(phree 33<3. 
 of 
 
 1920 
 
 r ^. ^uLl 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 of 
 
 THE SOLEMN TRIDUUM 
 
 IN HONOR OF 
 
 Blessed Louise de Marillac 
 
 AND THE 
 
 Blessed Martyrs of Arras 
 
 Sister Madeleine Fontaine, Sister Jeanne Gerard- 
 Sister Therese Fantou, Sister Marie Lanel 
 
 BOTTOM C:'?T...T,Er'E I JERARY 
 Gi^isTlsiUT k:iiLL, MASa 
 Hy the Senior Class in Journalism 
 
 Saint Joseph's College 
 Emmitsburg, Maryland 
 December 5, 6, 7, 1920 
 
222073 
 
"Mj' life, my ivorks, be hid ! " your modest 
 
 spirit pleads: 
 Ah, but the world should know such zealous 
 deeds. — Leo XIII. 
 
Recount 
 
 4 
 
 THE celebration was ushered in Saturday afternoon 
 by the solemn procession when the relic of the Be- 
 atified Foundress was transferred from a side altar, the 
 shrine of her spiritual adviser, Saint Vincent de Paul, 
 to a place of honor near the main altar. Benediction of 
 the Blessed Sacrament followed, after which a few timely 
 and well chosen remarks were made by Very Rev. J. P. 
 Cribbins, G. M., in which he explained the nature of the 
 three days celebration, the indulgences and other spiritual 
 favors available, and the necessity of offering all the 
 splendor and majesty of the next three days to God, im- 
 ploring that He might be pleased with the services. 
 
 5 
 
Sunday, December Fifth 
 
 Solemn Pontifical Mass at eight o'clock 
 Presiding 
 
 His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons 
 Celebrant 
 
 Rt. Rev. Owen B. Corrigan, D. D., V. G. 
 
 Assistant Priest 
 Very Rev. Edward R. Dyer, S.S.,S.T. D., J.C.L. 
 
 Deacons of Honor 
 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Bernard J. Bradley, A. M., LL. 1). 
 Rt. Rev. Msgr. John J. Tierney, A. M., D. D. 
 
 Deacon of the Mass 
 Rev. John J. O'Neill, A. M. 
 
 Subdeacon of the Mass 
 Rev. John Sheridan 
 
 Sermon by 
 Rev. Michael J. Riordau 
 
 Master of Ceremonies 
 Rev. Edward B. Jordan, A. M., S. T. D. 
 
 Vespers at three o'clock 
 
 6 
 
SUNDAY morning the first clay of the Triduum broke 
 radiant and beautiful, like the ideal Indian Summer 
 days at the Valley. The formal opening of the cele- 
 ))ration was a Solemn Pontifical Mass, at which His Emi- 
 nence James Cardinal Gibbons presided. This was the 
 last official appearance of the illustrious Primate, so well 
 l)eloved at Saint Joseph's. Rt. Rev. Owen B. Corrigan, 
 Bishop of Macra, pontificated. The majestic and awe in- 
 spiring ceremonies, the most beautiful and solemn in the 
 ritual of the Church, were under the direction of Rev. Ed- 
 ward B. Jordan, professor of Mount Saint Mary's. The 
 altars ablaze with lights and fragrant with white flowers ex- 
 alted our hearts to the Celestial Courts thus faintly reflected. 
 The music was devotionally rendered by Mount Saint 
 Mary's Seminary Choir, trained by Professor William 
 Sterbinsky. The sermon upon the merits of the Beatified 
 Foundress, emphasizing her steadfast and zealous love of 
 the poor, was masterfully delivered by Father Riordan, 
 Pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church, Washing- 
 ton, D. C. After Mass the choir, the community and the 
 student body joined in the strains of Beata Ludovica, a 
 chorus of combined volume, strength and majesty. At 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. Very Rev. J. P. Cribbius, 
 C. M., Emmitsburg, Md., intoned vespers, which were sung 
 by the Mount Saint Mary's Choir. 
 
 The sermon in full by Rev. Michael J. Riordan follows: 
 
 Your Eminence, Right Reverend Bishop, Right 
 Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Dear Sisters, 
 Beloved Brethren: 
 
 The mission of Blessed Louise de Marillac was to serve 
 the poor and the sick materially and spiritually. Love of 
 the poor is the hall-mark of a true Catholic. When we 
 
 7 
 
love the poor, we love Christ. He Himself has said so: 
 "For I was hungry and you gave me to eat." And when 
 asked "Lord, when did we see Thee hungry and give Thee 
 to eat?" He replied, "Amen, I say to you, as long as you 
 did it to one of these least My brethren, you did it to Me." 
 Truly did Saint Vincent say : "To go to the poor is to go 
 to Christ." 
 
 But to help the poor when Blessed Louise lived was a 
 work far more difficult and distasteful than it is today. 
 We in the United States scarcely know what poverty is. 
 Yesterday our parish gave relief to two poor persons. 
 In Europe, the working classes do not have food, dress, 
 and lodging as good as these two poor persons. Nor did 
 the American working man a century ago. He was for- 
 tunate to have meat once a week. Mother Seton and the 
 Sisters of this convent were glad to have for their Christ- 
 mas dinner smoked herring, molasses and coffee made 
 from carrots. 
 
 In England three centuries ago, one fifth of the popula- 
 tion received Government relief; one half of the total 
 revenue of the Crown being used for this purpose. The 
 working classes lived on rye, barley and oats — being unable 
 to afford to buy wheat. Thousands knew not the taste of 
 meat. Noblemen were destitute of comforts the want of 
 which would be intolerable to a modern laborer. Farmers 
 and merchants breakfasted on loaves "the sight of which" 
 says Macaulay, "would create a riot in a modern work- 
 house." At Norwich, the chief seat of the clothing trade, 
 children six years old were put to work. In Paris there 
 were forty thousand beggars — one fifth of the population. 
 In one year twenty thousand persons died of hunger. 
 Every year from three hundred to four hundred babies 
 were abandoned on the streets of Paris. Poor little waifs 
 were sold to beggars for ten pence, their limbs broken 
 and used as a means of exciting charity and obtaining alms 
 
 8 
 
At the Municipal Fouudliug Asylum which was managed 
 by a lay woman, nurses were accustomed to drug crying 
 children and many died from this cause alone. Those who 
 survived were given to anyone who wanted them or sold 
 for a pittance. 
 
 The horrors of disease were no less appalling than those 
 of poverty. Modern sanitation was unknown. At the 
 Hotel Dieu in Paris, two hundred and fifty patients were 
 huddled together in one room and six in one bed. It was 
 not uncommon to find women and children dead from 
 hunger and disease in the woods and along the roadways. 
 Aptly did a celebrated bishop say to the king, "France is 
 simply a large hospital full of woe aud empty of food." 
 When the plague broke out, which was every third or 
 fourth year — the people became panic-stricken. Husbands 
 fled from their wives, mothers from their children, and the 
 dead were left unburied in the streets. Sometimes grass 
 grew in the streets and wolves prowled around at night 
 attracted by the stench. The death rate ran as high as 
 one fifth of the population. 
 
 Such was the plight of the poor aud the sick that con- 
 fronted Saint Vincent in 1628. He saw that to combat 
 the situation the cooperation of woman was absolutely 
 necessary. There must be a woman's heart with a man's 
 head. And for this work he chose, under the inspiration 
 of Divine Providence, Louise de Marillac, a well-bred aud 
 well to do lady, whose husband had died a few years 
 before. In 1629 she was chosen Superintendent of the 
 Ladies of Charity, an association of lay women, and in 
 1633 became the Foundress and first Superioress of the 
 Daughters (Sisters) of Charity, thus opening up the dawn 
 of a new era in the history of the Church. 
 
 From her young maidenhood Louise had a great love 
 for the poor. After her marriage she used to take them 
 food and clothing and nurse them in their sickness. She 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
brought them medicines, dressed tlieir ulcers and washed 
 their dead and putrefying bodies. It was not the custom 
 in those days for well-bred ladies to visit the poor and her 
 conduct must have shocked her fastidious friends. The 
 poor as a class were regarded as social outcasts — a pest to 
 be exterminated. When they fell ill they remained un- 
 cared for until they got well or died. 
 
 Shortly after becoming Superioress, Louise began to 
 visit the Hotel Dieu and did much to improve the spirit- 
 ual and physical condition of the patients there. Later 
 she became interested in the foundlings and gave her home 
 at La Chapelle to serve as the first oi'phanage established 
 by Saint Vincent. She was careful to see that they re- 
 ceived tender care and she tool< every precaution to prevent 
 the horrors perpetrated at the Municipal Asylum. 
 
 During her long career as a religious she displayed a 
 mother's love for the poor. She waslied their feet, bound 
 up their wounds and dressed them in the garments of her 
 son. "The Poor before all " was her motto and she used 
 to say that a Daughter of Charity should prefer the com- 
 pany of the poor to that of tlie rich and leave her prayers 
 and rules and fly to their assistance. The morning of her 
 death though scarcely able to speak she said to the Sisters 
 kneeling around her bedside, "Take great care in serving 
 the Poor." She was so sticcessful in diffusing among 
 others her love for the poor that one Sister being asked 
 on her deathbed by Saint Vincent if anything in her past 
 life troubled her, replied: "No, Father, unless I took too 
 much pleasure in serving the poor." 
 
 Louise ministered to another kind of hunger, often more 
 distressing than the hunger of the body. I mean the 
 hunger of the soul — the craving for sympathy. Our Lord 
 sought it and got it. Saint Paul says that without it, 
 tlie giving of our goods to feed the poor profiteth nothing. 
 Every one craves it and no one gets enougii of it. None 
 
 10 
 
of us gives enough of it because we are thoughtless in this 
 respect. We do not reflect how hungry humanity is for 
 sympathy. Only when death takes from us some beloved 
 one do we realize how remiss we have been. Well, it was 
 not a kind or symj)athetic age in winch Louise labored. 
 Nowhere -could be found that sensitive compassion for 
 suffering that prevails now. Jn England masters well 
 born and bred beat their servants. Husbands of decent 
 station were not ashamed to beat their wives. Gentlemen 
 arranged parties to see delinquent women whipped. 
 
 Into such environment the kind and compassionate 
 spirit of Louise and the Daughters of Charity came like a 
 purifying and balmy breeze in an atmosphere of stench 
 and pestilence. Her motherly tenderness was esteemed 
 beyond price because unpurchasable. You can go to the 
 market-place and hire the highest intellectual ability but 
 you cannot buy human affection. It is of its very nature 
 to serve without pay. And when it is exalted and trans- 
 figured by love of God we have love of neighbor raised to 
 the highest power. It is this quality of unselfishness and 
 compassion that gives to Catholic charity a distinctive 
 character and induces many non-Catholics to prefer the 
 service rendered by nuns in Catholic hospitals to that by 
 salaried workers in other institutions. 
 
 In nothing did Louise excel more than as a catechist. 
 She composed a catechism well suited to a child's intelli- 
 gence and full of practical illustrations. She visited the 
 villages and couutry districts and spoke in such burning 
 words of zeal that crowds went to hear her like those that 
 gather round some great preacher. A woman said to her, 
 "If you stayed here a whole year you would convert the 
 town." 
 
 Dense ignorance prevailed in the outlying districts of 
 France. A contemporary writer describes the peasants as 
 "wild animals, male and female, livid and all burned by 
 
 II 
 
the sun. They present on rishig to their feet a human 
 appearance and as a matter of fact are of the genus homo" 
 Blessed Louise gave attention to secular education as well 
 as to religious training, and after becoming Superioress 
 formed a class for the education of the Sisters. She felt 
 as Saint Teresa did who says that "an intelligent mind is 
 simple and submissive. It sees its faults and allows itself 
 to be guided. A mind that is deficient and narrow never 
 sees its faults even when shown them." As a noted Cath- 
 olic writer says, "Saints need power from on high, but it 
 is not by any means clear that this power is not bestowed 
 upon natural gifts which must needs exist before they can 
 be metamorphosed by sanctity." 
 
 Daughters of Charity, you do well to honor the memory 
 of your holy foundress. The world celebrates the glory 
 of its military heroes. Look at the tributes in stone on the 
 battlefield of Gettysburg near by — yet those heroes at- 
 tained distinction by climbing over the dead bodies of their 
 fellowmen and Avading through pools of human blood. 
 Blessed Louise and her white-winged Sisters on the con- 
 trary have alleviated the pains of the wounded and com- 
 forted them in the hour of death. Well did she say on 
 one occasion to her Daughters, "Oh, my children, what a 
 grace is your vocation. Who shall describe it? Not the 
 Angels — only God Himself may do that." 
 
 The little "snow ball", as Saint Vincent called the first 
 group of Daughters, has increased until 37 000 of them are 
 ministering to the temporal and spiritual wants of God's 
 poor in all parts of the earth. What a monument to her 
 memory! How futile and insignificant in comparison are 
 those of stone or marble. But her greatest monument is 
 not seen by the bodily eye. It is the thousands, yes hun- 
 dreds of thousands, of souls saved by the influence and 
 ministrations of the Sisters of Charity. Last yeaa' one 
 elderly Sister in China baptized 17000 babies. Daily we 
 
 \2 
 
priests give the last sacraments to persons who would die 
 without them were it not for the pious zeal of the Sisters. 
 Then there is the influence of their example. A dis- 
 tinguished couple, husband and wife, have recently come 
 into the Church. The seed of their conversion was sown 
 thirty years ago by the edifying example of the Sisters of 
 Charity in a hospital where the woman was a patient. 
 
 God be praised for this valiant and holy woman and for 
 her thrice holy work of charity. May her memory and 
 influence continue from age to age and grow forever 
 and forever. May the Daughters of Charity imitate her 
 humility, simplicity and self-abnegation, and may we all 
 find in her saintly life an inspiration to better and holier 
 living. 
 
 13 
 
Monday, December Sixth 
 
 Solemn Pontifical Mass at eight o'clock 
 Celebrant 
 
 Rt. Rev. Owen B. Corrigan, D. D., V. G. 
 
 Assistant Priest 
 Very Rev. George V. McKinny, C. M. 
 
 Deacon of the Mass 
 Rev. John F. Long, C. M. 
 
 Sulxleacon of the Mass 
 Rev. John Sheridan 
 
 Sermon by 
 Rev. Edward B. Jordan, A.M., S.T.D. 
 
 Master of Ceremonies 
 Rev. Edward B. Jordan, A. M., S. T. D. 
 
 Vespers at three o'clock 
 
 14 
 
THE ceremouies of the Solemn Pontifical Mass of Mon- 
 day when Bishop Corrigan again pontificated were 
 characterized by the same solemn dignity as on Sun- 
 day. The music by Saint Joseph's Community Choir, in 
 striking contrast to the deep bass volume of the Seminary 
 Choir of the preceding day, gave beautiful and melodious 
 testimony of the fervor and devotion of the daughters for 
 their Beatified Mother. The second panegyric, in which 
 the manifold virtues displayed in the simple life of Blessed 
 Louise de Marillac were gloriously expounded, was the 
 tribute of Father Jordan. Very Rev. Edward J. Walsh, 
 C. M., Springfield, Mass., chanted vespers in the afternoon, 
 which were followed by the public veneration of the relic 
 of Blessed Louise. 
 
 "She hath opened her hand to the needy, and stretched 
 out her hand to the poor. — Give her of the fruit of her 
 hands : and let her works praise her in the gates." — Prov. 
 31, 20-3L 
 
 The Church has been called the Fruitful Mother of 
 Saints for the reason that she has in all periods of her his- 
 tory given rise to holy men and women whose lives were 
 a source of edification and inspiration to the faithful, of 
 envy and admiration to those outside the fold, and a con- 
 stant testimonial to the holiness and sanctity of the religion 
 they professed. And not only has God given these living 
 proofs of her divine origin to the Church but His all-wise 
 Providence has met every special need that has arisen in 
 His earthly Kingdom by calling to His service chosen men 
 and women who were fitted by nature and grace for the 
 work that was to be done. Thus in the early days of the 
 Church, when the seeds of faith were to be sown, untold 
 numbers of the followers of Christ were called to the mar- 
 tyr^s crown and watered with their blood the soil from 
 which the harvest of souls was to be gathered into the 
 
 15 
 
Itingdom of God. When persecution was transferred from 
 the arena to the schools and the doctrines of Christianity 
 were attacked in the halls of learning, God called to His 
 service the long line of the Fathers of the Church whose 
 profound knowledge and mastery of the things of the mind 
 are to this day the admiration of the intellectual world. 
 When luxury and worldliness were taking possession of 
 the hearts of men and turning their thoughts away from 
 God and their eternal destiny, a Saint Francis of Assisi 
 appeared to teach mankind the beauty of poverty and to 
 win them back to the hungry and shivering Babe of Beth- 
 lehem. 
 
 When the monster of heresy raised his ugly head and 
 with his blighting breath began to blast the rich harvest 
 of the faith, God sent Saint Dominic to conquer the dragon 
 in his lair. When the so-called Reformers raised the 
 standard of revolt and like Lucifer flung their defiant cry, 
 " We will not serve," in the face of Christ's anointed, God 
 came to the rescue of His Church by sending Saint Igna- 
 tius and his companions to counteract the influence of the 
 minions of Satan and impede their nefarious work. 
 
 And so, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
 when charity seemed to have grown cold in the hearts of 
 men and God's poor were neglected by those whose ciiief 
 care they should have been, God called to their service the 
 renowned Saint Vincent de Paul and associated with him 
 in his work the holy woman whose beatification we cele- 
 brate today, Louise de Marillac. 
 
 To you who are the spiritual daughters of the Blessed 
 Louise, and are therefore well acquainted with the life of 
 your Holy Foundress, it is unnecessary to recount the 
 story of her noble work. But it will not be amiss, I take 
 it, on an occasion of this kind to recall some of the strik- 
 ing virtues of this chosen soul, the practice of which has 
 gained for her the honors of our altars over which we re- 
 
 i6 
 
joice today; and at the same time review for our own edi- 
 fication some of the lessons she has taught to those whose 
 work in life is to serve the poor. 
 
 Of the basic virtues that are characteristic of the reli- 
 gious life, poverty, chastity and obedience, we scarcely 
 need make mention in the case of Blessed Louise. She 
 took for granted tiiat one who had consecrated herself to the 
 service of God should be detached entirely from the goods 
 of this world ; should endeavor to imitate, as far as in her 
 power lay, the virgin purity of the Mother of God ; and 
 should aim to bring her will into perfect comformity with 
 the will of her Divine Spouse. Even a cursory reading of 
 her life will show us how perfectly she fulfilled this three- 
 fold vow. Poverty she knew and practiced in all its naked 
 unattractiveness; for not only was she without worldly 
 possessions but many a time she and her little company 
 were obliged to be satisfied with one meal a day and that 
 of the most meagre fare, often consisting of nothing but a 
 few turnips gleaned from a neighboring field. In the ob- 
 servance of the vow of chastity Mary Immaculate became 
 the model whom she strove to imitate and it is worthy of 
 note that the Institution founded by her was the first to 
 invoke the Mother of God under the title of "Mary con- 
 ceived without sin." As to her attitude towards obedience 
 we can form some idea from her many letters to Saint 
 Vincent de Paul. From these we learn with what child- 
 like simplicity she submits to his direction. The questions 
 that concerned her own spiritual welfare as well as all her 
 plans and prospects for her little community were referred 
 to the judgment of him whom God had given her as a di- 
 rector. With her, obedience was better than sacrifice and 
 the word of Saint Vincent was the expression of the Will 
 of God. 
 
 Next to her scrupulous and exact observance of the re- 
 ligious vows, the attentive student of the life of Blessed 
 
 17 
 
Louise caunot but be struck by her profound aud genuine 
 humility. The advice of the Master, "Learn of Me because 
 I am meek and humble of heart," was deeply engraved on 
 the soul of Louise de Marillac and this virtue became the 
 foundation on which she built the splendid structure of her 
 saintly life. She looked upon herself as a mere instrument 
 in the hands of God and whatever good she accomplished 
 she ascribed to His mercy and grace while her failures and 
 shortcomings were attributed to her own demerits. How 
 often in her letters to her spiritual father does she in all 
 candor reproach herself for the trials and difficulties that 
 beset the first struggling efforts of her little community! 
 How touching, in its evident sincerity, is the description 
 of the unworthiness she felt in the presence of Saint Jane 
 Frances de Chantal ! So great indeed was her humility 
 that she would not permit her sisters to call her Mother 
 Superior; but, in imitation of the Father of Christendom, 
 who is the "Servus Servorum Dei" she became to the sis- 
 ters their "Soeur Servante," a sister servant. Is it any 
 wonder that God, who "resisteth the proud and giveth 
 grace to the humble," bestowed of His abundance upon 
 this noble soul aud so enriched her labors? 
 
 Another admirable trait in Blessed Louise was the cour- 
 age she manifested in the midst of trials and the patience 
 with which she bore the crosses that were sent her. And 
 these were many indeed. She herself tells us that God 
 revealed to her from early youth that she should go to 
 Him by the pathway of the cross; and there was scarcely a 
 day during her life when she was left without suffering. 
 The early loss of her mother; the death of her husband; 
 the waywardness of her son ; the obstacles placed in the 
 way of her little company ; the persecution and slander of 
 herself and her sisters ; the defection of some of her mem- 
 bers ; the death of others when their services were most 
 needed; and, through it all, a weakened bodily frame that 
 
 1 
 
left her subject to repeated and frequent attacks of sickness 
 and ill health; these were some of the trials she was called 
 on to bear. But far from weakening her resolve, they 
 served only to increase her sanctity. Her will was an- 
 chored to the will of God and her pleasure to His good 
 pleasure. She looked upon her sufferings as naught in 
 comparison with tlie sufferings of Christ and the thought 
 that she was imitating the Master in some small way 
 served to lighten the crosses He laid upon her. "Nothing," 
 she said, "causes us to resemble Jesus Clirist so much as to 
 suffer persecution in peace." 
 
 Nor did she look for human relief or sympathy in iier 
 hours of trial. The words of Christ, "Come unto Me 
 all you who labor and are heavily f)urdeued and I will 
 refresh you," she accepted literally; and when wearied 
 with cares and sorrows she betook herself to prayer and 
 meditation. Needless to say that she drew deep and re- 
 freshing draughts from this divinely appointed well of 
 consolation. 
 
 No review of the life of Blessed Louise would be com- 
 plete without some mention of her loving care and solici- 
 tude for those whom God liad called to associate themselves 
 with her in her work. Her biographers tell us that she 
 was a superior of consummate prudence, exemplary piety 
 and indefatigable zeal. Her first associates were simple 
 peasant maidens ( "poor girls in skull caps," she calls 
 them) with little or no education and nothing to recom- 
 mend them beyond their piety and their desire to serve 
 the poor. To these she became a motlier in the truest 
 sense of the word. She taught them to read and write; 
 instructed them in the catecliisra ; trained them in the care 
 of the sick; bore with their imperfections and corrected 
 their faults; and like the skilful potter, moulded tliese 
 clods of earth into vessels of election of the Living God 
 to carry His name to tlie poor and lowly. 
 
 19 
 
In her dealings with her sisters she was ever sweet and 
 affable ; there was no formality in their access to her ; and 
 she did not hesitate even to interrupt her prayer or medi- 
 tation to give ear to the wants of her subjects. Her letters 
 to the sisters who were stationed at distant points are filled 
 with cheerful words of encouragement and advice, of solici- 
 tude and maternal love. No wonder Saint Vincent said 
 of her that he had never known a mother who was so 
 much a mother as she. 
 
 But the characteristic virtue of Louise, which was the 
 guiding spirit of her life and the basic principle of the 
 institute founded by her, was charity. Next to her love 
 of God came her love of the poor, and she dedicated her- 
 self to God for the service of her neighbor. And so the 
 preeminent virtue of the company became that of charity 
 and the sisters learned from their saintly superior the 
 secret of sanctifying their souls while laboring for the 
 sanctification of others. The test of a vocation to the life 
 of a Sister of Charity was the desire, which its holy found- 
 ers set above all others, to work for Jesus Christ in the 
 person of the poor. 
 
 To narrate at length the various works of charity that 
 Louise and her little company undertook would detain us 
 too long, so numerous and diverse were they. Suffice it to 
 say that no work of charity, no matter how demeaning or 
 how difficult, was considered beyond the pale of her efforts. 
 To attend the sick in the hospitals; to nurse the plague- 
 stricken populace; to care for the wounded soldiers on the 
 field of battle; to feed the famished people in the regions 
 devastated by war ; to take the place of a mother in the 
 rearing of helpless foundlings; to play the role of minis- 
 tering angel to the unfortunate galley slaves; to bring 
 comfort and consolation in their affliction to those deprived 
 of reason ; these were some of the tasks that Louise and 
 her sisters undertook to accomplish. Her messengers of 
 
 20 
 
BLESvSEl) LOl'lSK DK MARILLAC 
 Ma DAM K Le Gras 
 
 yoUNDKKSS or TlIK DA Uti IITKIiS OF CH AKITY 
 
I 
 
charity were sent all over France and even beyond the 
 borders of her native land into the distant Kingdom of 
 Poland. Whenever the cry of the poor and afflicted, from 
 whatever source, reached her ears she was ready and quick 
 to answer. Problems of social welfare whose solution 
 baffled the wisest minds in the state were satisfactorily 
 solved by this frail woman whose sole resources were her 
 unbounded confidence and trust in God. "The foolish 
 things of the world hath God chosen that He may con- 
 found the wise; and the weak things of the world hath 
 God chosen that He may confound the strong." (i Cor. 
 I, 27.) "It seems to me," this holy woman used to say, 
 "that our Lord would always ratlier have us act with 
 confidence than with prudence; and that this same confi- 
 dence would be the cause of acting witli prudence without 
 our being aware of it." And this confidence was rewarded 
 by God by astonishiug favors. Time and again when the 
 projects undertaken by her were on the point of collapsing 
 for want of funds, Providence came to her assistance in 
 the most unexpected way and she was enabled to continue 
 her work. Tlie unbounded charity of Blessed Louise was 
 after the heart of our Divine Lord and it pleased His holy 
 Will not to allow her projects to fiiil for want of earthly 
 means. 
 
 We caunot close our sketch of the life of this holy 
 woman without calling attention to the relation that ex- 
 isted between her and Saint Vincent de Paul. Here were 
 two individuals who, we are told, had nothing in common 
 except a common desire to serve the poor and to accom- 
 plish God's will at whatever cost. Yet God in His Provi- 
 dence made their pathways in life to cross and they became 
 under His guidance the co-founders of one of the greatest 
 works that have been accomplished in the annals of the 
 Christian Faith. What neither could have done without 
 the assistance of the other became possible through their 
 
 21 
 
united efforts and their labors are still bearing fruit though 
 two centuries have elapsed since first the foundations were 
 laid. 
 
 How Louise relied on the judgment and experience of 
 Saint Vincent we have already mentioned. Not less beau- 
 tiful is the trust and confidence the Saint placed in his 
 humble coadjutor. From the beginning God associated 
 tliem in the work of charity; and to this day the daugh- 
 ters of Blessed Louise are guided in their work by the 
 advice and counsel of the successors of Saint Vincent de 
 Paul. Thus has it pleased God to see continued that spir- 
 itual relation of father and daughter between the Priests 
 of the Mission and the Sisters of Charity that was produc- 
 tive of so much good in the lives of their holy founders. 
 
 And now we have sketched in its merest outline the 
 character of Blessed Louise de Marillac. What a beauti- 
 ful example she furnishes of the working of God's grace 
 in His saints! What a perfect model for the imitation of 
 those whose lives are consecrated to the service of the poor! 
 Let us rejoice today that she who has long been beati- 
 fied in the hearts of her spiritual daughters is at length 
 placed in the catalogue of the Blessed by the Supreme 
 Authority of the Church ; and let us pray that the day 
 may not be far distant when that same Infallible Magis- 
 terium may give us the riglit to address the Foundress of 
 the Sisters of Charity as ''Saint Louise de Marillac". "Give 
 her of tlie fruit of her hands ; and let her works praise 
 her in the gates." Amen. 
 
 22 
 
Tuesday, December Seventh 
 
 Solemn Pontifical Mass at eight o'clock 
 Celebrant 
 
 His Excellency, Most Rev. John Bonzano, D. D., 
 Apostolic Delegate 
 
 Assistant Priest 
 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Bernard J. Bradley, A. M., LL. D. 
 
 Deacons of Honor 
 Very Rev. James O. Hayden, C. M. 
 Rev. James G. Burke, A.M. 
 
 Deacon of the Mass 
 Rev. Charles A. McKenzie, C. M. 
 
 Snbdeacon of the Mass 
 Rev. John Sheridan 
 
 Sermon by 
 Very Rev. Frederick J. Mauue, C. M., V. 
 
 Master of Ceremonies 
 Rev. Edward B. Jordan, A .M., S. T. D. 
 
 Vespers at three o'clock 
 
 23 
 
TUESDAY, the tliird day of the f riiiuum, was devoted 
 to the honor of the Martyrs of Arras, the four beatified 
 Daughters of Charity who shed their blood for the faith 
 during the French Revolution. The ceremonies of this 
 day reached their culmination in the dignity, majesty and 
 solemnity of the Church's liturgy. Archbishop Bonzano, 
 the Papal Delegate, pontificated and impressed all present 
 by his humble reverence, as a veritable fulfillment of 
 the characteristics of the Good Shepherd, ''on earth but 
 not of the earth ". A complete and comprehensive account 
 of the work and virtues of the Martyr-Sisters was included 
 in the scholarly sermon by Father Maune. The vespers 
 in the afternoon were intoned by Father Long. The mu- 
 sic for the last day of the Triduum was rendered by the 
 Seminary Choir of Saint Vincent's, Germantowu, Pa., un- 
 der the direction of Rev. Robert A. Gillard, C. M. The 
 Gregorian chant was particularly affecting and the several 
 solos touched and glorified the hearts of the listeners. 
 
 The sermon in full by Very Rev. F. J. Maune, C. M., 
 follows: 
 
 This is a day of stirring memories. We have come to- 
 gether to pay our tribute of veneration, of love, and of 
 triumphant acclaim to four spiritual daughters of Saint 
 Vincent de Paul and the Blessed Louise de Marillac : Sis- 
 ter Madeleine Fontaine, Sister-servant; Sister Marie Lanel, 
 Sister Ther^se Fantou, and Sister Jeanne Gerard;— who 
 w^on the crown of martyrdom on June 26, 1794, and were 
 beatified by our beloved Pontiff Benedict XV on June 13, 
 1920. Where were they martyred? In China? True it 
 is that ten Daughters of Charity had the happiness of seal- 
 ing their faith with their blood at Tientsin, China. But 
 that happened only fifty years ago. No, they were mar- 
 tyred at Cambrai, France. Into insistent prominence at 
 once leaps the question, — how could this be? I answer in 
 
 24 
 
a general way ; you do not marvel at the fact that many of 
 the faithful were on the fall of the Western Roman Empire 
 martyred by uncathoUcized barbarians. Sliould you then 
 feel bewildered by the fact that at the close of the eight- 
 eenth century Imndreds were martyred in France by bar- 
 barized Catholics f But, you insist, tiiat is no answer, for 
 it raises a fresh difficulty. How could Catholics of France 
 become barbarized f of the France once fondly styled by 
 popes "the mirror of Christianity, the unshaken support 
 of the Faith"? So you compel me to analyze the French 
 Revolution of 1789. It is far from easy to seize and not 
 to lose sight of, the leading thread which will unravel the 
 tangled skein presented by this complex and intricate sub- 
 ject, but this I will try to do in a few rapid pages. That 
 you may follow me easily I will attempt a broad treatment 
 of this subject. 
 
 Most of the European rulers who wielded the scep- 
 ter during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth cen- 
 turies seem to have set their hearts on becoming absolute 
 monarchs. The achievements of King Louis XIV enabled 
 him to assume such a role in France. But as he did not 
 transmit his genius with his power to the Regent Philippe 
 II, Duke of Orleans, or to Louis XV, the middle and the 
 lower classes of the French people began to weary of des- 
 potism and of the injustices it involved, and to clamor for 
 a limitation of the powers of the Crown and for increased 
 popular representation in the government of the Nation. 
 Ihese demands were given frightful expression in the 
 Revolution of 1789, at the close of which the people found 
 that they had exchanged the despotism of kings for what 
 Edmund Burke termed "the most absolute despotism 
 which had ever appeared under Heaven," — the despotic 
 sway of popular leaders. So that the Revolution of 1789 
 did not fulfil its vaunted promises. The reverse is true of 
 the Revolution of 1848, for this revolution compelled royal 
 
 25 
 
pens to sign new constitutions which have enabled repre- 
 sentatives to exercise a gradually increasing control over 
 rulers, aud have enabled the people through the power of 
 the ballot to control representatives. 
 
 The Church had not favored the absolutism of the 
 French monarchs, which was as much opposed to Catholic 
 progress as it was to civil liberties. But the religious 
 strife of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had crip- 
 pled her power; and in France Louis XIV by enforcing 
 the so-called Liberties of the Gallican Church had made 
 himself more the head of the Church in France than was 
 the pope himself, and had invested civil judges with powers 
 proper to bishops alone, — nay even with the power of over- 
 ruling bishops in many ecclesiastical questions. Hence 
 she refrained from urging upon the attention of sovereign 
 and of subjects that ideal Christian State in which the du- 
 ties of all as well as the rights of all would be clearlv de- 
 fined and duly sanctioned, — that ideal State which her 
 great intellects had visualized from the Old Testament and 
 from the masterly teachings of Aristotle. Her unwilling 
 acquiescence in the Facts Accomplished was distorted by 
 unscrupulous demagogues into unqualified approval of the 
 existing regime, so that later they did not find it difficult 
 to goad mobs on to demolishing the altar as well as the 
 throne. 
 
 The fateful storm of the Revolution did not gather over- 
 night, but was the culmination of the social and political, 
 tlie literary and religious disturbances and agitations of 
 many years. 
 
 The separation of Frenchmen into three Orders,— the 
 Order of the Clergy, the Order of the Nobles, and the Or- 
 der of Commoners, which last Order was called the Third 
 Estate and included both the middle and tiie lower classes, 
 had long been traditional. We are now really taking up 
 the martyrdom of our dear Sisters of Arras. For I do not 
 
 26 
 
hesitate to affirm that the abiding realizatiou, the abiding 
 consciousness which these all-loving Servants of Christ 
 had of the deep, wide-spread evils of the degenerate days 
 in which they lived was a more excruciating, a more en- 
 during martyrdom than their subsequent martyrdom by 
 the guillotine's blade. The priesthood of France was com- 
 posed of the higher and the lower clergy. The higher 
 clergy the king almost invariably chose from the ranks of 
 the nobility. I say "the king chose," — for in virtue of 
 the Concordat which Pope Leo X concluded in 1516 with 
 Francis I, the French king had the privilege of nomina- 
 tion or presentation to bishoprics, abbeys and priories un- 
 der the condition, laid down in express and peremptory 
 terms, that the candidates nominated or presented by the 
 king should afterwards be approved or confirmed by the 
 pope; and by an abuse which Rome strained every nerve 
 to check, the French king distributed freely lesser ecclesi- 
 astical benefices. As these dignities and benefices were 
 richly endowed the higher clergy were very wealthy. The 
 large majority of them, though not eminent in sanctity, 
 were virtuous men. To very few can grave scandals be 
 imputed. In their charities they were open-hearted and 
 open-handed. But it must be admitted that many of them 
 lived luxuriously, entertained lavishly and spent extrava- 
 gantly. And this vice the people were not disposed to 
 condone; it filled them with festering resentment, and it 
 fomented in the breasts of the lower clergy a spirit of dis- 
 affection and opposition to their ecclesiastical superiors. 
 The lower clergy were mainly of peasant origin. They 
 were with few exceptions men of unblemished lives, men 
 aflame with zeal, — and, partly because of the miserable pit- 
 tances they received for their support, men in fullest sym- 
 pathy with the destitution and sufferings of the poor among 
 whom they labored. 
 
 luto not a few monasteries of men lax discipline had 
 
 27 
 
crept. This can in great measure be accounted for by the 
 fact that, in spite of the regulations made by different popes 
 and even by the Council of Trent to remedy the abuse, 
 French kings oftentimes intrusted the administration of 
 monasteries to ministers of State or to great secular ecclesi- 
 astics or even to young nobles who had received only ton- 
 sure. This implies that some monasteries had merely 
 nominal superiors, superiors not obliged to residence therein. 
 Of such monasteries, lacking, as they did, real superiors to 
 enforce the rule, strict discipline was scarcely to be ex- 
 pected. On the other hand it is eloquent testimony to the 
 uplifting influence of vows even in an age of moral deca- 
 dence that, though many religious priests and brothers 
 were not true to the highest spiritual standards, few revolt- 
 ing scandals can be laid at the monastic door. Even the 
 less fervent and exemplary were so generous and unremit- 
 ting in their charities as to merit from the people round 
 about them the title of "the fathers of the poor". As for 
 the nuns, with the exception of a few houses of canonesses, 
 they lived up to the loftiest ideals of their state and would 
 have adorned the purest ages of Faith. 
 
 Among too many of the nobles, alas, a low standard of 
 morality prevailed. This was due to causes soon to be 
 touched on J also to the example of dissoluteness set by the 
 Regent and by Louis XV, and to the softness and idleness 
 of the Court life of those days. In olden times French 
 nobles had been the monarch's executive arm: Louis XIV 
 had made them merely the fringe and the embroidery of 
 his royal robe; he had taken away their powers, but had 
 left them their privileges. Tliey lived in a round of fetes 
 and imposing pageants, in a constant whirl of gaiety. And 
 these voluptuaries lived this life largely on taxes wrung 
 from the poor. Thus did they sow the winds; they were 
 about to reap the whirlwind. 
 
 Taxation and all three Orders are subjects interwoven 
 
 28 
 
witli one another. The colossal war-debts and the extrav- 
 agant habits of the Court had brought France to the verge 
 of national bankruptcy. The clergy were practically ex- 
 empt from taxation: the nobles all but evaded it, contrib- 
 uting only one-tenth of the total revenues. Hence it 
 devolved upon the Third Estate to supply the huge bal- 
 ance. The bourgeois had risen to affluence, — the few large 
 farmers were in comfortable circumstances, — but the small 
 farmers, of whom the peasantry was mainly composed, 
 were as a direct result of the burden of taxation, under a 
 constant strain to procure even the necessaries of life; com- 
 forts and conveniences were unknown to them; their homes 
 were dark, cheerless, scantily furnished, squalid, — their 
 clothing was of the coarsest texture, — their food scarcely 
 fit for human beings. On this intricate subject of taxation 
 and feudal duties I must limit myself to the general state- 
 ment that throughout the ten years preceding the Revolu- 
 tion, these hard-driven sons of toil, so hard-driven that 
 few found time to learn to read or write, liad to pay in 
 taxes of one kind or another 80 francs out of every 100 
 francs they earned. As the nobles made extensive tracts 
 of productive land reservations for the pleasures of the 
 chase, for they were ardent huntsmen, and as they paid 
 scant attention to the cultivation of their farms, even a 
 slight shrinkage of the harvests spelt danger of starvation 
 to the poor of the country and of the towns. In fact dur- 
 ing the thirty years prior to the Revolution famines and 
 bread riots were frequent occurrences, and frequently the 
 poor had to sustain life with grass and wild herbs. They 
 surely had ample provocation for feeling embittered against 
 the nobles: they were ripe for revolt. 
 
 A revolt calls for leaders. These the bourgeois were to 
 supply. I have already said that the middle classes were 
 Wealthy. Moreover they were well educated. The parti- 
 tion-wall of titles and privileges which rose up between 
 
 29 
 
them and high honors and rich emoluments exasperated 
 them. The haughty or at best the patronizing bearing of 
 the nobles infuriated them. The reason of these privileges, 
 they argued, — namely that the swords of the nobles were 
 the defence of the kingdom, — was a fiction; peace had 
 reigned for many years, and there was a vast difference 
 between the rigors of the camp and the fascinations of the 
 court. Truly the middle classes were in an ugly mood. 
 
 Perils were all the while thickening around the Church. 
 I have already said that her silence was to be misconstrued 
 into positive approval of the existing political and social 
 conditions; also that the lack of frugality and self-denial 
 on the part of many of the higher clergy lowered her in 
 the esteem of the people and weakened their allegiance 1o 
 lier. The notorious unbelief of three bishops and the end- 
 less theological disputes raised by the stubborn Jansenists 
 caused the faith of many to stagger. The Jansenists' open 
 criticism of hallowed traditions and personages of the 
 Church prepared minds for the railleries and denials of 
 Diderot's Encyclopedists; and the frequent overruling of 
 the Church bv the Parliament of Paris, which was thor- 
 oughly Jansenistic and Galilean in its principles, prepared 
 minds for the later legislation designed to destroy her. 
 And here Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau enter upon 
 the scene. Beyond question each was a father of the Revo- 
 lution, the latter perhaps more so than the former. Never 
 had the Evil Spirit disgorged upon the world a mind with 
 so matchless a talent for derision and irony as Voltaire. 
 Against whom did he employ this talent, — and his bril- 
 liant, keen, obscene wit? His lifelong watchword gives the 
 answer: Ecmsez Vvrifame — Crush the Infamous Thing." 
 By the "Infamous Thing" he meant Christ, — Christ's re- 
 ligion, — Christ's Church. And the words of the infamous 
 Diderot show with what diabolical hatred of the Church 
 Voltaire had inspired his followers : " If I were in need of 
 
 30 
 
a rope to haug the last king I would make it out of the 
 entrails of the last priest." Voltaire's philosophy, however, 
 was merely destructive. Rousseau essayed the task of 
 building up a new world on the ruins of fundamental 
 Catholic teachings. His basic principle was that the source 
 of our evils is not our fallen nature, but society as actually 
 organized. Instead of taking for the basis of his political 
 science the realities of human nature and of society he 
 idealized man, placed him in an imaginary state of original 
 perfection; and from these idealizations he deduced rights 
 which he claimed to be absolutely inherent in every indi- 
 vidual and therefore in the people, — namely liberty, equal- 
 ity, and sovereignty or the perpetual right to revolt. In 
 attempting to give the political fabric a foundation of 
 clouds he brought it crashing down to earth a heap of 
 rums. Voltaire moulded the opinions of very many edu- 
 cated Frenchmen of the middle classes. Even many nobles 
 acclaimed him as the foremost writer of the age, partly be- 
 cause tlieir pride made welcome to them his teachings on 
 the sovereignty of reason, and partly because in their im- 
 patience of the trammels of morality they found it a relief 
 to learn how to argue Christ and Christ's Church out of 
 their belief and conscience. As for Rousseau, he became 
 the intellectual leader, the idol of the middle classes. 
 Strange as it may seem, very many nobles found his theo- 
 I'les highly interesting, nay even admissible from a purely 
 speculative point of view, never dreaming that these theo- 
 ries condensed into a few words would soon be ringing out 
 as a battle-cry against their own pampered order. Yes, in 
 their ambition to be reputed brilliant conversationalists 
 they delighted in showing that they were familiar with 
 every step of the reasoning that led to this new philosoph- 
 ical eminence,— they delighted in strutting about on this 
 etnmence, not realizing that they were balancing themselves 
 the crater of a volcano. In various ways Voltaire's 
 
 31 
 
sophisms and epigrams and caricatures,— and Rousseau's 
 seductive, flattering theories gained currency among the 
 lower classes. Soon came the night when the lower classes 
 went to bed all but slaves; during their sleep they dreamed 
 of Rousseau, and delightful was the dream : they awoke 
 to find their dream true, — to find themselves kings. 
 
 " Behold T send you as sheep in the midst of wolves " 
 said Christ to His disciples. (Matth. x, 16.) We are now 
 prepared to paint a picture of the wolves who were to rend 
 Christ's sheep, our gentle Sisters of Arras, asunder. These 
 wolves were the Jacobins. They received this name from 
 the fact that as a club they met in what the people called 
 the Jacobin Convent of the Dominican friars who were at- 
 tached to the Church of St. James, St. Jacques or St. Ja- 
 cob in Paris. This club was founded in the May of 1789 
 by moderate revolutionists; these were soon forced out 
 by the ascendancy which the extreme revolutionists soon 
 gained. Thenceforth its rapidly increased membership in- 
 cluded the off-scourings of the nation. From the parent 
 club in Paris sprang up affiliated clubs in all the important 
 towns of France. The execrable Marat, Robespierre, and 
 Danton were its ruling spirits. It organized the principal 
 persecutions and massacres that stain so hideously and 
 indelibly the annals of France. The vast majority of 
 Frenchmen would have been satisfied with a moderate con- 
 stitutional government and a system of popular represen- 
 tation and of equal taxation ; would in fact have preferred 
 a monarchy of this character,— an ideal that would not 
 have involved persecution of the Church; but the Jacobins 
 would not have it so. They were determined to tear the tiara 
 from the head of the pope, as well as the crown from the 
 head of the king; to hack to pieces the altar as well as the 
 throne. In pursuance of these aims they made themselves 
 masters of the hellish art of arousing and swaying mobs. 
 They excited the middle and the lower classes to a frenzy 
 
 32 
 
Sister Mideleinc Fjiitain:, Sister Jeanne Gerard 
 Sister T/ierese Fantou, Sister Marie Lanel 
 
of discontent, of envy and resentment, of cupidity and am- 
 bition, by focusing their minds and hearts upon a new 
 order of things, — Rousseau's earthly paradise, — on the far 
 side of the Red Sea of revolution and sacrilege. From the 
 very first grimly resolved to become the ruling body in 
 France they succeeded within three years in handing over 
 the municipal administration of Paris to their carefully 
 chosen creatures who, under the name of the Commune of 
 Paris, almost immediately usurped the supreme authority 
 of the nation. (Aug. 10, 1792.) This supreme authority 
 the Commune ruthlessly exercised over the entire country 
 until the A.pril of 1793 when its activities were restricted 
 to the despotic government of Paris. For after the Jaco- 
 bins, as if to show their defiance of Austria and Prussia, 
 had hurled at them the head of the king, several European 
 nations formed with Austria and Prussia a coalition against 
 France. Thereupon the Jacobins judged it necessary to 
 put the country under the rule of Dictators: accordingly 
 they reestablished at Paris, that Satanic body known as 
 the "Committee of Public Safety,'^ and armed it with 
 arbitrary powers. This Committee found ready to its 
 hand the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris which the Jaco- 
 bins had created a month earlier, and which was invested 
 with the power of life and death. Similar revolutionary 
 tribunals were erected throughout the length and breadth 
 of France. In the September of that year the Jacobins 
 passed the "Law of Suspected Persons," a law aimed at all 
 that did not give convincing proof that they were in full- 
 est sympathy with the aims of the Revolution. The 
 Committee of Public Safety of Paris spread over France a 
 network of revolutionary committees which were to judge 
 what persons were liable to arrest under the aforesaid law, — 
 * network from which there was no escape and in which 
 our Sisters were to be enmeshed. A month later the Jaco- 
 bins or the National Convention, — for the terms have now 
 
 33 
 
become almost identical in meaning, — judging that the 
 party of so-called moderate Republicans or Girondists had 
 outlived its usefulness, shattered its organization by send- 
 ing its leaders to the scaffold. Thenceforth there re- 
 mained no one to dispute the supremacy of Robespierre 
 and Danton, Marat having been killed, stabbed to death 
 by Charlotte Corday a few months earlier. Behold the 
 wolves who, I repeat, were to rend our dear Sisters 
 asunder. 
 
 It may have surprised you that in speaking of the 
 virulent, banded enemies of the Church I have made no 
 mention of Freemasonry. I simply observe in passing 
 that, not to mention all, such revolutionary writers or 
 leaders as Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and Robespierre 
 were prominent masons, and that according to the avowal 
 of Bazot, the then general secretary of the Grand Orient 
 of France, the order indorsed the principles of the Rev- 
 olution. 
 
 I must leave it to you to picture to yourselves the 
 horrors wrought by this league of evil. My limits do not 
 allow me to portray even the principal horrors : such as, 
 the pillage of our own house of St.Lazare; the confiscation 
 of Church properties and Church revenues; the suppression 
 of monastic vows and monastic orders ; the imprisonments 
 and massacres of priests, nuns and nobles; the sanction 
 of divorce; the execution of the virtuous, ill-starred king 
 and queen, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; the decrees 
 favoring priests that would take wives; the official re- 
 jection of Christianity; the profanation and destruction by 
 mobs drunk with wine and with the spirit of sacrilege, 
 of churches and the various sacred things they contained; 
 and the official dedication of the nation to the Goddess of 
 Reason. I have enumerated these horrors because our 
 Sisters with shuddering hearts had to live through them, — 
 and because their realization of them constituted the most 
 
 34 
 
trying, the most agonizing stage of their martyrdom. An- 
 other reason why I have enumerated them, and why I 
 have dwelt upon the conditions and persons responsible for 
 them, is because otherwise you could not form a just 
 appreciation of what the martyrdom of our Sisters meant 
 to the Church. Assuming as undeniable this beautiful 
 thought of Bossuet, " It is an established law that the 
 Church cannot enjoy any advantage which does not cost 
 her the blood of her children," I felt that 1 owed it to 
 our martyred Sisters to enable you to estimate the advan- 
 tages which their blood as well as the blood of others 
 purchased for the Church, — namely the cessation of this 
 hellish persecution and the revival of the faith therein 
 implied, — advantages which came to the Church very soon 
 after our Sisters had paid God's price. 
 
 Up to the moment of their seizure by the iron hand of 
 the revolutionary committee, our Sisters had been living 
 in their House of Charity at Arras a life that mirrored 
 forth the traditional virtues of their high-souled Found- 
 ress to the children of their free school, to the poor whose 
 homes they visited, and the needy patients who came for 
 relief to their dispensary. The indigent and the afflicted 
 they treated with unvarying tenderness of heart and gen- 
 erosity of hand. But a malignant Jacobin eye soon fell 
 on them, — the eye of an ex-priest, of a married ex-Ora- 
 torian, Joseph Lebon, — who came to Arras in the Novem- 
 ber of 1793 as a special agent of the Committee of Public 
 Safety at Paris. The atrocities related of him by historians 
 would make tlie blood freeze in your veins. He seemed 
 mtent on drowning conscience in one long orgy of licen- 
 tiousness and cruelty and murder. It was his delight to 
 witness with his loife at his side the hundreds of execu- 
 tions he brought about. Oh, how he gloated over that 
 diabolical "Law of Suspected Persons!" He was quick to 
 learn that our Sisters had refused to take the oath of Lib- 
 
 35 
 
eriy and Equality. This oath differed from the oath of alle- 
 giance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The latter 
 oath, which in the December of 1790 was enjoined on all 
 ecclesiastics having charge of souls or engaged in teaching, 
 had been condemned by Pius VI as schismatical, as op- 
 posed to the Divine Constitution of the Church. To the 
 everlasting honor of the French priesthood and especially 
 of the higher clergy be it said that all but three bishops 
 and that the overwhelming majority of priests preferred to 
 brave all penalties, even death itself, rather than subscribe 
 to this Constitution. For it set at naught the inalienable 
 rights of the pope, — it put the election of bishops com- 
 pletely in the hands of laymen; and it made a mockery of 
 rights inherent in the episcopacy. In the August of 1792 
 the Legislative Assembly had redrafted the formula of the 
 oath. The new oath, making no mention of the Civil 
 Constitution of the Clergy, was worded: "I swear to be 
 loyal to the Nation, to maintain liberty and equality, and 
 to die in their defence." The pope did not decide the 
 controversy which arose among theologians concerning 
 the lawfulness of taking this oath. Many theologians 
 claimed that it could not be taken in conscience on the 
 ground that by liberty and equality were to be under- 
 stood revolutionary liberty and equality, which were de- 
 structive of legitimate government and of the Catholic 
 religion. Among these were the bishop and clergy of 
 Arras : following their judgment and counsel our Sisters 
 were convinced either that they could not in conscience take 
 this oath, or at least that they would be far safer in con- 
 science by not taking it. In the middle of the February 
 of 1794 Lebon caused them to be arrested as suspects. In 
 the five months' interval between that date and the date of 
 their execution they were cousigned to three different pris- 
 ons. All through their incarceration they acted as com- 
 forting angels to the many ladies confined as suspects 
 
 36 
 
like themselves. Forgetful of the privations and rigors of' 
 their own prison life, they devoted themselves to soothing 
 the sorrows of these broken-spirited victims of the revolu- 
 tion, torn from home and home's dear ones; they devoted 
 themselves to dissipating by their own spiritual sunniness 
 of mind the deep shadow cast over these forlorn souls by 
 the frowning scaffold. On June twenty-fifth Lebon, rab- 
 idly hungry for his prey, summoned them before the revo- 
 lutionary tribunal of Cambrai. They realized that they 
 were doomed ; for they knew that the guillotine was daily 
 mowing down its harvest of God's priests and religious. 
 They knew with sufficient definiteuess that of the more 
 than 18000 who had died by the guillotine alone, more 
 than 1100 were priests and more than 350 were nuns. 
 They knew that only six weeks earlier one of their own 
 sisters, Margaret Rutan, had been guillotined at Dax for 
 spurning the oath. Setting out in the dead of night they 
 arrived at Cambrai early the following morning. Almost 
 immediately they found themselves in the presence of their 
 judges. Two charges against them were read : one that 
 they had concealed anti-revolutionary literature in their 
 former home, — the other that they had stubbornly refused 
 to take the oath of liberty and equality. There was not a 
 feather's weight of trustworthy evidence to support the 
 first charge. Urged to take the oath they replied with 
 resolute, unflinching will: *'Our conscience forbids it." 
 Swift was their condemnation to death. When the mo- 
 ment came to bind their hands the Sisters continued to 
 hold their chaplets in a firm grasp. Breaking their grasp 
 the clerk of the court in derision entwined her chaplet 
 around the head of each Sister. The soul of each thrilled 
 with joy at this unexpected action. Of deeper significance 
 to her was this crown tlian would have been a garland of 
 roses or a circlet of rubies. In tiie pressure of that crown 
 each felt the caressing, inspiriting touch of Mary's hand 
 
 37 
 
upon her head. On their way to execution they poured 
 forth their souls in the Rosary, the Litany of the Blessed 
 Virgin and the Ave Maris Stella, — a fitting prelude, all, 
 of the everlasting praises of Jesus and of Mary which they 
 would soon be hymning in Heaven. With unclouded se- 
 renity of countenance, with hearts aflame with love of 
 God and men they unfalteringly mounted the scaffold. 
 Four distinct times the blade fell and each time it fell the 
 spirit of a Sister flashed upward through the realms of 
 space to find all Heaven intent on what was taking place 
 on earth, and to behold descending from Christ's uplifted 
 Hand the blessing of fruitfulness on the crimson tide from 
 the heart she had left below. 
 
 . Dear Sisters, you do not doubt the merits, the fruitful- 
 ness of that blood. You do not doubt tiie priceless advan- 
 tages it purchased fur the Church of France. You do not 
 doubt that every drop of her blood has become a glistening 
 jewel in the heavenly robe of each Sister, — a jewel whose 
 flashing rays mingle with and enhance the glory of her 
 beatified Mother. You do not doubt that to the merits of 
 tiiat blood you owe in no small measure those extraordi- 
 nary gifts of Heaven, the Miraculous Medal and the Red 
 Scapular of the Passion; and to its fruitfulness, the flour- 
 ishing state of your Community throughout the world 
 today. Therefore with firmest confidence in their interces- 
 sory power, and strong in the conviction that imitation is 
 the highest honor you can pay them, — pray your beatified 
 Sisters that their heroic spirit may be imparted to you, to 
 sustain you in the martyrdom of fidelity to Rule, as it sus- 
 tained them in their martyrdom of blood. 
 
 38 
 
Louise de Marillac 
 
 Beatified May 9, 1920 
 
 Blessed ! Forever the honor acclaimed thee 
 
 By God's favored children, the Poor. 
 Blessed ! Thy Daughters through centuries named thee 
 
 In thy works as they ever endure. 
 Blessed ! Thy Father, Saint Vincent, rejoices ; 
 
 Blessed I Re-echoes from Rome ; 
 Blessed ! Thy Crucified Master now voices 
 
 In the aisles of thy Heavenly home ! 
 
 Blessed ! The choirs of glory ascending, 
 
 Blessed ! The Seraphim sing. 
 Beatified Mother, thy praises unending 
 
 Through ages triumphantly ring. 
 Blessed I The angels enraptured around thee 
 
 Salute thee with welcoming love; 
 Blessed ! The Spirit Eternal hath found thee 
 
 In the Courts of His Palace above. 
 
 Blessed ! Today in our hearts we revere thee 
 
 And offer our tribute of prayer ; 
 With humility's violet fragrance draw near thee 
 
 To ask for a mother's fond care. 
 Blessed Louise, in our hymns we address thee 
 
 At the foot of the Great White Throne, 
 Intercede that thy children who lovingly bless thee 
 
 May be ranked with the hosts of His Own I 
 
 40 
 
Blessed Louise de Marillac 
 
 BLESSED Louise de Marillac, born in Paris, August 
 12, 1591, was the daughter of Marguerite Le Camus 
 and Louis de Marillac, Lord of Ferri^res. In an effort 
 to make up for the death of the mother, her father gave his 
 daughter every educational advantage in Latin, philosophy, 
 and art. 
 
 At an early age she desired to become a Capuchin, but 
 her ill health forbade. Later she married Antoine Le Gras, 
 Secretary to Queen Mary de Mcdicis. Her life both as 
 wife and mother was replete with virtues. In 1625, her 
 husband was taken from her, and from this time on she 
 devoted herself wholly to prayer and good works. Mon- 
 seigueur Camus, her spiritual adviser, who was called away 
 from Paris, had frequently approved of Saint Vincent de 
 Paul as his successor. To this holy man she was an angel 
 of mercy. Under his direction she administered to the 
 spiritual and bodily needs of the aJBflicted, visited confra- 
 ternities, and established schools. 
 
 After a time she became superioress of the Chariie at 
 Saint Nicolas-du-Chardonnet. This was the beginning of 
 the great order of the Daughters of Charity. Many of the 
 ladies being unable personally to care for the sick, several 
 girls who had expressed the desire to aid in this good work 
 were brought from the country and were received into 
 Mademoiselle's own home. The plan met with such great 
 success that in 1655, the Daughters of Charity were estab- 
 lished as a community, the rules of which had been formu- 
 lated by Saint Vincent and his able assistant. In 1668, 
 the Holy See approved the Institute. Although Blessed 
 Louise did not live to witness this great event, having 
 passed|to her eternal reward on the Monday of Passion 
 week, March 15, 1660, nevertheless she had been spared 
 long enough to inculcate in her daughters those virtues for 
 which Holy Church has raised her to her altars. 
 
 41 
 
The Martyr^ of ArUas 
 
 Beatified June IS, 1920 
 
 Four Daughters of Charity, humble and meek, 
 The martyr's bright crown in obedience seek ; 
 
 The Sisters of Arras, — O glory above ! 
 
 Pledge their rapt souls to the summons of love. 
 
 Red roses of love in the garden of God, 
 
 Bloom the souls of the Histers who dauntless have trod 
 The way of self-sacrifice, lonely and chill, 
 That follows the Master to Calvary's Hill. 
 
 Oh, Martyrs Beatified, hearken today, 
 
 As we honor you, Blessed, and fervently pray ; 
 
 Teach our hearts to submit, yea, — to offer our will 
 And follow the Master to Calvary's Hill ! 
 
 The charity of Jesus Christ presses us ! 
 
*' Bear a lily in thy hand : 
 Gates of brass cannot ivitJistand. 
 Bear through sorroiv, zvrong, and t 
 On thy lips the smile of truth." 
 
The Martyrs of Arras 
 
 THE Daughters of Charity opened a house at Arras in 
 1636. Here they hibored untiringly, visiting and help- 
 ing the poor, earing for the sick, and educating the 
 young. During the first part of the French Revolution they 
 continued unmolested to carry on their charitable works, 
 though other religious orders were persecuted. Wlien, how- 
 ever, the decree was passed requiring the sisters to take an 
 oath to support the Constitution, which could only be done 
 in violation of conscience, the sisters, under the advice of 
 the Bishop of Arras, calmly refused. Notliing was done 
 for eighteen months, whereupon Joseph Lebon, an apostate, 
 began to persecute them. They were arrested and impris- 
 oned in the house of detention at Providence. Later they 
 were transferred to Cambrai, where a mock trial took place, 
 for the fate of the sisters was already decided. They were 
 sentenced to death and guillotined June 26, 1794. Those 
 who had been imprisoned with them despairingly bade 
 them farewell. Madame Cartier with her five children had 
 suffered with the noble sisters, who had ever aided, 
 strengthened, and encouraged her and the other prisoners. 
 This good woman was inconsolable at the sisters' depar- 
 ture to execution. Moved by the lady's sorrow Sister 
 Fontaine, the Sister Servant, took from her pocket a chap- 
 let and gave it to Madame Cartier, saying : " Calm yourself, 
 my good Madame, calm yourself; we shall be the last 
 victims." This chaplet is the only relic we have of the 
 four Martyrs: Sisters Madeleine Fontaine, Jeanne Gerard, 
 Marie Lanel, and Th^rese Fautou, for their bodies were 
 thrown with the other victims into the common trenches. 
 The prophecy of Sister Fontaine was fulfilled to the letter 
 and the Terror ceased. Tiie process of the Beatification of 
 the Sisters of Arras, begun in 1900, was completed on June 
 13, 1920. 
 
 43 
 
Perfume of Violets 
 
 LIKE a patch of fragrant violets in a sequestered nook, 
 shedding their perfume on the highways and byways of 
 life, are the works of Blessed Louise de Marillac. Dur- 
 ing her life and for centuries after her death she was 
 known only through her works, works which shed a bless- 
 ing on the lives of those who needed loving kindness and 
 care. 
 
 Gobi lion notes that the odor of violets was often percep- 
 tible at the tomb of Blessed Louise, a beautiful acknowledg- 
 ment by the Almighty of the hidden works of His servant. 
 Lady Lovat, her biographer, testifies what is still more 
 surprising, that the Sisters of Charity who pray at her 
 tomb have returned so permeated with this perfume that 
 they have carried it to the sick sisters in the infirmary. 
 
 A seminarian from Mount Saint Mary's, Emmitsburg, 
 who attended the beatification ceremonies at the Vatican 
 and later at Saint Apollinaris, Rome, was also at Saint 
 Joseph's during the Triduum. He related that this re- 
 markable manifestation of mysterious fragrance was a note- 
 worthy feature of the solemn celebration at Rome. 
 
 He who loves the Poor during life need not 
 
 fear the approach of death. 
 
 St, Vincent de Paul. 
 
 44 
 
A Remarkable Incident 
 
 "ly ^ORE things are wrought by prayer than this world 
 IVl dreams of." The daily recitation of the rosary 
 has ever been found an efficacious preventive of 
 evil. Example of this is found in an incident in the life of 
 Blessed Louise de Marillac. 
 
 One day when Louise in girlhood was returning with 
 her family from Auvergne to Paris they met a beggar boy, 
 to whom she gave an alms. When they reached home 
 Louise retired to her room and despite the fatigue of her 
 journey began to say the rosary according to her custom. 
 How unlike the modern girl, who would have mumbled a 
 few prayers in bed, pleading that " the Lord would under- 
 stand." While kneeling Louise became aware of a figure 
 hidden under the bed. Trembling she began to pray aloud, 
 " Bad man, come out so that I may do you good according 
 to the commandment of Our Lord Jesus Christ who for us 
 sinners died upon a cross. You wish to do me evil; I wish 
 to do you good, to save your soul. You have nothing to 
 fear from a weak child, come out!" 
 
 How great was her astonishment when she saw the 
 little beggar who had just been befriended. He was in the 
 service of a band of robbers whom he was wont to obey 
 and he secretly followed her home to help them rob the 
 house. By a medallion portrait around his neck he was 
 recognized as the brother of the royal secretary, Antoine 
 Le Gras. Lost as a child the boy had fallen into the hands 
 of these bandits. It was this same Antoine Le Gras that 
 Louise later married. "To whom do we owe this hap- 
 piness," she said, "and the preservation of our lives? Only 
 to my rosary which I wanted to say before going to bed." 
 
 45 
 
Maxims of Blessed Louise 
 
 From the French 
 
 If I had a hundred lives to live I would cousecrate 
 them all to the poor. 
 
 As difficulties increase the soul actuated by pure love 
 relies on heaven for aid. 
 
 Strive in all the varied circumstances of life to acquire 
 equanimity of spirit. 
 
 God demands great humility from His servants; crea- 
 tures ougiit not to glory in any action. 
 
 Live with such purity of intention and actioir that though 
 hidden from the eyes of the world you are known to God 
 alone. 
 
 Among the infinity of reasons which carry us to God, the 
 consideration of His paternal love is the most powerful. 
 
 Free will is the occasion of greatest merit if we refrain 
 from offending God. 
 
 If our only purpose in life is to render ourselves pleasing 
 to God we know that our Saviour will always have great 
 care for us. 
 
 The spirit of God in the soul overcomes the weakness 
 which inspires the thought : "What will people say?" 
 
 Nothing renders us more like to Jesus Christ than per- 
 secution suffered in silence. 
 
 God takes special care of the relatives of those who serve 
 Him faithfully. 
 
 46 
 
The Three Miracles Approved by 
 The Congregation of Rites 
 
 From the French 
 
 THE first was the cure of a young Bretou who from an 
 incurable malady developed a violent case of meningi- 
 tis. The tympanic membrane was perforated; he was 
 deaf, and tormented by fever and insomnia. Given up by 
 three physicians he earnestly prayed to Louise de Marillac, 
 and was perfectly and instantaneously cured. 
 
 The second was accomplished in behalf of a young Sister 
 of Charity in Madrid. Two vertebrae were dislocated as 
 a result of a fall. Excruciating pain was followed by 
 violent headaches, vomiting of blood, and various other 
 disorders. After all human aid had been tried and de- 
 clared futile a novena was made by the sisters to their 
 powerful Foundress. On the last day the pain became 
 more violent than ever, when suddenly it entirely disap- 
 peared. 
 
 Five years later the third miracle took place at Pouilles 
 in behalf of a young Italian girl who suffered exceedingly 
 from an abscess in a vital region. It developed into a run- 
 ning sore, and after physicians had declared her case incur- 
 able the poor girl was about to receive the last sacraments 
 for the third time when one night during sleep she seemed 
 to see a sister removing the gauze dressing which had sunk 
 into the wound. This done the sister exclaimed: "You 
 are cured!" "Who are you?" asked the girl. "lam the 
 Venerable Mother whom you have invoked," answered 
 the mysterious nurse. When the girl awoke she no longer 
 suffered ; the wound was healed ; the bandage and gauze 
 still impregnated with pus were lying at the foot of the 
 bed. Of this terrible malady which had so often brought 
 the sufferer to the doors of death there remained only the 
 blessed memory. 
 
 47 
 
Blessed Louise de Makillac 
 
 THERE is a vast distinction between philanthropy and 
 charity. Philanthropy is its own reward, but charity is 
 rewarded by God. The former is done for the sake of 
 humanity, while charity is done without any thought of 
 personal gain, for the simple motive of the love of God 
 and of neighbor. 
 
 It was because of her charity that Louise de Marillac 
 was beatified. Her whole life was a perfect exemplification 
 of this virtue. She spent her days laboring to help the 
 poor and sick, those souls so loved of God. Rightly then 
 has the Clmrch placed her among the Blessed, for it is in- 
 deed a mark of divine predilection to have an affection for 
 the poor and needy. 
 
 " Bear ye one another's burdens " was not the spirit of 
 her age any more than it is of modern times. In fact, 
 conditions then were even' worse. It was to remedy these 
 conditions that she labored. With Saint Vincent de Paul, 
 Blessed Louise was co-founder of the Daughters of Charity. 
 What a heritage she has left to suffering humanity ! From 
 pole to pole, under every sky, the " Coruette Sisters " are 
 found teaching the young, nursing the sick and helping the 
 poor. 
 
 Clad in the garments of heavenly service she is the Pa- 
 troness of Charity, the foundress and perpetuator of true 
 social beneficence. Let us beg her then that charity may 
 increase and selfishness and littleness wane in the contem- 
 plation of such virtue, 
 
 48 
 
Her IEducatioi? 
 
 ONTEMPLATING the gigantic work accomplished 
 
 by the Daughters of Charity since their foundation, 
 
 curiosity is aroused concerning the education of their 
 Blessed Foundress. What understanding and sympathy 
 were necessary to formulate the rule; what prudence and 
 judgment to adapt it to all circumstances! 
 
 The great women of those days put our boasting to shame. 
 With few exceptions the noble ladies had what we are 
 pleased to call a liberal education, and Louise de Marillac 
 was no exception. She was well versed in Latin, philoso- 
 phy and the arts. Latin she used in studying and translat- 
 ing the documents of the Church. It was her philosophy 
 aided by faith that gave her a broad outlook on life; it 
 was philosophy supplemented by love of God that after 
 drawing souls to Him helped her withstand trials and sur- 
 mount obstacles. What is philosophy after all but man's 
 rule of life? She taught her spiritual daughters not only 
 how to live but also how to die. Death to her was nothing 
 to be feared. She taught the sisters that if they loved and 
 served the poor during life they need never fear death. 
 And no one, no matter how cynical he be, would suspect 
 that those "white-winged angels of charity" as they pass 
 through life doing good have anything to fear from death. 
 
 Thus the maxims and principles of the Foundress of 
 the Daughters of Charity echo down the centuries, and 
 real wisdom and sympathy are repeated wherever you 
 meet the coruette. 
 
 49 
 
Saint Vincent — Blessed Louise 
 
 THE prayers and meditations of Blessed Louise de Ma- 
 rillac were not tliose of a recluse but of an ordinary 
 Christian. 8he did not flee from the world to find peace 
 in a convent cell, but spent her life among the people. She 
 was in the world but not of it. She brought peace and 
 consolation to weary, lonely, and afflicted souls. For many 
 years she labored earnestly for the relief of mankind, yet 
 the world knew her not, though it recognized the glorious 
 deeds of her co-laborer, Saint Vincent de Paul. 
 
 In 1737 Saint Vincent was placed upon the altars of the 
 Catholic Church. Little was thought of the one who had 
 been his companion, helper, and humble daughter. She had 
 labored with him and he had blessed her works and ap- 
 proved her plans— those plans which were the foundation 
 of the Community of the Daughters of Charity, which still 
 continues to bring peace and joy to those who were her 
 fond care. Thus she who instructed the first Sisters of 
 Charity, proved herself the womanly incarnation of this 
 essentially Christian virtue. Though obscured by the 
 greatness of her saintly father, yet in her humility she 
 was pleased. 
 
 Thus almost two centuries have passed, and now Louise 
 de Marillac is proclaimed Blessed ; her works are brought 
 to light; now she is honored as is befitting a benefactress 
 of the human race. Such honor does not detract from 
 that of her father ; ratiier it reminds the world again of 
 his great deeds. The world forgets; but these noble souls 
 it must remember, for the influence of their work never 
 dies; it shall never die, for "as a shining light it goeth 
 about and increaseth even unto the perfect day." 
 
 50 
 
The Daughters of Blessed Louisfi 
 
 FROM the earliest ages of Christianity hosts have obeyed 
 the command of the Savior, " Go, sell all thou hast 
 and give to the poor." In the seventeenth century 
 this call was answered in the establishment of a com- 
 munity, with charity as its motto. 
 
 Imbibing the spirit of the founders, Saint Vincent de 
 Paul and Blessed Louise de Marillac, the order has flour- 
 ished until today its members are found in every land, 
 giving aid to the needy. In accordance with the wish of 
 Saint Vincent they have, " For monastery, the abode of 
 
 the sick; for cell, a hired room; for inclos- 
 
 ure, obedience; for grating, the fear of God; for veil, holy 
 modesty." Their simplicity of character, combined with 
 common sense, is recognized throughout the world, and 
 wins the respect of even the bitterest enemies of the 
 Church. A century ago, Florence Nightingale, the fa- 
 mous nurse of the Crimean War, endeavoring to establisli 
 a band of nurses, adopted the rules of this order. Her 
 attempt ended in failure, due to the lack of spiritual incen- 
 tives, especially the Holy Eucharist, tl.e essential source 
 of charity. 
 
 Tlie daughters of Blessed liouise are unsurpassed in 
 charity. Today with the same zeal they respond with as 
 much alacrity to the appeals of the poor as when person- 
 ally directed by their saintly foundress. The spirit of 
 charity which she possessed has been carefully preserved 
 by her daughters, wiio regard her maxim as the spring 
 and secret of their self-sacrifice: "As difficulties increase, 
 the soul actuated by pure love turns to heaven for aid." 
 
 51 
 
^'1 AM iCoTHING'' 
 
 «¥ AM nothing, my father, Saint Vincent, is everything! " 
 
 £ This sentence was ever on the lips of the Beatified. 
 It is the key-note to all the work she performed, 
 the motive power of her sanctity, the very secret of her re- 
 cent beatification, — her marvellous humility. Accordingly 
 the vast spiritual heritage she has left to the universe, 
 is self-abnegation, an utter disregard of human praise; "I 
 am nothing, ray Father is everything." It is because of 
 this attitude that she was for so long a period unknown and 
 unacknowledged save in the reflected glory of lier spiritual 
 father. But the decree which came forth from Rome has 
 presented Blessed Louise in her true light and virtue, 
 to be honored and imitated. 
 
 She began a great work, the work which Christ Himself 
 came upon earth to further, the care of His little ones. 
 She made the first conscription, nay, — she herself was tlie 
 first volunteer in that array which has since been called 
 "the wliite-winged angels of France," and, we may add, of 
 Araerica and of the whole wide world. 
 
 So we have another pattern, model, patron. We all 
 should imitate the example of obedience and meekness and 
 sacrifice. We can think good thoughts, do good works, 
 and we may still realize that we are as grains of dust. 
 We too may learn to say, " I am nothing, my Father is 
 everything." 
 
 The tveak things of the world hath God chosen 
 that he may confound the strong. 
 
 I Cor. I, 27. 
 
 52 
 
53 
 
A Tribute to Blessed Louise 
 
 TODAY iu grateful thanks do your daughters raise 
 their hearts to God, in joyous chant do they honor 
 their mother who has been declared Blessed. Today, O 
 Blessed Louise, do thousands who have been trained in the 
 Christian virtues by your faithful daughters beg and pray 
 you to obtain for them the great virtues of humility, sim- 
 plicity and charity. 
 
 Your beatification was a fitting tribute to a woman who 
 was exemplary as a wife, mother and religious. Your great 
 love for the poor coupled with your deep humility and 
 profound knowledge has made you a model not only for 
 the Daughters of Charity but for all who would reach 
 their eternal destiny. Maxims such as, "I would pre- 
 fer to die rather than disobey;" "To remain in Jesus 
 Christ; to labor unostentatiously in the service of the poor 
 is to accomplish with great surety the designs of divine 
 Providence," — these and many other gems of thought 
 have been the source of much encouragement to those 
 who look beyond the earth for their reward. 
 
 What a joy it must be for you today when you behold 
 your jubilant "Little Company" in every country of the 
 world; what a gratification to know that the poor are the 
 special care of thousands of your daughters, who like their 
 mother, see in the least of the little ones the Master 
 Himself! 
 
 That posterity might honor our great women the State 
 has put them in the Hall of Fame; but that man might re- 
 alize his debt to you, "O Mother of the Daughters of 
 Charity," the Church has culled you " Blessed." 
 
 54 
 
Enter at OTue the narrow path ; 
 
 No " Open, Sesame / " it hath : 
 
 Long heats and burdens mmt you bear — 
 
 Wet are the brozvs that laurels wear I — Leo xiir. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Author 
 
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