



Produced by Judith Wirawan, Karina Aleksandrova and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)










  SELECTED LETTERS OF
  ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL




  Nihil Obstat.
        F. THOMAS BERGH, O.S.B.,
              CENSOR DEPUTATUS.

  Imprimatur.
        EDM. CAN. SURMONT,
              VICARIUS GENERALIS.

  WESTMONASTERII,
        _Die 6 Novembris, 1917._





[Illustration: ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL.

(_Foundress of the Order of the Visitation._)]




  SELECTED LETTERS OF
  SAINT JANE FRANCES
  DE CHANTAL

  TRANSLATED BY
  THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION
  HARROW

  WITH A PREFACE BY
  HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL BOURNE
  ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER


  R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD.
  PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
  AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW

  _All rights reserved_
  1918




PREFACE


We are all apt so to idealise the Saints whom we love to study and
honour, and strive to imitate, that we are in danger of forgetting that
they possessed a human nature like our own, subject to many trials,
weaknesses and frailties. They had to struggle as we have to struggle.
The only difference is that their constancy and perseverance were
greater far than ours.

Biographers are often responsible for the false tendency to which we
allude. They like to give us the finished portrait of the Saints, and
only too often they omit in great part the details of the long and weary
toil that went to make the picture which they delight to paint.

In the case of some of the Saints we are able to come nearer to the
reality by reading the letters which have been preserved, in which in
their own handwriting they have set down, without thought of those who
in later days might read their words, the details of their daily life
and struggle. Thus in the few selected Letters of the holy foundress of
the Visitation which are now being published in an English translation
we get glimpses of her real character and spiritual growth which may be
more helpful to us than many pages of formal biography. In one place she
excuses the brevity of a letter because she is "feeling the cold to-day
and pressed for time." In another she tells a Sister, "do everything to
get well, for it is only your nerves." Nerves are evidently not a new
malady nor a lately devised excuse. She knew the weariness of delay:
"still no news from Rome.... I think His Grace the Archbishop would be
glad to help us.... Beg him, I beseech you, to push on the matter."

Haste and weather had their effect on her as on us: "I write in such
haste that I forget half of what I want to say.... We will make a
chalice veil for you, but not until the very hot weather is over, for
one cannot work properly while it lasts."

What mother, especially in these days of sorrow and anxiety, can read
unmoved the Saint's own words as she speaks of her daughter's death, and
of her fears about her son. "I am almost in despair... so miserable am
I about it that I do not know which way to turn, if not to the
Providence of God, there to bury my longings, confiding to His hands not
only the honour but even the salvation of this already half lost child.
Oh! the incomparable anguish of this affliction. No other grief can come
near to it."

And then we feel her mingled grief and joy when at last she learnt that
this, her only son, had given up his life, fighting for his King, after
a humble and fervent reception of the Sacraments.

Thus in the midst of the daily small worries of life, and of the great
sorrows that at one time or other fall to the lot of all, we see a brave
and generous soul, with human gifts and qualities like to our own,
treading her appointed path to God.

No one can read her words without carrying therefrom fresh courage for
his life, and a new determination to battle steadfastly to the end.

                                          FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE,
                                        _Archbishop of Westminster._

  FEAST OF ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL,
        _August 21st, 1917._




TRANSLATORS' PREFACE


The letters here translated are, with a few mentioned exceptions,
selected from "Sainte Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de Chantal: Sa Vie et ses
Oeuvres," "First edition entirely conformable to the original
manuscripts published under the supervision of the religious of the
Visitation of Holy Mary at Annecy, by E. Plon and Co., rue Garanciere
10, Paris, 1877."

The rendering cannot be looked upon as entirely literal, but the
translators have kept as closely to the original as was consistent with
an easy rendering in modern English.

The circular letter to the Sisters of the Visitation (page 152) is a
remarkable document worthy of the reader's special attention, as are
also the letters to "Dom John of St. Francis" on St. Francis de Sales,
and the subtle manifestation of St. Jane Frances' own state of soul in
her letter to "A great Servant of God."

It has been thought better to leave the superscription heading all the
Saint's letters, "Vive Jésus" (Let Jesus reign), as in the original, and
untranslated.

The title of "Sister Deposed" given to the immediate predecessor in
office of the actual Superior is peculiar to the Visitation Order.

There are, as will be seen, a few slight omissions, but only when the
matter was of no interest or importance.

The Saint, as the reader will observe, does not keep to any fixed rule
in regard to capital letters.




CONTENTS


  LETTER                                                          PAGE

  JUDGMENT OF ST. FRANCIS ON THE VIRTUES OF MOTHER DE CHANTAL        1

  I. TO ST. FRANCIS DE SALES                                         3

  II. TO THE SAME                                                    4

  III. TO M. LEGROS                                                  5

  IV. THE DUKE OF SAVOY TO ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL               6

  V. TO MADAME D'AUXERRE                                             7

  VI. TO ST. FRANCIS DE SALES                                        9

  VII. TO THE SISTERS OF THE MONASTERY OF ANNECY                    11

  VIII. TO SISTER J. C. DE BRÉCHARD                                 12

  IX. TO SISTER P. M. DE CHÂTEL                                     15

  X. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                          17

  XI. TO THE SAME                                                   20

  XII. TO THE SAME                                                  23

  III. TO SISTER P. M. DE CHÂTEL                                    27

  XIV. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                        30

  XV. TO SISTERS P. M. DE CHÂTEL AND M. A. DE BLONAY                33

  XVI. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                        37

  XVII. TO MADAME DE GOUFFIER                                       40

  XVIII. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                      42

  XIX. SISTER M. A. DE BLONAY                                       46

  XX. TO THE SAME                                                   49

  XXI. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                        51

  XXII. TO THE SAME                                                 55

  XXIII. TO MOTHER J. C. DE BRÉCHARD                                58

  XXIV. TO M. DE NEUCHÈZE                                           60

  XXV. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                        61

  XXVI. TO MADAME DE LA FLÉCHÈRE                                    64

  XXVII. TO SISTER P. J. DE MONTHOUX                                65

  XXVIII. TO M. MICHEL FAVRE                                        68

  XXIX. TO SISTER A. M. ROSSET                                      71

  XXX. TO SISTER P. J. DE MONTHOUX                                  72

  XXXI. TO MADAME DE LA FLÉCHÈRE                                    73

  XXXII. TO MOTHER J. C. DE BRÉCHARD                                75

  XXXIII. TO MOTHER P. M. DE CHÂTEL                                 76

  XXXIV. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                      77

  XXXV. TO SISTER M. A. HUMBERT                                     79

  XXXVI. TO THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION AT BOURGES                80

  XXXVII. TO THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION AT MOULINS               81

  XXXVIII. TO MOTHER P. M. DE CHÂTEL                                83

  XXXIX. TO MADEMOISELLE DE CHANTAL                                 85

  XL. TO MOTHER J. C. DE BRÉCHARD                                   87

  XLI. TO MADEMOISELLE DE CHANTAL                                   90

  XLII. TO SISTER M. M. LEGROS                                      92

  XLIII. TO MADAME DU TERTRE                                        94

  XLIV. TO M. DE PALIERNE                                           95

  XLV. TO ST. FRANCIS DE SALES                                     100

  XLVI. TO MADAME DE LA FLÉCHÈRE                                   102

  XLVII. TO THE COUNTESS DE TOULONJON                              103

  XLVIII. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                    105

  XLIX. TO M. DE NEUCHÈZE                                          108

  L. TO MOTHER A. C. DE BEAUMONT                                   110

  LI. TO MOTHER M. J. FAVRE                                        112

  LII. TO MOTHER A. C. DE