Letter 56

From Quebec. To her son. 4 September 1641.

Her joy that God has called him to Religious Life. She exhorts him to persevere. Her zeal for martyrdom. Fidelity in the service of God is white martyrdom. The progress of the faith in Canada. The zeal of the Jesuits. Her assiduity and that of her sisters in learning the languages. Jesus, Mary, Joseph. The love and the life of Jesus be your heritage.

My very dear and dearly beloved son,

Your letter brought me unspeakable consolation. I was worried about you all year, imagining all the dangers into which you could fall. Finally our good God gave me peace, believing that His adorable and Fatherly goodness would never lose one who was abandoned for His love. Your letter confirmed this and shows me that my hopes for you were exceeded because His goodness has placed you in such a holy Order and one which I greatly honour and esteem. I had hoped for this grace for you since the reform of the Monasteries of St. Julian and Marmoutier but as vocations come from Heaven I didn’t say a word to you, not wishing to meddle in what was the business of God alone.

You were abandoned by your mother and your relatives. Wasn’t this abandonment to your advantage? When I left you and you not yet twelve years, I did it only with strange convulsions known to God alone. I had to obey God’s Will and that is what He wanted. He gave me hope that He would take care of you. My heart grew strong to surmount the obstacles to my entry into religion for ten whole years. Yet the necessity of doing so had to be pointed out by my Director, Dom Raymond, and by ways I could not put on paper but would tell you if we were face to face. I foresaw that our relatives would abandon you and I suffered greatly for this and for the human weakness that made me fear you would lose your soul. As I was going through Paris it would have been easy for me to get you placed. The Queen, the Duchess d’Aiguillon, and the Countess of Brienne, who were favourable to me and who have honoured me this year by their letters and offers of recommendation would not have refused me anything I desired for you. I thanked the Duchess for her good intentions but the thought came to me that the better we got on in this world the more you be in danger of losing your soul. As well, the thoughts that had formerly occupied my mind to desire only poverty of spirit for your heritage and for me, fixed my resolution to leave you for a second time in the Hands of the Mother of Goodness. Confident that I was going to spend my life in the service of her well-beloved Son, she would take care of you. Have you not also taken her as your Mother and Spouse when you entered the Congregation on the Feast of the Purification? We could expect from her only a gift like that which you now possess.

The advantages offered to you in Paris were important but infinitely less than what you now possess. I believe and your letter assures me that you do not regret them, nor the lack of status of which you speak. It’s not worth talking about and I don’t know who spoke to you about it because I took good care not to. I never lived but in the poverty of Jesus Christ, where all treasures are found. Certainly you were no more than born when I wished it for you, my heart was powerfully moved to do it. You are now in the army of Christ, my dear son. In God’s name pay attention to His Words and take them as spoken to you: “He who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom”. What He promises you is greater than any advantage that could be hoped for and these you must consider as refuse that you may gain Jesus Christ. Your Glorious Patriarch, St. Benedict, has given to you a good example. Imitate him in the name of God and let my heart have this consolation by the first fleet that my vows, offered to the Divine Majesty for 21 years without intermission have been accepted in Heaven. I see your good resolutions. This makes me hope that He will give you perseverance. Not a day passes that I do not offer you in sacrifice to His love on the heart of His Well-Beloved Son. May it please His goodness that you be a real holocaust, entirely consumed on this Divine Altar. 

What you say is true, my dear son. I find Canada quite different from what I expected but not in the way you think. The labour has been so easy and sweet to bear that I experience the truth of Our Lord’s Words: “My yoke is sweet and my burden light”. My trouble with this strange and thorny language was not in vein. I find it so easy now that I have no difficulty in teaching our Holy Mysteries to the new converts. We have a great number this year, more than fifty in the seminary and 700 visits from Indian, men and women, whom we have helped spiritually and maternally. The joy in my heart at this work God has given me wipes out the fatigue that I would normally feel. I am asking Revd. Mother Francis of St. Bernard to give you a copy of the account I wrote of our seminary. As for Christianity on the whole, three nations are asking to settle at Sillery. Their daughters have come to the seminary. All the Christians are getting on well. A Montagnais, recently baptised, acts as an apostle to his nation and makes the three nations enthusiastic. While he was catechising, two of our seminarists aroused the admiration of the good catechumens so that they have decided to send their daughters so that they could learn to do everything the French girls do both in the way of salvation and of secular knowledge from which birth in a barbarous country would have excluded them.

All our new Christians have suffered greatly this year from the tyranny of the Iroquois who declared war on them as well as on the French, but our Governor routed them in battle. The Jesuits, who are on the Huron mission, have suffered incredibly this winter, the cold and snow being greater than usual. Fr. Chaumonot, whom you know, has felt the weight of their blows. He is an apostle who is delighted to be found worthy to suffer for Jesus Christ. He learned the Huron language almost miraculously and has done wonders among a nation where Fr. Brebeuf and himself were first to sew the seeds of faith. Frs. Gamier and Pijart were nearly killed. Our Lord saved them miraculously. Fr. Poncet escaped from the hands of the Iroquois who were out of his way when his canoe passed quickly conducted by Hurons who were afraid of the death that this great servant of God longed ardently for. He has remained at Three Rivers and helps the Algonquins with a zeal you can judge. He knows the Algonquin language well, that’s the one I studied. It is understood by the Algonquins and the Montagnais, their neighbour nation. Sr. St. Joseph is studying the Huron language (we have girls from that country too) and she is getting on well. We have greater need of Algonquin, that’s why we are all learning it.Several nations have been discovered near the Northern Shores and they speak that language. They are being instructed and want to believe. It is thought we may have some martyrs. The devil is enraged because Jesus Christ is taking the empire from him that he has dared to usurp for so many years. He is stirring up some evil men to injure the Gospel workers. I hope you will see the Relation. I’ll try to get them to send you one when it is printed.

I was very much consoled by your wish for me (of martyrdom). Alas, my dear son my sins will deprive me of this good. I have done nothing so far capable of winning the heart of God. Only much labour makes one worthy to shed his Blood for Jesus Christ. I couldn’t aim that high. I leave all to His immense Goodness, He is always before me with His favours. If without any merit of mine He wishes to give me what I dare not ask, I beg Him to do it. I give myself to Him and I give you also and beg Him as the blessing you ask me for that He overwhelm you with gifts such as He has poured so generously on the valiant soldiers who have been so faithful. If somebody came to tell me your son is a martyr, I think I’d die of joy. Leave it to Him, He has his own times, this God full of love. Be faithful to Him and be certain that He will find the way to make you a great saint if you obey His Divine inspirations and if you die to self and follow the example of the great saints of your Order. If Our Lord gives you the grace of being professed, I beg you to tell me when and also when His Goodness called you and what means He used to help you follow the call.

Finally, my dear son, share your spiritual goods with me. As you can guess, that would give me great consolation. I hope your Superior will permit this. I am taking the honour of writing to him and thanking him for his affection and care of you and pray well to God for me. I visit you several times a day. I speak of you endlessly to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

There is a possibility that one of our sisters in Tours is coming on the first ship to join us. It is not yet certain, it depends on circumstances that can be dealt with only in France. It will be Sr. St. Joseph Le Coq whom you have seen as my mistress of Novices. She is a great servant of God. She is at present Superior in Loche but it is Tours we are asking her from, that’s the House of her Profession. 

M. de Bernièries is delighted with your good fortune. Dom Raymond and all my relatives have also written to me as well as the good sisters from Tours whom you love. Adieu, my dear son.

I never tire of writing to you. Fr. Poncet greets you. He is delighted at your good fortune and Sr. St. Joseph also. God has given her great graces and great talents for winning souls. Pray for her and for me who am, my dear son,

Your humble and affectionate mother.

From Quebec. 4 September 1641.

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. 44-46.