time, being animated with the true spirit of St. Ignatius, and closely resembling that holy patriarch. The superiors of religious orders, and especially the Carmelites and the nuns of the Visitation, and. indeed all the most spiritual persons in the places where he resided, maintained a holy intercourse with him, and consulted him as an oracle of the Holy Spirit, whether for their own personal direction or to assist them in guiding the souls of which they had the charge.

All his disciples had so high an idea of his virtue that I never met with a single one who did not invariably speak of him with admiration. F. John Joseph Seurin and F. John Rigoleu, in particular, felt for him all the respect and veneration with which Saints are regarded ; and their writings testify how perfectly they copied in t«ieir o%vn minds and hearts the teaching and the sanctity of their master.

His renown traveled even into foreign countries, and his sanctity was miraculously revealed to Mother Louise of the Ascension, a poor Clare, then residing at Carion in Spain, and filling the whole world with the fame of the marvels which grace was operating in her. The holy man was shown to her in spirit, as also the degree of perfection to which he had been raised. She desired to contract a holy friendship with him, and, taking the opportunity of some persons going to Rouen, begged them to salute in her name F. Louis Lallemant, of the Company of Jesus, and to recommend her to his prayers.

It might have been thought desirable that God should prolong a life which seemed so greatly to promote His glory. But the counsels of God are inscrutable. His Superiors, perceiving that his excessive labors in conducting the novitiate at Rouen were effectually ruining his health, removed him from thence, and made him prefect of high studies in the College of Bourges, and afterwards rector of the same. But all the time he was there he did nothing but languish and sigh after death, regarding it as the passage from this state of corruption, in which the law of sin reigns within us in our own despite, to that blessed state of holy lib- •ertv whe~^ b clear vision of God renders those who are in the enjoyment of it incapable of sinning for all eternity. Feeling the approaches of death, he took in one hand a crucifix and in the other an image of our Lady, looking first on one, then on the other, speaking lovingly to them, and regarding them in turn with marks of confidence and tenderness which melted to tears all who were present. In these pious sentiments he sweetly rendered up his soul to his Creator on the 5th of April, being Maundy-Thursday, in the year 1635, aged about forty-seven years, twenty-nine of which were passed in the Company.

When the news of his death was spread through the town the sentiments of respect and veneration with which he was regarded were heightened ; everybody spoke of him as a Saint, and people flocked in crowds to the college to pay honor to his body. Some touched it with their rosaries, others cut off a lock of his hair, or a fragment of his clothes ; every one was eager to possess some relic of him, and all pressed to kiss his feet or his hands ; the greater part with a devotion so tender that they could not restrain their tears.

An Augustine Father, who was j^reaching the Lent in the cathedral, after his sermon upon the Passion of our Lord on Good Friday, made a short eulogium of the deceased, exhorting his hearers •"* be present at his funeral, which was to take pia,©*, that evening, not so much, said he, to aid him witn their prayers, as to beseech him to assist them with his own, in the hope that they might enjoy his patronage in heaven, and the whole town find in him a protector and a powerful mediator with God. And in fact, not only the people but the clergy, the religious, and the persons most distinguished both for birth and station, assisted at his funeral, and testified the conviction they entertained of his sanctity and of his power with God.

There have been several revelations of him in glory, and many have believed that they received particular favors through his intercession.

He was tall of stature, and of a majestic bearing ; his forehead was broad and calm ; his beard and hair dark auburn ; his head already approaching to baldness ; his face oval and well proportioned ; his complexion dark ; and his cheeks generally tinged with that heavenly fire which inflamed his heart', his eyes, which were full of an engaging sweetness, expressed the solidity of his judgment and his perfect evenness of mind. I have heard it said by those who knew him, and who were the most capable of judging, that it would be difficult to find a man of nobler appearance and more composed in all his movements, or one whose exterior betokened greater devotion and recollection ; the very sight of him was enough to attract every one's respect and affection.

The most faithful portrait that could be drawn of the interior dispositions of his soul is to be found in the collection of his Spiritual Doctrine and Maxims, here given to the public as F. Bigoleu composed it. It is a gift which I present to such souls as aspire after interior recollection, and particularly to the religious of the Company of Jesus, who will find therein all the perfection proper to their state.