Letter 142

My dear and beloved son,

May Jesus be our all for eternity. I have no doubt that your affection for us has prompted the compassion of your letter. But I see that you did not get all the letters I wrote to you. One ship was taken and another wrecked. But what can we do? These blows can be parried only by submission to the Divine Will, that’s the remedy for all evils. I felt better than ever since our fire. But let us begin to answer your questions.
Let me assure you that everything you wrote to me was pleasant and full of consolations and I reread your letter from time to time to refresh my memory. Yet I see from your short letter that I have not been sufficiently explicit about certain reports given to the sisters in Tours, prejudicial to the Jesuits. I didn’t name the person responsible through respect for her. But my dear son, you thought I was referring to you and that I suspected you were the culprit. It is not true and it never occurred to me to think so. If I had anything against you I would tell you frankly and candidly. What made me speak to you about it was that I knew you were going to Tours and knowing the truth that you may disabuse our sisters of their false impression. That’s what happened and I beg you to believe that I was unburdening my heart to you as to the one person in the world in whom I have most confidence. I see this has given you pain, I am sorry my dear son and I repeat that you wrote nothing that wasn’t well thought out and all you said was a cause of consolation and gratitude to God. Now I must answer the particular points of your letter.

It’s true that regarding the amount of business to be done in this country and our having lost everything, human reason would tell us to go back to France. Our new contract with our foundress would come with us. But you must know that the Religious houses here form a considerable part of the colony. If one left, it would discourage the great number of the French settlers who have stayed because of the Religious houses and with their help. Besides the girls would grow up wild only for the education they get from us. They are more in need of us than are the Indian girls.

The Fathers could do a lot for them but as you could judge they could do little for the French. Thirdly the country is not in such a desperate state that it can’t recover, and our withdrawal would not be justified. That being so we cannot stay unless we rebuild our monastery. All the most important people agree and we have made the effort and are working at it.

You say we are here for the public good and so public funds ought be available for rebuilding. I answer the country can’t afford it. We had to find more than 25,000 livres for the building and other necessities for we had lost all of that money. We owe 16,000 which we will repay when Divine Providence sends us means. We have borrowed 8,000. We don’t pay interest on that until 1656. The Public funds helped us with the rest and it was no small effort. God helped us last year in a most extraordinary way. News of the fire had not reached France and we got no help but our Confessor seeing that we were in want and had a great number of employees to pay undertook to cultivate a piece of land that we had cleared but had left on account of more urgent calls. He led people to work there and did more himself than any of them. God blessed his charity and his work and the land produced 30 puncheon of wheat, 60 puncheons each peas and barley. We mix the peas with the wheat for bread; they are the same price. The barley is for our animals but we also make an infusion that serves us for drinking. This with the help we did get from France has enabled us to provide during the winter for 40 people including our workmen.

We are now in our new building since the eve of Pentecost. The whole parish and all the clergy and a great concourse of people came to accompany the Blessed Sacrament from the house where we had lived. We began the Forty hours prayer which continued until Whit Tuesday. Everybody was delighted to see us back in our former home and away from the inconveniences we had suffered since the fire. Each of the three days, the parishioners came in procession. There was congregational singing and the ceremonies and the singing was exactly the same as in any Cathedral and the best informed said it was all as dignified and reverend as in the best conducted choirs in France.

I must say that your reasoning seems good. I think they say at times of peace that God’s dealings with this country are entirely different. We do not see ahead, we feel our way, we consult the most enlightened and the foreseen never happens. But we continue on and when we think ourselves at the bottom of the precipice we find our feet. This experience is universal here, in public affairs as well as in private families. When an Iroquois raid is reported and there was a bad one a month ago, everyone was talking of returning to France. But people get married, they build houses, the colony multiplies, the land is cleared and everyone thinks of settling down! Three quarters of the people depend on the land for subsistence. We are going to clear as much land as we can to provide for ourselves and have fodder for our animals. We have four oxen for ploughing and carting and six cows for milking that provide us with butter and the greater part of our nourishment. During the summer though the girls practically do without milk foods. By the Providence of God our cattle were in St. Joseph’s land when the Monastery was burned and they were saved. That’s what this country produces and without it neither ourselves or the others could subsist no matter what help comes from France. But that is not the deciding factor, rather managing the land is a distraction. It is our fidelity to God and to the vocation to which He has lovingly called us. Until we are told that His Holy Will is satisfied with our little services in the country and that we must go to serve Him elsewhere we will be constant and unshakeable in our resolution.That, my dear son is the only thing that keeps me here. Yet it seems to me my soul is in the disposition to leave at any moment if the Divine Majesty wills. In His Will is my peace and my rest. Last year I got a letter from somebody in France who had not heard of our fire but advised me to arrange for our return to France saying it would give only edification, that I would get over it with only a little embarrassment, they would laugh for a little and soon forget. I confess that I found the proposal contemptible, the reasoning so human that I did not even answer. I have no doubt many would think like this but if God permitted us to return to France I would return with some peace of mind as I came here. Obedience brought me here and through obedience I will return, I think I should be well supported resting on God’s orders disregarding human judgments so often far removed from the judgment of Him, to whom she owes the glory of obedience.

I tell you then just as we see nothing certain in this country we see nothing new to make us fear more than usual. Several were frightened by the occurrence of which I have told you. The Governor of Three Rivers, a brave and honourable gentleman, was slain by the Iroquois with 22 other French men in a fight to which he exposed himself against the advice of his companions who had experience of the behaviour of the Iroquois. This defeat is of importance not only in itself but in its consequences. Several outstanding women made widows but up to this the Iroquois thought they had accomplished nothing as they had never defeated swordsmen. Now that they have killed the Governor of Three Rivers they imagine they are masters of all New France. They are not afraid of them in settlements but in the outlying areas and in the houses near the woods. The experience gained that there is no use pursuing them, means that the French are only on the defensive and that is better. If Monsieur du Plessis had taken that stand, he and the others would be alive, his courage was his undoing. The Iroquois are very much afraid of the canon and do not come near the forts. The colonists in order to chase and frighten them have arms to defend themselves. For us our artillery is the protection of the Blessed Virgin and our good angels. Our employees however have a few firearms which they have not used against the Iroquois but only to shoot wild pigeons and ducks for us in Summer and Autumn and when we have invalids. Besides that we don’t bother, we have more useful employment for our men. We have ten employed and if there were any real fear of the Iroquois these would be ready to protect us. But after all if God opened the eyes of the enemy they would see that they are strong enough to destroy us completely and the colony would be in great danger, but we experience incessantly the protection of a strong and powerful God.

Fr. Buteux was slaughtered by the barbarians. He was on an Attikamek Mission and he received his crown with a French soldier who was with him and several of the new converts. He is an incredible loss to the mission but we must bless God who in His own time crowns the Martyrs and rewards the Labourers. They also gave a French woman of Montreal seven blows of an axe but she defended herself courageously. She knocked down her assailant and ran. Her shouting was heard at the Fort. She was rescued and set at liberty. They are not always successful and are sometimes checked. The French won two victories over them. In one or two of the great battles captives were taken and burned alive. That’s what annoyed them and 200 of them came divided in two parties to attack and burn Three Rivers. They came in haste and retired just as quickly taking with them the prisoners I have mentioned, with fifty horned cattle belonging to the local colonists. As for trade, exchanges with the south are reduced almost to nothing but those with the North are greater than ever. If the merchandise could be brought to France immediately the merchants would be rich, with the delays the beavers are diverted elsewhere. But while the colonists amused themselves with the fur trade they could do better by giving more attention to clearing the land and to fishing for whales and porpoises and like provisions and the trade for such.

I’ll tell you in another letter about the death of Sr. St. Joseph. Pray for us all and especially for me that I may be a perfect holocaust for His Divine Majesty in the way that will give Him most glory.
From Quebec. 1 September 1652.
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. 184 - 186.