Danger to which our Sisters run by the encounter with the troops.
Almost as soon as they left Metz, they were extremely frightened to see the army of the Swedes, barbarous and cruel people, especially for those consecrated to God. They used the Lord’s help and redoubled their confidence, without, however, failing in what was proper to do according to prudence. They begged their driver to go to the commander of the army, and beg him to be pardoned not
to allow these soldiers to do any insult to the persons who were in the carriage, or to those who were driving it. This generous ecclesiastic, arming himself with confidence in God, was willing to expose himself and went to the Colonel; the latter, leaving his pride, received him very honestly, and commanded his men to line up in
a hedge to let the ladies pass, which they did. The Most Honored Mother and her company were received at Pont-à-Mousson with all the greater joy, as there was fear of the dangers to which they were exposed.
Poverty of these beginnings.
However, our very Honored Mother Jeanne Françoise de Saint-Vincent gave herself all the necessary movements and care to advance the establishment of Metz, and to provide for the needs of her little Community. The credit she had in the city, where she was very well known, having formerly been a canoness of the Abbey of Sainte-Marie, sometimes brought her advantages for her Sisters, and her parents also did her a lot of good. But the subsistence of a community, however small, depends on so many things, that his own, with all these aids, was most often obliged to feed on vegetables and roots. They spent several Lents eating nothing but bread for snacks, and the most severe winters lighting fires only in the kitchen, and even then it was very little, having no other wood than what fell from the trees in the garden. The dormitories and cells were properly only attics, whose poorly maintained roofs, for want of money to pay roofers, meant that the beds were often bathed in water or covered with snow. Finally, their poverty was such that they were usually seated on the ground for want of seats; for they had only for the choir, from where they were carried to the refectory and to recreation: our dear Sisters suffered these shortages with great joy, for the love of Him who became poor for us.
The good Mother endured more than all the others because of the sorrow she had to see her dear daughters in this scarcity; Heaven helped her by sending her good candidates, who added to the necessary dispositions to be excellent nuns, some temporal help which was usefully used for the good of this house. They began by acquiring a tenant farm, where they hoped to collect more or less the supply of corn, and to receive several other advantages. Of the 15 Sisters received by our Most Honored Mother Jeanne Françoise de Saint-Vincent in the two triennials, three were for the rank of lay sisters, and the others for the choir: of this number was the Huguenot lady, who was mentioned by mistake in the time of our Sisters of Riom.
They were beginning to come to terms with themselves and to breathe, when Providence permitted that the great wars which had so long afflicted the country, and which had had a little truce, should begin again more strongly than ever. Our Monastery of Pont-à-Mousson found itself so much in need, it was forced to ask the latter again for a part of the money it had advanced for the foundation: it was borrowed at a large interest, and it was sent quite very dear Sisters, to mark to them the perfect gratitude that this house which owed its existence to them preserved for them. On the other hand, these very honored Sisters, in order to relieve our house in some way, recalled some of the Sisters of the foundation, and took charge for several years of some Sisters of this Monastery, who derived great benefits from the stay they made in this holy house, where they received much edification of the great virtues that are practiced there and were very well trained for
all the jobs of the Holy Religion.