Letter 136


My very dear Son,

May the love and the life of Jesus be our life and love for Eternity. I am infinitely obliged to you for the good advice you gave me and your good wishes for me. You see by my other letters that I was not fortunate enough to die by the firing of the Iroquois but that my sisters and myself narrowly escaped being consumed in the fire sent by Providence. I have kept the account for this letter. You must know then that when I had done all that was humanly possible to avert the total loss of our Monastery by calling for help and by working with the others, I returned to our room to save the most important of our business documents as there was no chance of saving the rest. In all the goings and comings I experienced liberty of spirit and such presence of mind as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if I was hearing an interior voice telling me what to throw out the window and what to leave for the burning. I saw in a moment the nothingness of all earthly things and God gave me such a great grace of poverty of spirit that I cannot describe its effect in words or in writing. I wanted to throw our Crucifix out the window but felt restrained as if somebody suggested that it would be a lack of respect and it didn’t matter if it were burned. It was the same with all the rest because I left my papers and all that was for my private use. These papers are those you have been asking me for and I have written lately through obedience. Before the burning I had intended to send them to you because I had promised you that satisfaction, on condition you burned them immediately once you had read them. I thought of throwing them out the window but feared they would fall into somebody’s hands so I left them to be burned. It was a particular providence of God because the papers I did throw out were collected by a good French woman whose children wouldn’t fail to look at them. Having reflected on the matter I happened to put my hand on them but interiorly I was moved to leave them. I left them to obey the Spirit of God that was leading me because I assure you that I would not wish that anyone would see them because it was an account of God’s dealings with me since I came to the use of reason. I deferred obeying this order for five years. I had such repugnance to doing it that my Confessor had to order me three times over. I obeyed finally but now it’s all gone up in smoke and you mustn’t think of it anymore my dear son.

When I had rejoined my sisters in the snow my interior peace and loving submission to God’s designs for us did great things for me. It was an overflow of pleasures, mirroring God’s good pleasure to an inexpressible degree. I saw that all the bother and all the consequences of this accident were going to fall on my shoulders. I accepted with my whole self the labours that would come and give me such strong grace for the troubles that I continually meet are sweet and light. When the work was most painful I seemed to fly to it helped by an overflowing grace which took possession of me. I was given the Office of Superior on 12th June last and this has added to my cares. That is an outline of my interior dispositions. If time permits I will tell you in detail and answer your questions point by point but the ships seem to be leaving as soon as they arrive.

As I have just told you it was not harder to put up with our fire and its consequences than I have told you but I must tell you I got news from France, news that cost me more. God was not offended by the burning of our Monastery, rather His Will was accomplished and accepted on our side, but according to the news that I got I fear the same cannot be said because what I heard is against truth and perhaps against charity. Our Superiors in Tours say that when we were in Dieppe on our way to Canada we made a new contract with the Superiors of the Congregation of Paris that contains clauses prejudicial to the congregation of Tours. This rumour has spread through the Community. Every letter I got speaks of it, some resentfully. They even tell me the terms of the supposed contract and say that I let myself be taken in and my easy compliance abused. I suspect I know who is responsible for this report which is without truth or foundation because neither our Foundress nor I have ever thought of such a thing and we made no agreement other than that which our Mothers approved. Yet you couldn’t believe the adverse effect this had caused in the minds of some. I have just told you that they consented to the agreement and to each of its clauses though some of them displeased me greatly but as one doesn’t do what she likes with the spirit of the Founders I agreed like the others and saw we would have to wait for the chance to remedy matters, because to try to do it before its time would have caused disruption and everything could be spoiled. It could not be done till last year when our Foundress saw with her own eyes by the defeat of the Hurons that her plan could be ruined without a new contract. She thought it well that a contract be made giving us permission in case affairs in Canada became desperate to use our foundation money to establish a house in France, or rather that funds we had received would follow us to establish a house in New or Old France. The agreement was made as binding as possible. Rev. Father Lallemant, passing through Tours, assured our Mother of all that, yet the impression made by the false report remains. However that does not prevent their hearts remaining full of charity towards us, and their encouraging us to return to France and come back to our own House, assuring us that we would be received with open arms. They have incredible fear for our safety; they beg us not to wait for the worst to happen, but to forestall the final peril.

What displeases me most about these rumours is the offence to the Jesuits, the implication that they are seeking their own interest, With all due respect this is entirely false, you see from my other letter the great assistance they give us. All in need receive the same, big people, little people and generally speaking all who turn to them in trouble and misfortune. When in Tours, Fr. Lallemant was told of the attitude of our Mothers. He even heard who had spread the reports, but he remains silent. He told me that he visited them and cleared up some matters on which they were misinformed. He said finally that he was entirely satisfied with the community and he meant it for you know he is especially kind to those who offend him. You see my weakness, my very dear son, for to see offended without reason and on our own account men who went to such extremes to help us spiritually and materially displeases me and require the practice of virtue. However, God gives me the grace never to cherish resentment against anyone who offends me or another on account of me or of us. My first thought is that we must all live with more integrity and simplicity. If we lived nearer each other, we could more easily discuss these virtues which I love more than I practise. But since He separated us let us see and talk to each other in Him as in Him l am…

From Quebec. 1651.
Kelly, Sr M. St. Dominic, O.S.U. Marie of the Incarnation 1599 - 1672 Correspondence, (translated from the French edition by Dom Guy Oury Monk of Solesmes), Irish Ursuline Union, 2000, p. 165 – 166.