4 – Maturity and fruitfulness Testament
The little Institute, to reach its full maturity and multiply, will still benefit from the solicitude of its Founders to advance towards its future. Our blessed Father has only four more years to spend here below. Our holy Mother will live far from Annecy, first in Bourges, then in Paris, but she has an admirable capacity to make herself present to all the communities.
We will speak here more about our holy Founder since these years give us his testament. The last two words of our blessed Father, which the witnesses of his holy death have transmitted to us are Jesu, Maria. Long live Jesus, long live Mary was according to Father de Villars (cf. St Fr. de S. XV p.388) the motto of the heart of Saint Francis de Sales. The final teaching he leaves to the Visitation is summed up in these words: “desire nothing, refuse nothing,” and his very last directive consists of the word “humility” written three times.
Indifference according to him is practiced towards God by trusting simplicity towards his Providence, towards one’s neighbor by gentleness, flexibility and condescension to his will, and all this is founded on humility. We see our blessed Father in these last years with no other desire than the accomplishment of God’s good pleasure on him, on the responsibilities that Providence entrusts to him, on his dear Visitation. It is not a kind of letting go, but rather the expression of a repeated choice, and become a virtue, to constantly surrender oneself to the will of another. It takes strength of soul, great courage to abandon oneself thus constantly, not only to the will of God, but to that of one’s neighbor. He fulfills what he said in a vestment sermon of July 26, 1618 (St. Fr. de S. IX p.176): “the Savior practiced the greatness of his courage in the most excellent act of love that he showed us in his Death and Passion. See, he does nothing else than let everything that is wanted be done to him; the magnanimity of his courage consists in letting himself be handled according to the will of each one. This is how ours must also appear, not so much to do, as to let everything that is wanted be done in us and by us (…) making us manageable, supple and humble like little children”.
It is therefore the continual contemplation of Christ that urges him to place himself totally in the hands of the heavenly Father but also at the will of his neighbor.
Let us follow him in these last years where his holiness shines.
In Paris (November 1618-September 1619): the fruitfulness of humility
Forgetting all his suspicion for the de Sales family, the Duke of Savoy wanted the Bishop of Geneva to accompany Prince Cardinal Maurice of Savoy to Paris. The purpose of this trip was to negotiate the marriage of Christine of France with Victor-Amédée of Savoy. In Paris, such was François de Sales in 1602, such is he sixteen years later: concerned above all for souls, a tireless preacher and confessor. Some days, he preaches three times, because he never refuses. His soul lives more and more in the invisible, so he counts for little the worldly quality of the audience. He writes to our holy Mother (XVIII p.318-UEA p.426): “I preached this morning before the queen and all her fine people; but I have not preached with more care, more affection or more pleasure than in my poor little Visitation.” If he preaches with zeal and affection, he knows that it is the breath of the Holy Spirit that touches hearts, also to a sister who would like, like him, to proclaim to all the love of God, he responds with humility (XVIII p.335): “If you wish to preach with me, do so, my daughter, praying to God that he gives me words according to his Heart. (…) We are like organs, where the one who puts the breath does everything, and does not bear the praise. So aspire often for me, and you will preach with me. (…) Make a thousand times a day these holy aspirations to God, protesting that you are totally his.” A soul thus offered to divine love, in a humble and hidden life, attracts divine blessing on the Church. Is this not the grace of the Visitation?
Our holy Founder invites Mother de Bréchard to rejoice in it (XVIII p.314): “If you are not favored, love this abjection. Believe me, God willingly sees what is despised, and accepted baseness was always pleasing to him. God is so good that he will visit our Visitation interiorly, strengthen it and establish it in solid humility, simplicity and mortification. Live joyfully, with this peaceful and devout joy of which the love of our abjection is the root.” The year 1618 ended in the sweet contemplation of the crib.
Our blessed Father constantly contemplates Christ totally given up by love. From the monastery of Bourges which came into being on November 15, 1618 in extreme poverty, our holy Mother consolidates the foundations of the new monasteries, that is to say the virtues of humility and gentleness. To the Mother of Châtel in Grenoble she writes (Correspondence I p.343): “Everything that can make us a little more humble must be precious to us; aim only at that. You only need to hold yourself in courage and joy, loving and caressing all kinds of contradictions and abjections.” Gentleness on all occasions, such is the path that she indicates to the Mother of Bréchard (P.341): “How many sweetnesses are acquired by the gentleness of the spirit among these small domestic occasions! Let us therefore be very gentle, let us not be angry about anything. I want you all to turn in this direction, because after all it is the spirit of our Institute, and we must shine in this virtue.” She works to communicate this spirit of the Institute and encourages the cooperation of the “old ones”.
To Mother de Bréchard, she writes (P.348): “Here are already the directories [of the officers], you will soon have the Entretiens. Remember to polish and dress up the directory of the mistress of novices and do not forget anything”. Our holy Mother is not only concerned with the spiritual edification of the Institute, she is gifted with such human balance that she extends her solicitude to the detail of the buildings and to the garden for the health of the sisters.
We must quote here these delightful words addressed to Sister Françoise-Marguerite Favrot, bursar in Annecy (P.360): “I am very pleased that our buildings are progressing. (…) My poor old woman [Anne-Jacqueline Coste], why does she have such aversion to our trees? It is because she likes cabbages better than cherries! However, boldly plant all kinds of fruits. ” Decidedly the heart of our holy Mother is everywhere where her daughters are and with what tenderness!
Here is a 6th implantation of the Visitation, that of Paris, announced where the presence of our holy Mother is necessary. Our holy Founder laughs at the reactions of the world (St Fr. de S. XVIII p.359-UEA p.440): “Great servants of God told me that the gentleness and piety of our Institute were so much to the taste of French minds, that you would remove all the vogue from the other religious Houses; that when we had seen this Mme de Chantal, there would be only her. But that is nothing. God, who sees that we do not come to Paris to show ourselves, but in order to show his Goodness several souls moving purely to his holy service, will help us.”
Entrusting the community of Bourges to the leadership of Mother Rosset, our holy Mother arrived in Paris in April 1619 with five sisters. The canonical establishment took place on May 1, in a small temporary house of Madame des Gouffiers. Poverty reigned at the whim of our holy Mother. But the trial was above all the illness that affected the small community, in particular Sister Anne-Catherine de Beaumont, professed of Annecy. From the end of June, it was necessary to leave the house for another before the installation on rue Saint-Antoine in 1621.
Other trials made the heart of our holy Mother bleed: the misconduct of her son, the refusals of Françoise, the spendthrift, to marriage plans for financial reasons. The following year, Françoise married Antoine de Toulonjon. During these family sorrows, our holy Mother had written words that describe her so well (Correspondence I p.344): “I have had many crosses, and very sensitive ones: I found myself having a strong maternal heart. God will convert everything to his glory.” But this strong maternal heart is all for God! The conversations that our holy Founder can grant to the sisters of Paris do not have the frequency that they would have wished, but they have the density (Conversations, 2021 edition p.335): “Why do you think, my daughters, that God has (…) called you to the holy religion, if not so that you may be hosts of the holocaust and victims who consume themselves each day in his holy love?” And again (P.336): “The daughters of the Visitation must be very firm in faith, humble in conversation, (…) flexible to all of God’s designs, gentle and condescending to their neighbor, zealous for the glory of God, seeking only to please him, inseparably united to his love by an inviolable fidelity to attach oneself only to him: this is the spirit of your congregation, and the heritage that I leave you, with this wish that you be forever united”. His radiance touches souls. At this time he meets Vincent de Paul, who had not yet undertaken his great works of charity. But his sound judgment, his simplicity and his humility pleased Francis.
Many ladies of Parisian high society became the Philothées of our holy Founder. They would soon be these admirable “Ladies of Charity” that Saint Vincent de Paul would lead to serve the poor.
In April 1619, when our holy Founder met Mother Angélique Arnauld, she was 27 years old. This ardent soul had reawakened the fervor of Port Royal and was working on the reform of Maubuisson. He wrote to her (St Fr. de S. XVIII p.390): “Do not burden yourself with too many vigils or austerities, but go to the Port Royal of religious life by the royal path of love for God and neighbor, of humility and good-naturedness.” She longed to leave her Abbey to embrace the humility of the Visitation. He, however, “deviated as much as he could” because he did not want to strip the Benedictine Order of the one who had “lived so usefully” there. But as our holy Mother shared the Abbess’s desire, he preferred to rely on the advice of those who were examining this matter and finally on the Pope. The Abbess would remain in her Order, while maintaining a correspondence with our Founders. Our holy Mother esteemed her greatly and confided her inner troubles to her. She extended this confidence to M. de Saint-Cyran, unaware of the Jansenist doctrine that he was developing and in which he would lead Angélique Arnauld far from the “royal path” that Saint Francis de Sales had shown her.
Richelieu, then chaplain to the Queen Mother, was also touched by the example of our holy Founder. The latter writes about him (St Fr. de S. XIX p.37-UEA p.453): “I got to know the Bishop of Luçon [Richelieu], who swore all friendship to me and told me that he would finally join my party, to think only of God and the salvation of souls”. If the future minister of Louis XIII had had the courage to embrace the pastoral zeal that he had admired in François de Sales, the history of France would have been changed! The thirst for power that already animated Richelieu contrasts with the humility and supernatural spirit of the Bishop of Geneva. The latter does not have to seek honors, his holiness attracts them. They want to settle him in France and make him accept the coadjutorship of the bishopric of Paris. Perfectly free and detached, he leaves it to the Pope. (St Fr. de S. XIX p.40-UEA p.454) “If God does not want it with his will of approval, I never want to want it, and will put nothing of mine at all but my consent to Providence, when I know that it will be his service”. As for him, after these long months among so many courtiers, he “abhors” more and more “the world, and its spirit, and its maxims, and all its nonsense” (St Fr. de S. XIX p.50-UEA p.457). It is with relief that he finds himself in his “nest” and, without transition, he resumes his life as a zealous pastor.
After being named grand chaplain of Christine de France, he writes: “I feel no ambition, other than that of being able to usefully employ the rest of my days in the service of the honor of Our Lord” (St Fr. de S. XIX p.49-UEA p.456). He who seeks only this glory, is not affected by the slander on the occasion of the marriage of Guillaume de Foras. The latter wanted to marry a young widow, but this project displeased certain members of the family. The Bishop of Geneva, consulted, bore witness to the merit of his friend and the marriage took place in September. The storm soon broke: the rumor spread in Paris that it was he who had handled this affair.
From Annecy, he wrote to our holy Mother (St Fr. de S. XIX p.58-UEA p.458): “Remain in peace, Providence knows the measure of reputation that is necessary for me to do well the service in which it wants to employ me, and I want neither more nor less than what it pleases me to have”. Whether the world seeks it or rejects it, nothing shakes it, it is solidly founded on humility and trust in God. He knows that the virtue that grows amid these trials possesses a secret apostolic strength. Here is an example: he had recently left Paris, and the plague had driven almost everyone away. The only lady who came to the aid of our sisters was Mrs. Amelot. As she was distressed to see them in misery, she received this response from our holy Founder (St. Fr. de S. XIX p.59): “Do not be surprised to see our daughters of Sainte-Marie so rejected and abandoned. God will raise them up and make them grow; this little Institute will multiply and, like the violet, will spread its good odor everywhere.” He sees in the humility of the Institute the source of its fertility.
1620, in internal and external difficulties: trust and abandonment
At Epiphany, our holy Founder had the bean. He exercises his royalty by giving us in a smiling tone the laws of the doves (Entretiens, 2021 edition p.411 ss). The first of these laws is to do everything for God and leave him with complete confidence the care of ourselves.. The third is equality of spirit in order to always sing in consolation as in adversity: “the name of God be blessed, to the tune of a continual equality”. Simplicity, fidelity, indifference, these laws are, he tells us, of incomparable utility and all of love.
On February 2, it is the humility and obedience of Christ that our holy Founder teaches us (St Fr. de S. IX p.259). “Our Lord humbled himself to the point of death, that is to say, all the time of his life. (…) Let us take up this example given to us by the Savior and the glorious Virgin, and let us learn to submit, to make ourselves supple, manageable and easy to turn to all hands by the most holy obedience, and not for a time nor for certain particular acts, but forever, all the time of our life until death”. Our holy Founder will live this humble obedience until his last day, he feels that it is approaching.
Also when he learns in February, the nomination of Jean-François de Sales as coadjutor, he begins to dream of contemplative retreat (St Fr. de S. XIX p.142): “My brother is going to be bishop to succeed me, (…) without my having sought it. This makes me hope for a little rest to write again I don’t know what of the divine Lover and his love, and to prepare myself for eternity”. This little rest will not be granted to him but how much more he will speak through preaching, through writing and through the example of this divine Lover!
On Good Friday, he presents four virtues to us: humility, patience, perseverance and finally abandonment, a virtue of which he speaks so often in these last years. “Our Lord loves with an extremely tender love those who are so happy as to abandon themselves entirely, letting themselves be governed as he pleases, provided that with all our hearts we say: “I commend my spirit into your hands”, not only my spirit, but my soul, my body and all that I have, so that you may do with it as you please” (St Fr. de S. IX p.284). There is nothing more fruitful in the Church than a soul abandoned to the good pleasure of God and faithful to his love. In his sermon for Pentecost, he speaks of this fruitfulness through the edification of one’s neighbor (St. Fr. de S. IX p. ?): “All those who were in the Cenacle received the gift of the Holy Spirit but not all in the same way. Now, they spoke according to what the Holy Spirit gave them. There is a way of speaking that is done without saying a word: it is the good example. (…) The good example is a silent preaching”. Does he not wish that his much-desired daughters of the Visitation be daughters of good odor in the Church?
The monastery of Montferrand was founded on June 7 by that of Lyon. The apostle’s soul of our holy Founder rejoiced, he wrote to Mother Favre (XIX p.333): “What joy in my soul to know that my Mother is in Paris and our only dear daughter in Auvergne, both cooperating with the Holy Spirit in such a worthy and holy service.” Annecy is not to be outdone. Sisters are preparing to leave in July to found Orléans, as well as to consolidate Paris and Moulins which will found Nevers. On this occasion our holy Founder gives the Entretien on the subject of foundations, let us note his insistence on indifference and the union of hearts, virtues that the young Institute will need (Entretiens, 2021 edition p.264ff): “I have an extreme desire to engrave in your hearts a maxim that is of unparalleled utility: Ask for nothing and refuse nothing; in this practice you will find peace. Keep your hearts in this holy indifference. Do not desire anything, leave yourselves and all your affairs, fully to the care of divine Providence. (…) Try to keep your heart prepared to receive the various events of divine Providence, and with one heart, as much as possible. On the subject of your departure, I thought (…) those who leave remain and those who remain leave. (…) Our union will always be perfected in the bonds of charity, (…) and at each Communion our union will be made more perfect, also the reception of this most adorable Sacrament is called Communion, that is to say common union. O God, what a union there is between each religious of the same Order! Sister Claude-Agnès Joly de la Roche who leads the group, will no longer collect the Entretiens and the Sermons, but Providence has endowed Sister Marie-Marguerite Michel with an equally faithful memory. In the sermon of October 17, 1620, our blessed Father meditates on this verse: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
On constitutions,
we come to convert it into our own substance, so that, leaving being what we are, we become our very vocation! ” How happy we will be if we digest our constitutions well, as he invites us to do in the preface, because it is a “consolation like no other to (…) make live and reign in us the love of Him who died for the love of us”.
In November, our holy Founder is upset by the infidelity to his vocation of one of his priests. His name is Denis de Granier and he has just apostatized in England. Francis writes to his brother (XIX p.382): “It is true that in my life I have never had such unfortunate astonishment. Is it possible that this spirit has been lost like this? (…) Now, here it is separated from all the rest of the world by the sea, and from the Church by schism and error! I have a special inclination to this great Island and its king, and I incessantly recommend its conversion to the divine Majesty. (…) Oh my brother, I assure you that my heart has a continual palpitation for this fall, and a new courage to better serve the Church of the living God and the living God of the Church. (…) If you write to him, assure him that the waters of the sea of England will never extinguish the flames of my love, while I may still have some hope of his return to the Church and to the path of his eternal salvation.” After many scandals caused by Denis de Granier, history loses its trace. But before God rises up like an incessant supplication, this unfailing love of the pastor for one of his sheep who has gone astray by following his own judgment.
The sermon for Christmas Eve insists especially on this self-denial following the example of Christ (IX p. 458): “At the moment of his Incarnation, he read in the book of predestination all that he was to suffer. This book was entitled the holy will of God. During his whole life, Our Lord did nothing but practice all that he found written there (cf. Heb 10:5-9), adjusting his will to that of his Father. How happy we would be if we read this book well and if all our concern was to accomplish the will of God by the renunciation of our own, having no other care than to adjust it to his! This is why it is customary to tell these girls when they enter the monastery that religion is a school of self-denial of all wills. (…) Come there to live in profound humility and complete resignation, to receive with an equal heart the desolations as well as the consolations. (…) Consider this little newborn of Bethlehem, listen to what he tells you, look at the example he gives you”. He willingly stops to contemplate Christ embracing smallness, humility, dependence, total abandonment to his Father, virtues that he desires for his young Institute.
And our holy Mother too! She writes while thinking of her daughters of Annecy (Correspondence I p.538): “With a completely maternal heart, I wish them the perfection of the spirit of our little Institute: true humility, perfect gentleness and this sacred simplicity which seeks and depends only on God”. Always the same traits of Visitandine holiness, traced here for the holy Source, and with what maternal love! A great means to advance towards the perfection of the spirit of the Institute is the Spiritual Directory. It is in 1620 that it is mentioned in the letters.
Thus our holy Mother writes to a novice mistress (Correspondence I p.553): “Make them read the Entretiens de Monseigneur and observe their Directory”. It is also in this year that the letter is placed which will be inserted under the title “Opinion on the Directory” (cf. XIX p.147). In this text our holy Founder expresses the objective of the Directory: the unification of the spirit so that our whole life is ordered to love and union with God. From Paris, our holy Mother ensures the exact transmission of the teachings of our holy Founder; for this, she calls upon the skills of Sister Claude-Agnès Joly de la Roche, with such a faithful memory. This transmission has only one goal: to strengthen the young Institute, to the Mother of Châtel, she writes (Correspondence I p.481) “We are sending you the Entretiens et exhortations that Monseigneur makes. (…) Make sure to read the Entretien des Règles and everything that we have from Monseigneur. I find nothing like it to nourish the spirit of the house”. If she is concerned that the monasteries strengthen themselves in the interior spirit, it is because the external pressures are powerful.
In Paris, Cardinal de Retz wanted a union between the Visitation and the Haudriettes, a congregation of widows founded in the 14th century that needed reform. It will take all the gentleness and determination of our holy Mother to reject a project that was not without risk for the young Institute.
there is election of a superior in Lyon, so that Sister Marie-Aimée de Blonay governs as assistant. She is soon faced with new “inspirations” from the Archbishop who plans to modify the constitutions. In Orléans, difficulties have arisen on the Bishop’s side, the sisters destined for the foundation therefore stay from July to September with the community of Paris.
The monastery of Orléans is established on September 9, 1620 with Mother Claude-Agnès Joly de la Roche as superior. We cannot idealize these beautiful beginnings of the Visitation, the living stones that entered its foundations were not without fault. It is here above all that we admire the work of God.
In Annecy, Sister Jeanne-Françoise de Sales, niece of our holy Founder, disturbs the community at this time by her psychological troubles to the point that he considers withdrawing her to a house of his brothers.
In Grenoble, Sister Jeanne-Hélène de Gérard would like to fast, say the Divine Office outside the community and live in solitude. But to renounce one’s own will and humbly follow the community would be mortifications more pleasing to God. Little by little, this advice that our holy Founder addresses to her leads her towards victory, in which our holy Mother rejoices in June 1620.
In Bourges, Mother Anne-Marie Rosset, a mystical soul and of great virtue, is not very gifted for temporal things. Also our holy Founders must add Sister Françoise-Gabrielle Bally to her to direct all the exterior, leaving her only the care of the spiritual. This half-measure will not be enough. For the good of all, and especially for that of the poor superior, it will be necessary to remove her from the charge in 1622.
In Paris, Mme des Gouffiers demands the reimbursement of all that she has given for the foundation of Moulins. She sued her own sisters and resisted the calls for detachment that our holy Founder addressed to her. “She treats us harshly,” wrote our holy Mother, “but God knows why he allows it” (Correspondence I p.628). She died reconciled with the Visitation of Paris towards the end of 1621.
Marie-Aimée de Morville had entered Moulins in 1619, pushed by her relatives for reasons that mixed their interests, and also the misconduct of her life. She became temporal benefactress of this monastery, received the habit and made profession in 1621. When in 1620 there was talk of a foundation in Nevers by the Visitation of Moulins, she promised a large sum of money, thus constituting herself benefactress of this new monastery where she imagined that Mother de Bréchard would be superior. But learning that she must remain in Moulins, because the city authorities are opposed to her departure, she withdraws her offer… after purchasing houses and gardens in Nevers, with her money. The enmity between the two communities will cause our holy Founders much suffering. What diplomacy will they have to deploy in this thorny situation! Sister Marie-Aimée de Morville, for her part, will ask for more and more privileges… until her conversion in 1632, the fruit of the kindness of our holy Mother, the patience of the sisters of Moulins, and the prayer of the entire Institute.
There are also generous responses to God’s call. First, Sister Hélène-Angélique Lhuillier. She had been married at 16. Her father, learning after 7 years of the martyrdom she was enduring, submitted the matter to the Sorbonne. Her marriage was declared null. In her situation, she could only choose between marriage and religious life, but she felt an extreme aversion to both. It was then that her director, François de Sales, wrote her a decisive letter. She read it in the chapel of the Visitation of Paris on July 2, 1620 and, victorious in the fight, she immediately asked to enter. Under the guidance of our holy Mother, she began a religious life that would be fruitful for the entire Order.
This is the astonishing vocation of Miss Humbert, who at the court of France and Savoy was known, because of her modesty, as “Sister Marie”. She assisted the governess of the children of Henri IV who retained a deep affection for her. In 1619, she accompanied Christine of France to Turin, she knew how to take full advantage of the presence of our holy Founder during this journey. To everyone’s astonishment, she left the world in 1620 to enter the Visitation of Annecy. These few traits show us the young Institute which attracts beautiful and numerous vocations, but also experiences harsh assaults from within and from without. The Founders are there to remind her of the spirit proper to the Visitation, the one which will make her pass the difficult stages.
1621, with the Virgin Mary, the Abbess of the Visitation Mary...
the last word on the lips of our blessed Father! Rich in Marian doctrine is for us the year 1621. In January, meditating on the Gospel story of Cana, our blessed Father presents the Virgin to us as a mistress of prayer (X p.17): “If we want Our Lady to ask her Son to change the water of our tepidity [lukewarmness] to the wine of his love, we must do everything he tells us. (…) Do we want to have a long and fervent prayer? Let us entertain ourselves during the day in good thoughts, making frequent ejaculatory prayers. (…) Practice well what you have been taught and rest in the providence of God, for he will not fail to provide you with what you need.” With Mary, and following her with our blessed Father, praying to the Lord and doing what he tells us is all one.
On March 25, our holy Founder preached at the Visitation of Lyon on the occasion of a profession ceremony. He presented Mary as the learned Abbess who instructs those who are dedicated to the service of her Son. That day, our holy Founder was at the Visitation of Lyon and preached at a profession ceremony (X p.57). “My dear daughters, come lovingly to dedicate yourselves to God and to the service of his most pure love; and although you encounter work, the pain will be well loved, in the assurance that you will please God and make yourself pleasing to your dear Patroness. She made herself the special Protector of those who dedicated themselves to the service of her Son in religion, especially since she was like an Abbess who showed them the example of all that they had to do to live religiously. Happy are the nuns who live under the institute of this holy Abbess and who are instructed by this great Doctor, who drew science from the very Heart of her dear Son our Savior, who is the Wisdom of the eternal Father! “
Our holy Mother was very learned in this science of union with God. In a letter to our holy Founder (Correspondence I p.601), she describes the sublime mystical state that is hers. “Nothing angers me, thanks to God, for I want all that pleases him, feeling no desire in the forefront of my mind except that of the accomplishment of the most holy divine will in all things. My spirit, at its finest, is in a very simple unity, it sees clearly that it cannot unite itself, but remain united. The soul does nothing, except a certain renunciation of desire, which is done almost imperceptibly, that God does with it and with all creatures, in all things, what He pleases. It would only like to remain in this very simple unity of spirit with God, without extending its view elsewhere, and in it sometimes say the Our Father vocally, for everyone, for individuals and for oneself, without looking at why or for whom it prays. The obscurities of the spirit have therefore not always been the lot of our holy Mother, she has known periods when she enjoyed peace, light, very intimate unity with God. These wishes that she addresses to the foundress of the monastery of Valence (June 10, 1621) are perfumed with Marian virtues (Correspondence I p.590): “God, by his sweet goodness, gives you his most holy blessing and to the whole little family assembled for the service of his glory and his most worthy Mother. Grow and multiply, especially in true humility and amiable simplicity so pleasing to the heavenly Spouse that it steals his Heart. Manage, like pure bees in your new hive, the honey of all holiness, with peace and joy to the Holy Spirit.” In each Visitandine family, Mary breathes the spirit of Nazareth. We find this spirit again shortly afterwards in a sermon for the feast of Saint Luke (X p.128): “The Blessed Virgin taught Saint Luke, among others, the holy humility so necessary (…) to the daughters of the Visitation who have a particular obligation to practice this virtue. You must often meditate on the life of this holy Lady and always have before your eyes her virtues to imitate them, because she is your Abbess, your Superior and your Mistress, whom you must follow and obey. O God, how sweet, gentle, humble, tranquil is she who often converses with the Holy Virgin! How equal, peaceful and agreeable is her conversation! “
On July 2 (X p.61) our holy Founder reveals to us some of the thousand facets that he contemplates in the mystery of the Visitation. He says: “God, who is one, loves unity and union, and all that is not united is not pleasing to him.
will happen in this life, in doing so, the hardest and most painful things will be made sweet and gentle to you.” Our blessed Father preached a lot at the Visitation (12 sermons!) during his last Lent.
Let us gather some teachings in passing: On the 2nd Sunday of Lent, he meditates on the joy that we will have in eternity through the contemplation of the Heart of Jesus (X p.243): “What will we do, when through the wound in his side we perceive this Heart of our Master, all ardent with the love that he bears us, Heart in which we will see all our names written in letters of love? Is it possible, we will say, oh my dear Savior, that you loved me so much as to have engraved my name in your Heart! (…) Let us therefore walk joyfully among the difficulties of this passing life; let us embrace all the mortifications that we will encounter on our path, since we are assured that these pains will end with our life, after which there will be only eternal joy.” For our holy Founder, giving oneself for our neighbor is good, but it is not enough. To imitate Christ perfectly, we must let ourselves be used by our neighbor, that is, do everything he wants of us. This is what he explains on the 3rd Sunday (X p.276): “Our Savior having used himself for our salvation, let himself be used afterwards to perfect this redemption and acquire eternal life for us, letting himself be attached to the cross. At his death he let himself be used and do everything that was wanted, not by his friends, but by his enemies. He did not resist or apologize for letting himself be led and turned by all hands, as cruelty suggested to these unfortunates; for he regarded in this the will of his Father, which was that he should die for men, a will to which he submitted himself with an incomparably great love. It is to this sovereign degree of love of our neighbor that we are called and to which we must aspire with all our strength. We must not only employ ourselves for his good and his consolation, but also let ourselves be employed for him by the most holy obedience as much as one wishes, without ever resisting. When we employ ourselves, the choice of our will brings much satisfaction to our self-esteem; but to let ourselves be employed in things that one wants and that we do not choose, this is where lies the sovereign degree of self-denial that our Lord taught us in dying. Following him, this is still what our holy Founder taught us in his life and in his death. In another sermon, he invites us, in the face of death, to a fear full of confidence in God (X p.324). “It is enough for me that I am all his. What else should I care about, if not abandoning myself to the effects of this sweet Providence which will not fail me in life and in death? To die well, one must live well. It is true that even in living well you will fear death, but your fear will be all sweet, supported by the merits of the Passion of Our Lord. This being so, what remains if not that we remain abandoned to the events of Providence, asking nothing of him and refusing nothing? All Christian perfection consists in this point: asking nothing of God and refusing nothing from God; not asking him for death, but also not refusing it when it comes. Blessed are those who will be in this holy indifference, and who, while waiting for what God will order of them, will prepare themselves by a good life to die well!” It is with this holy indifference that we abandon ourselves to the hour that God has chosen.
On Good Friday, our holy Founder gave the last sermon in Annecy that has been preserved for us. From this meditation, let us first gather these words which announce the complaints of the Sacred Heart (X p.372ff). “The greatest pain that the Sacred Heart of Our Lord endured was caused by the ingratitude of those Christians who, despising his death and not making use of his passion which was so painful to him, would be lost”. And here is the teaching that the last words of Christ inspire in him: “My Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. We see there,” he says, “this perfect abandonment of Our Lord. It is the quintessence [the essence] of the spiritual life that this perfect abandonment into the hands of the heavenly Father and this perfect indifference in what concerns his divine wills. All the delay of our perfection comes only from this lack of abandonment. Do thus and say indifferently of all things with our dear Master: I commend, O my God, my spirit into your hands. If we do this, we will be able to say at the hour of our death like Him: It is finished. To be able to do it well, let us use the hours of darkness of this life as our Savior used them. Let us remain on the cross where God has placed us, let us pray on it, let us consummate ourselves on this cross and accomplish all that is of the divine will, and will happen in this life, in doing so, the hardest and most painful things will be made sweet and gentle to you.”
nur death like Him: It is finished. To be able to do it well, let us use the hours of darkness of this life as our Savior used them.
To Sister Marie-Jacqueline Compain, who will succeed Mother Favre in Montferrand after the latter left for the foundation of Dijon, he wrote on April 26 (XX p.298): “Do not ask for anything, nor refuse anything that is in religious life: it is holy indifference that will preserve you in the peace of your eternal Spouse, and it is the only document that I wish to be practiced by all our sisters”. Our holy Mother will repeat it forcefully saying that “this holy ordinance is her testament for us.” (Mission and Spirit p.23) Leaving Paris in February, our holy Mother visits the monasteries of Orléans and Bourges. There, she installs Sister Françoise-Gabrielle Bally as superior and takes with her Sister Anne-Marie Rosset. The journey continues through Nevers and Moulins.
In April, they arrive in Alonne, at Mme de Toulonjon’s to wait for four sisters from Annecy. The Visitation of Dijon was founded on May 8, this foundation will be followed in August by that of Belley and, in October, by Saint-Étienne, the 13th house before the death of the Founder. He himself does not want a rapid expansion (XX p.238): “What I fear in all foundations is that they are not made without well-formed and solid daughters in this religious virtue that the Institute requires as much or more than any other Institute in the Church, since all the more so as there is less external austerity there must be an internal spirit”. The Institute must above all be well rooted on Calvary. Here is what he recommends to a candidate of the Visitation (XX p.280): “I never saw you, my very dear daughter, except on the mountain of Calvary, where reside the hearts that the heavenly Spouse favors with his divine loves. How happy you are, if faithfully and lovingly you have chosen this dwelling, to adore Jesus crucified in this life! for thus will you be assured of adoring Jesus glorified in eternal life. But you see, the inhabitants of this hill must be stripped of all worldly habits. (…) Be careful not to enter the feast of the Cross without having the white robe and clean of any other intention than to please the Lamb”. And this is what he thinks of the professed sisters (XX p.289): “The whole interior and exterior of the daughters of the Visitation is consecrated to God; they are sacrificial hosts and living holocausts, and all their actions and resignations are so many prayers and orations; all their hours are dedicated to God, yes even those of sleep and recreation, and are fruits of charity”. With such lofty thoughts on the Visitation, what suffering to see the division between two superiors. And that for money! He wrote about it to our holy Mother (St Fr. de S. XX p.349-UEA p.534): “I am scandalized by the disputes between our superior sisters of Moulins [Mother de Bréchard] and Nevers [Mother de Monthoux] for a thousand crowns that I would rather be at the bottom of the sea than in the minds of these girls. Is it possible that girls brought up in the school of the madness of the Cross are so attached to the prudence of the world that neither one nor the other wants to give in?” He wrote again (XX p.360-UEA p.538): “I am capable of suffering any other kind of displeasure, but this one [disunion] is beyond my strength. For whom do we work if not for God? I hate this kind of prudence. What does it matter whether the money is on one side or the other, provided that it is for God?” We will have to tell either one or the other that she is wrong, when we have heard both of them, because there is nothing small in these stubbornnesses of mine and yours.” At the root of this lasting dispute (which will not be settled until 1623), there is a lack of humility, a virtue that he recommends with ever greater insistence. He sees that it is the smallness of the Institute that excites the fury of the devil. He writes to the superior of Nevers (XX p.359): “Love God well, and for the love of God all creatures, especially those who will despise you, and do not worry. The evil spirit makes efforts because he sees that this small Institute is useful to the service and glory of God. He hates it particularly because it is the least of all; this spirit is arrogant and hates smallness because it serves humility.”
t so great, made himself so small for our love, that he always hid the splendor of his greatness, and we, who are his servants, would not want to make ourselves small in imitation of him? We have said so much in the past that God’s plan for us is that we be very small in his Church, so that he may be glorified in our humility and lowliness, for this is what he wants of us. “(St. J. de Ch. II p.160, cf. also p.477).
In May, the Way of the Cross of our holy Founder began. He received the order from the Pope to go to Pignerol, to preside over the chapter of the Feuillants [Reformed Cistercians], which was to elect the superior general, but the religious were divided. Gregory XV had judged the Bishop of Geneva more capable than any other of maintaining peace and directing all things with wisdom. He was then ill. To a relative, he said, crossing his hands on his chest: I feel something here that warns me that I must not live long; that is why I must hasten to do good. Now, I could do nothing better than obey.” He left for Piedmont. The chapter opened on May 30 and closed on June 10, Dom Jean de Saint-François was elected.
Francis left Pignerol on June 12 to go to Turin to be near the Princess of Piedmont. It was with the Feuillants Fathers that he lodged in a small, very uncomfortable cell. He wanted to return promptly to his diocese, but a serious illness that broke out on June 22 and other obstacles stopped him in Turin until August 18. Our holy Mother suffers and hopes (Correspondence II p.83): “We are in pain for Monsignor. A very strange rumor is being spread about it, but we trust in God who holds him under his holy protection.” Finally he left Turin on August 18. The return was even more painful than the outward journey. Great pain and hemorrhages exhausted him. He spent a few days with Bishop Camus, and preached at the Visitation of Belley. In a letter to our holy Mother, the last he addressed to her, he expressed a desire concerning the monasteries of Montferrand and Saint-Étienne (St Fr. de S. XX p.385-UEA p.539): “It would be a consolation to me to know news of these new plants, which God, it seems to me, has planted with his own hand for his greatest honor and service.” The ailing state of our blessed Father worries her. She wrote (Correspondence II p.111) to Mother de Beaumont in Paris: “How bitter this life would be, if the hope of eternity did not sweeten it for us and if the most holy Will were not looked at in events; with that everything is amiable. Our good Father is quite sick with a flow of hemorrhoids, this worries me, but I hope in God”.
Towards the end of October, Duke Charles-Emmanuel decided to go and greet King Louis XIII who was visiting the towns on the banks of the Rhone. The presence of the Bishop of Geneva was deemed necessary. To one of his friends, he said about this journey undertaken with such poor health: “I believe it will cost me my life, but no matter, one must be obedient until death on the cross”. Always the thought and imitation of Jesus! He had reserved his final farewells on November 8 for his daughters of the Visitation. The Holy Year (XI p.212) relates that he recommended humility, devotion, simplicity, and above all holy obedience and indifference, repeating several times: “Ask for nothing, and refuse nothing, but always be ready and disposed to whatever God and obedience desire of you. Let your only desire be God; your fear, to lose him; your ambition, to possess him forever.”
In Lyon, on November 10, he had a short interview with our holy Mother, because he had to leave without delay for Avignon. On the 29th, he returned to Lyon. Our holy Mother returned from her visit around December 3. She wrote (Correspondence II p.124): “I am delighted to see how God pours out his graces in abundance on our houses and how many interior favors he gives to several of our sisters. We left Dijon in good condition, thank God, and saw our sisters from Montferrand and Saint-Étienne. Here we are in Lyon, all is well in these dear houses. (…) It seems that God wants to use this little Institute very much for the salvation of many souls, but we must provide very solid stones for the foundations.” To Mother Favre (P. 126): “We have Monsignor here whom we see a little. He seriously wants to think about a way to keep the houses united; he will talk about it with these great Jesuit Fathers. He also very much wants us to always take help from them, because he says that there is nothing like it.” Their last conversation (on the 11th or 12th) had as its subject only the affairs of the Institute.
because “our daughters are the daughters of the clergy” (St. J. de Ch. – I p.211). Then he asked her to visit the monasteries of Grenoble, Valence and Belley, to prepare that of Chambéry and finally to see the Bernardines of Rumilly (they were the small nucleus of fervent nuns who, under the authority of the Abbot of Tamié, had separated from the monastery of Sainte-Catherine d’Annecy and began their reform). Our holy Mother left, not without a pang of heart, which she soothed with her usual remedy: an act of abandonment and the prayer of a verse of Holy Scripture (Ps 26,10).
On the evening of December 26, our holy Founder came to the parlor. Here is how Pope Francis rereads this last conversation in his letter “Everything is for love”. “During his last meeting in Lyon with his Visitandines, in the intimate climate of a daily life inhabited by God, he left them this expression by which he would have liked his memory to be later fixed in them: “I summed up everything in these two words when I told you not to refuse or desire anything; I have nothing more to say to you”. However, the Pope specifies, it was not an exercise of pure voluntarism (…) nor was it a question of pure quietism. This formula was rather born from the contemplation of the very life of the incarnate Son”: “Do you see the little Jesus in the manger? He receives all the insults of time, the cold and all that his eternal Father allows to happen to him. He does not refuse the small comforts that his Mother gives him, it is not written that he stretched out his hands to have his Mother’s breasts, but left all that to her care and foresight. Thus, we must desire nothing and refuse nothing, suffering everything that God sends us” (Conversations, 2021 edition p.389).
Our holy Founder wants us to share in the feelings of Christ, in his childhood as in his passion, by the total surrender of oneself to the good pleasure of God, and to the will of our neighbor. This attitude has its source in humility. It is remarkable that the next day, when Mother Marie-Aimée de Blonay presented our blessed Father with a sheet of paper so that he could write a teaching on it, he wrote the word “humility” at the top, middle and bottom of the page. He had nothing else to teach us. Returning to his modest home, he began to write. As two o’clock struck, he fell, struck by a cerebral hemorrhage. A priest was called who exhorted him to resignation, but our blessed Father had gone before him in this way, he entrusted himself totally to the will of God: “This hour is as much for me as any other, let the Lord dispose of me as he wills”.
The next day, December 28, he was questioned about his daughters whom he was going to leave orphans. He who wanted to be only an instrument of the work of the Lord, answered with absolute confidence: “He who has begun, will perfect, perfect, perfect”. Since the dying Savior gave birth to us by the opening of his Sacred Heart, we can therefore hope from this same Heart the accomplishment of the work he began. Our blessed Father again testifies to his unreserved abandonment to God and to his neighbor. When it is suggested to him to use extreme remedies, he answers: “The body is in the hands of the doctor, let the doctor do with it what he pleases”. He follows Jesus in his Passion, delivered into the hands of those who wound him. He murmurs from time to time Jesu, Maria, these will be his last words. We have gone through the last four years of our blessed Father in the light of the last teachings he left us: ask for nothing and refuse nothing, as well as humility. Our holy Mother exhorts us to practice these holy maxims that our holy Founder lived to the point of heroism: “How completely empty of himself he was!” she said, “that is why he was fully filled with the divine Spirit. What abandonment and what complete dependence on the divine will and eternal good pleasure! With what flexibility, humility and gentleness did he always let himself be led and handled, at the will of this great God, without any resistance! He faithfully practiced what he so recommended to us, to refuse nothing and to ask for nothing, but to rest on the paternal care of the loving Savior of our souls.
is a work of the Heart of Jesus and Mary. He received it from this unique Heart of the Son and the Mother. It remains their property, so the coat of arms represents a heart engraved with the names of Jesus and Mary, and the cross of the Order also reminds us of this. These blessed names, universally venerated, therefore have for us, daughters of Saint Francis de Sales, a particular value of testament. He also bequeathed to us as a motto and battle cry: Long live Jesus! What devotion he had to the name of Jesus! He had it so well engraved in his heart (cf. sermon of January 1, 1622 quoted above), that we can say that at the hour of his death he was found worthy “to sing with the Blessed: Long live Jesus! Long live Jesus!”
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Source: Course of Sister Marie-Pierre VSM