It has been thought better to leave the superscription heading all the Saint's letters, "Vive Jésus" (Let Jesus reign), as in the original, and untranslated.
The title of "Sister Deposed" given to the immediate predecessor in office of the actual Superior is peculiar to the Visitation Order.
There are, as will be seen, a few slight omissions, but only when the matter was of no interest or importance.
The Saint, as the reader will observe, does not keep to any fixed rule in regard to capital letters.
JUDGMENT OF ST. FRANCIS ON THE VIRTUES OF MOTHER DE CHANTAL 1
IV. THE DUKE OF SAVOY TO ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL 6
VII. TO THE SISTERS OF THE MONASTERY OF ANNECY 11
XV. TO SISTERS P. M. DE CHÂTEL AND M. A. DE BLONAY 33
XXXVI. TO THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION AT BOURGES 80
XXXVII. TO THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION AT MOULINS 81
LVIII. TO THE REV. FATHER DOM JOHN DE SAINT FRANÇOIS 129
LIX. TO A RELIGIOUS OF THE FIRST MONASTERY OF THE VISITATION AT PARIS 139
LXV. TO THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION 152
LXVI. TO SISTER A. M. DE LAGE DE PUYLAURENS 164
LXXVI. TO SISTER F. A. DE LA CROIX DE FÉSIGNEY 179
LXXVIII. TO THE COUNTESS DE TOULONJON 183
LXXXI. TO MOTHER C. C. DE CRÉMAUX DE LA GRANGE 187
LXXXVIII. TO SISTER M. A. DE MORVILLE 198
CII. TO SISTER A. L. DE MARIN DE SAINT MICHEL 231
JUDGMENT OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES ON THE VIRTUES OF MOTHER DE CHANTAL
"My brother de Thorens," said St. Francis to one of his friends, "travelled last month into Burgundy to fetch his little wife, and brought back with her a mother-in-law whom neither he is worthy of having nor I of serving. God has given her to me. She has come to be my daughter in order that I may teach her to die to the world and to live to Jesus Christ. Urged by God's design over her she has left all, and has provided for all with a strength and prudence not common to her sex, such that in her every action the good will find wherewith to praise her and the wicked will not know in what to blame her."
In a letter the holy Bishop expresses himself as follows: "The Queen Bee of our new hive, because she is so eager in the pursuit of virtue, is much tormented with sickness, yet she finds no remedy to her liking save in the observance of her Rule. I have never seen such singleness of intention, such submission to authority, such detachment from all things, such acceptance of the will of God, such fervour in prayer as this good Mother shows. For my part I believe that God will make her like unto St. Paula, St. Angela, St. Catherine of Genoa, and the other holy widows." Writing elsewhere to one of his relations he says: "I feel unutterable consolation in seeing the moderation of our dear Mother in regard to all the obstacles that come in her way and her total indifference to the things of earth. In all truth I may say that, proportionately to the graces received, a soul could not arrive at higher perfection. I regard her as an honour to her sex, one who with the science of the Saints leads a most holy, hidden life concealed by an ordinary exterior, who does nothing out of the common and yet is irreproachable in all things."