Having reached maturity of years and virtue, St. Chantal lost St. Francis de Sales and found St. Vincent de Paul. The first directed her for eighteen years, the second for twenty. The one saw the rising of this beautiful star ; the other assisted at its setting and, not less enraptured, drew a picture of it that might be looked upon as exaggerated, did not the name of St. Vincent de Paul * exclude such an idea. We give it here.
” I, Vincent de Paul, most unworthy Superior-General of the Congregation of the Mission, certify that it is now about twenty years since I received from God the grace of acquaintance with the most worthy Mother de Chantal, the Foundress of the holy Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. It pleased God that I should have with her frequent communication both by word and writing, as well on her first visit to Paris, about twenty years ago, as on others to that city made later, in all of which she honored me with her confidence by laying open to me the state of her soul. I certify that it has always appeared to me that she was perfect in all kinds of virtue ; that she was, in particular, full of faith, though during her whole life tempted with thoughts against it; .that she had great confidence in God and sovereign love for His divine goodness ; that she possessed in a very eminent degree a mind just, prudent, cool, and strong; that humility, mortification, obedience, zeal for the sanctifcation of her holy Order and the salvation of the souls of the poor, were predominant in her ; in a word, that I never remarked in her any imperfection, but a continued practice of every virtue ; that, although she seemed to enjoy the interior peace and tranquility which is the lot of souls that have attained so high a degree of virtue, she, nevertheless, suffered so intensely from spiritual troubles that she often told me, both by word and by letter, that her mind was so filled with all kinds of temptations and abominations that she was constantly forced to turn her attention from her own interior, not being able to endure the sight of her soul, which was so hideous as to seem to her a picture of hell ; that, nevertheless, although she suffered in this way, she never lost her serenity of countenance, nor relaxed in the fidelity God required of her in the exercise of Christian and religious virtue, nor in her intense solicitude for her holy Order. Thence it comes that I esteem her one of the holiest souls I have ever known upon earth, and that she is now blessed in heaven. I doubt not that God will one day manifest her sanctity.”
Source: St. Chantal and the Origins of the Visitation, by Bishop Bougaud, Vol 11, p 371