Letter 133

From Quebec to her son. 3 September 1651.
She tells of the burning of the Monastery and the extreme poverty to which they have been reduced. She has been advised to rebuild the Monastery and is working at it.

My Dear Son,

This is the third way by which we are making known in France the affliction which it has pleased the Lord to send us. The first was by New England, the second by the fishermen. I regard these as uncertain because we had to depend on individuals who came here by canoe. Detached from the big ships they have to pass through evident dangers and with them the packets confided to them. Yet I have used them to let no chance pass of informing you so I am trying this third method to let you know how the powerful hand of God has touched us. On December 30 last, the octave of the birth of Our Lord He willed to share with us the sufferings and poverty of His crib in the way I am going to tell you. A good sister having to bake the next day had prepared her dough and on account of the great cold she put coals into the trough to heat it. She intended to remove the coals before going to bed but because she wasn’t in the habit of doing it she forgot easily. The kneading trough was so well closed on every side that a sister going into the bakery at 8 o’ clock saw no sign of the coals. The coals having dried the timber of the trough, naturally resinous, the fire spread easily. The partitions and the ceiling caught fire and the stairs which is just under the boarding school where Mother Seraphin was sleeping with the children. She woke suddenly with the noise and crackling of the fire. She jumped out of the bed imagining somebody was saying to her “Get up and save the children or they will be burned alive”. In fact the floor was already burning and the fire was bright in the dormitory. Frightened, she called to the children, “Save yourselves, save yourselves”. She went to the dormitory to waken the community and she did it with such a voice that everyone jumped out of bed. One rang the big bell for help. The others prepared to fight the fire but instead I ran to tell the sisters to leave all that the evil was without remedy. I wanted to go to the place where I put cloth and other provisions in reserve for the community. But God made me change my mind and instead save the official documents of the Community. I threw them from my cell window and with them whatever came to hand. I was alone in the building still thinking of my original plan, knowing that sisters had escaped half naked and needed something to cover them. I attempted to go to our little storeroom but the dormitory was already on fire. Not only the place I intended to go, but also along the roof of the house and in the rooms downstairs. I was between two fires and the third was following after like a torrent. I wasn’t afraid of the flames but I was nearly choked with the fumes from the smoke. To save myself I had to pass under the bell and risk being buried in the fountain. Mother Assistant with Sr St. Laurance had broken the grille which was only of wood in order to save herself and some of the children who had gone back to the dormitory. Only the bigger ones had saved themselves, the little ones were still in danger. Sr. St. Ignatius reflected whether she could in conscience give her life to save these little innocents because the cloisters were already on fire. Generously she entered the room and saved them but the floor was already crumbling. I was still in the dormitory and seeing there was nothing I could do, I was going to perish in the flames I bowed to my Crucifix, acquiescing to the orders of Divine Providence and making an act of abandonment. I escaped through the parlour which was at the end of the dormitory. Coming down I met the help that Revd. Fr. Superior had brought but realising they could do nothing upstairs they came down to the chapel where with difficulty they saved the Blessed Sacrament, Vestments and Sacred Vessels that were in the Sacristy. Our Revd. Mother who had gone out first to open the doors was standing aside, and seeing none of us near her suffered agonies thinking some were enveloped in flames, She called to us but didn’t see us and we didn’t hear her. She threw herself on her knees at the feet of the Blessed Virgin and made a vow in honour of her Immaculate Conception. I couldn’t say absolutely what effect this vow had in God’s sight but I regard it as a real miracle that none of us was consumed in a fire so sudden or so violent. A Huron woman, a very good Christian hadn’t wakened as promptly as the others and saw no way of escape except to throw herself out the window on a road where the snow was trampled twice. She was so stunned we thought she was dead but she came to, safe ourselves God willed to preserve her. At last the sisters found Our Mother. She began to breathe freely but still had not seen our French and Indian boarders who were lined up quite near her where they nearly died of cold as they were in their chemises and all their clothing and belongings had been burned. What touched me most deeply was the inconvenience to our poor invalid. If she had as much strength as she had courage she would have saved part of what was in the dormitory but she was so weak that, trying to move her mattress her arms failed her, mine was the only one saved with what was covering me which fitted her exactly. I had thrown my habits out the window but they caught in the Refectory Grille where they were burned with the rest so I remained naked like the others who were in the snow praying to God and looking at this frightening furnace it was clear from their faces that God had possession of their hearts, they were so serene and submissive to God in the deprivation to which His Providence has reduced us losing all our goods and leaving us as naked as Job on his dung bill except we were in the snow, and the cold was extreme. We were actually reduced to the poverty of Job but with this difference; our friends, French and Indian, were touched with extreme compassion, a favour this holy man had to do without. All who saw us were reduced to tears, realising on one side such misery and on the other our serenity. A good man who could not understand how we could take such a blow without any external sign of regret said aloud; “These women are fools or else they have a great love of God”. He whose hand b touched us knows which, and what His goodness wrought in us at the time. But that will be a separate account, in this I confine myself to externals.

The Father Superior with all the Fathers, for the whole Jesuit household had come to our assistance seeing that we were all safe had the children carried, some to the house of our workmen the rest to the house of one of our neighbours. Having only their chemises on they were perished with the cold and a few became very ill. As for us, he brought us to his own house and in the disarray in which we were put us into the parlour. On the way we had been given two or three pairs of shoes for charity for some of us were barefoot. Our foundress was one of these for she escaped with a simple tunic old and worn, and lost, like the rest of us, everything she had in Canada. Revd. Father gave shoes to all the others who were barefoot. Only three of us had our shoes because they had worn them to bed to resist the cold. The hospital sisters hearing that we were in the Fathers house and were to go to the Fort sent us an invitation to go to their house. This the Father Superior thought more suitable and led us there himself. These good Sisters with whom we have always closely united were more upset by our condition, than we were ourselves. They dressed us in their grey habits and provided us with linen and other necessities, the whole fifteen of us because we were in need of all. We shared their life, sat at the same table, kept to the same observances. We behaved as if we were their sisters.

The day after the burning the Father Superior accompanied by the governor brought us to see the pitiful ruins or rather the frightful furnace which you dare not go too near. The chimneys had fallen, partition walls knocked, outer walls cracked to the foundations. It looked as if you could never rebuild these ruins. Besides all our foundation money would not have been enough. Far from thinking of repairing our buildings we lacked the necessities of life until the ships should arrive. All this made people think that we should return to France but each of us accepted lovingly the Will of God for us and not one was inclined to return to the homeland. Besides this country gave us abundant opportunity for the instruction of French girls as well as Indians and we all together resolved to stay.

Having stayed three weeks with our good and charitable hostesses we were led to the little building which our Foundress had erected for herself sometime previously but she later gave it to us. It was a real consolation to see the love and affection among us in such a cramped space. Our dear hostesses, besides the expense of keeping us, had lent us 500 livres worth of all sorts of supplies for us and for the workmen. I am saying nothing of the Fathers who helped us to the full extent of their power even sending us the cloth they had in reserve for their own cassocks. They also gave us provisions, linen, and bedclothes. Their Brothers and their workmen worked for us day after day and but for their extreme charity we would have died of cold and hunger. The Governor M. d’Ailleboust and his lady helped us greatly. We were the object of compassion and charity to all our friends, even the poorest one offered us a towel and another a chemise, another a cloak; one gave us a hen, another a few eggs and others other items. You know the poverty of the country; its charity is still greater. However only Divine Providence could make up to us for the loss of all our goods valued at 50,000 livres, the estimated price of our Monastery and its furniture. We were all in our little house, suffering from inconvenience, want and lack of space. In the meantime nothing was being done. The Governor, the Father Superior and a few of our friends consulted together to decide what was to be done. The decision was that without further delay we must rebuild on the original foundations. Since our courage had not been weakened by the weight of our misfortune, our vocations were as strong as ever and the girls in the country, French and Indian, needed our help. The conclusion was put before us and we embraced it with more joy because they promised to lend us the money to defray the expenses.

So we undertook a second building and to begin with the Fathers lent us 8,000 livres but at the time of writing this we owe them a good 15,000 and before the building is finished we will owe 20,000 without counting the finishing inside and the furniture. It is on Divine Providence we must rely to pay our debts and all our other necessities. The same Providence put us in the state in which we were and it is in that He will build us up again through the Holy Virgin of whose help we have been so assured that we live in peace. What she doesn’t do herself she raises up friends that will do it and so she will do all. She has put a powerful hand to it; it is already up to the roof so that we can soon live in it. All who see it are filled with admiration and say, “this house built itself and the finger of God is working in it”. The whole county rejoices to see that we are on the eve of recommencing our teaching which we were able to do on a very small scale in a bark cabin.

You know that Mother St. Athanasius’ term has expired and Our Lord has given me the charge of this little community which is a heavy charge due to my weakness and the state of our affairs. I was already in charge of our buildings for which I suffer great fatigue during the Winter and up to now. The new charge brings no ease but I am destined for the cross. Pray to Our Good Jesus that He will make me carry it for His glory and that He will give me the grace to die attached to it like Himself.

The Iroquois continue their incursions. They took away a French woman from Montreal having killed her husband. This settlement has suffered very much and so has Three Rivers. The Neutral Nation has been defeated by the barbarians and this makes them more insolent towards us. Still all is at peace in Quebec.

Adieu my very dear son.
From Quebec. 3rd September 1651.
p. 160 – 163.