SELECTED LETTERS OF
ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL
| Nihil Obstat. F. THOMAS BERGH, O.S.B.,ers Censor Deputatus. |
| Imprimatur. EDM. CAN. SURMONT, Vicarius Generalis. |
| Westmonasterii, Die 6 Novembris, 1917. |
ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL.(Foundress of the Order of the Visitation.)
SELECTED LETTERS OF
SAINT JANE FRANCES
DE CHANTAL
TRANSLATED BY
THE SISTERS OF THE VISITATION
HARROW
WITH A PREFACE BY
HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL BOURNE
ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER
R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD.
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW
| All rights reserved | 1918 |
PREFACE
We are all apt so to idealise the Saints whom welove to study and honour, and strive to imitate, thatwe are in danger of forgetting that they possesseda human nature like our own, subject to many trials,weaknesses and frailties. They had to struggle aswe have to struggle. The only difference is thattheir constancy and perseverance were greater farthan ours.
Biographers are often responsible for the falsetendency to which we allude. They like to give usthe finished portrait of the Saints, and only too oftenthey omit in great part the details of the long andweary toil that went to make the picture which theydelight to paint.
In the case of some of the Saints we are able tocome nearer to the reality by reading the letterswhich have been preserved, in which in their ownhandwriting they have set down, without thoughtof those who in later days might read their words,the details of their daily life and struggle. Thus inthe few selected Letters of the holy foundress of theVisitation which are now being published in anEnglish translation we get glimpses of her realcharacter and spiritual growth which may be morehelpful to us than many pages of formal biography.In one place she excuses the brevity of a letterbecause she is "feeling the cold to-day and pressedfor time." In another she tells a Sister, "do everythingto get well, for it is only your nerves." Nervesare evidently not a new malady nor a lately devisedexcuse. She knew the weariness of delay: "still nonews from Rome.... I think His Grace the Archbishopwould be glad to help us.... Beg him, Ibeseech you, to push on the matter."
Haste and weather had their effect on her as onus: "I write in such haste that I forget half of w