[A] We read in the history of the foundation of Annecy: "As soon as the blessed body (of St. Francis de Sales) had been carried into the first Monastery, celestial perfumes were perceived throughout the entire house, on account of which our worthy Mother forbade the Sacristan, who alone had in her keeping pastilles and perfumes, to use any of them, and a like obedience she gave to all the Sisters, forbidding them to handle or put any scented thing anywhere in the house. But all these precautions only served the better to make known the favour Our Lord had granted, for the cloisters, corridors, choir, oratories, and other places of the Monastery were perfumed with a most fragrant odour, which, like a heavenly unction, spread many interior graces upon the Community."
LIII.
To Mother Marie Hélène de Chastellux, Superior at Moulins.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy, 1623.
Glory be to God, dearest Daughter, that this disagreement between you and our Sisters of Nevers has come to an end. I have known of it for a long time. Henceforth, I conjure you, live together in perfect and sweet union, for such was the desire of our Blessed Father.
I shall write to our Sister the Superior of Paris, and if she can leave you the dowry of Sister M. Marguerite I am sure she will do so, for she is no lover of money, but justice must be maintained.
For God's sake keep far from you all desire of being well off. Love poverty and God will make you abound in true riches: this is the spirit of our Blessed Father. He could not tolerate any eagerness in us for temporal goods, or that we should be solicitous at all about them. It consoled him to see souls love and esteem poverty. Surely it is but reasonable that we who are vowed to it should no longer hold dear the riches we have renounced. And it is with the great Master that this contract has been made. Oh! my daughter, be not angry with me for speaking thus. I do not accuse you of this evil, but I speak because I have an extreme desire to see holy poverty honoured and cherished amongst us, and my heart's wish is that every soul in the Institute should love it.
O Jesu! never burden yourself, daughter dearest, with girls who have no religious vocation, nor fitting dispositions for our manner of life. After having exercised charity for some months towards this girl, if God does not truly touch her heart and if she does not genuinely desire to be a Religious, you ought in all humility to ask these gentlemen, her relations, to take her away: for how does it look, I pray you, to keep girls in the convent who are simply boarders and must have their meals apart? Certainly, daughter, this must not be done, and I feel confident that Sister Marie Aimée (de Morville) is too good-hearted not to help this girl to overcome herself, and send her to eat with the community while she is with you. My God, how we must guard ourselves against this miserable world, and take every precaution, lest its spirit enter into our monasteries. May God in His mercy preserve us from it!