Letter XXIII. To a Religious Priest

Reasons why the Saint prefers the little Office to the great Office for the Visitation: he desires to be commanded to establish a seminary.

MY REVEREND FATHER — The case of the Ladies of the

Visitation at Rome consists in this point, that it would

LET. xxvn.] Earlier Letters to Visitation. 145 please His Holiness to allow them not to be obliged to say the great Office, for the following reasons:

(i.) There is no nation in the world in which women pronounce Latin so badly as in France, and especially here; and it would be impossible to make them properly learn the pronunciation of the whole great Office, whereas it would be easy to teach it them for the little Office of Our Lady, and, in fact, they pronounce it very well already.

(2.) In this congregation it is desired to receive sisters of delicate constitution, and those who for lack of bodily strength cannot be received into more austere religious Orders. Now those who are obliged to the great Office, if they want to say it distinctly and deliberately, cannot do so without effort, and if they say it quickly and fluently, make themselves ridiculous and lose devotion. Wherefore, it is more becoming that those who for want of corporal strength could not say it composedly, should say only the little Office.

(3.) There is an example at Paris, where the Sisters of St. Ursula, Religious of the three solemn vows, say only the little Office.

(4.) The Sisters of the Visitation have many spiritual exercises which they could not do if they said the great Office.

I had thought of naming to you the other points, but I remember that the Father Procurator General has them at great length. I must tell you that the rules for which approbation is asked are all according to the rule of St. Augustine, except as to absolute enclosure, which St. Augustine had not established, but to which the sisters wish to bind themselves, according to the sacred Council of Trent. Perhaps the Holy See

IV. K will appoint some one here, some Regular prelates and other theologians, to revise, correct, and approve them.

I do not see that there is need to inform you of anything else on the subject, except that as to the monastery of this city, seeing that its Church is consecrated under the title of the Visitation of Our Lady and of the glorious St. Joseph, it would be desirable to get a plenary indulgence for this last day, and for the title days of the other houses and monasteries of this Congregation, besides the indulgence of the day of the Visitation, which is the general title of the Congregation.

My Lord of Lyons is there, who, if he pleases, has power to favour the business; and I think it will please him to do so, because he has in his metropolitan city a house of the Visitation where God is greatly honoured.

But, my reverend Father, we must treat all things quietly and with circumspection; which I say because some ecclesiastics who are austere and exact in their own practice, have given certain signs that they were not satisfied that there should be in this congregation so little austerity and penitential rigour: but the end must always be kept in view, which is to be able to receive maidens and women who are weakly, whether by age or in constitution.

I also desire to obtain a letter from the Congregation of Bishops, addressed to me and to the clergy of this diocese, by which it should be enjoined upon me to erect a seminary for those who aspire to the ecclesiastical state, where they can be trained in the cere monies, to catechise and preach, to sing, and to other such clerical qualifications; for we have some, besides

LBT.

Earlier Letters to Visitation. 147 little children, who want to be ecclesiastics, and who study for no other end. I want the clergy to be included in the letter in order to be able to impose some little tax on the benefices for the purpose. The Council of Trent would suffice, but to apply it more efficaciously the above letter would be required. I am, your &c.

LETTEE XXVIIL To MOTHER FAVRE, AT LYONS.

On the change of the Visitation from a Congregation into an Order; entire detachment of the Saint.

October 1617 [?].

MY VERY DEAR DAUGHTER — If my Lord Archbishop says to you what he has written to me, you must answer him that you have been left there to serve in the establishing of your Congregation with all your poor strength, that you will try to guide your sisters well according to the rules of the Congregation, that if it please God after this that the Congregation change its name, state, and condition you will refer yourself to his good pleasure, to which the whole Congregation is entirely consecrated; add that in whatever way God may be served in the society in which you now serve him you will be content.

\ And in effect, my dear daughter, there must be that spirit in our Congregation; for it is the perfect and apostolic spirit. And if it could be useful for establishing some other Congregations of good ser vants of God, without ever establishing itself, it would only be all the more agreeable to God, for it would have less ground of self-love. On the points which he proposes to me, without which he does not will to establish our poor Congregation in his diocese, I leave him the choice without any reserve. It is entirely indifferent whether the good of this Congregation be done in this way or in that other, although I should have found a special sweetness in the title of simple Congregation, where charity alone and fear of the Beloved would serve as enclosure.

I agree, then, that we should make a formal Religious Order; and, my dear daughter — I speak to you with the entire simplicity and confidence of my heart — I make this acquiescence with quietness and tranquillity, yea, with an unparalleled sweetness; and not only my will but my judgment is very glad to render the homage which it owes to that of this great and worthy prelate.

For, my daughter, what do I aim at in all this save that God may be glorified, and that his holy love may be spread abroad more plentifully in the heart of those souls who are so happy as to dedicate themselves entirely to God? Be sure, my dear daughter, that I have a perfect love for our poor little Congregation; but without anxiety. Without anxiety, indeed, love does not ordinarily subsist, but mine, which is not ordinary, lives, I assure you, entirely without it, through a particular confidence which I have in the grace of Our Lord. His sovereign hand will do more for this little Institute than men can think. And I am, more than you could believe, yours.

For the rest, what will you say about our domestic afflictions? It is not the dear sister-in-law de Thorens that you saw, it is quite another sister whom we have seen dying lately. For from about a year ago she became so perfect that she could no longer be recog nised, but, above all, since her widowhood, when she vowed herself to the Visitation. And, Oh! what an end she made! Certainly the most holy, most sweet, and most dear that could be imagined. I loved her with a love far greater than fraternal; but as it has pleased the Lord so be it done: may his holy name be blessed. Amen.