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‘ 1 - ! ^ 
 

 
OF THE 
 
 BLESSED PETEE FODEIEE, 
 
 EEFORMER OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER, 
 
 FOUNDER, 
 
 IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY, 
 
 OF ONE OF 
 
 /irst CDDgtPgutinD's nf 
 
 DEVOTED TO THE 
 
 GRATUITOUS EDUCATION OF GIRLS. vV 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 
 
 1£)y&)artr 'tst ISa^elatu 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHARLES DOLMAN, 61, NEW B 
 
 And 48a, Pater Noster Ra 
 
 
 MDCCCL. 
 
Printed by T. Booker, at the Metropolitan Catholic Printing Office, 
 9, Rupert-street, Leicester-square, London. 
 
TO THE 
 
 MEMORY OF ONE DEAR SISTER, 
 
 **A FAITHFUL COMPANION OF JESUS 
 WHILE 01^ EARTH, 
 
 AND NOW, 
 
 WE TRUST, BY GOD’s MERCY, IN HEAVEN ; 
 
 (R. I. P.) 
 
 AND 
 
 TO TWO YOUNGER SISTERS, 
 
 (one, following her path IN THE 
 SAME PIOUS ORDER,) 
 
 ENGAGED IN 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF YOUTH, 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
(0nDttDt0 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 Preface vii 
 
 I. Fourier’s youth. He joins the Canons 
 
 Regular of St. Augustine ... 1 
 
 II. He becomes Rector of Mattaincourt . . 8 
 
 HI. He institutes the Congregation of our Lady 19 
 
 IV. The Order is approved. Examination of its 
 
 Constitutions 45 
 
 V. Fourier reforms the Canons Regular of St. 
 
 Augustine 64 
 
 VI. His Missions in the Vosges, and against 
 
 Protestantism 77 
 
 VII. Disasters of Lorraine. Charity and trials of 
 
 Fourier 85 
 
 VIII. His exile and death 100 
 
 IX. His letters, works, and personal appearance. 
 Revival of the popular devotion at his 
 Shrine 107 
 

 At a time when the education of the poor, forms so 
 prominent a feature, in the merciful designs of Divine 
 Providence, as manifested in His Holy Church, the 
 life of a saintly priest, almost forgotten in his own 
 ^country, and, I may say, unheard of in this, who 
 breaking through the restrictions anciently placed on 
 religious orders of women, founded, in the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, one of the first congre- 
 -nations devoted to the gratuitous education of poor 
 ;male day scholars ; — the life of such a benefactor to 
 le cause of education would seem to possess great 
 , traction. To some few, perhaps, of my fair readers 
 le name'of the Blessed Peter Fourier,* may excite 
 
 * Many of my readers will only have heard the name of 
 .Courier in connexion with the socialist scheme of Charles 
 Courier. The advocates of that system boast of their 
 (ounder’s relationship with the saintly Peter Fourier ; and 
 is a branch of his family settled in Faanche-Comte, where 
 ^ IJharles was born, there may be some ground for the truth 
 )f this claim. If so, relationship is the only link which 
 ^ ionnects them. 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 delightful souvenirs of their happy youth, spent under 
 the direction of his spiritual children, in the Maison 
 des Oiseaux* in Paris. In that house of education, 
 second to none in the French capital, may be daily 
 seen the admirable working of the Congregation of 
 religious founded by this holy priest. One hundred 
 and fourteen nuns, bestow the most elevated and 
 enlightened education, upon two hundred daughters 
 of the noblest families in France, and, at the same 
 time and under the same roof, hundreds of the female 
 children of the people receive daily instruction in the 
 solid and useful branches of education. The pri- 
 vileged stranger who has been admitted into the 
 interior of this convent, can alone form an idea of 
 the excellent training and admirable charity of the 
 ladies of the Congregation de NStre Dame, and well 
 can, and do, our countrymen estranged from their 
 faith, appreciate their eminent qualities as instruc- 
 tresses of youth.f “They accomplish one of the 
 highest, and most important missions, of the religious 
 
 * House of Birds, so called from its having been the 
 residence of a singular ornithologist, who filled its courts 
 and gardens with a choice collection of the feathered tribe. 
 
 t I was informed by the chaplain on my visit to the 
 convent, in 1847, that there were then in the house two 
 daughters of a dignitary of the English Protestant establish- 
 ment, who had given permission for them to be instructed 
 in the Catholic faith. For some most interesting lives of 
 pupils of this convent I refer my readers to the “Children 
 of Mary,’’ published by Burns and Lambert. 
 
PEE FACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 orders. Pious women, cloistered in this holy retreat, 
 consecrate themselves, under their Saviour’s eye, to 
 the humble and laborious task of education. In 
 order to fulfil worthily this sacred duty, which they 
 have freely chosen for their part of the Christian 
 life, they have renounced their liberty, their families, 
 the world, and themselves, and freed from those 
 fetters, which human sentiments cause us to bind 
 more strongly round us, happy in the sacrifice which 
 leaves them no other object, hope, or glory in this 
 life than the service of God, they offer families that 
 grand boon of Christian education which the Catholic 
 religion alone can do, attended with such noble 
 devotedness and such powerful guarantees.”* 
 
 It is not, however, as the founder of a congregation 
 of women, who, to the education of boarders of high 
 rank, join the daily instruction and formation of 
 the future women of the people ; it is not as the 
 founder of an order alone that the life of the Blessed 
 Peter Fourier derives its interest. He was also a 
 reformer, in the true and Catholic sense of the word. 
 Chosen by God and His Church to cleanse the 
 monasteries of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine 
 of those defilements, which the laxity of the age had 
 carried even into the sanctuary, by the admirable 
 manner in which he effected this reform, and the 
 excellent constitutions he composed for the use of 
 
 *■ Fragment sur I’eglise des Oiseaux. 
 
X 
 
 PBEFACE. 
 
 the reformed brethren, he merits to be considered 
 the refounder of this venerable order of the Church. 
 
 But in no character does the holy man shine so 
 pre-eminently as in the humble and laborious station 
 of a parish priest. It is when engaged in the 
 midst of his pastoral charge, that we find some of 
 the most precious traits of the saintly life of ^^the 
 good Father of Mattain court.” Varied to an extra- 
 ordinary extent in our eyes, were the duties involv^ed 
 in the position of rector of a town in the time he 
 lived. Wherever these duties called him, he showed 
 a versatility of genius and Christian philanthropy 
 truly remarkable. In the church he was the good 
 shepherd of souls ; in the hall of justice, the advocate 
 of the poor and the oppressed ; in the market-place, 
 the free dispenser of earthly food to the hungry and 
 the waj^farer ; in the school, the father and preceptor 
 of the young ; in the mansions of the rich he was the 
 representative and treasurer of the poor ; in the lowly 
 dwellings of the poor he was hailed as priest, phy- 
 sician, and even nurse ; and, in filne, his own house 
 was the refuge of the outcast and the wanderer, the 
 council chamber of those in doubt and affliction, the 
 dispensary of the sick, the surgery of the wounded, 
 the granary of the needy, and the home of the poor. 
 
 Pope Alexander VII., when Cardinal Chigi, being 
 at Munster, engaged in the affairs of Germany, '^found 
 there some religious of the Congregation of our Lady, 
 who had come from the convent of St. Nicholas, in 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 Lorraine. He frequently honoured them with his 
 presence, and one day heggtd^ojf them to lend him 
 some spiritual; hook French,^ which to relax 
 his mind from thb^erious ani ^rplexing affairs in 
 which he was o^qupied. TheV fent him the life of 
 their dear founder j^F^heV Fpurier)^ which he caused 
 his chaplain to read to him daily at table. When it 
 was finished, he sent five ducats to the religious, 
 requesting to be allowed to take the book with him 
 to Rome, as he had remarked in it records of virtu- 
 ous actions which he had not met with in the life of 
 any of the saints.” 
 
 With this eminent testimony to the merits of the 
 life of the Blessed Peter Fourier, the Translator 
 introduces it to his readers, hoping that they will 
 derive such spiritual pleasure and edification from its 
 perusal, as may make them overlook the many defects 
 of his version. 
 
 # G. W. 
 
 Feast of St, Aloysius^ 1850. 
 
XIFE OF THE 
 
 BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 , -^vvvTTJlnAA/-' 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 V PETER FOURIER was born on the last 
 lay of November, 1564, or (according to 
 Dom. Calmet) 1565. His father, an 
 humble tradesman of Mirecourt, in Lor- 
 ^raine, (now comprised in the department 
 of the Vosges), was a true patriarch 
 and model of primitive virtue. A 
 contemporary historian, Father Bedel, 
 .the disciple and friend of the saint, 
 speaks of his father in the following 
 simple and charming style : “His parents, 
 possessing a small share of what is called 
 fortune, were largely endowed with the riches of 
 heaven. This was the case particularly with his 
 father, whom I can only imagine in the form of 
 an incorruptible Tobias, who would have rather 
 nourished a viper in his breast than a sin in his 
 family. The reflection of his virtues, which I 
 have seen in his son, leads me to form this idea 
 of him. As an unhappy death rarely closes a 
 well spent life, this venerable old man terminated 
 
2 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 his career in a truly Christian manner ; making 
 such a discourse as would be. looked for rather 
 from a religious than a poor tradesman. With his 
 soul, as it were on his lips, he exerted the little 
 strength left hii^, to take off his cap, and, join- 
 ing his hands on his breast; with his eyes fixed 
 on heaven, calmly waited the stroke of death. 
 His relations and friends, who were round his 
 bed, endeavoured to replace his cap, fearing the 
 exposure of his head to the air would increase his 
 sufferings. He would not, however, suffer them 
 to do so ; but said with truly Christian humility, 
 
 ‘ You would not dare, my-dear family and friends, 
 to present a letter, or make an offering to a prince, 
 without uncovering your head and inclining your 
 body, as a mark of respect. Ah ! how different 
 is the greatness of my God from that of man ! 
 How many years have I possessed the soul He 
 lent me ! I am now about to return it to Him. 
 Allow me, then, to make so important an offering 
 in as respectful a manner as I am able.’ And 
 thus the good man died ; wept over by his friends, 
 and regretted by his neighbours. This will serve 
 as a small specimen of his sentiments with regard 
 to the majesty of his Creator.” It is not my 
 intention to dilate on the childhood of Peter, but 
 to hasten on to his riper age.'^ I cannot, however, 
 
 * “His whole appearance revealed the purity of his soul. 
 A falsehood never passed his lips, and his disposition was 
 so amiable and mild, that he excited the most lively interest 
 by the delicateness of his sallies and the sparks of pre- 
 cocious intelligence which he exhibited. Like St. Chaides, 
 when quite young he erected little oratories, the chaunts and 
 ceremonies of the Church were his delight, and he was often 
 seen prostrate at the foot of the crucifix, offering his young 
 homage to his Saviour.” — Pillard, 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 3 
 
 resist pausing before the noble figure of this old 
 man, so worthy tp.be the father of a saint. “ He 
 had,” writes the same author,; “ a daughter and 
 three sons, whom^ h6 called Peter, John, and 
 James, after the most illustrip,i^^ ctf the Apostles, 
 in order that, excited by their example, they might 
 not content themselves with ordinary virtue. John 
 who was possessed of good judgment and much 
 prudence, became the oracle of his neighbour- 
 hood. James, heir to his father’s goodness, died at 
 his birth place, leaving an honest family and the 
 reputation of a most worthy man. So much was 
 he detached from worldly vanities and terrestrial 
 interests, that, hearing of his brother Peter’s 
 election to the generalship of his order, instead 
 of feeling any pride or complacency, he was in- 
 consolably afflicted at it. He even wept for two 
 days, fearing, said he, lest that virtue, which he 
 hoped was founded on deep humility, would lose 
 some of its brilliancy on this acquisition of dignity. 
 The first time the brothers met after this event 
 both shed tears, and the younger took the liberty 
 to rebuke the elder for having undertaken this 
 charge. ‘ I did all that laid in my power,’ was 
 the reply, ‘to avoid it, but the religious forced it 
 upon me.’ At this they both wept anew. It is of 
 this brother that our saint, three months before 
 his death, recalling their happy childhood, wrote : 
 
 ‘ We had a natural and hereditary inclination 
 to love each other, after the example of our pious 
 forefathers. But my most dear brother and I, 
 methinks, had added to what nature and our 
 parents had given us.’ ” 
 
 I delight in recounting, after a long life of 
 austerities, so lively a remembrance of early 
 
4 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 fi'iendship and happiness. These dispositions, 
 aftei-wards blending with the 'Tigpur and courage 
 of manhood, fQrtnbci the chief, futures of the 
 blessed Peter V9h''a't‘ai;ter. \ 
 
 His father ' pc^it^idered th'at^. by Jthe law of 
 primogeniture, '^|^ef.er ^ IjelQn'gea/ in an especial 
 manner, to the 'Altnigh|yij sigps 'of a vocation 
 appearing to justify- this dedication, the youth 
 was sent, at the age of fifteen, to the university 
 of Pont-a-Mouss9n. He had the good fortune 
 to find there a relative, whose patronage exercised 
 a great influence over his whole life. This was 
 his uncle, Father John Fourier, rector of the 
 university and a distinguished Jesuit, who had 
 just formed the mind of the holy Francis 
 de Sales, then a pupil in the house of the 
 society at Paris. Eminently skilled in the 
 spiritual direction of souls, this priest applied 
 himself to the binding of the ardent pasp.ions of 
 his young disciple to virtue, and to exercise 
 them in constant works of charity, study, and 
 penance. An unfortunate occasion soon presented 
 itself of trying the effect of this training. He 
 was strongly attacked by the demon of impurity, 
 but the holy youth flew at once to the foot of 
 the altar and found strength to overcome the 
 enemy. 
 
 At the age of twenty we find him at the gates 
 of the abbey of Chau mousey, in the Vosges. 
 This house was founded in the eleventh century, 
 and belonged to the Canons Regular of St. Augus- 
 tine. It was a rich, independent, and isolated 
 establishment, and its members had shamefully 
 abandoned their vows. Most of the religious 
 passed their time in hunting, gaming, and other 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 5 
 
 amusements ; gold or favour was the only key 
 to admission into the community. It was a 
 matter of much astonishment that a virtuous 
 young man should be received and welcomed 
 by that body. Sensible people discovered in it 
 the hand of the Almighty, and foresaw the part 
 which the new brother was to act in his order. 
 His training was, however, severe. 
 
 “ I know from the lips of those who have 
 made the trial,” says Father Bedel, “that a 
 galley slave is not more cruelly treated, or en- 
 dures more hardships than these brothers suffered 
 
 during their noviciate To wait at table, gnaw 
 
 bones like dogs, sleep in a corner of the kitchen, 
 toll the bells, wash and clean the house, were 
 their usual occupations. As for the instruction 
 and nourishment of their souls, not a word was 
 spoken, which made these severities doubly hard 
 to be borne.” These trials were doubtless reserved 
 for the poor brothers, or perhaps all tasted of them, 
 in order the better to enjoy the infliction of the 
 same hardships on others afterwards. But a 
 novice who brought the unfortunate example of 
 his virtues into the community was, no doubt, 
 made to expiate his disagreeable goodness in a 
 more severe manner. Fourier persevered, never- 
 theless, made his religious profession, and was 
 ordained priest in the church of St. Simon, 
 at Treves, on the 14th of September, 1588. 
 His great humility would not suffer him to 
 celebrate the divine mysteries for some months. 
 He did so for the first time on the feast of St. 
 John the Baptist, patron of Chaumousey. Imme- 
 diately after his ordination he returned to finish 
 his theological studies at Pont a-Mousson. Here 
 
 B 2 
 
LIFE OF THE 
 
 his wounded heart sought repose in the friendship 
 of two 3"oung religious, Didier de la Cour and 
 Servais Lairuel,* who were both excited by like 
 sufferings and the same plans for the future. 
 The Almighty seems thus to have brought them 
 together at the beginning of their career, in 
 order that they might encourage one another 
 to the great reforms which they were afterwards, 
 by His grace, to effect. At the end of six 
 years the young priest was recalled to his monas- 
 tery, to become again the object of a cruel 
 persecution. It would be difficult to imagine 
 the wickedness of these bad religious, did not 
 the holy Scriptures tell us, that the corruption 
 of the good is the worst of all corruption, from 
 which w^e may judge a bad religious to be the 
 most abandoned of all bad men. “ The most 
 depraved,” writes Father Bedel, “leagued against 
 him ; their every look menaced him, their speech 
 abused him ; from threats they often proceeded 
 to blows and other outrages. They often robbed 
 him, at one time of his books, at another of his 
 cassock, which they tore up or sold.” 
 
 This was suffiiciently tormenting ; but what 
 was worse, they submitted him to a trial which 
 St. Benedict had, before him, nearly fallen under. 
 “But,” continues Father Bedel, “he escaped 
 from this peril by the especial preservation of 
 Him who declares, that His servants shall drink 
 w'hat is poison to others without hurting them. 
 But after this God inspired a good peasant of 
 a neighbouring village to bring the Father a daily 
 
 * These two great men became the reformers of the 
 congregations of St. Benedict and of St. Norbert. — Trans, 
 
BLESSED PETEB FOURIER. 
 
 7 
 
 portion of food, sufficient for his nourishment.” 
 These sufferings were a source of great merit for 
 the saint, who never complained of them, but 
 his friends were desirous of seeing him engaged 
 in active duties, and obtained a cure of souls for 
 him. Three parishes were offered to him. He 
 consulted his usual guide. Father John Fourier, 
 as to the choice he should make. “ If you seek 
 comfort and repose, choose either of the first 
 two ; if, however, arduous labour, without human 
 recompense, will satisfy you, accept the last.” 
 Such was the advice he obtained, and without 
 a moment’s hesitation he wrote to his friends 
 that he accepted the last parish, which was 
 Mattaincourt. Our saint shortly after was in- 
 ducted into his cure in the year 1597, being in 
 his thirty-fourth year. 
 

 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ' ; ATTAINCOURT, at the present 
 day a village in the Vosges, half 
 a league from Mi recourt, was 
 then a considerable manufac- 
 ring town. Its industry principally 
 consisted in the fabrication of lace and 
 cloth. Commerce had brought riches 
 and disorder, and an indifference to 
 religion, bordering on impiety, followed 
 in their train. The frequent intercourse of the 
 people with Switzerland had introduced the germs 
 of Protestantism into the town, from which cir- 
 cumstance it was often called “ little Geneva.” 
 The inhabitants had completely lost that religious 
 faith which the simplicity of agricultural life 
 still kept alive in the villages. The church was 
 like a neglected ruin, and, according to the 
 remark of an historian, the Athenian inscription, 
 “ To the unknown God,” might well have been 
 written over its altar. 
 
 The Jesuit Father was right: it was no easy 
 task to save such a people. The young priest 
 devoted himself to it wdth all the ardour of first 
 love and of earnest desires long suppressed. 
 He had to deal wdth the worst passions of the 
 heart, the spirit of lucre and that gross libertinage 
 
LIFE OF THE B. P. FOUEIER. 
 
 9 
 
 which was so strong!}^ a marked characteristic of 
 the age. In the commencement of his labours 
 his zeal cost him much. A young man, from 
 whom he had withdrawn a victim, met him 
 one day, and beat our saint until he reached 
 his house ; a woman, enraged at his having 
 separated the sexes in the school, abused and 
 struck him publicly ; another, vexed at his 
 having married her son lo a girl w^hom he had 
 seduced under, promise of marriage, showered 
 down her indignation upon the good priest in 
 no measured terms. “The Father heard her 
 out with perfect good humour, and when she 
 had gone home sent her a bushel of corn.”'^ An 
 unfortunate woman obstructed his passage in a 
 narrow lane, on one side of which was a filthy 
 pond. The saint carried the blessed Sacrament, 
 and wishing to avoid her, walked through the 
 pond ; “ thus,” writes on the subject Pope Clement 
 XI., “of two mires choosing the least infectious.” 
 
 But soon a change takes place ; a moral revo- 
 lution is accomplished. .By his instructions, 
 patience and example, the saint rooted out these 
 dissolute manners, and restored order, happiness, 
 and all the other blessings which spring from 
 religion, to his parish. During a perod of thirty 
 years he lived in the midst of his congregation, 
 happy and blessed, like a good Father surrounded 
 by a beloved family. Whenever he returned 
 from a journey his parishioners went in large 
 bodies to meet and escort him home with re- 
 joicings. On these occasions the poor pressed 
 closely round him, as his dearest friends, and 
 
 ♦ Bedel. 
 
10 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 be walked in the midst of them, calling them 
 by name, and making himself a child with 
 the children, poor with the poor, and most 
 humble with the humble. His success in his 
 ministry arose, without doubt, from the singular 
 affection with which he regarded his flock. 
 “You can never know,” he wrote to his friends, 
 “ the depth of the love which a priest bears 
 towards his children until you become one your- 
 self. All the similes made use of, such as a 
 mother and her children, a hen and her chickens, 
 seem to me to fall far short of the reality ; nor 
 have I ever read any work on this subject which 
 said half enough of it. Experience alone can 
 tell the truth of what I say.” 
 
 Blessed Fourier was not only a good priest, 
 devoted to the salvation of his flock, but also 
 a protector, who made their temporal interests 
 the object of his earnest solicitude. Indeed, 
 how can the clergy be indifferent to the temporal 
 welfare of their charge? Our blessed Lord did 
 not content himself with preaching to the crowds, 
 he also fed them, and the sermons on the mount 
 and by the lake were both followed by the 
 miraculous multiplication of loaves. 
 
 Our saint had an essentially creative and 
 organizing mind. One cannot but remark in 
 him views of civil or material amelioration 
 which show an intelligent charity, and which in 
 other times, in a more elevated position, with 
 the necessary resources, liberty, and assistance, 
 would have produced great results towards an 
 object so natural and desirable — the conciliation 
 of the modern interests of the people with the 
 eternal principles of Catholicism. He had a 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 11 
 
 great idea of the power of association applied to 
 works of public utility, and we shall see that 
 he carried out his views on this subject within 
 his limited sphere of action. 
 
 “ Ho had,” says the old author (Bedel) whom I 
 love to cite as being the pupil, friend, and con- 
 fidant of our saint, “he had an especial com- 
 passion for those tradesmen who, by misfortune 
 in business, robberies, or other causes not in 
 their own power to prevent, had fallen from 
 abundance to a state of want. He founded a 
 fund for their benefit, which he called ‘ St. 
 Evre’s Purse,’ into which he placed all the pious 
 legacies left to his disposal, fines, and other 
 sums. When any one of his parishioners was 
 in arrears and could prove his difficulties, a few 
 hundred francs \vere given him from this 
 purse, in order to enable him to continue his 
 trade. 'J’he only condition attached to this 
 grant was, that it should be repaid if the receiver 
 were to become rich. This scheme answered so 
 well that with this money a fund has been 
 established, the interest of \vhich is applied to 
 the like purpose.” 
 
 At the present day we call institutions by the 
 name of the object they have in view ; then they 
 were placed under the patronage of some saint. 
 “ St. Evre’s Purse ” is nothing else but the 
 foundation by a priest of Lorraine, in the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth century, of a benefit 
 society, or savings’ bank, or whatever else we 
 like to call it. 
 
 Our saint also contemplated the formation of 
 another institution, which would have rendered 
 essential service to society. “ The Father,” 
 
1*2 LIFE OF THE 
 
 continues our author, “ had during his youth 
 remarked that in the whole district of the Vosges 
 there was only one lawyer who, seated in the 
 market place, despatched more business in a day 
 than we, with our formalities, get through in a 
 year. Now, to his sorrow, he saw them increase 
 in numbers, without any corresponding advan- 
 tages to the community To obviate the 
 
 necessity of having recourse to their assistance 
 he intended to establish an association or con- 
 fraternity, into which he intended to press the 
 nobility and gentry of the district to enter. 
 Two of these noble personages, with the assistance 
 of the like number of the most experienced 
 lawyers, were to meet on certain days of the 
 week, to settle amicably all the difficulties and 
 suits of the district and place wherein they 
 resembled. If one of the parties contumeliously 
 refused to acquiesce in the judgment, he was 
 to be prosecuted at the charge of the confraternity, 
 without his opponent being implicated in the 
 matter or put to any expense whatever. The 
 execution of this design was prevented by the 
 breaking out of the w^ar. It is, however, but 
 just to record it, as the Father had gone as far 
 as to draw up admirable rules for the use of the 
 confraternity, which were entirely his own work. 
 If the misfortunes of Lorraine stifled this 
 generous project of peace and equity at its birth, 
 the blessed Fourier nevertheless effected the 
 same purpose at his own house. To his title of 
 rector was joined that of magistrate. He had 
 the appointment of the officers of the town, held 
 trials, judged, condemned or acquitted with a 
 firmness equal to his mildness. He knew well 
 
BLESSED PETER EOURIER. 
 
 13 
 
 how to distinguish between the character of judge 
 
 and that of pastor to have compassion as a 
 
 Christian, and charity as a citizen ; but as judge 
 to have neither passion nor bias. He imposed 
 tines upon the guilty, and applied the sums so 
 received to the relief of the poor. Sometimes 
 “ he went round to the taverns and low public- 
 houses, upset the pots and tables, and burnt the 
 
 cards he drove the knaves before him, like a 
 
 a flock of strayed sheep, his zeal imprinting such 
 a mark of authority and majesty on his brow, as 
 to render him so formidable to the wicked that" 
 they dared hardly to breathe in his presence.” 
 This union of authority, might, in some persons, 
 have diminished the influence of pastoral minis- 
 try ; but in his case, the tender charity of the priest 
 out of the tribunal, compensated largely for the 
 inflexible rigour of the administrator of justice. 
 
 Temperate and poor in the extreme, our saint 
 joined the virtue of sacrifice to the power of love. 
 
 “ He never,” writes his disciple and biographer, 
 “had any fire in his house, not even in winter, 
 except in case of sickness, or the reception of 
 some person of distinction. He let a barn, at- 
 tached to the rectory, to a poor woman, who 
 discharged her rent in cooking the simple food 
 of the Father. He only had a bed for show, as he 
 never used it, but took his rest upon a wooden 
 bench, a foot and a-half wide. In order that 
 every person should be able to meet with him, he 
 stood before the door of his house and remained 
 there, sometimes for two hours, in the depth of 
 winter. One consulted him about a law-suit, 
 another about a journey he was going to make, a 
 third upon his wants ; and, whilst he imparted 
 
14 
 
 LIFE OF TEE 
 
 advice and comfort to all, he suffered the most 
 severe pains, and his feet were often quite frozen. 
 He experienced the effects of this exposure of his 
 person for some years afterwards. With the 
 exception of the little he took for his own suste- 
 nance, he gave the whole of his substance to the 
 poor, whom he told never to be ashamed of asking 
 him for relief, as all that he possessed belonged 
 to them, — so that these good people grew accus- 
 tomed to ask him for every thing they wanted. 
 Sometimes it was money for butter, or for milk 
 for a child ; and never was applicant refused, 
 God multiplying his means. He informed him- 
 self of the way in which each one earned their 
 livelihood, what profit they got on their wares, 
 and the rest, in order to find out the bashful 
 poor : whenever he found any of these, he sent 
 quietly in the evening corn, wood, and other 
 necessaries to their houses, and when he went to 
 visit them he concealed a sum of money under a 
 
 plate or some other article Such as the want 
 
 of money and health rendered doubly poor, 
 claimed his especial attention, and he spared 
 nothing to supply them with the best food, 
 advice, and attendance. He would often procure 
 delicacies for them, such as preserved fmits and 
 wines ; he continually visited them, served them, 
 and watched whole nights at their bedsides. 
 He had a list made of the most needy of his 
 parishioners. These he assembled twice a week, 
 and distributed to them sufficient bread for three 
 days. On Sundays the bread was of a superior 
 quality, and he often added some lard for soup 
 and wine for the aged and infirm.” 
 
 This distribution was the cause one day of an 
 
JKLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 16 
 
 amusing scene, which Father Bedel recounts with 
 charming simplicity. 
 
 “ On the solemn festivals of Easter, Christmas, 
 and Pentecost, he collected a large supply of 
 provisions, to gladden the hearts of his nobility, 
 (as he called the poor) amongst whom appeared 
 one day, a poor soldier, returning from the war, 
 with more appetite than money. The Father 
 accosting him, asked, what he w- uld like for his 
 share. ‘ It being Eastertide,’ said the soldier, ‘ I 
 should like some eggs.’ He received two, ‘Why ! 
 I thought,’ was the return of the man for 
 this charity, ‘ that a person of your style would 
 not have given less than half-a-dozen.* The 
 Father taking the hint, gave him four more, 
 asking if he were now satisfied. ‘ I cannot eat 
 them without bread.’ — ‘Certainly not, you shall 
 have some,’ said the Father, who brought him a 
 piece of the whitest bread he could find, and gave 
 it to him, hoping ho wanted nothing more. But 
 the soldier, seeing he had so generous a friend, 
 said boldly, ‘ Sir, I should relish a little glass of 
 wdne with so good a feast.’ The Father, delighted 
 to find so unexpected an occasion -gf exercising 
 his charity, fetched some wine and poured it out 
 himself, and would not leave the recipient of his 
 alms before he had declared himself perfectly 
 content, and prayed God wdth all his heart that, 
 for the honour of His Church and the happiness 
 of the poor, all priests might resemble him.” 
 
 Besides these private alms, w^hich economists 
 might blame, but which are, nevertheless, the 
 first right of hunger to receive, and the first 
 want of the heart to dispense, Fourier undertook 
 to establish an organized and preventive charity. 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 “ Talking one day familiarly with some of our 
 brothers,” writes Father Bedel: “he told them 
 that of all stations in the world, he thought there 
 was none more desirable to a worthy man who wish- 
 ed to acquire merit, than that ofJ[9roc^^ra/rq/^??^raZ; 
 adding, that if God, in punishment for his crimes, 
 had allowed him to remain in the world, and he 
 had had sufficient talent to undertake it, he 
 would have preferred it to all other professions, 
 although it might be the most honourable and 
 lucrative. The reason he gave for this was, that 
 he might thereby the better succour widows and 
 orphans,*the care of whom devolved on a man in 
 that station ; and more especially to regulate the 
 relief of the 'poor in such a manner, that there should 
 he no necessity for public beggmg, which he thought 
 
 was not impracticable Man being subject to 
 
 other necessities than those of eating and drink- 
 ing, our F ather looked farther than to the providing 
 of bread for the poor ; he brought them courage- 
 ously out of every affliction ” 
 
 I have designedly multiplied these instances of 
 compassion for the poor, which abound in the 
 histojy of Father Fourier, because, independently 
 of their merit, they manifest great thoughts, and 
 show that he was both a holy priest and a good 
 citizen. 
 
 In our days, thank God, a good village priest 
 is no exception. Our country places abound in 
 men of true merit and unobserved devotedness. 
 But in the age I write of, an age of licentiousness, 
 the secular clergy had fallen into a worse slate 
 than the monks. Of these som.e little prepara- 
 tion was expected, a course of study was necessary; 
 but the clergy had neither rule nor fixed dwelling. 
 
BLESSED PETEK FOUKIER, 
 
 17 
 
 they took holy orders without any examination, 
 and often without any previous course of instruc- 
 tion. Provided with cures, the only object they 
 had in view in embracing the ecclesiastical state, 
 they lived on their incomes without troubling 
 themselves about their parishioners. The ma- 
 jority did not even possess a becoming exterior ; 
 they adopted the manners, as well as the dress, 
 of the world. We must, therefore, transport our 
 minds to this period, in order to appreciate the 
 zeal, the teaching, and the purity of Fourier ; and 
 also to understand what the public opinion was 
 on the subject of his life. A surname, whether 
 grand or plain, sublime or simple, given to a man 
 and remaining attached to his name for ages, is 
 a true sign of popular esteem and greatness. It 
 proves, that the man so distinguished, has exer- 
 cised great power over the minds of the masses. 
 No eulogium equals the familiar epithet attached 
 for ever to his name. Fourier possessed this 
 distinction. Flis contemporaries spontaneously 
 decreed to him this title, the dear, venerable, and 
 aifectionate title of “the good Father.” This 
 soon became the only name by which he was 
 known and called, even during his life, and in 
 Lorraine, at the present day, especially in the 
 country, he is better known by this title than by 
 his own name. Indeed, his family name is rarely 
 heard : to the peasant, who remembers him by 
 tradition ; to the devout, and the pilgrims, who 
 journey to his tomb, he is always “the good Father 
 of Mattaincourt and the mother who teaches her 
 little ones the history of the saints, tells them 
 to repeat the name of “ the good Father of 
 Mattaincourt ! ” 
 
 c 2 
 
18 
 
 LIFE OF THE B. P. lOBKIER. 
 
 Glorious title ! which the more befitted one, 
 who, by founding a religious order, became the 
 head of a numerous spiritual family. This, of 
 all his projects for the benefit of society, was the 
 the only one which he was enabled to realize, so 
 was it also the happiest, and the most important 
 
 of all. 
 

 ^ LIFE OF THE 
 
 BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 + — 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 S HE want of a sufficient education was, 
 without doubt, the principal cause oF the 
 disordered and brutal state of the people 
 in the middle ages. The Church has never been 
 'wanting in its mission of instructing man, and 
 its tenderest predilections have ever been for the 
 weak. The Council of Lateran, in the year 1179, 
 promulgated this admirable canon : — 
 
 “ As the Church, like a good mother, is hound 
 to provide the advantages of education, for such 
 of her children as are unable to obtain it by their 
 own resources, or those of their parents, we decree 
 that a master shall be attached to every cathedral, 
 who shall gratuitously teach the young clerics* 
 and poor scholars.” And Innocent III. thus 
 proceeds ; “But as this precept is not everywhere 
 observed, we, confirming these presents, add that 
 not only cathedral churches but also all others 
 which may have the means shall procure a master 
 capable of instructing, gratuitously, the clerics 
 and other children in the art of grammar.” 
 
 By the side of cathedral and parochial schools 
 were the schools of the monasteries for the 
 
 * In the middle ages the clerical tonsure was given at a 
 very early age. — Trans. 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 neighbouring places : then came the municipal 
 schools ; and, lastly, private schools, or pedagogies, 
 which had risen in the fourteenth century in 
 concurrence with the former. But it may easily 
 be conceived that these institutions had no 
 general, fixed, or regular principle in their 
 practical bearing. The one class existed only 
 in the ordinances of popes and bishops ; the 
 other, occupied in teaching the highest studies, 
 paid no attention to elementary instruction. 
 Conventual schools w^ere destined only for those 
 who (as was then the custom) were presented to 
 the monastery in their infancy ; municipal schools 
 w ere rare, and neglected, as we may judge from 
 the present apathy of the communal authorities, 
 notwithstanding the law which places popular 
 instruction under their care. Private schools, 
 established in the towms only, exacted payment, 
 which neither the peasantry or poor wxre able 
 to meet ; besides which, they rarely ever were 
 schoo.s of morality. The two sexes w'ere placed 
 together, and young girls governed by masters. 
 No approach was ever made to that system which 
 w'o call primary instruction. In many places 
 the Church and civil powder had, in the midst of 
 w*ars and continual calamities, been able to save 
 principles alone. Generations grew' up in igno- 
 rance, in vice, and in misery ; the few" religious 
 ideas instilled into their minds previous to their 
 first communion, was, to the majority, the sole 
 initiation into life. 
 
 When Protestantism had corrupted the sources 
 of belief, and shaken habitual faith, science w'as 
 called in to aid in upholding it. Thence the 
 diffusive movement of the sixteenth century, 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 21 
 
 which then began, never to be stayed. The 
 world was, as it were, to begin over again. The 
 education of youth was naturally the first step 
 to be taken, and, to answer to this want, religious 
 orders rose, as they ever do, to assist the Church 
 in her necessity. The Jesuits, the Oratorians, 
 and the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, devoted 
 themselves to the higher studies, while elemen 
 tary instruction found advocates in a body 
 which was to form a complete revolution in the 
 moral order. 
 
 In the general degradation the female portion 
 of the people were the most neglected. Scarcely 
 any schools devoted to their special instruction 
 were to be found. Many convents were, it is 
 true, remarkable seats of learning ; but their 
 exertions were entirely confined to the cloister, 
 for it was absolutely forbidden for cloistered 
 nuns to give instruction to out-door scholars, 
 and nearly every order at this time strictly 
 observed the cloistered life. So great was the 
 opposition to their contact with the world without, 
 that Fourier, as we shall see hereafter, had gi’eat 
 difficulty to obtain an exception to this rule, 
 under severe conditions, in favour of his new 
 community. Thus, while the daughter of the 
 castle was enabled to obtain a useful and com- 
 plete education, the village girl was left, without 
 instruction, to her material occupations. Or 
 if the women w’ere instructed, they were all 
 corrupted and plunged in the frightful demoral- 
 isation of the time of the last Valois. It was, 
 then, necessary to regenerate female society from 
 the highest to the lowest. This end was obtained 
 by the simultaneous formation of schools, which. 
 
LIFE OF THE 
 
 receiving young persons into the midst of the 
 cloister to educate them, kept them from the 
 corrupt influence of worldly society ; and of 
 gratuitous schools for poor girls. Such was the 
 work of the saints, admirably seconded by those 
 apostolic women, noble ladies, and illustrious 
 widows, who, at the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, played so great a part. 
 
 The Marchioness of Montferrant, neice of 
 Montaigne, established at Bordeaux, about the 
 year 1608, a congregation for the instruction of 
 young girls, which soon increased to such an 
 extent as to number forty-seven houses, in the 
 western and southern provinces. A pious woman, 
 Frances de Bremond, had founded a society for 
 the like purpose at Avignon. But it was Madam 
 Accarie, a venerable widow, who took the name of 
 Mary of the Incarnation, who gave the real 
 impulse to this undertaking. Many women with 
 whom she was connected not being able to bear 
 the austerities of the order of Carmel, were inspired 
 by her with the idea of founding a secular congre- 
 gation which should be devoted to the education 
 of young females. Madam de Sainte-Beuve, her 
 friend, bought a house and called Frances de 
 Bremond, from Provence, to direct the com- 
 munity and communicate her method. The 
 ardour for this generous vocation received an 
 extraordinary impulse. In the space of half a 
 century, in France alone, 320 houses of religion, 
 under the common denomination of Ursulines, 
 were devoted to the instruction of girls. This 
 object was looked upon as being so essential, that 
 it became, at least accessorily, the end of all new 
 orders of women. St. F rancis of Sales dedicated 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 23 
 
 l<> il a great share of the rules of the Visitation. 
 St. Vincent of Paul places it among the duties 
 of the Sisters of Charity. The Hospitalieres, 
 whose number increases greatly, adopt it with an 
 especial care of orphans. Convent schools were 
 multiplied in such a manner that scarcely any 
 town was to be found without one. 
 
 Fourier took up this movement, or rather he 
 conceived the idea in the midst of his retirement, 
 and he advanced it, for his project dates from the 
 end of the 16th century. Scarcely had he 
 entered upon his cure, than he saw himself 
 surrounded by the evils of ignorance — the mother 
 of vice and of poverty. His charity, as well as 
 his faith, took the alarm. He immediately saw 
 w’hat was necessary to be done, and that a 
 religious order was alone able to undertake the 
 work. His idea comprehended both men and 
 women. 
 
 “After many prayers,” says Father Bedel, “he 
 came to the conclusion that youth must be cared 
 for from the cradle and that the most advan- 
 
 tageous means wouli be to establish an order in 
 the Church, to break the bread of life to these 
 
 little ones He determined to undertake this 
 
 measure. This resolution was taken on the eve of 
 St. Sabastian, 19th Jan., 1598,* as we learn from 
 himself four years before his death ; but he found 
 a difficulty in the matter — it was the danger of 
 bringing up the children of both sexes together.... 
 To avoid this, and to render the work perfect, he 
 
 * It took place in a night of prayer and ecstasy, the anni- 
 versary of which he kept during the remainder of his life, 
 and in remembrance of this favour, the nuns of his order 
 make a special communion on the same day every year. 
 
24 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 considered it necessary to have an order of women 
 for the girls, and one of men for the boys, 
 who should educate the children grMnitously, 
 so that no child, at least, for a halfpenny a 
 week, should be deprived of the benefit of their 
 instruction.” 
 
 lie first set to work by the men ; “chosing five 
 or six young men, who had some knowledge. 
 These he brought to the rectory-house, to instruct 
 and tiy what he could make of them ; but the 
 time was not yet come. At first, one ran away, 
 another asked to be dismissed, a third became 
 weary of his work, so that in three months they 
 all disappeared.” 
 
 The time had not yet indeed arrived : twenty- 
 three years passed before the appearance of M. de 
 la Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers. 
 Nevertheless, we see that Fourier kept his point 
 in view. 
 
 By an admirable disposition of Divine Provi- 
 dence, (which never entirely disappears, but 
 loves to show itself in the lives of the saints,) at 
 the moment when the object he thought to have 
 gained seemed to slip from his grasp, his work 
 was begun, and soon showed itself in the person 
 of another. A young woman, twenty years old, 
 whose previous life had shown no sign of her 
 future career, came one day to our Father and 
 told him of the desire she had to retire from 
 the world, and at the same time to occupy her- 
 self in labouring for the good of her neighbour. 
 No existing order satisfied her desire. This was 
 a revelation to the good priest. He had need 
 of a St. Jane Chantal, of a Louisa Gras, to be 
 the medium of communicating his design to 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 25 
 
 women. He found one in Alice Leclerc, whose 
 name should bejoined with his, as those of these 
 holy women are united with the names of St. 
 Francis of Sales and St. Vincent of Paul. Four 
 of Alice’s companions, hearing:; of her determina- 
 tion, opened their minds to her, and all seemed 
 to have the same desire at heart. Each, in 
 listening to the recital of the other’s wishes, 
 fancied she heard her own longings. Sisters in 
 thought and desire, they had long lived together, 
 without knowing the sacred tie which bound 
 them together. They were called Alice Leclerc, 
 Gante Andre, Claudia Chauvenel, and Isabella 
 and Jane de Louvroir. Our Father heard them, 
 cautioned them, and delayed forming any opinion 
 of their desires ; nay, oven sought to draw from 
 them different avowals, in order to try them. 
 At length, satisfied with the strength of their 
 vocation, he allowed them to attend the mid- 
 night mass of Christmas (1598) dressed in black, 
 and wearing veils, so that the crib of our Saviour 
 was, as it were, the birth-place of this humble 
 and glorious inatilution. He then confided 
 them to the c°re of the Countess d’Apremont, 
 Canoness of the noble chapter of Poussey, the 
 rival of that of Remiremont. On their arrival 
 they gave their provisions to the poor and cast 
 the little money they possessed at the foot of 
 the altar, wishing entirely to confide themselves 
 to Divine Providence. Madam d’Apremont 
 was of a noble family of Lorraine, which had 
 given a sovereign to that country, and being 
 much attached to the rector of Mattaincourt, 
 became the devoted protectress of his spiritual 
 daughters. She formed them for a religious life, 
 
 D 
 
LIFE OF THE 
 
 S6 
 
 and instructed them in the governing of a house. 
 “ It seems,” sajs an author, “ that God caused 
 them to arise from the obscurity of a village, in 
 order to show that, in calling them to this 
 asylum of the nobility, they were destined 
 for the instruction of all classes, that they were 
 to take care of poor children as their sisters, 
 and apply themselves to the education of the 
 rich, to render them more humble.” However, 
 at the end of a year they were obliged to leave 
 the abbey, “because,” writes one of them in her 
 naive manner, “the abbess and the old nuns 
 conceived a dislike to us, fearing lest their young 
 ladies should, in imitating us, abandon them- 
 selves too much to solitude.”* 
 
 They returned to Mattaincourt (1600), and 
 began with the seventeenth century to gather 
 together the children in a house bought by the 
 Countess d ’Apremont. The year which followed 
 was one of enthusiasm and of happiness, which 
 preceded persecution and hard trials. Pupils 
 flocked to the school ; Fourier himself took part 
 in it with joy. One of the first mothers of the 
 congregation relates, “ that their good director 
 had an admirable method of instilling a love 
 into his daughters for the instruction of the 
 
 young When they conversed with him on 
 
 the subject of their classes, or of the inventions 
 they had conceived for the advancement of their 
 pupils and the inspiring them with a distaste 
 for vanity and dangerous assemblies, he was so 
 pleased that every one saw that nothing could 
 
 * Conduite de la Providence clans I’etablissement cle la 
 Congregation de Notre Dame. 1 vol. 4to. 
 
27 
 
 "^**0.*; 0OLL2€E UBRilR^ 
 
 give him greater pleasure He occupied him- 
 
 self with the smallest things which regarded 
 their manners He particularly applied him- 
 
 self to making the religious capable of imparting 
 the necessary instruction to their children. He 
 even went so far as to teach them to read well 
 and correctly, and gave them a method of teaching 
 the principles of orthography and the rules of 
 arithmetic. Every day they received a short 
 lesson from him.” A poor priest teaching ignorant 
 girls to read must have been a strange and touch- 
 ing sight. But let us now see what the country 
 girls were, and what they became on leaving the 
 excellent school, where so good a master aided 
 in forming their minds. 
 
 The name of Alice Leclerc has doubtless never 
 been heard of by my I'eaders ; and yet this un- 
 known woman is a great saint, who reminds one 
 of St. Teresa and St. Catherine of Sienna. It 
 pleased the Almighty to lead her to an 
 extraordinary degree of perfection. By order of 
 her confessor, she wrote an account of her life.* 
 The manner in which she relates the history of 
 her conversion and the rise of the order is most 
 interesting. “ I was nineteen or twenty,” she 
 writes, “when I received this vocation. During 
 these twenty years I. do not think that I made 
 more than one good confession, and to this I was 
 excited by the reading of a book which accidently 
 fell into my hands. This book was thrown by a 
 
 * “Relation a la glorie cle Dieu et cle sa Sainte Mere, et 
 
 an saint cle mon ame pour Tarn our de lui et parce que votre 
 reverence m*oblige a cette recldition cle compte de ma 
 conscience.” Printed at Nancy, 1GG6. 
 
28 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 young man in raillery upon my bed, where I lay 
 ill with a continuous fever. It contained certain 
 tragic histories of such whom shame prevented 
 from confessing their sins ... But this solitary 
 confession was not sufficient to withdraw me from 
 the sins and vanity of which I was guilty through 
 ignorance. The only good sentiment I possessed 
 was a love of honour, I retained my dalliances 
 in company, and concealed as much as I could 
 my vain and childish actions .... until the time 
 when our good Father came to be rector of 
 Mattaincourt.” Some historians say that her 
 resolution was taken in the midst of a marriage 
 feast, but she relates it differently. For three 
 Sundays, while assisting at High Mass, she 
 seemed to hear the sound of a drum calling to a 
 ball, and as she was extremely fond of dancing, 
 as she expresses it, she took delight in the sound. 
 But at one time she fancied she saw a demon 
 seizing the drum, draw after him a train of youths 
 and girls. “Then,” she continues, “it seemed 
 as if all my interior had been changed, and that 
 a new mind was put in its place. I abandoned 
 all my habits of vanity . . . and made a vow of 
 chastity without consulting any one about it. 
 This alarmed my parents and all the neighbours, 
 and the more so, as devotion was a new thing in 
 Mattaincourt. I went to see the rector, our good 
 Father, for the first time, and told him my design. 
 When I prayed to God the thought always came 
 into my mind, of the necessity of a new religious 
 house, where women might practise all manner 
 of good works. This feeling became so strong, 
 that I immediately went and proposed it to our 
 good Father, begging him to let me do some* 
 
BLESSED PETER FOtJKJER. 
 
 29 
 
 thing towards bringing it about ; but he would 
 not, telling me of the difficulty of finding young 
 women capable and willing to receive this new 
 vocation. In less than six weeks or two months, 
 three girls came successively to speak to me on 
 
 this subject Your reverend fathers (the 
 
 Jesuits) of Pont-a Mousson were informed of 
 all that passed, and gave their advice at the 
 instances of our good Father, who took the pains 
 to write to them..^ ” 
 
 The company of Jesus was then engaged in 
 every good work, and particularly in the educa- 
 tional movement. It was before the image of its 
 sainted founder, that Alice felt herself called to 
 teach, in a vision similar to that which has just 
 been mentioned of Fourier. “One night me- 
 thought I was in one of your houses, where there 
 
 w^as a cloister and a great many fathers And I, 
 
 holding a rake, with which they take up hay in the 
 meadows, went about collecting together all the 
 little pieces of straw which were in the cloister, 
 to make a profit by them. The fathers took no 
 notice of me, and seemed rather to despise what 
 I was about; but one of them who appeared to be 
 very venerable, and to have authority over the 
 others, regarded me mildly, and made me a sign 
 to persevere in my work. Having come to myself, 
 I understood that it was St. Ignatius, who encou- 
 raged me to undertake the instruction of girls, 
 who were then as little esteemed as straws. I, 
 at the same time, heard a voice say, ‘ I desire 
 that these little souls, who are abandoned like 
 bastard children by their mother, should hence- 
 forth find a mother in you.’” And she became 
 their mother, in effect, bearing these little aban- 
 
 d2 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 doned ones in her heart. Nor was she a mother 
 to them alone, but to all that train of religious, 
 ^Yho have not ceased to be their moibeisin giace. 
 The congregation recognise her as their foundress, 
 and place her at the light hand of Fourier. Her 
 character, also, bears a great resemblance to his — 
 it is formed of the same charity and the same self- 
 denial. This generous soul writes in one of her 
 meditations : “ 1 have always had a great desire to 
 die ever since I knew the truth ; but 1 am well con- 
 tent to remain here as long as it shall please God, 
 and even when it shall be His good pleasure to call 
 me hence. I am content if such were to be His 
 holy will not to enjoy the glory of the blessed, 
 provided I hear Him praised and blessed by 
 them.” Supernatural gifts of devotedness are 
 recorded of her. She kissed, as St. Elizabeth 
 did, the wounds of a leper, and drank a vomit in 
 which there w^ere probably some portion of the 
 blessed Eucharist. She possessed an astonishing 
 force over herself. “ Our mother,” writes one of 
 her companions, “ being superior at Nancy, saw 
 from her window, on the feast of All Saints, a 
 number of persons of distinction in the cemetery 
 obtaining prayers for the faithful departed, and 
 a multitude of poor people and little children 
 offering to say the seven penitential psalms for a 
 penny, as was the custom of the country. The 
 mother, thinking this a very humiliating action, 
 took her breviary and went and placed herself 
 among these people to conquer her pride. The 
 third person to whom she addressed herself, as 
 an especial act of mortification, was an honour- 
 able member of her own family, who was coun- 
 sellor of his royal highness. He was so confused 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 31 
 
 and surprised at seeing her that he immediately 
 gave her a crown, and drawing her aside said to 
 her. ‘ It is very wrong of you, my cousin, not to 
 mention your wants ; I would have given orders 
 to prevent you from coming begging here with 
 these poor people.’ She gave him a sweet smile 
 
 and thanked him When she returned 
 
 from Nancy to Mattaincourt, she found her 
 mother on the point of death. The good mother 
 was sent to her by our Reverend Father (Fourier) 
 with a companion to console and aid her in her 
 passage to eternity. While the dying woman 
 was in convulsions, immediately before death, 
 the Reverend Father, to exercise her obedience, 
 commanded her (Alice) to go immediately 
 and prepare the altar for a function which 
 was about to take place. Our good mother, 
 without sliowing any repugnance, left imme- 
 diately though since she has been heard 
 
 to say that she never made a greater effort 
 to do anything as she did to leave her mother 
 at that moment.”'^ 
 
 Those who may be tempted to see in this 
 nothing but cruelty, and ask what good such 
 acts of singularity can effect, know little of 
 human kind. Nothing can daunt a mind 
 capable of overcoming to such an extent the 
 weaknesses and feelings of nature. Thus wc 
 see this delicate woman, apparently very weak, 
 become an intrepid labourer. She shows a 
 wonderful activity, founds houses, makes jour- 
 
 * Eclaircissements sur la relation d* Alix Leclerc, par la 
 Mere Angelique Milly, deuxieme superieure du monastere 
 de Nancy. 1666. 
 
33 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 nies, carries on correspondence, encourages and 
 supports her sisters in time of great privation, 
 and preserves a sweet serenity in all kinds of 
 difficulties. 
 
 Fourier sent her to Paris in 1615, with Sister 
 Angelica Milly, to study the system of the 
 Ursulines in the management of their schools, 
 “in order,” as he writes in one of his letters, 
 “ to see whether there be anything in their rule 
 and method of teaching more noble, elevated, 
 and perfect than in our congregation, and worthy 
 of our imitation.” Alice was received with 
 much regard by Madam de Saint-Beuve. She 
 remained for two months with these religious, 
 whom she edified greatly by her humility. “As 
 soon as they had left the refectory she managed 
 to escape from her companions to go into the 
 kitchen, to wash the plates and clean up and 
 
 assist the cook During Holy Week she twice 
 
 obtained permission from the reverend mother 
 to receive the discipline of the rod, in the 
 middle of the refectory, during dinner.”^' Madam 
 de Saint-Beuve conceived so high an idea of the 
 Lorraine congregation, that she wished to unite 
 it with her own ; but on consulting with M. de 
 Berulle, it was thought that each institution 
 had its distinct mission, and should be left 
 quite independent. Mother Alice, therefore, 
 returned and occupied herself with the care of 
 her charge and with love for her schools. “ I 
 cannot express or explain,” writes her sister 
 Angelica, “ the zeal she had for the instruction 
 of children ; God having especially chosen her 
 
 * Eclaircissements, &c. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 33 
 
 for this vocation, had bestowed upon her extra- 
 ordinary gifts, manners, and address, which was 
 not possessed by others.” The same sister thus 
 describes her: “ She was of a mild and obliging 
 disposition and agreeable manners ; her modesty 
 was acconjpanied by a certain gravity, grace, and 
 sweetness, which, while it excited admiration, 
 made her to be feared and loved. Her presence 
 imposed respect and reserve upon those who 
 conversed with her. She was tall, straight, and 
 well made ; her shape and carriage were excellent. 
 She was fair, her skin was white and delicate, 
 her eyes blue, her nose was rather large, her 
 mouth fine, though rather flat. Her mind 
 and judgment were perfect, she was somewhat 
 reserved and circumspect in her speech, and 
 
 was of an ever tranquil and equal humour 
 
 At her sight or speech one felt a certain Divine 
 spirit, which e.xcited one to retire into oneself.” 
 She died in 10*2*2, having attained her forty- 
 seventh year. Her days had been shortened by 
 labour ' and mortification. The latter years of 
 her life were marked by horrible sufferings and 
 frightful temptations, in the midst of which her 
 faith, counige, and piety shone resplendent, 
 and singularly increased the reputation for 
 sanctity which she had some time enjoyed. At 
 her last sickness all the town was in commotion, 
 as at the approach of a great misfortune. The 
 Princess of Lorraine left her cloister to pass 
 whole days at the bedside of the sick woman, 
 and the reigning duchess hastened to attend on 
 lier. At her death crowds pressed at the convent 
 gate, and they were obliged to satisfy the popular 
 devotion in admitting them to see the body of 
 
31 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 the departed. For three days there was a con- 
 tinual stream of visitors, who presented objects 
 which they desired should touch the holy relics. 
 The watchers with difficulty prevented them 
 from seizing on the nun’s robes, in which the 
 body was clothed. She looked so beautiful in 
 death that Duke Henry could not take his eyes 
 off her, saying that he was surprised that, 
 “ having a natural horror of dead bodies, he 
 nevertheless felt it difficult to leave the body 
 of the good mother.”^ The same prince begged 
 the religious to give him her rosary beads, and 
 the duchess had the glass which she used in her 
 last illness enclosed in a golden case. The 
 whole of the nobility of the province assisted 
 at her funeral, at which the Bishop of Toul 
 officiated pontifically in the cathedral of Nancy, 
 which was solemnly decorated for the occasion 
 with the same hangings which were used for the 
 royal family. 
 
 The people at once placed Alice Leclerc in 
 the number of the saints. Particulars' of her 
 life were eagerly called for,f and it was said 
 that she had wrought miraculous cures. The 
 duke caused judicial inquiries to he instituted, 
 and w^ent himself to the Bishop of Toul to urge 
 the prosecution of the matter, and her beatifica- 
 
 * Eclaircissements, &c. 
 
 t “The reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus desire to 
 have in writing an account of the holy acts and virtues 
 which you have remarked in our Mother Alice, in order to 
 write her life. They hold her to be a great saint, and wish 
 to put forth her virtues to the world.” — Circular letter of 
 Fourier to thie houses of the congregation on the 10th of 
 March, 1622. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURTER. 
 
 35 
 
 tion was looked forward as very near. But the 
 disasters w’hich soon befel Lorraine caused a 
 delay, and the proceedings were never resumed. 
 Will not the approaching canonization of the 
 Blessed Peter Fourier be a fit occasion to return 
 to them ? Rome is the sovereign judge of such 
 matters, and she should determine the time 
 and manner of acting in the affair. In a work 
 like the present the name of the reverend Father 
 necessarily recalls that of his holy friend, and 
 the reader will doubtless have been pleased to 
 meet with some notice of a noble woman, who 
 deserves a special biography. 
 
 By her side I have placed Gante Andre, who 
 was also of a noble nature and a powerful 
 instmment of mercy. Fourier says : “ that 
 without her the Congregation of our Lady would 
 never have been established.” Let us return to 
 our old author, to whom I am indebted for such 
 precious details. “It seems that the Divine 
 goodness had prepared this woman, by bestowing 
 upon her, with a liberal hand, all the necessary 
 qualifications, to be the foundation stone of this 
 great edifice (the congregation), and strength to 
 support all the fatigues incidental to the com- 
 mencement of any great work. She was of a 
 robust and healthy constitution, and had courage 
 to overcome difficulties without suffering herself 
 to look at the obstacles in the way ; her common 
 sense was so good that the best informed men 
 were not afraid to submit to her judgment, and 
 many who had recourse to her for advice in the 
 greatest troubles said that she was fit to rule a 
 
 kingdom At the beginning of her vocation 
 
 she slept in her father’s house, on a narrow 
 
36 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 plank, and wore a belt of nail points, which 
 went three times round her waist.”* 
 
 She undertook the erection of a large convent 
 “ when she had not sufiBcient means to pay the 
 labourers’ wages for one week. But Providence 
 was always a good treasurer to her, and in order 
 to animate the workmen by her example she 
 put on some old clothes and earned stones to 
 the masons, wood to the carpenters, mixed and 
 carried the mortar, and even dug at the founda- 
 tions of the building. After this work she 
 returned to her room, where a few herbs boiled 
 in a little water, and some pieces of bread left 
 by others, were her only nourishment she took.” 
 On resigning the dignity of supeiior, “ she 
 obtained permission to be kitchen maid and 
 assist the cook, whose pardon she often begged 
 if, being occupied elsewhere, she was not at 
 hand when she wanted her, or did not do her 
 work as quickly as she required.” 
 
 Isabella dc Louvroir, the last called of the 
 five sisters of Mattaincourt, equalled her elders. 
 “ Our Father,” continues Bedel, “seeing well that 
 this girl was destined for great things, chose 
 the finest graver to impress more deeply the 
 marks of humility in her heart. Whilst they 
 were all at his school at Mattaincourt he ordered 
 her to dress herself like a beggar, covered her 
 head with old rags, put on her a cloak turned 
 upside down, which made her a perfect fright ; 
 then presenting her to Mother Gante, told her 
 to lead her about the town from door to door, 
 even to her own relations, to ask alms, as a lazy 
 
 ♦ Bedel. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 37 
 
 beggar, who had not the courage to earn her 
 livelihood. Another time, seeing a blind beggar 
 led by another, our Father asked the guide to 
 give way for the Mother Isabel, who led this poor 
 man from house to house, receiving the alms 
 which were given him, and treading under 
 feet at each step the vanities of the world and 
 the resentment w^hich nature might feel at being 
 thus treated in her birth-place. Casting out 
 from her heart every remnant of worldly affection, 
 she filled the void with the love of God and a 
 
 great zeal for His glory This zeal having 
 
 obliged her to go a journey of sixty miles from 
 her convent, she was seized with a fever on her 
 return, and she departed this life in the arms of 
 Mother Gante, her dear companion.” 
 
 Jane, her sister, died in the odour of sanctity 
 in 1635, but we have no particulars of her 
 actions in the memoirs of the time. Claudia 
 Chauvenel, the fifth of this little primitive 
 family, died in 1633. Fourier, on receiving the 
 news of her death, wrote : Who can doubt that 
 this most pure and innocent dove flew straight 
 from her cell to heaven at the moment when her 
 blessed soul left us her holy relics ! ” With her 
 ends the first generation. I cannot, however, 
 stop here in the notices of the holy women who 
 form a glory round the good Father Fourier. 
 I must make some mention of other remarkable 
 women, whom he found already prepared to 
 join him in his noble undertaking. 
 
 Mother Paula Lombert was endowed with an 
 insatiable zeal for the instruction of girls. As 
 soon as she saw that her duties in the com- 
 munity would take her from her favourite work, 
 
 E 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 she asked so imploringly to be delivered from 
 them that no one could refuse her return to the 
 midst of her dear schools. “ Towards the close 
 of her life she was so afflicted with a noise in 
 her ears that, by order of her physician, she was 
 dispensed from attending in the schools. But 
 she begged for a delay, to see what could be done, 
 not being willing to forego so sweet an employ- 
 ment, except from utter incapacity. On entering 
 the school-room she addressed herself to our 
 good Father (who was then dead) and with filial 
 confidence said boldly : “ My good Father, relieve 
 me from my malady while I am engaged in the 
 schools, otherwise I cannot instruct your little 
 ones, and you will be the cause of their remain-' 
 ing in ignorance.” She had no sooner said these 
 words than the noise ceased, and she was able 
 to acquit herself of her duty without trouble, so 
 that she was accustomed to say that she wished 
 the school were open day and night, as then 
 she should be entirely freed from her malady.* 
 
 A rich widow, Frances du Jar, had resolved to 
 found a convent of Capuchin nuns, in the town 
 of Bar-le-Duc. St. Francis of Sales, whom she had 
 consulted in Paris, advised her rather to address 
 herself to Fourier’s Congregation. She visited 
 them, and, touched by their virtues, soon joined 
 their number. This act caused a great stir. 
 The good priest wrote to his religious on the 28th 
 of April, 1620 : “It is impossible for me to tell 
 you, by word or writing, the joy and consolation 
 which I have received from the letters of Madam 
 du Jar. She will he an excellent branch of your 
 
 * Bedel. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 39 
 
 Congregation. My God ! Jbow I desire her per- 
 fection ! She is chosen by Him to be the first 
 instalment of dames and young ladies who will 
 
 henceforward join your order.” And on the 
 
 3rd of May following: “ On my arrival, last night, 
 hearing several particulars of Madam du Jar, 
 I could not refrain from crying with the other, 
 but these tears were caused by joy, by consola- 
 tion, by hope, by expectation of the great bless- 
 ings of God upon this holy soul. You would not 
 believe the number of prayers which are offered 
 up for her intention. I do not believe that there 
 has been for many centuries, a woman so entirely 
 devoted to God, and to prayer, with more delight 
 and affection. If the progress and the end agree 
 with the beginning, you will have in her a great 
 
 saint.” In effect this woman led a most 
 
 admirable life. “ Her zeal for souls excited her 
 to have a particular care of the schools. Notwith- 
 standing her high rank in the world, she delighted 
 in washing and kissing the feet of her poor 
 scholars, in sweeping the floors, working in 
 the garden, and carrying fuel like a common 
 servant.”* She died seven years after her pro- 
 fession, leaving behind her in the Congregation 
 two grand daughters, heirs of her virtues. 
 
 Madam de Gournay was professed on the day 
 of her death. “ Yesterday,! (Friday) at the same 
 hour, at which the Saviour of our souls gave up 
 His soul, on the tree of the cross for the redemp- 
 tion of the world, Madam de Gournay calmly 
 expired in your house, at Nancy, her agony 
 having lasted about as long as our Redeemer 
 
 * Bedel, f Fourier, in a letter dated 19tb Feb. 1633. 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 hung on the cross. * She made her profession 
 (having received your habit the day before) on 
 the morning of her happy death, with sentiments 
 of the most perfect joy and devotion. She ad- 
 dressed such original discourses to God, to the 
 superior, and all the sisters, in such beautiful and 
 fervent language, that the eldest of our sisters 
 were dissatisfied with themselves, and complained 
 that they neither on the day of their profession, 
 nor on any subsequent occasion, had ever been 
 
 able to express themselves so well She was 
 
 the mother of the Bishop of Scytia, who, with 
 the Bishop of Toul, is the superior of most of 
 your convents, and who honours and loves, you 
 all warmly. She was also sister to the late 
 Madam d’Apremont, your first beloved benefac- 
 tress, who laboured so opportunely in forming 
 your poor little Congregation* when it was yet 
 trembling in its cradle, despised and threatened 
 by some persons and persecuted by others.” The 
 humble Congregation received into its ranks 
 those distinguished by birth, fortune, and dignity. 
 Another widow, the Baroness de Busbach, had 
 invited some sisters to come and found a house 
 in Luxembourg. She would have wished much 
 to have been the first to enter this new asylum 
 of love, but the education of a son and two 
 daughters retained her in the world. Her eldest 
 daughter, however, embraced this happy state 
 first ; her son shortly afterwards became a Jesuit, 
 and the other daughter following her sisters ex- 
 
 * Fourier used the diminutive here in his humility 
 in speaking of his work, “votre pauvre petite congrega- 
 tionette.” — Trans. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 41 
 
 ample, nothing prevented their mother from 
 fulfilling her desire. During the twenty-one 
 years that she lived in the convent, she would 
 never consent to be anything but a lay sister. 
 Her daughter was made superior, and it was re- 
 remarked that no nun was more implicitly 
 obedient to her than her mother. 
 
 The history of the origin of these early 
 convents is very remarkable. There are few 
 whose birth is unaccompanied by some curious 
 incidents. A sovereign endows one, a lady of 
 title another ; but oftener two or three nuns start 
 on foot without any provision, live on priva 
 tions and alms, and in the end establish flourish 
 ing houses. Among them will be found women 
 of strong minds and wise heads, as well as 
 enthusiasts. A convent, at Troyes, was composed 
 of such young women, that not one of them was 
 old enough according to their rule to be superior. 
 The eldest, who was twenty-eight was chosen. 
 She governed the community for thirty-three 
 years, and having passed through all the trials of 
 famine, pestilence, and war, with admirable for- 
 titude, left a magnificent establishment. In a 
 moment of dejection, she had begged of Father 
 Fourier to release her from her charge, but his 
 answers, read by the lamp of the sanctuary, gave 
 her renewed strength. 
 
 Mother de Chomedy of the same convent, was 
 consumed with apostolic zeal. She wished, like 
 St. Teresa, to preach the faith to idolaters, and 
 die by martyrdom. She felt a particular com- 
 passion for the savages of Canada ; and as she 
 could not go to them herself she persuaded her 
 only brother to abandon all his worldly prospects* 
 
 E 2 
 
43 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 and devote himself to this mission. On his 
 arrival, at Montreal, he planted the cross, bare- 
 footed, and in 1630 (at the advice of his sister 
 who continually urged him on by her letters) 
 founded a convent of the Congregation of our 
 Lady. Three others soon followed. The reli- 
 gious were not enjoined the observance of cloister, 
 on account of the difficulties of the country, but 
 they observed this rule as a third order. They 
 instructed the children of the savages and gave 
 missions in the woods. In 1730, the King of 
 France ordered a number of these religious to 
 go to the island of Martinique; to instruct the 
 female children of the colony. 
 
 A party of sisters who had been called by the 
 Bishop of Aoste, heard on their way of the death 
 of that prelate, and the ungracious reception 
 they were likely to meet with from the autho- 
 rities of the town. They hesitated as to the 
 course to be pursued : Lorraine was in commo- 
 tion, it was, therefore, impossible to return ; they 
 resolved to proceed to their destination, trusting 
 in Providence to support them. As they passed 
 through Nantua, the people, struck by their cos- 
 tume, asked them their names, country, and profes- 
 sion, and inquired into the cause of their journey. 
 Their replies were so ingenuous and modest, that 
 they soon gained the hearts of their interrogators. 
 A wealthy man of the place received them into 
 his house ; the next day they opened a school, 
 and so pleased were the people at their manners 
 that they built them a convent. It would ap- 
 pear, that this town was in a most primitive state 
 of simplicity, for the historian of the Congrega- 
 tion relates, that “the nuns sang at High Mass 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 43 
 
 and Vespers, in their Church, which much de- 
 lighted the people, who had never heard the like 
 before.” 
 
 The convent at Rouen, owed its foundation to 
 a young lady of great beauty, who having been 
 torn from her mother’s arms by a young noble- 
 man, managed to escape by an ingenious artifice, 
 and took refuge in the house of the order at 
 Bernay, near Laon. On going to take possession 
 of the house at Rouen, she was obliged to dis- 
 guise herself as a peasant, in order to escape fall- 
 ing into the hands of the emissaries of the young 
 noble, whose passion bad not cooled during her 
 absence of three years. 
 
 A lady and her eldest daughter joined the com- 
 munity at Epinal ; at the same time, a younger 
 daughter was about to marry, but obtaining the 
 consent of her lover, she follow^ed her parents’ 
 example, and fell a victim to her zeal before the 
 end of her noviciate. 
 
 I must conclude this chapter with some ac- 
 count of the celebrated convent of Chalons-sur- 
 Marne, the first of the Congregation in France. 
 Isabella de Louvroir began its foundation in the 
 heart of the winter of 1613. One of her com- 
 panions was frost-bitten on the common cart in 
 which they travelled. They thought she was dead, 
 and animation was only restored by wrapping her 
 in a wolfs skin, which made Fourier say that this 
 tender lamb owed her life to a wolf. The priest 
 who had called them to Chalons was absent, and 
 “ they remained for some time wandering in the 
 streets without finding any assistance, like strange 
 women who had fallen from the clouds, until a 
 poor cobbler took pity on them, and bringing 
 
44 LIFE OF "the B. P. FOUKIEE. 
 
 them into his stall made a little fire, a la Cham- 
 penoise, and gave each one a small piece of 
 household bread to refresh them after their 
 painful voyage.”* 
 
 They had to struggle hard with difficulties at 
 the commencement, as the Father had forbidden 
 them to receive any thing from their relations, 
 lest people should say that “ they had been 
 entrapped for their money.” But their ardour 
 was redoubled in time of want. At Verdun, the 
 children came in such crowds that, to enable 
 them all to be instructed, it was necessary to 
 open the schools at six o’clock in the morning, 
 where the children remained till eleven, when 
 they went to take a slight and poor refection ; 
 after this they returned to their classes, which 
 they did not leave till late in the evening. If 
 any thing was necessary to be prepared for the 
 children, the sisters did it in the night, wFich 
 they devoted partly to this object and partly to 
 religious exercises, so that they allowed them- 
 selves no time for repose. They endured great 
 poverty, because they did not wish it to be known 
 in the town that they wanted any thing, in order 
 not to be a burden to any body.”t 
 
 In another place the sisters found, on their 
 arrival, that a small wooden cross was all they 
 possessed. This was long kept as a relic in the 
 house which they founded. 
 
 * Bedel. 
 
 t Eclaircissements par la Mere Angelique 
 
LIFE OF THE 
 
 BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 lE have seen the institution 
 gaining strength, extend- 
 ing itself, and carrying in 
 its dispersion the humble 
 and generous spirit of its 
 
 founder. It was now time for it to 
 
 receive the recognition of the Church. Fourier 
 had, at the outset, solicited the approbation of 
 his bishop. The members of the episcopal 
 council, however, did not much relish this 
 novelty. A new order, when there were already 
 too many — an order founded by a country priest 
 — an order, in fine, of women destined to exterior 
 works appeared useless, chimerical, and danger- 
 ous. Educated with antiquated ideas, these digni- 
 taries were not likely to see that a new era called 
 for a general revolution in the order of monastic 
 life. How^ever, after Fourier had courageously 
 explained and defended his Congregation and 
 his plans, the Grand Precenter exclaiming, with 
 a presentiment of the future, (as did Paul 3rd, in 
 the case of the Jesuits) : “ Truly, the finger of 
 God is here!'' the whole council applauded, and 
 the bishop gave his sanction to the rule of the 
 order. The Cardinal of Lorraine, legate of the 
 Holy See, also approved of it, in the name of 
 
46 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 the said see, by a rescript of the 3rd of Decem- 
 ber, 1603, and declared it to be “ most useful at 
 the present time.” 
 
 In order to raise the Congregation to the rank 
 of a regular order, a Papal bull was necessary. 
 The convent at Nancy was approved of by Paul 
 V., on the 1st of February, 1615. The dearest 
 object of Fourier, how’ever, the gratuitous instruc- 
 tion of out-door scholars, was not included in 
 this privilege. He obtained a second bull on 
 the 6th of October, 1616, authorising the recep- 
 tion of this class of pupils, as well as boarders. 
 These hulls were limited to the house at Nancy. 
 Solicitations were then made at Rome for the 
 confirmation of the entire order. The objections 
 which had all but destroyed the institute at its 
 birth, and urged in the council of the Bishop of 
 Toul, were again brought forward in a more im- 
 passioned character, envenomed by the jealousies 
 caused by success. The rivalry of certain orders 
 formed a kind of schism in many houses, and 
 led the tongue of calumny to direct its sting to 
 the whole body of orders. They sought to cor- 
 rupt the mind of the Sovereign Pontiff by shame- 
 ful artifices. During this time Fourier suffered 
 the greatest distress of mind. The depth of his 
 sorrow shows itself in a letter to some of his good 
 religious. “ These great gentlemen, who discuss 
 our affairs, and to whom the Pope has entrusted 
 the decision, say, both in the consistory and out 
 of it, to those who speak to them on the subject, 
 that our daughters are not religious ; that they 
 cannot keep enclosure in doing what they profess 
 to do, (teaching poor girls), and that their rule is 
 against the constitution of Pope Pius V. They 
 
BLESSED PETEB FOUKIER. 
 
 47 
 
 intimate their intention of writing to the ordi- 
 naries of their localities to know what they are, 
 and whether it would not be better to send 
 
 them home to their parents But what is most 
 
 odious and detestable is, that they entertain sus- 
 picions of them, and tax them with immodesty, 
 and pretend that chastity is not cultivated by 
 them in the midst of their occupations, which 
 you know is the chief object of their profession. 
 Such are the ways of that country !” Notwith- 
 
 standing these clamours, UrbanVII I. promulgated 
 on the 8th August, 1 628, a bull full of encourage- 
 ment. “ Considering that the holy Apostolic 
 See has always had a care, with no less wisdom 
 and vigilance than liberality, of the education 
 and instruction of Christian youth by the foun- 
 dations of divers Roman Pontiffs and the gifts 
 of princes, but that the public instruction of 
 young girls has not been yet undertaken in the 
 manner it ought be, whence it followed that their 
 parents' means being insufficient to meet the expense, 
 the training of women in the paths of virtue seemed 
 
 to be neglected we have thought that we should 
 
 fulfil a duty of our pastoral charge in favouring 
 the designs of virgins offering to Jesus Christ, 
 under the yoke of religion, a holocaust of their 
 chastity, and feeling compassion for the weakness 
 of poor girls, take upon themselves the care of 
 their education. Therefore, having lately been 
 presented with a petition, showing that the Holy 
 
 See had erected a convent at Nancy and that 
 
 several bishops, on their own authority, had 
 established simil 9 .r houses...... in which virgins 
 
 full of zeal advance the public welfare by apply- 
 ing themselves with all possible piety, usefulness, 
 
48 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 and disinterestedness to the instruction of girls, 
 admitting within their schools the poor, the rich, 
 and the noble, in order to train them to live 
 worthily and honestly, but especially omitting 
 nothing to preserve these tender children in all 
 innocence, and to embellish their souls with 
 virtues which ordinarily accompany a good edu- 
 cation In this task these religious have 
 
 succeeded in obtaining the applause of prelates, 
 
 magistrates, citizens, and people It is not 
 
 yet determined to what particular rule, among 
 those under the name of St. Augustine, they 
 should be attached, but they wish to follow that 
 of the regular canons which flourish in their 
 country.” The Pontiff then confirms in per- 
 petuity “ the institute of these mothers and 
 their convents and houses he gives them the 
 title of “ Regular Canonesses of St, Augustine of 
 the Congregation of our Lady;'' and authorizes 
 them to make a fourth vow of consecrating 
 themselves to education. 
 
 Until the end of the sixteenth century the 
 orders of women were almost exclusively devoted 
 to prayer and penance. A nun charged with 
 a mission out of the cloister was unknown, for 
 the Hospitalieresf who dedicated themselves 
 to the care of pilgrims and the sick, took no 
 vows, not being, properly speaking, religious. 
 Fourier was one of the first to introduce this 
 great innovation, of an active life into the con- 
 ventual discipline of women, an apostolic labour, 
 as he feared not to call it. This work, of the 
 greatest importance, raised quite a new order 
 of ideas. It took part in the general trans- 
 formation which the religious life underwent at 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 49 
 
 this period ; the Jesuits, the Lazarists, the 
 Oratorians, the Sulpicians. &c., substituted the 
 name of Company or Society for that of Order ; 
 the hierarchial titles were simplified or assumed 
 a more militant character, and costumes were 
 adopted similar to the dress of the secular 
 clergy. In this spirit Fourier adopted the name 
 of Congregation, and forbad, by an express 
 article in their rule, the assumption of the title 
 of Abbess or Prioress.* This was, however, the 
 only advance made at this time ; he did not 
 dare to go farther, but maintained, as necessary 
 for an order of women, strict enclosure, joined 
 with great precautions, to the exercise of duties 
 towards persons in the world. It was reserved 
 for St. Vincent of Paul to place his religious in 
 the midst of the world, telling them : “ Charity 
 would be their veil.” 
 
 The prominent characteristic of Fourier’s in- 
 stitute is the union of the contemplative with 
 the active life ; the duties of Mary with those of 
 Martha. The realization of this idea is his 
 constant aim in his admirable Constitutions, the 
 fruit of forty years of study and experience. 
 These are, however, but the development of 
 the original plan of the year 1600, and ought, 
 •therefore, to be assigned to that period. They 
 form a large volume, divided into five parts. 
 
 • “ The superior of a convent shall never take the title 
 of Abbess, of Prioress, or of Madam, or any other special 
 title which is appropriated to the nuns of various orders ; 
 they shall be content with this good name of Mother, which 
 title is the most sweet, the most amiable, the most natural, 
 and one which is full of charity and affection .’* — Regies de 
 la Congregation de Notre Dame. 
 
 F 
 
60 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 The third part, entitled “ The Education of Child- 
 ren,” is subdivided into two chapters, the first 
 being “ On the Management of Boarders,” and the 
 second on “The Instruction of Day Scholars.” 
 
 I have before considered the importance of the 
 education of the female children of the middle 
 class by religious bodies ; Fourier’s rules on this 
 subject are full of wisdom, and their perusal will 
 afford matter of great interest. But the teaching 
 of the people was the particular object of the 
 Father’s rule, and, I must own, has more claims 
 upon my attention. I shall, therefore, give the 
 preference to some extracts from that portion of 
 the Constitutions which is devoted to the gratui- 
 tous instruction of the poor. 
 
 The preamble of the chapter contains the 
 following words : “ It is most expedient and 
 essential for the good of the poor children, their 
 fathers and mothers, and the families they will 
 one day rule, and of the commonwealth itself, 
 that they should be early brought up and care- 
 fully instructed in the fear of God, and as much 
 as possible, in every thing which can be of service 
 to them in enabling them to get their living.” 
 This is to be done with a view of preventing 
 them from falling into misery. Nothing, indeed, 
 lends so much to this as accustoming the women' 
 to labour. The rule adds : “ The nuns will 
 strive to teach their little scholars whatever lies 
 in their power as religious to do, and which will 
 be fitting for girls in the world to practice, to 
 please God, their parents, and others belonging 
 to them. To dispose them in such manner, as 
 to make them possess a becoming exterior, joined 
 to a pure interior ; to exercise them in the holy 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 51 
 
 love of God and a sincere charity for their neigh- 
 bours ; to conduct themselves wisely among the 
 rich and great of the earth, and in times of 
 poverty, neglect, and want ; to enable them to see 
 and provide in all prudence, and in time for the 
 necessities of the present life, and the wants of 
 their bodies, and all directed with especial regard 
 to a happy eternity.” Here is a noble model for 
 female education, — the education, it must be re- 
 membered, of the daughters of the poor. If they 
 were all brought up in this manner, what a 
 regeneration would take place in society. Our 
 good Father has a particular care of their 
 temporal welfare. In a petition which he pre- 
 sented at Rome, to obtain the canonical recogni- 
 tion of his religious, he writes : “ that it has 
 been a subject of remark and admiration that 
 the children who pass under their care undergo 
 a wonderful reformation. It is seen that in a 
 short time they learn, without much trouble, 
 manual occupations, especially the poorer sort, 
 who were before ignorant of any thing by which 
 they might earn their livelihood, but who now 
 support themselves honourably, and even contri- 
 bute to the means of their poor widowed mothers 
 and their young brothers and sisters.” 
 
 He thus makes manual labour occupy a large 
 share in the education of the poor. They are 
 
 likewise to be taught “the Catechism a love 
 
 of virtue, of good works, and of Christian man- 
 ners civility, and propriety of behaviour 
 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, sewing and other 
 feminine occupations, and w'hatever may be of 
 use to those who are likely to have need of their 
 services.” 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 Each of these points is made the subject of 
 instruction, full of mildness and grandeur, of 
 charming simplicity, and of consummate science. 
 It is most admirable to see this great man de- 
 scend to the most minute details of the charge 
 of a class. His method, was, moreover, quite 
 new. I doubt whether the germ of the invention 
 attributed to the Venerable de la Salle,* as well 
 as another of a more recent date, may not be 
 found in blessed Fourier’s plan. The only 
 system of teaching hitherto practised was that 
 given by one master to all his scholars succes- 
 sively, whence there resulted absence of emula- 
 tion, distaste for learning, little progress, and 
 loss of time : since, in a class of thirty children, 
 each child can receive but one lesson of eight 
 or ten minutes a day, whilst the others are idle 
 during the time he receives it. This defective 
 system was the only one followed, and it is yet, 
 at the present time, in more than seven thousand 
 schools in France. 
 
 The mechanism of the class is as follows, 
 according to Fourier’s plan : — “ Each division 
 shall contain sixteen or eighteen scholars, who 
 shall be ruled, instructed, and directed by a 
 mistress. Each mistress shall arrange her 
 scholars, placing them in pairs, not according 
 to their age or station, but as to their knowledge, 
 so that, by attending to the other’s reading, they 
 may take one another up, and thus strive piously 
 for the mastery.” And further, with regard to 
 reading : “ When a mistress gives a lesson she 
 
 * Founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. — 
 Trans. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 53 
 
 shall place the first pair on either side of her 
 desk ; the best scholar shall then read her lesson, 
 while the other, listening, shall correct all the 
 
 faults she may make The second shall then 
 
 read in her turn, while the first listens and 
 corrects her. If either sufier a fault to pass in 
 the other without correction, it shall be accounted 
 a fault for the one so missing.” And again : 
 “ The mistress shall pronounce all the words 
 in a loud voice, and the children shall repeat 
 
 them after her They shall say them either 
 
 in pairs, or in parties of five or six together.” 
 There is but a step from this system to the 
 simultaneous method of teaching. The Venerable 
 de la Salle wrote his rule in 1680. Had he not 
 seen those of Fourier, printed in 1640 ? Surely 
 he who made educational institutions his study 
 knew the convent of the religious of the “good 
 Father of Mattaincourt,” at Rheims. The first 
 idea of any new discovery is alwavs buried some- 
 where, until some powerful agent causes it to 
 sprirg up. This method of correcting one child 
 by another had but to be generalised to form 
 the mutual system of instruction. 
 
 These glimmerings of modern plans occurring 
 two centuries ago are doubtless remarkable facts. 
 Nor will the broad, methodical, and liberal man- 
 ner of Fourier, in expounding religious questions, 
 appear less striking. “ The mistresses,” says 
 he, “ shall explain the Catechism simply and 
 clearly, without seeking any extraneous matter 
 or subtle or far-fetched questions. They may, 
 however, introduce anecdotes, taking care that 
 they be true and selected with prudence.” 
 
 His remarks on the conduct to be pursued by 
 
 F 2 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 the religious towards the Protestant children will 
 be read with interest : “If any girl of this pre- 
 tended reformed religion should be found among 
 your pupils, treat her kindly and charitably ; do 
 not permit the other children to molest or taunt 
 her. Be not hasty in asking her to renounce 
 her errors, nor speak harshly of her religion, but, 
 as occasions may offer, praise ours; and speaking 
 in general terms to all your scholars, show how 
 beautiful and reasonable are its holy precepts and 
 practices. Particularly impress on their minds 
 the fear of God, and that children owe the greatest 
 
 respect and love to their parents A holy love 
 
 of God, and obedience to His commandments, 
 should also be assiduously inculcated. You will 
 avoid offending or estranging these poor wander- 
 ers, and if they are diligent bestow due praise 
 upon their labour and work, and, instead of 
 religious pictures or rosaries, which are given to 
 the Catholic children as prizes, bestow on them 
 some gilt paper, a beautiful pen, or something of 
 a kind that they will not disdain.”* In speak- 
 ing of the exercises of j)iety proper to be taught 
 the children, he recommends them “ to choose 
 the most enticing and easy forms, and such as 
 are appropriate to their weakness, and never to 
 force them, or tire them with exacting too much. 
 To pay particular attention to the works of 
 mercy, to the performance of which they should 
 be frequently excited, or at least they should be 
 often exercised in prayer to the Almighty for the 
 necessities of others, in order that when their 
 age and position may enable them they may 
 
 * Letter written on the 27th of February, 1624. 
 
BLESSED PETEB FOURIER. 
 
 55 
 
 succour the unfortunate in a more substantial 
 manner.” And wishing the children to pray 
 “ at the Angelus and other times and occasions 
 of the day,” he adds : “ if it be possible and 
 convenient, and their mothers permit it.” Thus 
 nothing was to be forced or overstrained, but on 
 all occasions a sincere desire was to be shown to 
 follow the wishes of the parents. He is espe- 
 cially anxious for them to excite generous and 
 benevolent sentiments in the minds of their 
 scholars. “ They shall be instructed to bear in 
 their hearts and show in their conduct a great 
 love and reverence for their parents, to pay them 
 the most implicit obedience, and to strive always 
 
 to satisfy, comfort, and please them to love 
 
 their grandparents and aunts and uncles, and 
 pay them all respect. They shall show them- 
 selves affectionate and true sisters to their brothers 
 
 and sisters and take care not to offend or 
 
 despise any one of their companions, however 
 poor or mean she may be. They shall love them 
 all in God, and live together in good peace.” 
 
 The following is a charming picture of the 
 duties of a young woman. “ Modesty and humility 
 are bright ornaments in girls, and render them 
 most pleasing, and are the greatest helps to 
 
 preserve their purity Those who are grown 
 
 up shall be warned to prepare themselves and 
 be always ready to resist firmly the temptations 
 which will arise from their own bodies, the 
 
 world and the devil The mistresses will also 
 
 give them instructions on the guard they must 
 constantly put on their eyes, their movements, 
 
 and their words and show them how to 
 
 conduct themselves at church, in their homes, at 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 table, in their walks through the town, and in 
 speaking and writing to their relations and 
 friends. They shall be also strictly enjoined 
 to keep their persons and clothes clean and neat. 
 The mistresses will take care to observe every 
 thing suited to the condition of each of their 
 little scholars ; they will also consult the desires 
 and washes of their parents, and beware of placing 
 before them anything which is only proper for 
 religious. They shall carefully instruct them to ob- 
 serve a great respect for one another, accompanied 
 with charity, meekness, and Christian civility...” 
 
 The completeness of this system of education 
 is remarkable, every thing that is necessary for 
 the formation of women is observed, and, indeed, 
 a superior style of education is followed than 
 is generally considered necessary for the lower 
 orders. His method tends directly to some useful 
 purpose. “ The children shall be taught to write 
 receipts, and bills of goods, &c. The more 
 advanced shall also be occasionally exercised in 
 composition ; they shall be made to write letters 
 to their companions on various subjects. They 
 shall be taught to speak and pronounce correctly 
 the language of their province, yet without any 
 affectation or ostentation.” 
 
 The good Father overlooked nothing that was 
 likely to concur in the realisation of his plans 
 for female educational reform. In one of his 
 letters dated 29th November, 1625, he writes : 
 “Do you not think it advisable to wean the 
 children from their profane songs by the Congre- 
 gation singing to them the Psalms of David, to 
 some easy and pleasing airs ? I think this would 
 be advantageous to all the people, for these little 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 57 
 
 ones (fillettes ) growing up and becoming mothers 
 may, in their turn, sing them to their children 
 and others, and may thencefrom draw great con- 
 solation and beautiful instruction. I have a 
 long time entertained the desire of hearing the 
 women of Mattaincourt, in summer, while spin- 
 ning, and on winter evenings by their warm 
 firesides, and at all times, at their different 
 occupations, singing some devout canticles 
 instead of engaging in scandal, and other vain 
 and foolish and even wicked conversation. For 
 this purpose we have the faithful, intelligible, (as 
 far such things can be) and approved translation 
 of Philip Desportes. You can have a new 
 edition, handsomely printed, for the express use 
 of the Congregation. Think a little over this, 
 and you will do well to communicate it to his 
 lordship the bishop. How delightful the accom- 
 plishment of this idea seems to me !” I know 
 not whether this design was carried out ; it appears 
 to have been favourably received, for Fourier 
 writes in January, 1626, thus: “It seems to me, 
 in reading what you have written upon the 
 Psalms, that you imagine that I have translated 
 them, and wish them to be printed from my own 
 
 manuscript. Truly you are joking It was 
 
 Father Desportes’ version I spoke of, and which 
 I have heard much praised by several great 
 minds. I am glad to hear, and thank God, that 
 the bishop approves of this devotion.” He enters 
 with minute detail into the subject of manual 
 employments. “ The scholars who wash to learn 
 to work shall be taught to sew, to make lace,” 
 (the principal employment of the women in that 
 province), and all other kinds of needlework. 
 
58 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 The out-door pupils shall be instructed in such 
 common work as may be useful to them. They 
 need not be taught rare or expensive work. The 
 v^ork and the lessons should be so divided as to 
 relieve one another, paying particular attention 
 that the children of the poor or of a better con- 
 dition, who desire to get through much work in 
 order to sell it, shall be urged to make great 
 diligence and to lose no time. The religious 
 will watch carefully over their young charge, and 
 repress every rising sign of sloth, negligence, or 
 disgust at work among them. He ordered a 
 table of the several duties of the scholars to be 
 drawn up. The religious were frequently to call 
 their attention to this card, and say to them : 
 “ Most dear children and good scholars of the 
 Mother of God, in keeping these regulations you 
 will learn well in this school, and being blessed 
 by God, and agreeable to heaven and earth, you 
 will become useful to your fathers and mothers, 
 and, in faithfully discharging your duties, you 
 will be happy both in this world and in the next.” 
 
 On their part the mistresses are instructed “not 
 to show any signs of anger, impatience, or dis- 
 dain, or to be harsh, or vexed with those who 
 find a difficulty in learning. They must not 
 call them stupid, foolish, or bad girls, or speak 
 to them crossly, or strike them, or push them 
 roughly, but rather act patiently and mildly 
 with them, making excuses for them, and en- 
 couraging them to perseverance If the child- 
 
 ren enter or quit the school disorderly, as children 
 wdll do sometimes, they shall not be scolded or 
 
 threatened and if any immodesty should be 
 
 perceived, the mistress shall seek some occasion 
 
BLESSED PETER FOUPvIER. 
 
 59 
 
 of quietly reproving the offender at her lesson. 
 No words of contempt, raillery, or mockery shall 
 pass between them, or against others, whether 
 they be present or absent, nor shall they be more 
 familiar with, or partial to some than they are to 
 others.” I must continue my quotations from 
 this beautiful chapter of the good Father’s rules. 
 Fourier fears not to overcharge his religious ; at 
 the same time, the most moving examples and 
 elevated ideas are called forth to inspire the 
 sisters with a love for their duties. Nor are 
 they indifferently selected for the care of the 
 children’s education. “ Mother Superior will be 
 careful in her choice of sisters who appear the 
 most fitted, and best disposed for this charge. 
 She will select those who are most healthy and 
 cheerful, who have the best constitutions, are 
 courageous and obedient, and have sufficient 
 zeal to bear the fatigue of this holy work. They 
 should also be well tried in humility, modesty, 
 patience, and obedience, being laborious, discreet, 
 devout, and fervent ; in a word, good religious 
 
 and true daughters of the Blessed Virgin 
 
 Being elected, they will return their humble 
 thanks to the Almighty for having deigned to 
 employ them in this work, which is nearly allied 
 to that of the good angels of these girls, and 
 which will be amply repaid from the treasury 
 of heaven. They will thenceforward take courage 
 and fear nothing, but steadfastly and betimes 
 devote themselves to study, work, diligence, and, 
 above all, to prayer, for the happy success of 
 
 their humble labours ” 
 
 He then crowns his work with announcing the 
 great and new principle of gratuitous education. 
 
60 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 “ In order that our Lord may be their only pay- 
 master and to give every facility to the 
 
 poorest children as well as to the rich, they shall 
 teach gratuitously — purely for the love of God, 
 and shall neither ask or accept of any thing 
 either from the scholars or their parents, or from 
 others in their name.” And this devotednes?^ to 
 the instruction of the poor he guards with pre- 
 cautions as a delicate and fragile object. “ In 
 order to keep themselves particularly clear from 
 all suspicion on this subject, they will receive no 
 present from any of these persons under what- 
 ever pretext it may be offered, even though the 
 donor should declare that they do not give it on 
 
 account of the scholars They will not ask the 
 
 children or their friends for any thing towards 
 the purchase of brooms for cleaning the school- 
 rooms, for making benches or desks or mending 
 
 broken windows all this must be done at the 
 
 expense of the community.” 
 
 The education of the poor, thus defined, is the 
 inalienable patrimony of the Congregation : “All 
 the convents of the Congregation shall be obliged 
 for ever to maintain schools for the instruction 
 of poor girls, to esteem and cherish it as the 
 essential part of their holy institute, which they 
 
 must never abandon If from any unforeseen 
 
 event as war, plague, or some other grave cause, 
 it shall be deemed absolutely necessary to inter- 
 rupt the course of instruction in any part, the 
 danger having passed, it shall be immediately 
 resumed The religious alone shall be em- 
 
 ployed for this purpose, and their place shall 
 never be supplied by lay sisters, servants, or any 
 other women whatever.” 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 61 
 
 This work forms the subject of a fourth vow, 
 which is placed on the same footing as the three 
 ordinary vows of religion. On the day of her 
 profession, the religious having vowed “perpetual 
 poverty, chastity, and obedience,” adds, that she 
 will never consent to the instruction of young girls 
 being abandoned, I have lately heard this vow 
 pronounced, in a firm hut low voice, by a young 
 lady who had possessed all the riches and graces 
 which the world esteem. She thus consecrated 
 herself with all her soul to these poor little ones. 
 But the charm of the contrast, and the beauty 
 of the sacrifice, were not the only ideas which 
 struck me. This vow, two centuries old, always 
 being renewed and never to cease, appeared 
 truly sublime. I thought of a recent decree of 
 our legislative assembly ; I admired the initiatory 
 and enduring spirit of religion, and, notwith- 
 standing the immense resources of public instruc- 
 tion, this provident vow of the good Father 
 appeared to me not to be thought little of. In 
 spite of revolutions, of neglect, and error, as 
 long as a daughter of Fourier survives will the 
 bread of knowledge be dispensed to woman. 
 
 My first intention in opening the Book of 
 Constitutions was to confine my attention to 
 that portion of it relating to instruction. But 
 when at first, from distraction, I turned to the 
 other parts, I could not resist the strong feeling 
 I had to read the whole volume. There are 
 few works so interesting, and although dry and 
 minute details will be found,* yet the interior of 
 
 * The venerable author says himself of his Constitutions ; 
 “ They are simple, clear, and intelligible, rather diffuse in 
 
 G 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 a cloistered and hidden life so unknown to the 
 world ; the organization of this distinct kingdom, 
 with its peculiar life ; that confidence and love on 
 which is founded a direction ever tending to the 
 perfectioning of the soul ; these are uncommon 
 subjects of observation. Several chapters in which 
 the defects of character, and the good and evil 
 inclinations in novices are analysed, in a masterly 
 style, show a profound knowledge of the human 
 heart, and great ability in its direction. Others 
 such as the “portrait of the superioress — the 
 mother of mercy and of consolation,” portray 
 a charming picture of the union of the Sisters 
 which breathes a sweet air of happiness and 
 peace. There are many pleasing features in the 
 style of the Constitutions; and we sometimes 
 meet with flights of the imagination worthy of 
 St. Francis of Sales. Like him, the good Fourier, 
 had the art of infusing into all he wrote a spiri- 
 tual and poetic feeling. The least duties of the 
 house are raised in dignity, and associated with 
 some pious allusion. Thus “the religious having 
 the care of the garden, can imagine her maiden 
 body and soul to be an enclosed garden w^ell 
 pleasing to heaven, and which, in every season, 
 brings forth all kinds of good fruit,.. she will 
 thus employ her skill and industry to cultivate 
 and adorn the garden, so as to render it an 
 agreeable place of recreation for the servants of 
 God.... She will take care to reserve a portion for 
 the production of beautiful and sweet-smelling 
 
 some parts, and often descending to remarks which may 
 be thought of little consequence, without attention to which, 
 however, strict discipline can hardly be preserved.’* 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 63 
 
 flowers, for the use of the Church and the infir- 
 mary.” He is very fond of metaphors and 
 images. He says: “ The Congregation will choose 
 from the treasures which are contained in the 
 Catechism some select pieces, and make of them, 
 as it were, a sanctuary, or cabinet, filled with 
 large pearls of inestimable value, with bracelets 
 and earrings of gold, and other exquisite orna- 
 ments, to enrich the scholars and adorn them 
 
 like princesses and young ladies of rank The 
 
 precious stones and jewels will be certain acts of 
 devotion and other good practises in honour of 
 our Lord.” “Chastity” he calls “the crown of 
 angels and their glory. Those yirgins dedicated 
 to God, those saintly spouses of the Holy Ghost, 
 are true angels upon earth. Let us guard with 
 most jealous care their virgin hearts and doves* 
 eyes.” 
 
 It is difficult to quit this graceful and flowery 
 path, but I must desist. Enough has already 
 been given to enable my readers to judge of the 
 blessed Fourier’s rule, as great in design as it 
 is charming in form. We must not forget that 
 it is not merely a philosophical or literary w^ork, 
 on the library shelf, but a living reality, a code 
 perpetually practised, under which so many still 
 live and die happily.* 
 
 * There are thirty houses of the Congregation (three of 
 which are in Paris) in France and Germany. 
 
CHAPTER y. 
 
 (HE good Father, in the midst of the 
 success of his new and flourishing 
 family, often turned his thoughts towards 
 that desolate house to which his early vows 
 attached him. The remembrance of Chaumousey 
 filled his soul with sadness ; the opprobrium 
 which had fallen on his habit wrung from him 
 tears of shame and of pity, and, doubtless, 
 excited strong desires in his mind. Not, indeed, 
 that he then thought of reforming the Canons, so 
 improperly at that time called Regular. Had he 
 entertained this project and judged himself able 
 to execute it, he certainly would not have suc- 
 ceeded. The first condition required for success 
 in religious works, is a distrust in one’s own 
 strength. Besides, man is powerless in changing 
 the heart of his fellow men. Of this the history 
 of monastic reforms in the 17th century aflbrds 
 incontestible proof. Kings and princes of the 
 Church, with all the prestige of powder and talent, 
 fail in their efforts ; though they only attempt a 
 partial amelioration in relaxing the rule to render 
 it more practicable. A saint appears, and in an 
 instant thousands return to the primitive severity 
 of discipline. This profound mystery is readily 
 
LIFE OF THE B. P. FOURIEK. 
 
 65 
 
 unravelled by the Christian, while it defies the 
 explanation of the rationalist. 
 
 It may be well in this place to describe the 
 position of the religious orders at this epoch. 
 Dom Calmet* speaks of them in terms of great 
 severity, and of the degraded state into which 
 many houses had fallen. A single fact wdll show 
 what kind of men formed their inmates. The 
 Cardinal of Lorraine, having been commissioned 
 by the Holy See to effect the reform of that 
 duchy, signified his intention of acting in his 
 capacity of Abbot of St. Mihiel. The monks, 
 hearing of the approach of the Apostolic Com- 
 missaries, fortified themselves behind their 
 embattled walls and threatened to fire if they 
 advanced. However, the Cardinal was not to be 
 daunted. To speak only of the Regular Canons, 
 he assembled the heads of all their houses on 
 the 7th of July, 1595, and opened the sitting in 
 an eloquent harangue. “ They were so dazzled 
 by the brilliancy of this scarlet f (robed priest), 
 which spoke to them in so reasonable a manner, 
 that they made some stir, feigned a desire of 
 drawing up new constitutions and promised 
 w^onders.J” There remained but one difficulty 
 — that of putting these fine words into execution. 
 Another attempt was made in 1604. An abbot 
 was selected to make the inspection of the 
 monasteries. He, however, neglected to reform 
 himself : “ The devil, seeing him come to attack 
 him, in a beautiful carriage and wuth a long train 
 
 • Hist, de Lorraine. 
 
 + Alluding to the colour of the Cardinal’s dress. — Tram. 
 J Bedel. Vie du Tres Eev. Pere Fourier. 
 
 G 2 
 
66 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 of pages and servants, felt so confident of his 
 position that he did not even deign to stir a 
 foot.”^ Matters, therefore, went on as before, 
 and whilst the Benedictines had possessed their 
 admirable reform of St. Vanne, the canons con- 
 tinued to live in a state of disorder, the more 
 striking from the contrast. The Bishop of Toul, 
 (Mgr. des Porcelets de Maillane), a great prelate 
 and one equal to the times, saw well that another 
 Didier de la Cour was wanted. His eyes fell 
 naturally on the good Cure of Mattaincourt, and 
 he obtained from Rome, in 1621, a brief, naming 
 Fourier Visitor-general of the Abbeys of Lorraine, 
 with full power of redressing abuses, of re- 
 establishing ancient discipline, and of punishing 
 the guilty, f Our Father thus became, in spite 
 of himself, engaged in this work. His bishop 
 urgently pressed him to commence without delay. 
 “ In the name of God, Sir,” he writes to Fourier 
 on the 16th of May, 1622 : “ let it please you to 
 
 come instantly to our assistance Pray make 
 
 no delay for I can wait no longer. Come, and 
 let us commence immediately.” 
 
 An appeal was made to all the religious, but 
 four alone attended to the summons. To these 
 were added two students of the university, and 
 fully convinced that they must not look for suc- 
 cess on the strength of the means employed, did 
 
 * Bedel. 
 
 f At the same time Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld invited 
 the Abbe Fourier to come and establish the reform of his 
 Abbey of St. Genevieve, in Paris. He could not accept 
 this proposal. The reform was afterwards brought about 
 by Father Faure, in the Regular Canons of France, who 
 constitute a distinct Congregation. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 67 
 
 our blessed Peter and his companions enter the 
 retreat which was to prepare them for their 
 warfare. All the houses of their order shut 
 their doors against them. They were, however, 
 received into the Abbey of St. Mary Major, of 
 Pont-a-Mousson, belonging to the Premonstra- 
 tensians,* which order had lately been reformed 
 by Servais Lairuel. Nor did Didier de la Cour 
 refuse his sympathetic aid to our holy Father, 
 but often did pious communications pass between 
 him and the cloister of St. Vanne.f Thus again 
 were the three friends of youth united in after 
 life, to assist one in his efforts to bring about 
 what the other two had happily accomplished. 
 
 The little exiled colony exercised themselves 
 in prayer and study. Their chief, surrounded 
 by his youthful confreres, inspired them with 
 fervour, and seemed to have renewed his youth. 
 His heart overflowed with joy. “ It is a great 
 subject for which to praise God,” he writes, “ and 
 to hope for great things from Him through this 
 small but most holy regiment, to see them so 
 united, so virtuous, so resigned, and so full of 
 joy and of charity.” 
 
 The bishop took the greatest interest in their 
 labours, and he often escaped from his palace 
 in order to spend some days quietly with them. 
 He went to find repose and to join them in 
 their exercises, which he shared even as regards 
 the humblest duties, several times sweeping 
 
 * So called from the yalley of Premonte, in the forest of 
 Coney, where their first house was situated. — Trans. 
 
 + Celebrated Benedictine Abbey at Verdun, in Lorraine. 
 — Trans. 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 their cells v^ith his own twice consecrated hands. 
 Our blessed Father, now nearly a sexagenarian, 
 entered into all the fatigues of the noviciate, and 
 nothing could be more charming than the sim- 
 plicity which appeared in his conduct. He 
 pretended to have no hand in the business in 
 which he was the prime mover ; he most naively 
 considered himself as nothing, and referred all 
 to his bishop. “I cannot tell you,” he writes, 
 “ how much care and earnestness, what time, 
 watching, and money, the Bishop of Toul devotes 
 to this work. At present this is the sole object 
 of his mind. He wishes me to set about it 
 immediately, although I am sure I know not 
 of what possible use I am or can be. But he is my 
 bishop, my superior, and my benefactor ; I am his 
 priest, his subject, his vicar, and his religious, and 
 I therefore am bound to yield him all obedience.” 
 
 Some of his nuns having written to beg of 
 him to come to them, he thus answered them : 
 “ I serve no purpose here but to eat the bread 
 of these good religious, and give them but sorry 
 edification, so that one of these days they will 
 send me away as a worthless idler, and then I 
 shall have plenty of time to see you.” And to 
 others : “ My only business here is in the grace 
 of God, but I hope that I shall be driven hence 
 towards Easter, when they wull have had enough 
 of me, since I do no good, and only deceive the 
 bishop, who expected from me much more than 
 he has found, as I told him would be the 
 case.” The prelate paid little attention to his 
 prophecy, but kept him for four years, by which 
 time the religious of every house in Lorraine 
 had adopted the reform, and pronounced the 
 
BLESSED PETEE FOURIER. 
 
 69 
 
 TOWS which bound them to the new Congrega- 
 tion. Fourier, fearing lest he should be elected 
 general, delayed renewing his until a religious, 
 thirty years old, who gave signs of a long life, 
 had been appointed. But we shall see that 
 heaven decreed otherwise, in order to place him 
 at the head of the order, the restoration of which 
 he had so happily completed. 
 
 I can only give a passing glance at the splendid 
 Constitutions which he gave the religious, and of 
 which Urban YIII. said : “ If I knew a canon 
 who strictly observed this rule, I would canonize 
 him before his death.” In effect, it contains the 
 whole evangelical perfection, as defined by the 
 Scriptures and the Fathers. The same master 
 mind is recognised in them as in the Constitu- 
 tions for his nuns, the same knowledge of hearts, 
 and, with a more manly tone, an equal unction 
 of charity; the same spirit of organisation and 
 foresight ever occupied with the new wants of 
 the times, and a strong tendency to direct all to 
 the practical utility of society. 
 
 The Institute of Regular Canons allows of the 
 exercise of the pastoral ministry and of preaching. 
 Its reformer wished to add a third obligation, 
 and one of more universal application ; his idea 
 was to give this ancient order the charge of the 
 instruction of youth. The education of the poor, 
 by the religious orders, was the grand object of 
 his heart. Having realised one division of the 
 subject, the present seemed a favourable oppor- 
 tunity for renewing the other at first so unsuc- 
 cessful. The reader has not forgot his first 
 attempts at Mattaincourt, when his hopes were 
 frustrated by the inconstancy of his subjects. 
 
70 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 But now “ seeing the novices so ardently burning 
 with the desire of doing good, he hesitated not 
 to lay before them his wishes and plans which 
 were not merely to combat for the reform of 
 certain houses, scattered here and there over the 
 country, but to draw a little world out of the 
 
 deluge of spiritual evil and particularly to 
 
 make war on ignorance, teaching, gratuitously, 
 
 boys, as the nuns taught the girls Without 
 
 wishing to reap other people’s harvest, he only 
 desired to glean w^hat they had left ; to throw 
 the schools open to rich and poor boys, as 
 soon as they had come to the use of reason ; to 
 teach them reading, writing, and sufficient Latin 
 
 to enable them to enter the colleges If 
 
 any of the students, not washing to make this 
 course but knowing reading and WTiting, desired 
 to enter the w^orld, they should be asked, as well 
 as their parents, what trade they intended to 
 follow, and then instruction was to be given them 
 for some months in such things as might be 
 most useful to enable them to follow it, and to 
 improve their temporal and spiritual life.”* 
 
 It was the counterpart of the nuns’ mission. 
 The deputation which our saint sent to Borne in 
 1627, to obtain their recognition, were charged 
 to ask the same favour for the Canons. We see 
 in the instructions which he gave them how dear 
 
 * Bedel. The blessed Fourier also projected the esta- 
 blishment of a seminary, as we learn from the same author: 
 “I have heard him speak of his intention of asking the 
 bishops not to allow any person to enter upon the care 
 of souls, before he presented an attestation from one of our 
 houses, declaring him to be versed in pastoral functions 
 and in the direction of souls.” 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 71 
 
 the design was to his heart. “ Regarding our 
 wished-for 'schools, it will be well to show that as 
 the boys who do not wish to learn Latin, and 
 others before they enter college, have no religious 
 body to take charge of them, at least in this part, 
 it seems that it is as it were a kind of vacant 
 benefice in the Church of God. Let us, there- 
 fore, humbly petition for it.” 
 
 He devised an ingenious method of gaining 
 the Pope’s goodwill towards his proposition. 
 “ Since our holy Father is fond of poetry, it 
 seems to me that it would be well to write a few 
 pretty lines for a new year’s gift, introducing the 
 little children of Lorraine, beyond the moun- 
 tains, in two groups, boys and girls, wishing him 
 a ‘ Happy new year,’ and in the background place 
 some pious men and women who, retired from 
 the world and freed from the slavery of marriage, 
 devote themselves to the voluntary, gratuitous, 
 and constant instruction of these children in the 
 fear of God.” 
 
 But having granted this boon, as we have seen, 
 to religious women, Rome thought proper to 
 refuse the vacant benefice (as Fourier beautifully 
 expressed it) to the Canons. It was not thought 
 a sufficiently dignified office for priests. Thus the 
 Brothers of the Christian doctrine, to whom the 
 charge of the instruction of youth was confided a 
 century later, by a bull of Benedict XIII., in 1724, 
 were not allowed to aspire to the priestly order. 
 
 Urban VIII., however, confirmed by a bull, 
 dated the Feast of St. Augustine, 1628, the reform 
 in Lorraine of the Regular Canons, under the title 
 of Congregation of our Saviour, like unto that of 
 our Lady, as are the names of Brother and Sister. 
 
72 
 
 LIF / OF THE 
 
 The Canons did not, however, entirely abandon 
 their educational scheme. They had several 
 colleges which were according to the testimony 
 of Dom Calmet, “sources of great reputation to 
 them in all the country for their great skill in 
 teaching the humanities.” He adds, that they 
 had erected in the city of Metz, an academy 
 from which they acquired great honour.* The 
 Congregation numbered many men of great 
 talent among their members. Fourier, in this 
 as well as his former work, had found several 
 choice minds, who furnished him with the re- 
 sources of talent united to the power of sanctity. 
 
 A young man, who was uncertain about his 
 vocation, met with the good Father by chance, 
 and hearing him discourse about God, fell on his 
 knees and abandoned himself to his direction. 
 He presented himself as a postulant at the novi- 
 ciate of the order, but would only enter on con- 
 dition of being allowed to remain a lay brother 
 all his life. At the end of five years this young 
 man was Father Guinet, the first general of the 
 Congregation. “It seemed,” says Bedel, in 
 speaking of him, “as if he had commenced his 
 life with old age, as well by the shortness 
 of his career as by the solid virtues which 
 he practised at an age of which inconstancy 
 is the general characteristic.” During his novi- 
 ciate the only fault to be reproved in him was 
 an excess of fervour, and the only difficulty 
 was to restrain him in his penitential desires. 
 Our Father wrote to his superiors urging them 
 “ to correct his little obstinacies in austerities 
 
 * Dom Calmet, in the Preface to the Bihl : Lorraine. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 73 
 
 and external penance. Would it not be well,” 
 says he, “ to give him roast meat and good wine 
 for some days until he takes it willingly ? and 
 tell him, that unless he shows greater obedience 
 in these matters he will not be allowed to make 
 his profession.” (30th July, 1625.) 
 
 During his sojourn at Rome, on the mission 
 just noticed, he took occasion to increase his 
 fasts to such an extent that his companions were 
 obliged to write to a Jesuit who was his confessor. 
 “This religious ordered him to roast some meat 
 the next day, and while Father Guinet was out 
 engaged in his business this prudent confessor 
 vrent to his house, and, finding the meat cooking, 
 he wrote on a paper : ‘ The Rev. Father Guinet 
 is permitted to distribute this meat among the 
 poor, and to live in his accustomed way, having 
 a care not to exceed his judgment and holy 
 obedience.’ He, after this, continued his usual 
 austerities, and fortified by his fasts triumphed 
 over every difficulty, obtained admission to the 
 pope, at whose knees he prostrated himself for 
 the space of two hours ; and making deeper im- 
 pression by his poverty, his well-worn habit, the 
 modesty of his eyes, and the prudence of his 
 words, than he had been able to do through the 
 intervention of more influential persons, he ob- 
 tained from his holiness all that he wished.”* 
 
 On his return, being elected general, he 
 showed a rare capacity and a paternal tender- 
 ness, retaining, however, the same warm zeal 
 which finally brought him to his end. Pesti- 
 lence raged at Pont-a-Mousson. Our Father 
 
 * Bedel. 
 
 H 
 
74 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 begged him to retire from the monastery, making 
 it a case of conscience, for him to prefer his 
 family who stood in danger of losing their head, 
 to a people well supplied with pastors. “There 
 is,” said he, “but one Father Guinet, and one 
 general of the Congregation of our Saviour, in 
 the whole world.” The devoted religious heeded 
 not his entreaties, and fell a victim to his charity 
 on Good Friday, 1632. The malady attacked 
 him as he was confessing the dying. “Having 
 remarked the hour, he said to the infirmarian : 
 
 ‘ This is the time at which they began to crucify 
 my Master; it is time to die.’ At these words, 
 reclining his head on the board of the bedside, 
 as on the wood of the cross, he expired in the 
 thirty-second year of his age.”=4' 
 
 Fourier was doubly afflicted at this cruel but 
 glorious death. Fancying, that by the election 
 of so young a man, he should escape an elevation 
 he feared, he had just pronounced his vows. Now 
 all his hopes were destroyed. His correspon- 
 dence at this period, bears witness to his anxiety 
 at the inevitable approach of his election. In a 
 letter to his nuns, he writes : “ I see them all 
 prepared to give their votes in a manner which is 
 against my most ardent wishes. This grieves 
 me deeply. You must work a miracle and a 
 
 great one too, to prevent the evil I foresee.” 
 
 Father Bedel, an eye-witness, relates the anguish 
 it gave the new general to receive the homage of 
 the religious who kissed his hand. 
 
 A new charge, sufficient of itself to absorb any 
 man’s time and attention, laid a heavy weight 
 
 Bedel. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 75 
 
 upon his already well-laden and aged shoulders. 
 The care of his parish, and of the Cougregation 
 of our Lady, of which he was the sole director, 
 well occupied his indefatigable activity. The 
 interest of so many required continual travel, 
 and overwhelming correspondence. Every one 
 wished to see him and to keep him. His great 
 difficulty was to devote an equal portion of his 
 time to each of his children. The first in his 
 affection — his parishioners, at Mattaincourt, had 
 always the preference. “ I have tried to steal,” 
 he writes, “ two or three days from this octave, 
 but in vain. I could not do so for the world. 
 I must give them entirely to my parishioners. 
 Next Sunday is the day fixed, in ancient times, 
 for this parish to elect a churchwarden, a school- 
 master, a justice of the peace, and an elder, to 
 summon and fine bad debtors who are very 
 numerous. The creation of these officers rests 
 with the parish priest, and I cannot be absent with- 
 out great danger of committing a serious wrong, 
 and throwing my parish into confusion. I once 
 saw how much my absence cost them on a former 
 occasion — how was the poor little bark tossed, 
 and nearly overwhelmed in a sea of lawsuits, 
 
 expenses, and other difficulties!” He also 
 
 writes to other religious as follows : “I praise 
 your desire for me to go to St. Nicolas’, but this 
 poor earth (his parish) has been at least indif- 
 ferently ploughed and sown since Advent, and it 
 surely is not fitting that, when the harvest is 
 ready and waits but the reaper’s sickle, the 
 wretched labourer who is fed and paid for this 
 w-ork should abandon it ! What would the Lord 
 of the harvest say? What would these poor 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF THE B. P. FOUEIER. 
 
 people, SO weak and wavering and easily tired 
 of their devotions, say, when they cannot be at- 
 tended to, at their own hour and season ?” 
 
 It is, indeed, easy to perceive that parochial 
 duties form his most cherished and constant 
 occupation. “One must be a parish priest,” 
 says he, “ to understand the affection I bear to 
 my parishioners — the pain I suffer at seeing 
 them afflicted, and how 1 deserve to be excused 
 from looking after other affairs, or writing to 
 people who are, or at least ought to be perfect, 
 when I see my poor people unjustly used, and in 
 danger of losing soul and body. I had resolved 
 not to write a line until this suit between our 
 people and the citizens of Mirecourt had been 
 settled, for my head is so full of it that I cannot 
 permit any other affair to have any hold on my 
 mind.”* 
 
 ♦ This letter was written 1 6th January, 1620; the suit 
 he speaks of was occasioned by a dispute with the people 
 of Mirecourt, who wished to prevent their neighbours of 
 Mattaincourt from purchasing their corn at the market, 
 until a certain tax had been levied on it. Fourier anxiously 
 sought to find out whether this was justifiable or not. 
 
Qn LIFE OF THE Of)i 
 
 ft BLESSED PETER FOURIER. /( 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 jT is now time for us to speak of the 
 diocesan visitation, which our Father 
 undertook at the command of his bishop, 
 and of his missions against Protestantism, 
 and in the Vosges. These mountains were inha- 
 bited by a people, who were half savages, and 
 buried in the grossest ignorance and superstition, 
 retained from pagan times. Fourier went among 
 them with apostolic zeal, preaching in the woods 
 and on the declivities of mountains, where he 
 attracted the inhabitants by the charming sim- 
 plicity of his discourses. A Jesuit, who accom- 
 panied him, thus wrote of the venerable Father : 
 “It is now more than thirty- two years since I 
 was joined with him in the mission to the Vosges. 
 
 He always travelled on foot, roughly clad, 
 
 with his breviary under his arm, and poor as he 
 w^as, not having the means of living as an humble 
 priest, he paid all the expenses of the journey, 
 and never would receive any thing from the 
 people. He slept either on the ground, or on a 
 bench, as was his custom at home. On another 
 journey I made with him, to visit Mgr. de Mail- 
 lane, Bishop of Toul, he endured great hardships 
 without the least complaint. His greatest de- 
 light w^as to labour for the salvation of souls, and 
 our conversation always turned upon the means 
 
 H 2 
 
78 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 of gaining them to God, and of effecting a 
 reformation of manners.” 
 
 These evangelical progresses remind one of 
 the early labours of St. Francis of Sales, in the 
 Chablais. Our holy missioner wished to esta- 
 blish a nursery of apostolic men in the Vosges, 
 to assure the permanency of the mission. His 
 friend, M. Virion, envoy of the Duke of Lor- 
 raine at the Holy See, provided the funds neces- 
 sary for its first establishment. In a letter dated 
 from Rome, on the 14th February, 1626, he says : 
 
 I leave to your prudence. Reverend Father, the 
 choice of the locality of this new sanctuary. It 
 appears to me that it could not be more appro- 
 priately placed than in the heart of these moun- 
 tains, so that these new apostles may readily 
 disperse themselves among the people, and be 
 easily accessible to them in their troubles and 
 
 difficulties I will provide chalices, vestments, 
 
 and altar furniture I will have the docu- 
 
 ment of the foundation drawn up, with the grace 
 of God, and sent to you in order to settle the 
 matter. Take courage, then. Reverend Father, 
 and let us set about the work.” 
 
 The blessed Father selected for the site of th^ 
 house the valley of Tholy, a vast crevice like the 
 dried up bed of a torrent between high moun- 
 tains covered with forests. A church was soon 
 raised, by its side — a large handsome erection 
 sprung up, which was tenanted by the Canons of 
 the Congregation of our Saviour, till the time of 
 the first French Revolution. It is to this esta- 
 blishment that the Vosges owes the faith which 
 so remarkably distinguishes it. The author of 
 an anonymous life of the blessed Peter Fourier, 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 79 
 
 written in 1746, says: “that religion revived, 
 and the piety of the early Christians was 
 renewed, and still shines forth brightly at the 
 present day. It is delightful to see these poor 
 folks well instructed, bound together in their 
 families by the closest bonds of union and peace, 
 and most assiduous in their attendance at the 
 
 offices of the Church Of these facts I have 
 
 been an eye-witness for several years.” 
 
 I am able, a century later, to confirm the 
 statements of this author. I have frequently 
 admired the zeal of these good mountaineers, 
 who, in parishes of some leagues in extent, come 
 regularly every Sunday to hear God’s word, the 
 only means they have of sustaining their moral 
 life. 1 have watched whole troops of them, 
 from the missionary house, now the presbytery 
 at Tholy, and at such times fancy carried me 
 back to the time when the good Father evan- 
 gelized these people, and drew them out of the 
 double abyss of superstition and heresy. 
 
 Protestantism could never fix its throne in 
 Lorraine. The race from which the family of 
 the Guises sprang was Catholic at heart. It was 
 near Nancy that, in 1584, the league was formed, 
 and Charles III., during ten years, made enor- 
 mous sacrifices of men and gold to support it. 
 Earlier, the pious Duke Anthony had saved 
 France from a new invasion of barbarians. A 
 formidable body of German peasants had risen 
 at the voice of Luther. Forty thousand rebels, 
 without counting the women and children who 
 followed in the traiti of these fanatics, passed the 
 Rhine, and prepared to cross the mountains. 
 The duke hastened to meet them, defeated them 
 
so 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 in two engagements in the plains of Alsatia, and 
 forced them to retrace their steps. He was 
 desired to wait three days, according to military 
 usage, for the deputation of the princes, who 
 were approaching to thank him for his services ; 
 hut he answered that “ his only object in under- 
 taking this war was to re-establish religion, and 
 that as God had graciously granted him the 
 victory, the only wish he had was, that the princes 
 and lords would put the finish to what he had 
 begun.”* The firmness of his successors, in like 
 manner stayed the progress of heresy, which sur- 
 rounded the frontiers of Lorraine on all sides. 
 Several edicts were published forbidding the 
 exercise of Protestantism, but those who wished 
 to embrace that system w^re allowed a year to 
 sell their property and to leave the country. This 
 decided policy prevented the misfortunes which 
 internal division invariably cause, and removed 
 from the country all germs of trouble. But there 
 was an institution -which tended more than all 
 the ordinances of the princes to maintain the 
 integrity of faith, this was the University of 
 Pont-a-Mousson, founded on the 15th December, 
 1572, which, with the superior clergy, exercised 
 a noble influence in the country. I doubt whether 
 there could have been found elsewhere, at this 
 epoch, an equal number of eminent prelates in so 
 confined an extent of country. At Treves, John 
 of Issembourg, John of Leyen, and James of 
 Eltz, brought about, by word and example, an 
 ecclesiastical reform and the instruction of the 
 people. The first of these begged his assembled 
 
 * Dom Calmet “ Hist, de Lorraine,” t. II. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 81 
 
 clergy to tell him what they found defective in 
 his mode of administration, but they declared 
 that there was no fault to be found. Cardinal 
 de Vaudemont, consecrated a bishop at twenty- 
 one years of age, strongly resembled St. Charles 
 Borromeo ; his episcopal palace was a perfect 
 cloister. At Verdun lived the learned Psaume, 
 well known for the part he took in the Council 
 of Trent. Prince Erric, of Lorraine, feeling 
 confined in his diocese, implored the pope to 
 employ him in the war against the Turks, that 
 he might shed his blood for the faith, in emula- 
 tion of his brothers of Mercceur and Chaligny. 
 The}’^ sought to persuade him that there w^ere 
 infidels enough at home ; he then petitioned and 
 obtained leave to join the Capucins, and a pre- 
 mature death alone prevented him from fulfilling 
 his purpose. Prince Charles of Lorraine, his 
 successor, entered the order of Jesus, and lived 
 as a simple religious, forgetful of what he had 
 been in the Church, and in the world. His 
 mother being a widow, for the second time, at the 
 age of twenty-seven, having seen her children 
 settled, took the religious habit of the Sepul- 
 crians ; and the Princess of Ligne, one of her 
 daughters, entered the order of the Capucines. 
 
 Under such bishops, and many others whom I 
 cannot here mention,* religious spirit received 
 a wonderful impulse. Literature was again re- 
 vived with ’honour ; seminaries were founded; 
 discipline was re-established ; and religious orders 
 reformed ; new orders were instituted, and the 
 first house of refuge, the model of the asylums 
 
 ♦ See Dorn Calmet, Vol. III. p. 1, 170, 739, & 782. 
 
82 
 
 UFE OF TffE 
 
 of the Good Shepherd was opened at Nancy.* 
 The court also presented the rare spectacle of 
 sanctity on the throne. Duke Henry whom we 
 have seen so devoted to Mother Alice, was a good 
 Christian, a wise legislator, and a magnificent 
 prince. He bore the name of “Mary,” as his 
 device on the pommel of his sword ; fasted 
 rigorously, and disciplined himself, which con- 
 duct did not, however, prevent him from gaining 
 many battles. All the princes of Lorraine, at 
 this period, were distinguished for their love of 
 religion. If Dom Calmet’s patriotism has not 
 led him into pious exaggerations, it must be 
 allowed that no royal house presents such a suc- 
 cession of noble characters, and we can readily 
 conceive the pacific power of these dukes, as well 
 as the still unforgotten affection of their subjects. 
 The nobility were also devoted to the Church, 
 and the world was ennobled by pious women, 
 wLo took active parts in all good works, as we 
 see in the correspondence of our holy Father. 
 
 The only places in Lorraine which were troubled 
 by the outbreaks of heretical frenzy, were the 
 cities of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. In the first 
 of these alone, could Protestantism gain a foot- 
 ing ; the two others it disgraced by some scandals, 
 after which it was heard of no more. 
 
 The danger was greater in the small princi- 
 palities bordering on Alsatia. The Rhingraves 
 of Fenetrange, the Count of Bitche and of Salrn, 
 friends of Coligny, had introduced Calvinism 
 
 * It was proposed, as we see by one of Fourier’s letters, 
 to confide this house to the care of the Congregation of our 
 Lady. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 83 
 
 into their domains, whence it reached the terri- 
 tory of Lorraine. The flame threatened to spread 
 itself. The severity of the laws, the preaching 
 of missionaries, an apostolic vicariate erected for 
 that purpose, had done nothing to extinguish it. 
 Philip de Salm himself, having abjured his 
 errors, laboured hard to undo his father’s work, 
 with little effect. After thirty years spent in 
 vain efforts, recourse was again had to the good 
 Father of Mattaincourt, and an order from his 
 bishop brought him, in 1625, to undertake this 
 new enterprise. Hitherto controversy had been 
 the sole means employed, henceforward the work 
 was done by his favourite arms, of example and 
 of charity. 
 
 “After having fortified the Catholics,” says 
 Father Bedel, “by sermons and frequent exhor- 
 tations, his prayers, tears and good example, 
 were devoted to the sectaries of Calvin... So that 
 notwithstanding their great diversity of opinion 
 in religious affairs, they uniformly paid him 
 great respect, and were very fond of him ; while 
 he, on his part, never rebuked them... He never 
 reproached them with invectives or insults, nor 
 even called them heretics as this name enraged 
 them, but he spoke of them simply as ‘strangers.’ 
 Seeing them one day returning from their meet- 
 ing in great numbers, he suddenly stopped and 
 began to cry so bitterly, that one of the leading 
 men of the town accosting him, asked him if 
 he were ill or in any necessity, and kindly 
 placed his house and services at his disposal. 
 Fourier, thanking him, said : “ I weep at seeing 
 these poor strangers so sadly deceived, and at the 
 thought of the pains these good citizens are 
 taking to gain hell.” 
 
84 
 
 LIFE OF THE B. P. FOURIER. 
 
 Our blessed Father established himself at Ba- 
 donviller, the capital of the county of Salm, in a 
 district belonging to Lorraine. He afterwards ven- 
 tured on the opposite shore, and began to preach in 
 the streets, being often insulted and even beaten, 
 but always remaining calm and benevolent. 
 Accompanied by two Jesuits, he preached in all 
 the neighbouring villages. Six months after his 
 arrival, the Protestant place of worship was dedi- 
 cated to the Almighty in honour of the Blessed 
 Virgin, the Church property was restored, the 
 priests recalled to their Churches and schools 
 founded for both sexes. “These beginnings have 
 with God’s aid made such progress, that the 
 doctrines of Calvin are now entirely banished 
 from the soil, and his race extinct in all this 
 country. So complete was the success of his 
 mission that the Jesuit Father, who had recom- 
 mended the princess to seek the aid of our 
 Father, used to say, that he considered it the best 
 thing he had done in his life.”* 
 
 * B^del 
 
CHAPTER YU.* 
 
 HIS great victory was the last triumph of 
 the blessed Fourier ; he now sank with his 
 country under the anger of Richelieu. Lorraine 
 had given umbrage to this great minister. It 
 was, in fact, admirably disposed to form at the 
 same time the hotbed of opposition to his power, 
 and the greatest impediment in the way of his 
 policy. Heir to the liberal sentiments which 
 were attached to the league, the Duke of Lorraine 
 naturally acquired in France the sympathy of 
 those who hated the despotism of the cardinal. 
 From the tyranny of petty citizens who, at this 
 time, began to domineer every where, the spirit 
 of independence took refuge with the nobles. 
 As Montmorency was in the interior, the un- 
 fortunate head of resistance, so it could not find 
 a more natural external chief than the Duke of 
 Lorraine, the most French of foreign princes, 
 and the only living representative of the men 
 who first dared to speak to their king with un- 
 covered heads. As was natural, he was the friend 
 of the Duke of Orleans, in whom the French 
 opposition sought a leader, and in fine, the Catho- 
 
 * If read in communities, the first portion of this chapter 
 to page 90 being merely historical, may be omitted.— 
 Trans , 
 
 I 
 
86 
 
 L[FE OF THE 
 
 lie traditions of his family led him naturally to 
 seek an alliance with the house of Austria, and 
 to oppose Protestantism, to which the cardinal 
 had allied himself in Germany, at the same time 
 that he crushed it at home. Historians of the 
 reign of Louis XIII., writing with a central view, 
 have not given sufficient importance to Lorraine. 
 They treat it as an impertinent rebel, as if it 
 were already the future French province,* with its 
 three departmental divisions. Its position, and the 
 real cause of its attitude of hostility, have been quite 
 overlooked. Richelieu, however, understood this 
 well, and found the little province on the frontiers 
 a great difficulty in his way. Thus, in the outset 
 of his government, do we see him endeavouring 
 not indeed to incorporate it with the kingdom, 
 (the cardinals policy did not yet tend to conquest,) 
 hut to ruin and to w^eaken it, so as to have it 
 ready at hand for any contingency. He began 
 to call in question its sovereignty, and to attach 
 it to Paris by the bond of vassalage.f An op- 
 portunity only was wanted to put these princi- 
 ples into execution. Lorraine, unfortunately, soon 
 furnished an occasion which exceeded the hopes 
 of her greatest enemy. 
 
 After a long line of pacific sovereigns, the 
 ducal crown was placed on the head of a young 
 prince of an adventurous and warlike disposition. 
 Charles the IVth, would have been a worthy hero 
 of the middle ages, hut his life being cast two 
 
 * Lorraine was not united to France till the reign of 
 Louis XV., about 1740. — Trans, 
 
 f ** Lorraine was a fief of the ancient Counts of Cham- 
 pagne, to whom the king succeeded. It was to serve as the 
 rampart of France against Germany, the Rhine being the 
 former boundary of France from Germany.” .... 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 87 
 
 centuries too late, he was, in spite of his military 
 genius and his noble qualities, but a sorry knight, 
 a new Don Quixote, who spoilt his destiny and 
 lost his fine position. He could not, as I said 
 before, cease to be the enemy of Franco, whilst 
 supporting the cause of the malcontents ; but 
 he formed an unfortunate opposition without 
 helping any party. To Kichelieu’s skill he op- 
 posed the freaks of an inconsiderate warmth ; at 
 such times as he should have availed himself of 
 the aid of diplomacy, he committed a deplorable 
 mistake in using his sword. Advancing too far 
 not be noticed, but not far enough to succeed, 
 his mission seemed to be expressly undertaken 
 to afford an appearance of right, to the views of 
 the first minister. The latter hovered over his 
 victim with the enduring avidity of the bird of 
 prey. He allowed the rash prince to com- 
 promise himself deeply, to undervalue himself 
 with England, and to give his sister in mar- 
 riage to the Duke of Orleans, to violate trea- 
 ties, and raise troops ; then, as if he had not 
 sufficiently implicated himself, the minister, 
 in order as it were to give a motive for the 
 punishment to follow, had recourse to a mea- 
 sure which seemed to belong to other times. 
 The duke was summoned to appear, and pay 
 fealty and homage to the king for that portion 
 of the duchy of Bar, which, though joining his 
 territories, belonged to the crown of France. 
 Failing to observe this injunction, the parliament 
 of Paris issued orders to seize the province. The 
 king and cardinal himself immediately set out 
 at the head of an army, which was marched 
 upon Lorraine. Charles, parleyed, and offered 
 
88 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 to submit, and he, who knew not repose when it 
 was fitting to be at rest, was unable to act a 
 vigorous part now that it had become necessary. 
 What follows partakes more of the character of 
 romance than of history. In vain to appease 
 Richelieu, did Francis, Cardinal of Lorraine, (who 
 was not in holy orders,) solicit the hand of his 
 niece, Madame de Combalet ; the towm of Nancy 
 was invested. Charles, at the termination of a 
 treaty, had the chivalrous imprudence to visit 
 the king at the camp, and was retained there a 
 prisoner, and obliged to send word to the gover- 
 nor to throw open the city gates. He re-entered 
 his capital in the royal suite, but soon contrived 
 to escape, and abdicated in favour of his brother 
 Francis. The cardinal, to prevent all contest of 
 his rights, took, and accomplished in the space of 
 one night, the resolution of marrying his cousin, 
 the Princess Claudia, in whom were vested the 
 female rights to the crown of Lorraine. Both 
 were arrested the next morning, and conducted 
 under a strong escort to Nancy, whence they 
 contrived to escape from the palace in which 
 they w^ere confined — the duke in the disguise of a 
 porter, and the princess in the dress of a page. 
 At the city gates they changed their dresses for 
 those of charcoal sellers, and passing the guards 
 with baskets on their backs, they reached a wood 
 where horses and attendants awaited them. The 
 Princess of Phaltzbourg also cleared the gates, 
 concealed in the cart of a pretended sick man, 
 who being accustomed to make a daily pilgrimage 
 outside the towm, was allowed to pass unexamined. 
 As to the unfortunate Charles he found in Ger- 
 many, a diversion for his griefs, and afield for his 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 89 
 
 ardour. At the head of the armies of the League, 
 and amidst various fortunes, he finished his career 
 with the intrepidity of a soldier and the talent of a 
 great captain, in the thirty years' war, the religious 
 spirit of which will be soon better understood. 
 This was his true vocation, and his generous 
 mind, too hasty for governing, spent itself easily 
 in the career of arms. 
 
 While France was impiously staying with her 
 intrigues, treasures, and soldiers, the progress 
 of the revival of Catholicity in Germany ; at the 
 same time leaguing herself under the guidance 
 of a churchman, with those abominable Swedes, 
 who had the awful impiety to give the blessed 
 Eucharist to their horses — wLile these things 
 w^ere passing, Lorraine fought for her faith and 
 perished a martyr — like Poland ; for the faults 
 of her sovereign cannot deprive her of the merit 
 of her heroic sufferings. She lost her nationality, 
 her strength, and even the ancient monuments 
 of her history ; Louis XIII. tore the feudal 
 crown from her brow, dismantled her fortresses, 
 and destroyed her castles.* Foreign domination, 
 however, was the least of her misfortunes. The 
 general war, of which it was the theatre, made 
 other ruins. Swedes and French, Spaniards 
 and Germans, enemies and partizans, overran 
 the country, leaving desolation and horror in 
 their track. Fourier renders homage to the 
 conduct of the French soldiers, in a letter, written 
 
 ♦ Dom Calmet gives a long list of these barbarities. No 
 relics remain, so that the traveller in Lorraine does not 
 meet with those ruins of fortified castles so frequently, and 
 in so picturesque a manner, arresting his progress on the 
 Alsatian side of the Vosges. 
 
90 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 in 1633. “ They behave with much modesty, 
 
 forbearance, and devotion, giving an example to 
 others bearing arms, and seem to have taken for 
 their motto the words of St. John the Baptist in 
 the desert : ‘ Trouble no man, do no injury, and 
 be content with your pay.’” 
 
 But the Protestant fanaticism of the Swedish 
 soldiers illumined their march by setting fire to 
 churches and violating the sanctity of the cloister. 
 Their standard, it is said, represented a human 
 figure cut in half, a sword and a torch, and bore 
 the inscription of “ Lorraine.” The remembrance 
 of these terrible days is not effaced from the 
 minds of the people. At the present day the 
 inhabitants of Lorraine speak of the Swedes as 
 monsters, to whom every evil is attributed. 
 
 Historians unite in agreeing that no besieged 
 cities ever suffered more terrible disasters than did 
 those of Lorraine, in the war which took place at 
 this period of our holy Father’s history. “ The pes- 
 tilence,” writes an author of the time and country, 
 “ broke out at Easter, 1630, and did not stop its 
 ravages till March, 1637. At the same period, 
 war and famine attacked the country. These 
 three scourges were so destructive that, in many 
 places, they left but a fifth part of the population 
 behind them — a fact which is confirmed by the 
 
 ancient registers of the communities.* At 
 
 Nancy, twenty-five or thirty persons died daily ; 
 their naked bodies were hastily cast into a deep 
 pit, without any distinction. In other places 
 
 * An inscription still exists at Donc’ieres, recording the 
 survival of an old dame and her grandchild only, out of the 
 entire population. 
 
ULESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 91 
 
 they were left unburied, a prey to dogs and other 
 
 beasts Men were reduced to the extremity of 
 
 eating one another Wild fruits and roots were 
 
 sold at high price the land remained uncul- 
 
 tivated and covered with thorns, and produced an 
 immense number of venomous animals. On 
 every side appeared bands of poor people, wan 
 and wretched, covered with rags, and exposed to 
 the inclemency of the weather. The charity of 
 St. Vincent of Paul, in coming to the succour of 
 these wretched people, is well known. Twelve 
 of his Lazarists came to Lorraine to administer 
 every description of alms, besides their spiritual 
 consolations, so that great numbers were fed by 
 his hand,, while the name of their benefactor 
 remained entirely unknown to them. While 
 hatred to France was strong in the hearts of this 
 people, they owed the bread that nourished them, 
 and the clothes that covered their naked limbs, 
 to the generosity of a Frenchman. The steward 
 of his bounties made fifty-four journies with- 
 out ever being obstructed, though the country 
 w^as filled with bands of robbers, and famished 
 soldiers. This is the more, surprising, as he car- 
 ried with him twenty thousand, and, on one 
 occasion, one hundred and fifty thousand livres. 
 The total sum he thus sent was one million six 
 hundred thousand livres, in specie, besides a 
 quantity of linen, clothes, and food. He followed 
 the people of Lorraine in their flight, and 
 received several of their families in Paris, where 
 he organized a special society for their relief. 
 
 Our blessed Father, it will readily be imagined, 
 did not remain inactive during this period. He 
 possessed not the immense resources of St. Vin- 
 
92 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 cent of Paul ; he had not, like him, the riches 
 of France to distribute, nor were the purses of 
 opulent friends at his disposal. In the midst of 
 ruin and contagion, he begged of beggars for his 
 poor. “ I know not,” he writes, “ what saint 
 amongst the living to invoke. Nobody will either 
 lend or give us any thing. People are dying 
 with hunger around me. The land is nothing 
 worth. It remains fallow and uncultivated. The 
 ancient revenues of the farms, the annuities by 
 which they formerly subsisted during the golden 
 age, are now either swallowed up for a time or 
 altogether lost.” The corn, money, and furni- 
 
 ture belonging to the religious houses, were soon 
 exhausted, and the two congregations reduced to 
 the greatest straights. All they bad to give now 
 was themselves. The good Father and his reli- 
 gious, therefore, devoted their lives to the care of 
 the sick, who were lying in heaps under tents in 
 the fields. We have seen the general of the 
 Canons sink under his exertions in 1632. Many 
 others followed him to meet the reward of their 
 charity. In a letter to his nuns, Fourier writes : 
 “ Your excellent letters were bedewed with tears, 
 shed at the receipt of others from certain of our 
 
 reverend fathers announcing the death of a 
 
 great many of our brethren and speaking of 
 nothing but pestilence and maladies of every 
 description — with which many of our friends are 
 attacked — dearness of provisions and famine, &e.” 
 He also writes again : “We felt great regret at 
 the separation of the good Sisters of St. Nicholas. 
 Some went straight to heaven to receive their 
 crowns ; others to a little hermitage, while the 
 remainder stayed in their poisoned house, where 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 93 
 
 the poor dear creatures {jpauvrette^ live from 
 hand to mouth in daily expectation of being 
 carried off. Jesus ! what a sad sight ! My 
 heart is so oppressed that I can neither speak or 
 write without shedding abundance of tears, and 
 I Avish it would please our Lord to afflict me in 
 their stead. I know not how to express it, but I 
 do not remember ever having felt, in all my life, 
 so overpowering a sensation.” 
 
 The danger in which his parishioners were 
 placed afflicted him still more. Pestilence and 
 famine reigned in the town. “ Bread is very 
 dear, and the most part of that which we have 
 (not half or a quarter enough) is but poor stuff. 
 Our doors are daily surrounded by famishing 
 families, crying aloud for food. Our houses and 
 streets are filled with sick, lying on a little straw, 
 and many on the bare ground ; those under 
 cover huddling together — I was going to write 
 near the fire, but, alas ! the poor creatures have 
 no wood to burn — near the fireplace.” 
 
 Another letter, of 13th September, 1631, ends 
 with these words : “ We are tremblingly awaiting 
 the hour when the contagion shall spread itself 
 throughout Mattaincourt.” In such peril he 
 watched over his flock like a tender shepherd. 
 On the 23rd of May he made the following 
 admirable reply to the religious of Chalons, who 
 begged a visit from him. “ My poor parishioners 
 are in extreme necessity for want of bread, and 
 from danger of the contagion, and methinks 
 that while I am with them some effort will be 
 made to supply them with some kind of remedy. 
 I see, on one side of me, a multitude of people 
 in extreme want and danger, of whose souls I 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 shall one day have to render an account to our 
 good God ; on the other some half dozen good 
 girls, plentifully supplied with every thing, w^ho 
 wish to see me on business about which they 
 
 can easily write Would it be reasonable or 
 
 just for me to abandon these poor creatures, who 
 are so numerous, and who cry after me, begging 
 of me and reminding me that I am obliged, in 
 conscience and before God, to succour them. 
 For though, simply bearing the title of cure^ that 
 is, pastor, 1 am father, mother, physician, nurse, 
 servant, comforter, guide, and every thing to 
 them, holding the place of Him w^ho would 
 worthily acquit himself of the duties thus im- 
 posed upon me ! I ask you, having the fear 
 
 of God and his love so deeply impressed on 
 your holy souls, and being most dear children 
 of our sweet Mother of Mercy, can you persuade 
 me, a parish priest, to abandon my people and 
 to hesitate to die of hunger with them, if it be 
 the will of God ; to neglect them now in their 
 trouble, when they require every consolation 
 which the holy sacraments and the word of God 
 can supply, and to refrain from begging for their 
 relief from those who have the means of helping 
 them ? While they cry out for bread at Mattain- 
 court, shall the traitor to God and his people 
 amuse himself in France, feeding luxuriously ? 
 No, no ! my good sisters ! If you knew what it 
 is to be a priest in a parish where two or three 
 hundred people are without bread, money, or 
 work, have no furniture to sell, friends or neigh- 
 bours able to assist them, cannot get any credit, 
 and, over and above this, many seized with 
 sickness, you would indeed exclaim : ‘ Ah ! do 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 95 
 
 not abandon these poor creatures ; keep faithful 
 to them during these heavy times ; abandon, for 
 the present, all intercourse with others, except 
 for the purpose of begging from the rich in the 
 neighbouring towns and villages. Make or pro- 
 cure soup for them every day, in which they 
 may soak their mouldy half-baked oaten bread. 
 Do try to comfort your poor sick, starving, dying 
 people ! ”’ 
 
 But this desire of the good priest, to live and 
 die with his people, was not permitted him to 
 enjoy. His attachment to the house of Lorraine 
 was well known,* and the cold reseiwe with 
 which his opposition was manifested displeased 
 the conqueror. “ Being one day,” says Father 
 Bedel, called to attend upon a distinguished 
 character, whose person he much dreaded, our 
 Father ingenuously said, that if St. Nicolas came 
 on earth to do what this person wished to effect 
 during his stay in the town, he did not think 
 he should like to face him. Indeed, his appre- 
 hension was so great, that he could scarcely walk 
 to the place of meeting. He was questioned on 
 a state affair of great importance, but he escaped 
 through his silence, answering with ‘ Yes ’ and 
 ‘No,’ or some such laconical monosyllable, to 
 the queries that were put to him by this person.” 
 
 - Notwithstanding his desire to conceal his 
 name. Father Bedel says enough to enable us 
 to guess who this “distinguished personage” 
 was. Richelieu thought, perhaps, to intimidate 
 
 * I see, by a letter written in 1617, that this ^fanaticaV 
 priest of Lorraine begs his religious to pray for the intention 
 of France, 
 
90 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 the good priest, whose sanctity could not protect 
 him from the man who said Mass, booted and 
 spurred. A disagreable affair, in which our Father 
 was involved, furnished the desired pretext. I 
 have spoken of the sudden and clandestine 
 marriage of Francis of Lorraine. The adventure 
 is thus related by Dom Calmet. Francis having 
 received intelligence that Marshal de la Force 
 had been ordered to take the princesses out of 
 his hands, urged Claudia to marry him instantly, 
 and thus save their house. Claudia consented 
 the more readily to this proposal, as she had 
 for some time had a great esteem and affection 
 for the prince. The dispensation, which it was 
 necessary to procure, on account of the near 
 relationship of the parties, w^as the only difficulty 
 in the way. At ten o’clock at night, the prior 
 and sub-prior of the Regular Canons of St. 
 
 Remy’^ Abbey, at Luneville, were sent for 
 
 The duke begged these religious to tell him 
 whether, under these circumstances, the marriage 
 would be valid or not. They asked time to 
 consult the canonists. Two hours later they 
 replied, that the prince, in quality of diocesan 
 bishop, could dispense himself from the publica- 
 tion of the bans, or give any other person the 
 right so to do ; that, in reality, the dispensation 
 granting permission to marry within the second 
 degree of consanguinity should come from the 
 pope, but that bishops had been known to grant 
 it in extreme cases. “ Such,” said the prince, 
 “is certainly the case with me. I hope the pope 
 will view it in the same light.” After, this the 
 prior of St. Remy bestowed the nuptial benedic- 
 tion on the Duke Francis and the Princess 
 Claudia. The marriage being immediately con- 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 97 
 
 summated, the prince sent a courier to Rome 
 to explain the matter to the pope, to obtain the 
 dispensation, and to take back the cardinal’s 
 hat.” To this Dom Calmet adds, in a note, 
 that the cardinal, having a very strict conscience, 
 was hardly satisfied with the decision of the 
 religious until he had seen their authorities.” 
 But the religious of St. Remy were of our Father’s 
 order of Regular Canons. As soon as Richelieu 
 was informed of the transaction, he ordered the 
 guilty prior, or, if he could not be found, the 
 general of the order, to be arrested. They were 
 both at Belch amp when a French company 
 surrounded the abbey. The prior immediately 
 surrendered himself, and' the captain thought 
 himself freed from the necessity of taking the 
 other. Another band was, however, sent to 
 capture him, and our Father was obliged to 
 wander from place to place, allowing a few 
 intimate friends only to know the secret of his 
 resting place. He remained long concealed at 
 St. Mihiel, in the gardener’s cottage. He once 
 fell into the hands of the enemy, and owed his 
 escape to the humble osier cart which he generally 
 made use of, and which was allowed to pass, as 
 the soldier could not imagine it to be the equipage 
 of the general of an order. In this extremity 
 he suffered great distress of mind, together with 
 the severest bodily privations. “ I seem to 
 think,” he writes in one of his letters at this 
 period, “that I should be delighted to find some 
 situation as churchwarden to some little village 
 church, or to teach children to read, (I am not 
 equal to undertake writing,) or to beg my bread 
 from door to door, if I could find people charitable 
 enough to relieve me.” k 
 
98 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 Treated like a malefactor, often without 
 nourishment or shelter, his only chance was exile. 
 In the month of May, 1636, at the age of seventy- 
 two years, after a last adieu to his unhappy 
 country and to all that he held dear, he entered 
 Franche-Comte. 
 
 This step, being misinterpreted fifty years 
 later, (when information was being sought re- 
 specting our Father s virtues), became an obstacle 
 to his beatification. He was reproached with 
 abandoning his flock at the m'oment of danger. 
 The reader will not look to me for a justification 
 of his conduct. He will never believe that he, 
 whose history he has been reading, was a man to 
 fly like a coward, in order to cheat death of the 
 poor remainder of a life devoted to good deeds. 
 This moral excuse would suffice for our purpose; 
 there is, however, another which his biographers 
 put forth and which is conclusive — Fourier was 
 no longer a parish priest. The duties of general 
 being incompatible with those which a benefice 
 with cure of souls imposed, his first care, from 
 1 632, had been to obtain a successor.* So simple 
 a fact was doubtless overlooked in the idea that 
 the cure of Mattaincourt belonged to the Congre- 
 gation, and the good Father held liis position 
 there as general independent of those reciprocal 
 feelings of affection w^hich attached him to the 
 spot. He did not therefore abandon his post. 
 Besides, what could a proscribed wanderer do for 
 his parishioners or his country ? He was much 
 
 * See “ Vie ou eloge du Eev. P. Fourier.*’ “ Conduite 
 de la ProvideDce dans I’etablissement de la Congregation de 
 Notre-Dame.” “ These truths,” says the author of this last 
 work, “ have been so well proved at Rome, that no one in 
 future can call them into question.” 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 99 
 
 better able to serve them from afar in a country 
 still under the sway of Spain. That our Father 
 himself did not consider he had betrayed his 
 duty, the following letter will show. Writing on 
 the 17th February, 1638, from the place of his 
 exile, to a Eegular Canon, who had a cure in 
 Lorraine, he wdshes him a long life and success 
 in his pastoral duties, and then adds : “ I feel 
 that there is a manifest presage in that excellent 
 sentence in your letter : ‘ Patience ! I will take 
 courage and follow my people into the ivoods,' Most 
 
 worthy and admirable words ! They would 
 
 have been still better had they not been followed 
 by those other words of yours, which seem to 
 detract somewhat from their merit : ‘ that is, if I 
 cannot find any other retreat !' What mean you 
 by this, pious Father? That if you can gain 
 some strong castle or fortified town you will 
 hasten to it, and leave your dear flock in the 
 woods without a shepherd, all trembling with 
 fear and dying with cold, hunger, and disease ?* 
 
 I think, Kev. Father, you would do well to 
 
 retract in your soul and before God these few 
 last words, and repeat simply, boldly, and 
 heartily the first part of your sentence : ‘ Patience ! 
 I will take courage and follow my people into the 
 woods,' Their danger shall be mine ; their abode 
 my dwelling. I will live and die with them and 
 for them ; my life is not mine, but God’s and 
 my people’s” 
 
 Would one priest have so rigorously reproved 
 another for conduct of which he felt himself 
 guilty ? 
 
 * Veils laisserez vos cheres brebiettes clans le bois, sans 
 pasteur tremblottantes cle peur et languissantes cle froid, de 
 faim, de maladies ? 
 

 LIFE OF THE 
 
 BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 '■'■'^aaAPJIAaa/^ 
 
 '■'■'^aaAPJIAaa/^ 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 m EPULSED on all sides, from fear of bis 
 bringing the pestilence, the poor stranger 
 was welcomed at Gray, where he fixed 
 himself. The house in which he lived is still 
 seen, an elegant building of the Renaissance, 
 with charming turrets and galleries, painted and 
 emblazoned, and presenting many curious details ; 
 and in this house is preserved intact, the humble 
 spot ennobled by the death of the saint.* Here 
 he completed those admirable constitutions for 
 his nuns, and directed the dispersed houses of 
 the two congregations. While advising the 
 houses in France, with a calm resignation, he 
 sustained the courage of the others in their 
 
 * “ He Lad reserved for himself, in this spacious and mag- 
 nificent dwelling, a small room, which we have visited, 
 and its mean and dilapidated state increased the high idea that 
 we had already entertained of the saint’s humility and dis- 
 interestedness. Imagine a room four metres (about thirteen 
 feet) square, tiled with red and green bricks, and hearing 
 a cold and tarnished appearance, and lighted by three small 
 windows in leaden frames. Behind the chimney several small 
 cavities are seen, in which the poor Father, who deprived 
 himself even of necessaries to relieve the sick, used to bake 
 a little coarse bread, his only nourishment. Nothing can 
 be plainer than the furniture of this little garret. A small 
 cupboard, with its worm-eaten doors, still remains to show 
 the indigence of its former occupant.” — M. Charles Grouet, 
 Article in the Esperance of Nancy, 14th August, 1845. 
 
LIFE OF THE B. P. FCUFJEE. 
 
 101 
 
 struggles by his excellent and lively letters. His 
 whole correspondence at this period, though 
 imbued with melancholy, bears the stamp of 
 serenity, and even sometimes descends to playful 
 gaiety. 
 
 One of the fathers of his order and tw'elve 
 nuns had accompanied him. These immediately 
 opened a free school for the poor children of the 
 town. 
 
 As to our Father, he gave missions in the 
 neighbouring places, and faithful to the last to 
 his love of instructing, he taught, like the exiled 
 and dying Gerson, little children in the schools.* 
 He engaged himself as chaplain to a convent in 
 the city to obtain his livelihood. It grieves 
 one’s heart to see this great man, who so well 
 merited to enjoy the fruit of his labours in a 
 tranquil repose, obliged to fly his country at an 
 age when the thoughts should be fixed on pre- 
 paring for eternity, and repaying by his labours 
 the hospitality afibrded him in his old age. All 
 external succour was intercepted by highway 
 robbers, and he was obliged to live on alms. 
 He drew% with touching simplicity, a sketch of 
 their mode of life and their precarious existence 
 in the following letter : “ I am assured our sisters 
 have but half their strength since they have 
 been in this country, for want of good and suffi- 
 cient nourishment. Our good Mother Bernard 
 
 “ As if to contribute his share in paying for the hospitality 
 accorded to them, he not only caused the religious who 
 accompanied him to teach the youth, but he himself, feeble 
 as he was, went every day to the schools, and took the most 
 stupid and troublesome of the scholars, and taught them 
 with admirable patience.’’ — Bedel, 
 
 K 2 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 (dear soul) preserves order ; and of our poor 
 sisters who are not attacked with sickness, two 
 are daily engaged in the school, which, by the 
 grace of God, continues to fill, another serves in 
 the kitchen, and one or two are employed in 
 sewing either the tattered garments of our 
 sisters, patching their veils, and mending the 
 clothes of Father Terrel, your humble servant, 
 and our boy. One is in the infirmary, that is, 
 I mean, one healthy one, to nurse the sick, 
 another is porter, and does nothing but tramp 
 up and down a lofty staircase to attend on her 
 companion in the infirmary, and to open the 
 door for Margaret, who goes about the city in 
 search of provisions. I thank you for having 
 sent such good paper, by our Husson. I did 
 not get it, however, as he was robbed of it on 
 his way, as also of his money and clothes, and 
 he arrived here almost bare, with nothing but 
 accounts of eleven or twelve pounds of debts, 
 which we were obliged to pay, and to clothe 
 him, though cloth is very dear, as indeed is 
 every thing necessary to sustain our wretched 
 existence.” 
 
 The religious of France, were not the only 
 ones to remember their Father. Duke Charles, 
 who was nearly ruined and reduced to eat horse- 
 flesh in his famishing camp, did not forget his 
 faithful subject. This noble prince wrote to him 
 on the 17th of September, 1639 : “I have 
 ordered,” he writes, “ my steward Gerard to give 
 you a trifle for yourself, or your religious, who, I 
 understand, are in great necessity from the little 
 assistance the poverty of the place -can afford 
 them. I have still a little property, and I have 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 103 
 
 told Gerard to sell it rather than to let you want 
 any thing. I implore you not to be as you for- 
 merly were, but to tell him how he can best serve 
 you. If you will not yourself, at least let Father 
 Terrel, or your mligious do so. At the same 
 time I beseech you not to forget us, for we are in 
 times when we have more need of your remem- 
 brances and prayers than ever. We must 
 remember that it is certain we shall not get any 
 thing from the world, but must look to God for 
 every thing. Thrice happy is he who, diseu gaged 
 from these pursuits, retired in some tranquil spot, 
 has but to say his chaplet ! I hope you say 
 yours sometimes for me, and that you will con- 
 tinue to love one who is, with all his heart, your 
 most affectionate friend, Charles de Lorraine.'' 
 
 Fourier, in his answer to this cordial and frank 
 letter, writes : “May God accomplish your desires 
 with glory, such glory as is befitting a prince — 
 a noble and brave prince — a Prince of Lorraine ! 
 His good subjects, who love him tenderly, daily 
 offer their supplications to our Lord, that it may 
 please Him to restore him speedily and gloriously 
 to his kingdom.” 
 
 Matters did not, however, run in this channel. 
 Fourier received most sad accounts from Lor- 
 raine : “ his poor desolate country, where all die 
 of pestilence, hunger, sword and pistol wounds, 
 anxieties, and alarm.” He writes, on hearing of 
 the pillage of Mattaincourt by the Swedes : “ Our 
 poor village has been completely ravaged, laid 
 waste, and pillaged : men, goods and houses have 
 fallen a prey to the sack : there is no grain in 
 the fields or in the barns, and there only remains 
 a few poor creatures who are languishing and 
 
104 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 dying of pestilence and famine, and suffer every 
 kind of rough treatment. The church pavement 
 has been torn up to see whether there were any 
 treasures concealed with the dead, and it is 
 turned into an heretical conventicle!” 
 
 Disease and famine, at last broke out in his 
 retreat. From the end of 1638, all the ills which 
 for ten years had desolated Lorraine, invaded 
 Franche-Comte, with the hostile armies. “He 
 whom you call general,” writes our Father, “ is 
 
 in a foreign country Whenever he passes 
 
 through the streets he meets numbers of poor 
 sick people dying of hunger ; some lying naked 
 on the pavement, others on a little straw, and 
 often he finds the dead bodies of those who have 
 died in the night without any assistance or con- 
 solation. He is deeply grieved at these daily 
 scenes, seeing he can be of no service in any 
 manner; and when entering into himself he 
 resolves and makes purposes of remaining con- 
 stantly with these afflicted people, thinking that 
 he has deserved what they endure a thousand 
 times more than these poor creatures.” 
 
 In the midst of such distress of mind and 
 body the venerable old man wore away, though 
 the peace of his soul enabled him to bear patiently 
 his increasing infirmities. “ I have not yet 
 obtained of God,” he writes, “to be able to go 
 about without a stick, which I carry, and which 
 supports me like a poor beggar, when I go to 
 say Mass. If we were at carnival time, I think 
 those who see me hobbling along, carrying my 
 cloak and stick so awkwardly, followed by a 
 little slipshod, half-naked urchin ; seeing us, I 
 say, in this plight, people would fancy we were 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 105 
 
 masqueraders, who had taken the strange idea 
 of diverting others at this said time. This I 
 say to bring a smile to the lips of our dear sick 
 reverend brother.” 
 
 His thoughts at this time, as is the case with 
 dying persons, carried him into grand projects 
 and delightful illusions. Writing to his nuns, 
 he tells them that “ he hopes soon to be able to 
 join them and to spend some time with them. 
 Oh,” he exclaims, “ how favoured shall I be by 
 God if He permits me, and my superiors should 
 not object, on account of my old age and of 
 my stick, which I carry every where, to rejoin 
 you ! ” 
 
 Our blessed servant of God was, however, 
 called, not to his earthly, but his heavenly 
 country. “ He was attacked by fever, which 
 increased in violence. He, however, went to 
 the convent of the Annunciation on the 11th 
 October, 1640, said Mass, and heard confessions. 
 He returned, overcome with exhaustion, parched 
 with thirst, and with a strong aversion for all 
 nourishment. The most famous physician of 
 the place was sent for ; ‘ It is all in vain,’ cried 
 out the holy man, ‘ I feel that my end is at 
 hand.’ Then did they v;ho surrounded his 
 death-bed behold a spectacle well calculated to 
 confound the presumption and dangerous con- 
 fidence of some at their last moments ; then did 
 they see this good priest, who had only known 
 the world and sin to detest and fly them, 
 tremble at the approach of the judgments of 
 God, who sees imperfections in His noblest 
 works, and confess with the saintly bishop of 
 Hippo (whose disciple he was) that he feared 
 
106 
 
 LIFE OF THE B. P. FOUKIEE. 
 
 lest he should be eternally condemned. He 
 soon, however, recovered his serenity, and seemed 
 to enjoy a foretaste of the happiness awaiting 
 him, and which he so well merited. He held 
 his crucifix pressed to his lips, and implored his 
 Eedeemer to shed one drop of His precious blood 
 upon his departing soul ; then, invoking Mary, 
 he cried, ‘ Show thyself a mother ! ’ and this he 
 repeated. He requested the attendants to read 
 to him the holy death of St. Augustine, anxious 
 to imitate so saintly a model, even to his death. 
 Afterwards he recited the psalm Miserere, hut 
 on arriving at the verse, ‘ Cast me not away from 
 thy sight,' he trembled, and his tears for some 
 time choked all utterance. After having received 
 the Viaticum and Extreme Unction, he spent the 
 remainder of his time in perpetual thanksgiving 
 and ravished in ecstatic reveries. The religious, 
 seeing him on the point of death, knelt down 
 and begged him to bless them and the whole 
 Congregation, at which the saint raised his hands 
 thrice, made the sign of the cross over his body, 
 invoked the sweet names of Jesus and of Mary, 
 and with his eyes fixed on heaven, calmly slept 
 in the Lord, on the 9th (or 11th) of December, 
 1640, having just completed his seventy-sixth 
 year.”* 
 
 * I have taken this account of the blessed Peter’s last 
 moments from Pillard. — Trans. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 C^<r5>0 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TORT and rapid as this sketch 
 of the life of blessed Peter Fourier 
 must appear, it has doubtless 
 awakened an interest towards him 
 in my readers. Many will have 
 seen his name for the first time ; 
 they have, I doubt not, been led 
 to form some knowledge and love of the holy 
 man. His name must ever be inscribed among 
 the chief of those illustrious characters — as a 
 man, a writer, and a priest — who flourished at 
 the beginning of the 17th century. It is, how- 
 ever, in their private correspondence, rather than 
 their external actions, that men's true natures 
 are best seen. As 1 have been able to introduce 
 but few of the Father’s letters in the course of 
 this narrative, I have thought that a few selec- 
 tions in this chapter would gratify the reader. 
 
 The principal letters w^hich have come down to 
 us are addressed to the Corijgregation of our Blessed 
 Lady, The task was no slight one of directing, 
 amidst rivalries and persecutions, so many 
 houses, of answering such multiplied questions, 
 of exhorting, consoling and rebuking. His 
 letters, as he avows, are written hastily, without 
 
108 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 any study. “ I wish you to write to me freely 
 simply, and trustingly, the first words which come 
 into your head, as I always do when I write to 
 you.” He gave himself up entirely to this sweet 
 commerce ; his style exhibits a lively affection 
 and innocent familiarity, though tempered by an 
 almost scrupulous reserve, and he rarely indulges 
 in that somewhat feminine tenderness of expres- 
 sion which forms the charm of St. Francis of 
 Sales’ letters. He seems to fear and avoid what 
 he calls “ that unmeasured friendship, although 
 proceeding through God.” “ It were well,” he 
 writes, “ if, for her sake and ours and the greater 
 clinging to God, she moderated her external 
 affection for us, as I was myself once properly 
 warned, I ought to act towards you.” 
 
 In order to avoid any particular feeling in 
 regard to those with whom he corresponded, he 
 never wrote to one sister personally, but to the 
 whole community. Such letters always began 
 by “ Good and beloved sisters in our Lord,"' and 
 he rarely signed his name but ended with “Your 
 brother and servant in God.” Once only he 
 wrote directly to Sister Alice, to rebuke sharply 
 this strong mind which he so well understood. 
 
 “ Sister Alice, if you desire your own renown, 
 always write your name boldly, in fine large cha- 
 racters, on every page of the letters you write to 
 different persons, as I find is done in the last 
 you sent me. If, however, you seek purely and 
 simply our Lord and the good of the community, 
 follow the ordinary form prescribed in the rules 
 of signing your letters, which is : “ Your most 
 humble servants, daughters of the Congregation of 
 our Lady.'* Vanity is very subtle and dangerous, 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 109 
 
 and easily slips from the fingers of those who 
 write much.” 
 
 Whenever he had occasion to speak with the 
 religious they were veiled, and behind the grating. 
 Of his conduct, in this regard, Bedel says : “ He 
 who gave him grace to commence and achieve 
 this work, also so guarded him with prudence that, 
 during the course of more than forty years in which 
 he has directed these virgins, no slandering tongue 
 or envious mind has ever raised any suspicion 
 against him, or spoken the least word against 
 his honour, so great was the opinion entertained 
 of his integrity and of his circumspection in his 
 conduct towards his adopted children.” 
 
 One must be struck with the open, elevated, 
 and generous spirit, with which he every where 
 endeavours to inspire the religious. “Do not 
 trouble yourselves, ” he writes, “ about those 
 things you mentioned in your last. Leave them 
 alone ; say nothing to the world against them, 
 but continue to li^e as if you did not know of 
 their existence, or of what they say and do 
 against you. Endeavour to excel them in 
 humility, patience, modesty, charity, purity of 
 intention, and in diligence and faithfulness 
 towards your little ones. If it come from God, 
 you must rejoice that he has raised up many to 
 do what you are doing — as something most needed 
 
 and useful in this century Should you be 
 
 driven from your house, you will find another. 
 If your day scholars, or even your boarders, leave, 
 what then? have patience. You will support 
 yourselves by your work, and wait for better 
 times.” (3rd December, 1612.) “Do not be 
 surprised at these new schools ; you must not 
 
110 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 be sorry to see that our Lord and the people 
 are served in different places by different kinds 
 
 of persons and well pleased should you be 
 
 to see others imitating you, and excelling you in 
 holiness ; so many good people will certainly 
 bring about something excellent.” (13th Feb., 
 1624.) “ Endeavour to serve God and the public 
 
 with fidelity and should other religious get 
 
 in advance of you, and excel you in instructing 
 youth, in God’s name let us thank His Provi- 
 dence and goodness for having in our age raised 
 up on all sides so many workmen and work- 
 women to be employed in the harvest of souls ; 
 and the more numerous, the greater the con- 
 solation. We must not desire to be alone in 
 these great conquests ; let us take example from 
 those who may perform the work better than 
 ourselves.” (22nd November, 1625.) “Let them 
 reap, and quietly lay up their harvest in heaven. 
 What matters it to God, and the people, by whom 
 this work is done, whether by you or by others ? 
 
 Let us be on our guard against a certain 
 
 itching, and secret disease, of unceasingly mag- 
 nifying ourselves and our own works.” (21st 
 August, 1628.) 
 
 He insists strongly upon this last point, and 
 severely denounces that desire of acquiring land, 
 building, and grasping at possessions, into which 
 self-love insinuates itself under the name of zeal. 
 He therefore recommends the greatest care in 
 the management of money, mixed with prudence 
 and moderation. “Act in such a manner,” he 
 writes in 1621, “so that your actions and con- 
 sciences may be ever upright and pure before 
 God and men, and be ever ready to render an 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 Ill 
 
 exact account of all monies and other property 
 intrusted to you, as often as enemies, or other 
 misinformed persons, calumniate you.” “ It is 
 the property of God, St. Augustine, and of those 
 poor good servants of God who are to be sup- 
 ported for the next five hundred years. Take 
 
 good care of it, for it is not your own” 
 
 Again, in 16*24, “You insinuate, in your former 
 letters, that you are under some apprehensions 
 of not being able to procure wherewith to live, 
 and now you talk to me of paving your chapel 
 
 Pay your debts, which you are bound in 
 
 justice to do, and do not mind the pavement, 
 which you are urged to lay down by devotion 
 and prudence alone ; now these should always 
 
 follow justice, and not precede her I hold 
 
 that you ought never to incur new debts until 
 the old ones are paid.” (10th March, 1617.) 
 “ Take care that prosperity does not render you 
 
 blind and miserable lest so much success 
 
 dazzle you and cause you to stumble. I assure 
 you it makes me uneasy, and fear some coming 
 reverse of fortune.” (Circular of the 10th March, 
 1622.) 
 
 Their good Father had, however, rather to 
 warn his children against discouragement than 
 against vanity. He busies himself with their 
 wants with a tender solicitude. 
 
 “ I tell you, in the compassion which I feel 
 for you, in the depth of my soul, at this sad com- 
 mencement, that you will see in time how much 
 you have gained by these delays, these borrowed 
 dwellings, this loan, and this hunger and thirst 
 with which I have often seen you rise from table 
 where you have not had sufficient nourishment ; 
 
112 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 nor have I forgotten the bitter cold with which 
 your feet and hands have been attacked, your in- 
 sufficient clothing, your want of fire, your great 
 trouble in seeking at one time for wood, bread, or 
 good water ; at another Masses, confessor’s advice, 
 and oftentimes consolation.” Be in no ways 
 afflicted ; I will tell you of a fountain, full of 
 every good, from which you have only to draw, 
 for it is ever flowing for such as live in the way 
 I believe you do. Fear not, dear sisters, you 
 
 wdll want nothing Do you think your beloved 
 
 spouse has forsaken you ? Our Lord sometimes 
 seems to withdraw Himself from his friends, but 
 He never does this entirely. He is not far off : 
 He is only hid behind a screen or grating, and 
 waits there for a time without saying anything, 
 in order to watch the countenances and hear the 
 sighs of His dear spouses.” (27th October, 1620.) 
 
 The Canons were not, however, a whit richer 
 than these poor women, and the good Father had 
 to seek alms for them. He interested in their 
 favour, the least distressed of his nuns. “Would 
 to God,” he writes, “ you would bear with me in 
 my insolence, my presumption, and my unmea- 
 sured confidence Bear with me, I pray you, 
 
 and pardon me. Methinks I hear you asking. 
 Why are we to do all this ? Why ? I am almost 
 ashamed to tell you. I have an humble petition 
 to make, imploring you to take pity on the poor 
 fathers and brothers of the Congregation of the 
 Saviour of our souls ; to draw from the deep 
 well of your compassion, a few drops of pity, in 
 order to give them some repose, to recreate and 
 console them. But wffiat compassion shall we 
 show ? I hear you ask. Ah ! now I tremble. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 113 
 
 The great St. Paul, wishing to say something on 
 a certain subject, of which he had some appre- 
 hension, could not bring himself to commence 
 his discourse ; he goes round his subject, returns 
 again, then attempts to commence but cuts short, 
 hesitates, retraces his way, like (to use the com- 
 parison of St. Chrysostom) a noble Spanish or 
 Tartary steed who, about to leap over a broad, 
 deep, and dangerous brook, advances to its edge, 
 then suddenly starts back, and at last, taking 
 courage and resolution, he springs over the leap.” 
 
 He then tells ^ them that the fathers are in 
 
 deep distress, and hints that if they are able to 
 repay them part of some money which they had 
 
 lent the sisters it would be very acceptable 
 
 “ Good Lord ! what a jump I have taken ! Where 
 am I ? I am exhausted and quite confounded ! 
 Am I in the ditch, or this side of it, or beyond 
 it, or where ? What have 1 done ? What have 
 I said? My ears are filled with a deafening 
 
 noise which quite overpowers me.” 
 
 This lively and clever style is more particularly 
 met with in those letters in which he wishes to 
 insinuate some counsel or advice. Sending a 
 curate to his successor, he writes as follows : — 
 “ You receive with this, the reverend father who 
 is going to submit himself to your direction. 
 If in any transport or pious fit of excess of 
 fervour, in sustaining the truth of any proposition, 
 he chances to exceed the bounds of discretion 
 prescribed for him, let your reverence quickly 
 borrow the little flagelet, which the servant of 
 one of the Gracchi held behind his master, and 
 make use of this sweet instrument to change, 
 not only the tone, but the matter of the father’s 
 
 L 
 
114 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 discourse. Should your reverence retain this 
 flagelet, to make use of it for any other purpose, 
 such as speaking to your poor servant, when he 
 is slothful in bringing your meals, has broken 
 a glass, or left a third of his morning’s work 
 undone, in such case he need not repent of it, 
 in his evening examen, nor accuse himself of 
 having made use of an instrument stolen from 
 a Roman servant, or of having imported a piece 
 of foreign gold into our land of promise. This 
 is a joke, to amuse your reverence,” (4th April, 
 1634.) 
 
 When he has occasion to blame or correct, he 
 does it with a good humour full of grace and 
 wit. Thus he writes to a religious : 
 
 “ You are very cunning and malicious in such 
 things as relate to God. I have been engaged 
 since yesterday in rummaging among all the 
 resources of my malice, but have not been able 
 to find anything like that which you have so 
 
 readily brought forth from your treasury 
 
 Your ideas are very well conceived, and put into 
 a very good form. It is true the orthography 
 is at fault, but that is not surprising in women, 
 and it were better, perhaps, that it should be 
 so, in order that people may not doubt that 
 these letters are their own compositions, and not 
 borrowed from others. A present of fruit, which 
 a person believes to have grown in your garden, 
 although several particles of dirt may adhere to 
 them — even as many as thirty-four, the number 
 of faults in your letter, which I have noted in the 
 margin — such fruits, I say. will be more agree- 
 able to the recipient than the most scrupulously 
 clean and finest fruit which might be thought 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 115 
 
 to be the produce of, and stolen or borrowed 
 from, another garden. Nevertheless, I have 
 not been deterred from making my remarks, 
 'which you are at liberty to peruse at your 
 leisure.” (26th November, 1631.) 
 
 He finds fault with the convent of Chalons in 
 the following manner : — “ I asked this little 
 man whom you sent me if you had much wheat. 
 He answered, ‘ Seven measures.’ — ‘ How do you 
 know that ? ’ — ‘ Because I often go to sweep the 
 granary, when it is in a very dirty state.’ — ‘ How 
 long do you stay there each time ? ’ — ‘ About 
 two hours.’ — ‘How?’ — ‘I am shut up there, 
 and one of the sisters brings me something to 
 eat.’ — ‘Have they a good garden?’ — ‘Yes.’ 
 ‘ Who attends to it ? ’ — ‘ I do all I can for it, 
 which is not much, as I understand very little 
 about gardening.’ — ‘Do you work in it often? 
 ‘ Yes, rather so.’ — The poor lad answered very 
 well ; I must not be angry with him ; but I do 
 not think (under correction) that you ought to 
 employ him at this work. You have sisters 
 enough, thank God, to sweep the granary and 
 work in the garden. I therefore beg of you not 
 to admit this boy, or any other, within your 
 cloister, without strict necessity and the express 
 leave of the bishop.” (1626.) 
 
 The mayor of Mirecourt, in a time of scarcity, 
 spoke of the religious, as “ useless mouths.” 
 Fourier brings him to his senses, and thus writes 
 to his brother : “ The greater part of these women 
 belong to the town, and would eat just the same 
 were they with their parents — nay even more and 
 better meat ; or had they married husbands who 
 loved good cheer, and who might perhaps have 
 
116 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 come from distant parts to marry and live 
 amongst us, and they and their children would 
 consume infinitely more victuals than these poor 
 single women. . . . How is it that at the market of 
 Dompaire, you neither find so much wine or 
 corn in the market-place, or pastry, and other 
 things, as you see every Saturday at Mirecourt ? 
 It is because you have more buyers, eaters and 
 drinkers. The greater the number of your 
 people the larger supply of provisions will you 
 have. There is no more difficulty in obtaining 
 food at Mirecourt, at the present day, than there 
 was, I think, in my grandfather s time, when 
 there were not more than three hundred and fifty 
 families in the place ; and when your children 
 can number three thousand they will find plenty 
 
 to eat and drink The mayor and other good 
 
 people who form his council have sense enough 
 to understand this.” Here is a little treatise on 
 political economy, and an excellent defence of 
 these good women, whom we find the municipal 
 power ever ready to find good reasons to persecute. 
 
 Fourier’s pen also furnishes us with passages 
 which show a great knowledge of character. 
 
 “Wild or imperious minds, and such as are 
 subject to violent and dangerous passions, rarely 
 adapt themselves to a conventual life. Even 
 should they pass through the novitiate, and some 
 years beyond it, endeavouring to conceal their 
 feelings, and, as it were, living in a state of 
 torpor, they nevertheless, at times, break forth 
 and show their real nature.” And again : “The 
 ways of these conceited and over bold people are 
 rather too rude, too sharp and too absolute. We 
 had better wait a little until they are riper, as 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 117 
 
 we do with fruit, without touching them at pre- 
 sent, because they are not yet dressed, as we say 
 in this country.” (10th November, 1629.) I 
 much regret that the small space which I have 
 allowed myself will not permit me to give more 
 than a few curtailed passages. The following 
 extracts show that mild morality which he 
 preached to his daughters : — 
 
 Would to God, my dear sisters, that you 
 knew the exceeding great value of patience, 
 charity, and humility in everything, and parti- 
 cularly in gaining over those who wish you evil ! 
 These are the Christian’s arms, and, united with 
 tears, are especially suited to persons in your 
 station. Make use of these drugs, which the 
 Son of God, our Divine Physician, has brought 
 from heaven to heal our own Avounds, and those 
 of our persecutors and calumniators. Bear 
 patiently and charitably with all persons with 
 whom you have to do, so that no one may have 
 just reason to complain. Offend no one. Behave 
 kindly, very kindly, to all who come to you, 
 
 whether they be rich or poor.” “ Walk with 
 
 circumspection. Have an especial care not to he 
 too communicative, hut to keep a holy and pru- 
 dent reserve Do not go about the town, nor 
 
 allow a man to pass or touch your doorposts. Do 
 not gossip, either at your door or elsewhere, to 
 any church official ; hold no conversations, make 
 no visits or presents, and receive no letters with- 
 out burning them unopened Eespect those 
 
 ecclesiastics wffio do not respect you, hut show 
 your disdain to those who are particular in their 
 
 marks of attention.” 
 
 Tn the midst of serious affairs of directing 
 
118 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 and advising his religious, we find an occasional 
 bouquet of gentle pleasantry and amiable naivete. 
 Having addressed some counsels to a young 
 nobleman about to marry, be adds : “To show 
 the affection I bear you, and the desire I have to 
 be present on the happy occasion, I contribute a 
 dozen pears towards the breakfast.” — “ I am 
 quite humpbacked,” be writes, in a letter to the 
 religious, “ with so much writing. In order not 
 to add to my infirmity, I shall content myself 
 this time with telling you that I have a bagfull 
 of all kinds of excuses, shuffles, delays, and 
 other like relics of our first Father Adam ; from 
 this bag I take every day some piece, and having 
 done so for the last sixty years, thanks to Father 
 Adam, I always find it full. I know you often 
 quiz what I write, but do not so this time. I 
 pray 3^ou be not displeased.” — “ What business,” 
 say you quite angrily, “ can be more important 
 than that at St. Luneville ?” I also say, in no 
 better humour than you : “ What affairs are more 
 pressing than those of St. Mihiel? You are 
 
 quite in a little paradise Of what do you 
 
 complain ? What more can you ask for, being 
 already quite satiated? After such feasting I 
 should only disgust you with my few little mouldy 
 crumbs of oaten bread. Even though I had in 
 my wallet some small crusts, for which some of 
 you, who are perchance disgusted with your rich 
 fare, should feel an appetite, (as some delicate 
 ladies refuse at times delicious viands for others 
 which are very common), still, in this case, I 
 could not bring them to you yet.” (1st May, 1625.) 
 “ In taking the paper which Simon brought, I 
 fancied I saw St. Jerome behind the door, who 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 119 
 
 told me, that, since he had formerly taken the 
 trouble to thank, in a beautiful letter, the Virgin 
 Eustochia for the cherries she had sent him, I 
 ought not to be so proud or indolent as to refuse 
 to thank, with one of my miserable scrawls, a 
 like present given to me by a great many virgins, 
 who surpass in every quality the ancient Eus- 
 tochia. I willingly listened to this doctor, and 
 heard him say, among other things to his bene- 
 factress, that he did not find any cherries in the 
 whole garden of the Holy Scriptures (and indeed 
 neither is the word cherry or cherry-tree found 
 there) which he could send in return for her fruit, 
 but he, however, discovered in front of our Lord’s 
 
 temple two basketsful of figs If I dared 
 
 imitate him, I would arrange the figs after my 
 fashion before presenting them to you, and say, 
 I hoped that you, and all who shall enter your 
 convent for ever, may be of the number of those 
 delicious figs so sweet, so dear, and so precious.” 
 
 I took notice, in the commencement of this 
 book, of the strong affection of our holy Father 
 for his family. I will now give a few extracts 
 from his letters to them, if it be only to contra- 
 dict the assertions of some writers, who insist 
 on his stoical insensibility to this feeling. The 
 first is written in his old age to his sister’s son. 
 
 “ While this terrible contagion remains, I 
 shall feel quite uneasy about you ; for you know 
 how I love and cherish you, and the interest I 
 take in every thing relating to you, who are so 
 good, so honest, and so devout, following in this 
 the good example and counsels of your dear 
 mother. Make my remembrances to Mary, your 
 wife, and to your little Margaret. Take good 
 
120 
 
 LIFE OF THE 
 
 nourishment, and keep your spirits up as joyously 
 as you can. Good night, dear nephew ; good 
 night, Mary ; good night, Margaret.” (14th 
 May, 1636.) 
 
 “ My dearest child, grace be with you, and 
 
 peace and health, through our Lord My 
 
 eyes and heart could better show you how deeply 
 I feel your sickness than my pen and paper can 
 
 do I thank kind Providence that my beloved 
 
 neice, your dear partner, is not in danger, as 
 
 she might be, in the midst of this contagion” 
 
 (1638.) 
 
 The following letter, the last, perhaps, which 
 his dying hand traced, will reveal, at one glance, 
 the hearts of two great Christians. It is written 
 to his sister-in-law : 
 
 “ You know the bargain I made with my 
 late dear brother, your most amiable and pious 
 husband, when, inspired by God, he advised, 
 or rather gently pressed me, as a brother, to 
 retire from the charge I had received from the 
 Fathers of the Congregation of our Saviour, by 
 a pure desire he had to have me live as a simple 
 religious. I then told him that henceforward I 
 would speak no more with him or his, and that 
 if he passed the abbey, I would not see him, 
 and that he must imagine his brother to be 
 dead to the world. My dear good brother 
 willingly agreed to this, and even encouraged me 
 to its practice from the desire he had to see me 
 as perfect a religious, as I believe he was a man. 
 I have a thousand times admired his spirit, and 
 his constancy in mortifying himsplf for the love 
 of God, and his salvation in this ardent affection 
 for me...... It is as necessary for me also to 
 
BLESSEI> PETEK FOURIER. 
 
 121 
 
 moderate the expression of the feelings of this 
 same brotherly love to please God and my brother, 
 and to submit them to the control of religion. 
 For this cause have I been, since that time, so 
 sparing not only of my letters, but even of my 
 kindness to your little people whom I love most 
 dearly.” Then, as if to make up for past neglect 
 he gives the widow excellent advice upon the 
 education of her children. 
 
 “ I can imagine I hear all the ladies of the town 
 telling each other that dame Anne Martin is one of 
 the most happy mothers in all Lorraine, and that 
 James Fourier helps them most powerfully in 
 heaven by his good prayers. This will not be of 
 little avail, before God and the world in bringing 
 about their happy marriage. Virtue is every where 
 esteemed. Many parents, perhaps much richer 
 than we are, would be glad to ally themselves in 
 marriage with so well conducted a family. Fortune, 
 however, should be of little consideration with 
 you ; in seeking for a husband for your daughters 
 choose a man of intelligence and address, strong 
 and of sound health, and able to provide for the 
 family of which he may become the chief.” Then 
 entering with charming condescension into the 
 details of their proposed marriages, the saintly 
 uncle recommends their mother “ to learn pru- 
 dently from each, whether she willingly, and 
 with all her heart, wishes to accept the husband 
 selected for her. There must be a reciprocal 
 affection ; if that exists not, should even a king- 
 dom, or all the wealth of the world be the prize, 
 there will be no peace, but only extreme misery.” 
 
 He exhorts the girls to shun vanities in clothes, 
 jewellery, and other finery, “ The most precious 
 
 M 
 
122 
 
 LIFE OP THE 
 
 jewels of my dear nieces will be their virtue, and 
 
 their modesty These alone have often been 
 
 considered a sufficient dowry, without any money. 
 If you have not sixty francs in your purse to give 
 to Annon,* (this was the sum my grandmother 
 had for her dowry,) I should not be surprised ; 
 for we will marry her, and that well too, please 
 God, since she is so modest.” (31st Aug. 1640.) 
 This sister, whose dearest interests engaged his 
 greatest attention, previous to quitting this earth, 
 was the same who had been associated with him 
 in his works of benevolence. He wrote on the 
 3rd of August, 1628, to the religious of Mattain- 
 court. “ My sister Anne, who has been staying 
 here the last few days, fears, that on account of 
 the dearness of every thing, the poor people of 
 Mattaincourt must be in great want of bread. 
 To supply the weak and sick, she wishes me to 
 advise you to bake bread as you did two or three 
 years ago, when corn was so dear. This sugges- 
 tion and good counsel has made me send you 
 this boy, and write a few words to you, praying 
 you to see what you can do, with God’s aid and 
 your scanty means, for the relief and comfort of 
 
 this poor distressed people Have some bread 
 
 baked, and write out a list of those to whom it 
 should be given, and portion it out every day, so 
 as to give some one, others two, or even as much 
 as five pounds, according to their necessities, and 
 the number of their children. Above all be care- 
 ful not to behave sharply, haughtily, or severely, 
 in bestowing this charity upon these poor people ; 
 do not speak harshly to them, and be not too 
 
 * The name of the intended of one of his nieces. 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER, 
 
 123 
 
 particular should they get a little over- weight, to 
 
 take it from them again There is a poor 
 
 woman at Bazoilles, called Estienne, on whom 
 I beg you to take pity, and to attend to her poor 
 orphans ; send her a quartern of corn which I 
 give her for the love of God.” 
 
 I must now bring my extracts from the cor- 
 respondence of the blessed Peter Fourier to a 
 close, and only regret I cannot give the reader an 
 opportunity of becoming better acquainted with 
 his letters. This correspondence is very exten- 
 sive, and comprises letters to bishops, princes, and 
 ladies of distinction ; letters upon ecclesiastical 
 discipline, and on spiritual direction ; and letters 
 of condolence, in which the good Father excelled.* 
 They are written in that free, simple, and illustra- 
 tive style, which characterises the beginning of the 
 XVI Ith century. The clearness of his thoughts, 
 and his purity of language, are particularly strik- 
 ing, especially when compared with the authors 
 of Lorraine, at that period, whose style is very 
 different from the French writers of the same 
 time. The reader has already been made ac- 
 quainted with his work of the Comtitutions. 
 Fourier has also left his religious another chef 
 d ’oeuvre on “ the primitive and legitimate spirit of 
 the institute of the daughters of the Congregation 
 of our Lady,'' a golden work, filled with the most 
 
 * These letters are, unfortunately, dispersed in different 
 places and among numerous persons. I trust, however, 
 they will be collected and published, and they will assuredly 
 take their place by the side of the best ascetical writers. Many 
 equal those of St. Francis of Sales. (As soon as they appear 
 it is the intention of the translator to publish an English 
 version. 
 
LIFE OF THE 
 
 lU 
 
 attractive piety. He also wrote, at the desire of 
 his bishop, a work “oti the duties of a 'parish 
 priest but the unfinished manuscript was lost, 
 it is not known how, perhaps, at the time of the 
 Father’s flight.* It would seem that some in- 
 tention was afterwards entertained of publishing 
 this work, as one of the Father’s biographers who 
 wrote in 1746, says, in speaking of the duties of 
 parish priests, “ its value will be seen when it is 
 given to the public.” In a long letter addressed 
 to two Regular Canons, who had taken cures in 
 Switzerland during the emigration, Fourier seems 
 to give a resume of this work. He traces, under 
 the semblance of their life, the ideal of a parish 
 priest, and draws without intending it, his own 
 portrait. Some shorter works, meditations, a 
 treatise on faith &c., are known by the fragments 
 inserted in the various lives of our Father. He 
 left a great number of papers covered with notes 
 and thoughts.! 
 
 The constitutions of the Canons show, accord- 
 ing to theologians, a profound knowledge of 
 ecclesiastical antiquity, and it is said, that Fourier 
 always carried a volume of the Fathers with him. 
 However, his name has not been treasured by 
 the people as a wise, but as a good man. This 
 
 * Some twenty pages are given by Father Bedel of this 
 work as all that he had been able to collect. 
 
 t “I am sorry,” he writes to a religious, “ that T cannot 
 content our brother catechist. I formerly wrote these things 
 in a very hasty manner on tlie first piece of paper I met 
 with, and I know not what has become of them. I regret 
 this now, and endeavour in my old age to amend in this 
 respect, and not to lose thus what I brew, that it may serve 
 some after purpose. But alas ! it is very late ! Sero 
 sapiunt Phryges” (15th March, 1626.) 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 125 
 
 will ever be his characteristic, and it is strongly 
 marked on his physionomy. The wretched pic- 
 tures spread among the poor and those attached 
 to some editions of his life are of no authority; 
 but a contemporary portrait, still remaining in 
 his family, represents him with that fine, venerable 
 and open face which puts one in mind of St. Francis 
 of Sales, and of Fenelon. He possessed a high 
 forehead, aquiline nose, large but mild eyes, and 
 a lofty stature. His whole figure gave one the 
 idea “ of a pure and innocent soul wedded to a 
 fine form, that was preserved to his old age, so 
 that time, which preys upon all things, spared 
 him, because his soul knew not vice, whence 
 springs deformity.”* Another writer says, that 
 he had a mild and simple air and happy features; 
 some portion of colour remained in his face in 
 the midst of all his austerities, and, if I may 
 call it so, the ruin of the exterior man. The 
 tears he daily and nightly shed, did not diminish 
 
 the brightness of his eyes He was very 
 
 vivacious, but this served the more to show that 
 his recollection and modesty were less virtues 
 arising from his temperament than from pro- 
 found impressions of the Spirit of God. He 
 was never gloomy or sorrowful, only serious, and 
 the sweetness of his words ever caused edification 
 and esteem. ”t 
 
 The mere sight of him excited confidence and 
 love. “ It suffices,” said St. Jane of Chantal, 
 “ to see the pious rector of Mattaincourt, to 
 esteem him as a saint, although you know not 
 
 ♦ Bedel. 
 
 t Vie ou eloge du B. Pere Fourier. — Anonymous, 1746. 
 
 M 2 
 
126 
 
 IJFE OF THE 
 
 that he is one.” And Cardinal de Benille, hav- 
 ing met our Saint at Nancy, said, on his return, 
 that “if any one wished, at a single glance, to con- 
 template all the virtues united, he must go into 
 Lorraine, and see the Father of Mattaincourt. 
 He is so amiable that children, who care only for 
 sweets, follow him every where, charmed by the 
 attraction of his virtues ; they surround him and 
 sing in chorus out of his breviary, while he, after 
 the example of our blessed Saviour, does not 
 prevent them. Even the animals have felt the 
 effects of his kindness. He had so much com- 
 passion for poor captive birds, who had been taken 
 from their nests or otherwise obtained by any 
 religious or servant, that he always made them 
 give the poor creatures their liberty without 
 hurting them. One winter, when the earth was 
 covered with snow, which, like a cruel step- 
 mother, deprived them of their food, the good 
 Father came to their aid, causing some crumbs 
 and grain to be strewed every day near his door, 
 and he always went to his window to see his 
 feathered friends take their meal.”* 
 
 Like all simple and Christian souls he was 
 fond of nature, and took much pleasure in the 
 solitude of the country. His ordinary walk was 
 near a fountain not far from Mattaincourt, at the 
 foot of a young tree which he had planted. This 
 fountain has become celebrated under the name 
 of the “ Good Father’s Spring;” as to the tree 
 which also bore his name, it was some years ago 
 still majestic and thickly spread, but at the 
 centenary festival of his beatification, the pil- 
 
 * Bedel, 
 
BLESSED PETER FOURIER. 
 
 127 
 
 grims so stripped it of its bark that nothing but 
 the trunk remained, and this has since dis- 
 appeared, the carrying away of this venerable 
 witness of the prayers of the good Father of 
 Mattaincourt bearing testimony to the reviving 
 confidence in the Saint’s protection. This spot 
 has recently been consecrated by the erection of 
 a beautiful little chapel by the inhabitants of 
 Mattaincourt, in honour of their sainted pastor. 
 
 Their most precious possession, however, is 
 the body of him who “ having loved them during 
 life loved them to the end.” The magistrates of 
 Gray claimed this prize as the reward of their 
 hospitality. An order from the courts of Madrid 
 and Brussels was necessary to make them sur- 
 render the body ; and when the Canons bore it 
 away, a scene occurred similar to the contest of 
 the citizens of Tours and Poitiers after the death 
 of St. Martin. In their way they stopped at 
 Mattaincourt, and placed the body in the church 
 for the night ; the next morning the townspeople 
 protested that the sacred remains should never 
 be removed, that they would yield their lives 
 rather than the body of their “good Father.” 
 IJpon repeated commands from their sovereign 
 they at length gave way, and the cortege was 
 about to set out when the women rushed forth, 
 threw themselves upon the bier, and declared 
 they never could part with their treasure. To 
 prevent bloodshed their wishes were complied 
 with, and it now remains in the little church of 
 which he was the rector ; above the altar is seen 
 the shrine, surrounded by ex-votos, while the 
 altar-step is worn by the knees of pilgrims, who 
 crowd to venerate the precious relics. Their 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF THE B. P. FOURIER. 
 
 number has so greatly increased that it became ' 
 necessary to erect a new church which the present 
 rector of Mattaincourt, a worthy successor of th • 
 blessed Peter Fourier, is accomplishing * This 
 revival of the popular devotion, which had been 
 much restrained since the period of the first 
 Kevolution, dates from the celebration of the 
 centenary of the beatification of their holy pastor, 
 which took place with great rejoicings, in the 
 midst of an immense concourse of pilgrims, in 
 the year 1832.t Since that time active measures 
 have been taken to obtain his canonization, the 
 process of which is now pending at Rome, where 
 it is confidently expected, that the Father of the 
 faithful, and Head of Christ’s Church on earth, 
 will soon enrol in the calendar of the Saints 
 the name of PETER FOURIER. 
 
 * I have been favoured by the kindness of M. I’Abbe 
 Hadol with two views of this church. It is in the style 
 prevalent in France in the early part of the 14th century. 
 The interior is remarkably grand, the nave and aisles being i 
 groined in stone. The chancel has an apsidal termination, 
 a peculiarity very general in French churches. Any of my 
 readers, who may wish to have a share in the good work, 
 which is not yet completed, may do so, and participate 
 in especial and extraordinary spiritual advantages, by ad- 
 dressing themselves to M. le Cure de Mattaincourt, pres 
 Mirecourt Vosges, France. — Translator, 
 
 + He was beatified in January, 1730. 
 
 BLESSED PETER FOURIER 
 
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