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 A Little Saint of Nine Years. A Biographical 
 Notice. From the French of Mgr. De Segur, by Mi>s 
 M. McMahon, i6mo, cloth, 4° cems - 
 
 Familiar Instructions and Evening Lectures on all 
 the Truths of Religion. By Mgr. de Segur. l6mo, 
 
 Vol. I., cloth, • $ l ' 6 °' 
 
 Vol. IL, cloth, 
 
 I. oo. 
 
 BEXZIGER BROTHERS, Sew York, Cincinnati and St. Louis. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND 
 
 OF 
 
 THE POOR; 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 THE LIFE AND WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 Mgr, de Segur, 
 
 ONE OF HIS SPIRITUAL CHILDREN. 
 
 Translated from the French by . 
 
 MISS MARY McMAHON. 
 
 New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis: 
 
 BENZIGER BROTHE 
 
 Printers to the Holy 
 1883. 
 
The LxMARY 
 of Congress 
 
 washington 
 
 
 We wish to declare here, conformably to the 
 decree of Urban VIII., that if we use the expres- 
 sions holy, venerable, etc., it is only as an historian, 
 and without intending to anticipate in any way 
 the intention of the Church at Rome, the tender 
 Mother and infallible Teacher of all the Churches. 
 
 Copyright, 1882, by BENZIGER BROTHERS. 
 
TO 
 
 The Venerated and Beloved Memory 
 
 OF HIM WHO WAS ON EARTH 
 
 THE GREAT APOSTLE PAR EXCELLENCE, 
 
 THE FRIEND OP HUMBLE AND POOR SOULS, 
 
 THE FATHER OF GOOD WORKS, 
 
 god's LABORER, 
 
 THE BLIND ONE WHO SAW, 
 
 THE FRANCIS DE SALES OF THE XIX. CENTURY, 
 
 BY 
 
 ONE OF HIS SPIRITUAL CHILDREN. 
 ■ 
 G. V., Tertiary of St. Francis. 
 
 Monastery of the Trappists, 
 op Westvleteren (Belgium). Sept. 1881. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 These few pages, written during a retreat, are 
 intended by the author to satisfy the natural im- 
 patience of the friends and spiritual children of 
 Mgr. de Segur while waiting the larger Life which 
 will appear in a few years from a more author- 
 ized pen, and of which this short sketch is to serve 
 only as a sort of preface. 
 
 The author, who has had the honor during ten 
 years of seeing the deceased prelate several times 
 a week, gives in this work only authenticated 
 facts, preferring in the interest of truth to omit 
 those of which he is not perfectly certain. 
 
 The only object in publishing these " Notes" 
 is to make him more loved, whose loss is to the 
 Church and to France an irreparable misfortune. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND 
 
 OF 
 
 THE POOR. 
 
 — I. — 
 
 Mgr. de Segur was born on the 15th of April, 
 1820, at No. 48 rue de Varennes, Paris. His 
 father, Count Eugene de Segur, was the great- 
 grandson of Chancellor d'Aguesseau, of President 
 Lamoignonandof the Marquis de Segur, Marshal 
 of France and Minister of War under Louis XVI. 
 He was grandson of the Count S6gur, Peer of 
 France and Embassador to the Court of the Era- 
 press Catharine of Russia, and son of Count Octave 
 de Segur. 
 
 Count Euge'ne de Segur became the head of the 
 family, and heir to the peerage, in 1830, by the 
 successive deaths of his father and grandfather. 
 
 His mother, Sophie Rostopchine, was the 
 daughter of Count Theodore Rostopchine, a de- 
 scendant of the celebrated Tartar Prince, Gengis- 
 Khan, and first minister of the Czar, Paul I., in 
 
10 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 1799; and later the patriotic instigator of the burn- 
 ing of Moscow (of which he was governor) at the 
 time of the entry of the French into thatcit y in 1812. 
 Through the friendly mediation of Mine. Swetch- 
 ine, tbe intimate friend of the two families, Mlle # 
 Rostopchine married Count Eugene de Segur at 
 Paris on the 14th of July, 1819. They were mar- 
 ried by the Cardinal of Luzerne in his private 
 chapel. Of this marriage eight children were 
 born, of whom our holy prelate was the eldest. 
 Five are still living. They are : the Marquis de 
 Segur, born in 1823, former Prefect and Councillor 
 of State, a poet and distinguished writer j* Count 
 de Segur-Lamoignon, born in 1825, former deputy 
 and Commissioner of the Museum of the Louvre ; 
 Natalie de Segur, born in 1S27, married to Baron 
 de Malaret ; Henrietta de Segur, born in 1829, 
 married to Mr. Fresneau, Senator from Morbihan ; 
 and Olga de Segur, born in 1S35, married to Vis- 
 count de Pitray. An infant son named Renaud 
 died in January, 1S22, only six weeks old. 
 Sabine de Segur, twin sister of Madame Fresneau. 
 a religious of the Visitation in Paris, died in the 
 odor of sanctity, the 20th of October, 1868. 
 
 * The Marquis de Se^ur is not a member of the French Acade- 
 my, because of an article written by Mgr, de S6gur, in which 
 several of the Academicians thought" they recognized their ex- 
 amination of conscience. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 11 
 
 Thiough the marriages of the members of his 
 family, Mgr. de Segur was connected with the 
 noble families of d'Aguesseau, d'Armaille, de Bel • 
 lot, de Bonneval,de Broglie,de Cadore,d'Estissao, 
 de Galard, de la Force, de Lesparre, Malez'ieu, de 
 Moussac,Narischkine,Tornielli and de Villeneuve. 
 
12 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — II. — 
 
 Soon after the birth of Louis Gaston Adrien 
 de Segur, his parents contemplated buying proper- 
 ty which would enable them to make their home 
 in the country. Nouettes, the property of Gen. 
 Lefebvre, in Normandy (near Laigle) was for 
 sale. One hundred thousand francs was the price 
 asked for it in ready money. 
 
 Count Rostopchine, who loved his children de- 
 votedly, heard of their desire. On the first of 
 January, 1820, he went to see his daughter, em- 
 braced her affectionately, and having received 
 her caresses and good wishes, he handed her a 
 pocket-book, saying : "There is your New Year's 
 present." The pocket-book contained 100,000 
 francs, the price of the Castle of Nouettes.* 
 
 At the age of two years Gaston (by this name 
 his mother always called him) made his first en- 
 trance to the castle, mounted on the shoulders of 
 Madame de Segur's aged professor of drawing.! 
 
 The country people who were admitted into 
 the family, recall having seen young Gaston at 
 
 * Life of Count Rostocphine, by the Marquis de 86gur. 
 tMonseigneur loved to repeat these details to his Intimate 
 
 friends. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. IS 
 
 Nouettes, and they speak of traits of character 
 which even then showed him to be the generous 
 friend of children and of the poor. 
 The following came to our notice : 
 He had to have a tooth drawn, an operation 
 which children always dread ; he refused to sub- 
 mit to it. There stood the dentist, instrument in 
 hand. His mother coaxed him, commanded him, 
 promised him ten francs, but the child still obsti- 
 nately refused. Just then he saw a poor man in the 
 avenue of the castle. "Doctor/' said he to the 
 dentist, " you may take out my tooth." When 
 the operation was over he turned to his mother, 
 saying, " Mamma, will you be good enough to give 
 me my ten francs?" and as soon as he received 
 them he ran to give them to the poor man for 
 whom he had suffered. 
 
14 TE2 BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — III.— 
 
 At six years of age Gaston was placed at tlic 
 little College of Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris. 
 Here be manifested that intense love for his 
 mother which made him the object of universal 
 admiration. This was the first religion of his heart, 
 and he preserved it until his last moments. 
 
 On their holidays, Gaston, instead of going to 
 play with his little companions, was only happy 
 when with his mother, who was then weak and 
 delicate. He would seat himself at a table near 
 her bed, or on the floor by her sofa, and neglect- 
 ing the toys and books which he had at hand, he 
 sat with his large, handsome eyes fixed on his 
 mother, watching secretly her every movement? 
 ready to serve her, talking all the while of his 
 studies, his companions, of his family, of every 
 thing to divert her and to make the time pass 
 quickly. He was always very anxious that the 
 conversation should never flag, and whenever 
 there was a forced silence he had recourse to two 
 little schemes which were worth a thousand times 
 more than the sallies of the most charming conver- 
 sation: he would put his little arms around his 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 15 
 
 mother's neck, and embrace her long and loving] r, 
 kissing her tenderly, saying in his most loving 
 tones: " Mother, I have still ten hours to remain 
 with you ; I have seven hours more, two more 
 hours ; mother, I have only one hour more." 
 
 He counted the minutes ; tears came as the 
 hands of the clock advanced. The hour struck 
 and he departed. He went away crying, but mam- 
 ma did not cry till after he was gone.* One day he 
 was told that he could not go home the following 
 Sunday. He had made a caricature of his professor 
 swimming in a large bottle of vinegar. The first 
 work of the future artist must have been w r ell done, 
 for although well disguised, it was seized by the 
 master, who readily recognized himself. Gaston 
 wept bitterly, and was very sad that day. 
 
 The professor, who slightly resembled Napo- 
 leon I., several of whose portraits adorned his 
 room, had a mania for trying, by his pose, ges- 
 tures, and his bearing, to increase the resemblance. 
 
 Sunday approached, and Gaston, who knew 
 the weakness of the master, devised a little plan. 
 
 He went to the professor's room, and kneeling, 
 begged his pardon, promising never to do so 
 again. He pleaded and implored, but to no avail. 
 The master was inflexible. There he stood, with 
 
 * " The Friend of the People." 
 
16 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THL1 POOR. 
 
 his hand on his breast in the folds of bis gown 
 is his favorite attitude. Gaston, regaining his self 
 possession, seized the favorable moment, and 
 pointing to the emperor's picture hanging on the 
 wall, he exclaimed with astonishment : " Ah, 
 professor, how much you resemble Napoleon : the 
 same attitude, the same expression, the same brow, 
 and I might say almost the same features." 
 
 The professor was disarmed, the favor grant- 
 ed, and Gaston allowed to see his mother the 
 next holiday. 
 
 After several years of study in this little col- 
 lege, he entered at twelve years of age the 
 boarding school Muron-Bellaguet, rue de la 
 Papiniere, in Paris, an educational house quit6 
 renowned at that time. N 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 17 
 
 — IV.— 
 
 From the age of eighteen, till he entered the 
 department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 
 Gaston followed the course of lectures at the Law 
 School. Having leisure, and burning with a 
 lively ardor for the souls of his brethren and fur 
 their corporal comfort, lie became a member of 
 that admirable society of St. Vincent de Paul. 
 
 " The student of yesterday, in the flower of his 
 age, was seen visiting without disgust the most 
 abject dwellings, bringing to the suffering, neg- 
 lected inhabitants, the vision of charity.* 
 
 He met in the ranks of this militia two emu- 
 lators of his ardor, whom he made his friends. 
 One was Le Prevost, afterwards founder of the 
 Little Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul, the other 
 Pierre Olivaint, the future great apostle and glor- 
 ious martyr. With such souls as these the young 
 Segur rose quickly to the heights of sacrifice. 
 
 Every year, when he went home for his vaca- 
 tion, he brought only the linen which he had on 
 him ; his trunk was literally empty. The first 
 time this occurred, his mother was astonished; but 
 she soon understood it, and only too happy to 
 have such a son, she appeared afterwards to take 
 
 * Father Lacordaire. 
 
18 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 no notice of it, only, knowing it would be the same 
 every time, she merely gave him a little coarser 
 linen, which was much better for the poor. 
 
 At twenty years of age Gaston succeeded in 
 softening a rebellious conscience which had resist- 
 ed the zeal of the priest, the smiling patience of 
 the Sister of Charity, and the entreaties of his 
 friend Olivaint. 
 
 In the Necker Hospital a young consumptive 
 was dying, who resisted all religious solicita- 
 tions. "Death was depicted on the countenance of 
 the poor invalid, his face was wan and sallow, 
 and his frightful emaciation gave a most singular 
 appearance to his black eyes. Gaston, approach- 
 ing him, spoke to him kindly and respectfully. 
 The invalid seemed to say, by the severity of his 
 looks: "I do not want your condolence: leave 
 me in peace." 
 
 The student, feigning not to understand the rude 
 language of his contemptuous silence, multiplied 
 his tender entreaties, but his heartfelt effusions 
 were received disdainfully. Suddenly an inspi- 
 ration came to the pious visitor, he turned eagerly 
 to the unfortunate man, and said in a low tone: 
 " Did you make a good first communion?" These 
 words affected the dying man like an electric 
 shock, the expression of his face changed, and he 
 
TIIE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 19 
 
 murmured low, "Yes, sir/' as two large tears 
 coursed down bis cheeks. 
 
 Gaston seized the hand of the invalid and said ; 
 u You are fortunate then, my friend; this happi- 
 ness may come to you again ; the good God has 
 not changed : do you not wish to go to confession ? 
 
 "Yes," replied the dying man eagerly, and he 
 leaned forward to embrace his young apostle, who 
 was quite overcome by the happiness of conduct- 
 ing this soul to the joys of communion and to 
 hopes of heaven.* 
 
 Was there not in this scene the presage of an 
 apostleship which would astonish by its marvels % 
 This student, conquering for God a rebellious soul, 
 and making the ward of an hospital the theatre of 
 his action, was it not a characteristic sign of a 
 providential vocation ? 
 
 Notwithstanding his daily occupation, Gaston 
 de Segur frequented the studio of the celebrated 
 painter Paul Delaroche, until his departure for 
 Rome. In the school of suoh an artist, and with 
 the attraction which he had for the art, he made 
 rapid progress, and his style of painting was as 
 remarkable for its grace as for its vigorous orig- 
 inality. Paul Delaroche, much pleased with 
 the talent of his precocious pupil, said one day to 
 
 "* " Familiar Instructions," by Mgr. de S6gur. 
 
20 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 Gaston's father : " Count, what career do you wish 
 to give your son ? 
 
 " Master, replied Mr. de Segur, M he is the eld- 
 est of my house. I wish to make a diplomatist of 
 him. It is the career of the family. I hope he 
 will follow it. 
 
 tl Ah ! replied the illustrious painter, "do what 
 you may, he will one day be a great artist." 
 
 His success justified this prediction, for at twenty: 
 two he won the gold medal foi a portrait of his father. 
 
 His first action on receiving the medal was to 
 take it to his mother, who was as happy and proud 
 as he, perhaps a little more so, and when she 
 Lad sufficiently admired it, he went and Bold it 
 to a goldsmith, and ran to empty his pocket to the 
 poor whom he visited. Twice a laureate in a 
 single day : this is a secret which every-body does 
 not know. The prize of painting was very beau- 
 tiful, but that of charity was better still. His fa- 
 ther, his mother, the poor all were happy that day, 
 he alone did not suspect that he had done an ad- 
 mirable deed. But the good God who saw all; 
 in the place of his gold medal, gave him that 
 ardent chanty which made him so amiable, and 
 so much beloved all his life.* 
 
 * " The friend of the People," 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 21 
 
 - V. — 
 
 In 1841 Gaston de Segur tvas appointed an 
 attache to the embassy, and sent to Rome to join 
 the Connt de Latour-Maubourg. 
 
 Nothing could better respond to his aspirations 
 as Christian diplomatist and artist. He had the 
 pleasure of serving bis country, and of developing 
 his natural and spiritual gifts. 
 
 The sight of the great relics and the grand 
 ceremonies of the Church charmed him. He 
 learned to love the Pope, his faith increased, and 
 he heard for the first time the secret voice of Jesus 
 Christ saying to him : {t Come, and follow me." 
 
 His first business on arriving in Rome was to 
 choose a confessor, an important affair for a fer- 
 vent Christian. Our young diplomatist chose 
 Rev. Father de Villefort, of the Society of Jesus, a 
 holy priest whose virtues and influence have made 
 his name celebrated throughout the Catholic 
 world. 
 
 It was on Christmas eve, in 1842, while serving 
 his confessor's mass in the chapel of " The Gesu," 
 that Gaston de Segur felt the signs of his voca- 
 tion to the priesthood. Fearing to be misled by 
 
22 THE BLIND F1UEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 enthusiasm, however, he waited for a time, and, in 
 the company of the pious and learned Abbe de 
 Cazales, made a pilgrimage to Loretto in the 
 "beginning of the year 1843. 
 
 Here Gaston offered himself as a holocaust, 
 and made a vow to keep "the beautiful and pure 
 virtue." Three centuries before, Saint Francis de 
 Sales, then a young lord and a brilliant pupil of 
 the University of Padua, made the same vow. 
 Thus widely separated, these two characters exhibit 
 the same courage and the same immolation.* 
 
 When de Segur announced to his parents his 
 resolution to become a priest, it was a terrible 
 blow to his father, and nearly broke his mother's 
 heart. " He is lost to me," she exclaimed. She 
 was mistaken. By his vocation, and by the glory 
 which emanated from his sanctity, Gaston in- 
 creased the honor of his house, and instead of be- 
 ing lost to his mother, he was the only one of her 
 children from whom she was not separated. He 
 himself tells, that it was only on his knees in the 
 church that he had the strength to read his 
 mother's letters. His poor mother pleaded wiih 
 him, and urged him not to yield to what seemed 
 to her a thoughtless impulse. After a painful 
 struiTirle. G-od co nquered. 
 
 *M'T. AlermiiloJ. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 23 
 
 -VI. - 
 
 Gaston de S^gur left Rome, and immediately 
 on his arrival in Paris he entered the Seminary 
 of Saint Sulpice d'Issy, to prepare himself for 
 the greatest act that man can perforin on earth. 
 Soon after he entered the seminary he wrote the 
 following letter to Mgr. Lacroix, Clerc National 
 at Rome from 1827 to 1868. (He had not at 
 that time been promoted to the prelacy.) 
 
 My Dear Abbe : 
 
 I do not wish to let the letter from one of 
 your friends in France depart without adding 
 my little remembrance. Here I am in the house of 
 God, in the habit of God, in the heart and friend- 
 ship of that same dear Master. Permit me to 
 tell you myself of my happiness. The Lord is 
 my portion. It is He alone whom I have chosen 
 for my heritage. I prefer to be hidden and 
 ignored in the honse of God rather than to shine in 
 the mansions of the world, and I carry within 
 myself the source of my joy. I am sure, dear 
 Abbe, that you appreciate my happiness. At 
 Rome you always showed me much kindness 
 
24 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 and sympathy. Christian friendship is not les- 
 sened by distance, or subject to changes like those 
 of the world. I beg the help of your prayers. 
 I have now been a seminarian one month; I had 
 hoped to make my studies at Rome, but the 
 impossibility of carrying out my desires indicates 
 to me the will of God which I wish to follow 
 before all else. I yet hope to go to Rome later. 
 I will make there my year of Doctorate, perhaps 
 even two years of study. 
 
 Adieu, dear Abbe, keep in mind your affection- 
 ate and respectful servant, 
 
 Gastox de Segur. 
 
 Seminary cVIssy, Nov. 18, 1843. 
 
 All his brother seminarians at d'Issv and at 
 Paris, among others Mgr. Richard, now coadjutor 
 to his Excellency the Cardinal of Paris, preserve 
 a most charming recollection of his life at the 
 Seminary ; no one worked with greater ardor, 
 none better united gayety with piety, gentleness 
 with enthusiasm ; he was the moving spirit, and 
 at the same time the edification of the seminary. 
 He himself acknowledged to one of his intimate 
 friends that he never broke a rule. 
 
 Gaston made while at Saint Sulpice several 
 caricatures which his family still preserve with 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 25 
 
 great care; one of these drawings shows in a 
 special manner his joyous humor. It represents 
 a car drawn by several seminarians, while at the 
 back of the car one of the directors of the sem i- 
 nary pulls in the opposite direction ; the Superior 
 coming unexpectedly to the aid of the director 
 throws books in front of the seminarians in order 
 to block up the road. This picture was called' 
 The Car of Progress. 
 
26 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — VII. — 
 
 From the day on which he was made sub-dea- 
 con, the young Levite, marching with giant 
 strides, outstripped his companions. When the 
 solemn moment of his ordination arrived he was 
 fully prepared; and the Arch-deacon, replying to 
 questions of the Archbishop of Paris, did not 
 hesitate to affirm that Gaston de Segur was 
 worthy of Holy Orders and the honor of the 
 priesthood. He ivas a priest at heart, even before 
 he was ordained ! * 
 
 The Abbe de Segur was ordained priest on the 
 18th of December, 1.847, by Mgr. Affre, on the 
 eve of the revolution of 1848. 
 
 God seemed in a measure to predestine him 
 for The struggle, intending to make manifest to all 
 the profound peace and serenity with which he 
 was prepared to sustain it. 
 
 The young priest celebrated his first mass in 
 the chapel of the Blessed Virgin in the church of 
 San Sulpice at Paris j his mother was the first 
 to whom he gave communion. The previous 
 
 * Funeral oration on Father Bourgoing, by Bossuet. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 27 
 
 evening she had received his first priestly bless- 
 ing in the parlor of the seminary. 
 
 Before the tabernacle of this altar, where 1)6 
 said his first mass, the Abbe de Segur asked the 
 Blessed Virgin to send him in his priestly life 
 the greatest possible trial, and to obtain for him 
 the grace to endure it through love for her divine 
 Son and for her. He waited six years before 
 knowing, what and when the trial would be. 
 
 Notwithstanding the tender affection which 
 attached him to his family, the future apostle 
 was not willing to make his home with them, or 
 to expose himself to the perils of isolation. 
 With several young priests he formed " The Lit- 
 tle Community of La Rue Cassette," a real 
 home of prayer, study and apostleship. * 
 
 These generous rivals, most of whom are still 
 living, vied with one another as to who would love 
 the Saviour most, and do the most good to souls. 
 They were : Mgr. de Conny, Canon of Moulinsj 
 Mgr. Gay, bishop of Anthedon, inpartibus; Mgr. 
 Gaume (who died in 1SS0); the Abbe Valois, 
 pastor of Blancs-Manteaux ; the Abbe Le Re- 
 bours, pastor of the Madeleine ; the Abbe Tail- 
 landier, pastor of Saint Augustin at Paris ; and 
 the Abbes Gibert and d'Andigne, etc., etc. 
 
 * Mgr. Mermillod. 
 
23 THE BLIKD FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — VIII. — 
 
 After his ordination the Abbe de Segur was 
 appointed chaplain of the military prisoners of 
 Paris, a post which he much desired, as the field 
 for labor was vast, and he could there devote 
 himself to children and to the unfortunate. The 
 young apostle soon changed the hardened, em- 
 bittered hearts of the soldiers. 
 
 He succeeded in making two criminals meet 
 death with a smile, accompanying them to the 
 place of execution at Sartory, near Versailles. 
 
 One was Sergeant Herbuel, an old soldier who 
 had been thirty years in the service. He had 
 killed a young officer who had him unjustly 
 arrested. This aged subaltern was not a 
 Christian, but the young chaplain so completely 
 mastered his soul that Herbuel awaited the day 
 of execution with love, almost with joy, and 
 accepted his death in expiation of his crime. 
 
 The Abbe de Segur had the happiness of hear- 
 ing him cry out, " Lord Jesus ! " just as he rendered 
 his soul to God under the blow of the executioner. 
 
 The other was a carbineer named Guth, thirty 
 years of age, who was condemned to be shot for 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 29 
 
 killing his captain. He also was conquered by 
 the gentleness of the zealous chaplain. He died 
 like a saint, kneeling with his hands crossed after 
 having received communion. His last words 
 were : "Ifit were necessary to commit a mortal 
 sin to avoid being shot, I would not do it — I unite 
 my death to that of my Saviour. Adieu, adieu." 
 
 During the bloody days of June, 1848, the brave 
 and excellent General de Brea was horribly assas- 
 sinated by the insurgents. After the civil war, 
 five of the murderers were arrested : two were 
 condemned to death, and the other three to hard 
 labor for life. 
 
 The Abbe de Segur interested himself also in 
 these unfortunate criminals. Among the three 
 condemned to hard labor was a bookseller's clerk, 
 Andrew 0., who was converted and was grateful. 
 After several years at the convict-prison of Roche- 
 fort, where the wicked influences of the place 
 threw him back again into the abyss of evil, he 
 was transferred to Cayenne. 
 
 From there he wrote, on the 15th of June, 1858, 
 a touching letter to his former chaplain, of which 
 the following is an extract : 
 
 Very Dear Father : 
 
 At the convict-prison— that is, for seven 
 
30 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 years — I neglected my religious duties and I lived 
 like those who have no faith. 
 
 During those years I drank of iniquity as of 
 water, and I ceased not to offend God by a life 
 culpable and disordered in every respect. 
 
 The Lord in His merciful goodness continually 
 filled my heart with remorse and shame for my 
 sins, and my uneasy conscience unceasingly 
 warned me that an eternal punishment would be 
 the recompense of such a sinful life. 
 
 Without soliciting it, without having any 
 worldly influence to obtain it for me, I was 
 suddenly made the object of a favor, which, in 
 taking me away from those ignoble convicts, 
 left me no longer any pretext for continuing my 
 sinful life. God awaited me there, glory to 
 Him alone ! 
 
 I can say sincerely, my very dear Father, 
 that if I have preserved the faith while leading 
 such a life, I attribute this miracle of goodness, 
 to the protection of the Blessed Virgin, to the 
 excellent letters which you have written me 
 several times, and which I re-read often, even in 
 my most sinful days. 
 
 Since Easter of this year I have had the 
 happiness of approaching the holy table several 
 times. Ah ! how ardently I desire to lead a life 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 31 
 
 pure enough to permit me to approach the 
 divine banquet every day. Morning and even- 
 ing I say a Memorare for your intention, and I 
 sincerely hope our good Mother will hear me, 
 for I do not ask her for temporal favors for you, 
 my very dear Father, but to give you the courage 
 to defend the truth, as you do in the Beponses, 
 where I think I find myself referred to in a 
 certain passage. 
 
 I have a favor to ask of your charity, Mon- 
 seigneur and very dear Father : it is to have a 
 few prayers said for me when I die. I have made 
 arrangements to have you informed of it. I 
 have no one to render me that service, and 
 moreover, in consideration of my numerous sins, 
 I can say that a thousand years of fasting in a 
 desert on bread and water would not expiate 
 them ! 
 
 I ask you this favor, Monseigneur and dear 
 Father, because I know that it will not always 
 be my lot to see others die, and that my own 
 turn must come soon. 
 
 I am, etc., 
 
 Ay dee 0.* 
 
 * "Familiar Instructions." 
 
32 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — IX.— 
 
 The great qualities, the eminent virtues, the 
 renown and exalted position of his family 
 attracted the attention of the French govern- 
 ment to the chaplain of the military prisons of 
 Paris. 
 
 The Prince-president of the Republic, having 
 obtained from Rome the re-establishment of the 
 Auditeurs de Bote for France (suppressed by 
 Louis Philippe), appointed the Abbe de Segur 
 to this position on the 11th of June, 1852.* 
 
 He was so happy at the thought of seeing 
 again the Eternal City that he consented to leave 
 his dear prisoners, but not without the hope of 
 again seeing them. The young Auditeur de Bote 
 arrived at Rome and established himself at the 
 Place of the Holy Apostles in the Colonna 
 Palace. 
 
 Three men then met near the magnanimous 
 heart of the great and august Pontiff, Pius IX. : 
 Mgr. de Merode, a nobleman and chevalier, 
 who had gained his epaulettes in Africa, whom 
 Marshall Bugeaud had decorated with his own 
 
 * This is the first prelature of the Church after the Cardinalate. 
 
TRE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 33 
 
 hand, and who had passed from the camp to the 
 Church militant j Mgr. Bastide, military chaplain, 
 who bears much analogy to his brother-inarms. 
 Like him he left a brilliant position in the world 
 to make himself, during the twenty years of the 
 French occupation, the friend and father of our 
 soldiers j and Mgr. de Segur, brilliant artist and 
 fervent priest. 
 
 In their official capacity they became the 
 pious and learned guides of the soldiers and 
 pilgrims, explaining to them the sublime objects 
 of interest in Rome : the Catacombs, the Col- 
 losseum, the Mamertine prison under the vaults 
 of the Basilicas, the Vatican Museums, etc., etc. 
 
 " By their efforts they succeeded in augment- 
 ing daily the love of Rome for France and of 
 France for Rome, and they thus served the Church 
 and the Pope before the entire universe.* 
 
 " Pius IX. took great pleasure in listening to 
 their effusions of faith, the accounts of their 
 labors, and their brilliant and sparkling sallies 
 Near this holy soul the Auditeur de Bote 
 became more and more attached to the priesthood 
 and more drawn towards evangelical labors." f 
 
 Some time after his installation Msrr. de 
 
 * Funeral oration on Mgr. Bastide | t Funeral oration, by 
 by Mgr. Besson, Bishop of Nimes. | Mgr, Merniillod. 
 
34 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 Segur had the happiness of passing the winter 
 (from October, 1852, to April, 1853) with his 
 mother, who came to Rome with her dear 
 daughters, Sabine and 01 ga. Later came Hen- 
 rietta and her husband, Mr. Fresneau, who had 
 been thrown out of public affairs by the coup 
 d'etat of December 2, 1S52. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 35 
 
 — X. — 
 
 Monseigneur was very much loved by the 
 French soldiers. A large number frequented his 
 confessional, and many visited him, attracted by 
 his simplicity, his kind heart and his joyous nature. 
 
 One day three troopers came to him, one of 
 them before entering having hidden his sword in 
 the hall. They accosted Mgr. de Segur with the 
 following story : " We come from the country 
 outside of Rome. We have had a very simple, 
 frugal breakfast, but you know, Monseigneur, 
 soldiers are not rich, and when we came to pay 
 for our breakfast, among all three of us we had 
 not enough money. One of us, you see, was 
 obliged to leave his sword as security, and 
 knowing your great charity we came directly to 
 you to beg you, Monseigneur, to help us pay our 
 debt, that our friend may escape a Court- 
 martial. Mgr. de Segur easily guessed, from 
 the embarrassed manner of the troopers, that 
 they were not speaking the truth : however, he 
 gave them a small gold piece, saying, " Take this, 
 my friends, and drink my health." When he 
 thought they had gone he looked out of the 
 window, and saw the three troopers crossing the 
 
36 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 square, each with his sword at his side. The 
 three rogues saw him, and were so disconcerted 
 that they never again dared invent untruthful 
 stories. 
 
 We heard this story from one of these three 
 troopers, who is now as excellent a Tertiary and 
 as good a Christian as he was at that time a rascal. 
 
 It was during his stay in Rome that Mon- 
 seigneur made the acquaintance of good Methol, 
 the faithfnl servant who never left him for 
 twenty-seven years. He was at that time a 
 subaltern in one of the regiments garrisoned in 
 the Eternal City. 
 
 At this same time the pious prelate met a 
 Protestant soldier, a sergeant in a battalion of 
 infantry. He blessed him and lamented his being 
 a heretic. The bright, intelligent nature of the 
 soldier was overcome by grace; he became a 
 Catholic, and as soon as he was free to leave the 
 service he entered a seminary. He is now 
 chaplain of a convent of nuns at Poitiers. The 
 old friends of Mgr. de Segur remember well the 
 Abbe Louis K. . ., who was for so many years 
 the secretary of our dear deceased. 
 
 The Christian Brothers of the Poli palace will 
 long remember the kind and generous surprises 
 which the young prelate loved to give to the 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 37 
 
 pupils while he was Auditor, the success he had 
 with them, and the piety he developed in the house. 
 At Saint-Louis-des-Frangais every person of 
 that time recalls his sweet face and the edifica- 
 tion which he gave them by the mere sight of 
 his saintly manner in celebrating the holy 
 offices. 
 
38 THE BLIXD FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XL — 
 
 The bitter trial which was now to change every 
 thing in the life of Monseigneur and cause so 
 much pain to his family, was near at hand. The 
 victim was ready, God was about to raise the 
 sword, and execute the heroic desire of his first 
 mass. 
 
 "We give place here to the woids of Mgr. 
 Mermillod, the exile of Geneva and the holy 
 friend of Mgr. de Segur, who gives the account 
 at full length in the beautiful funeral oration 
 delivered by him at Notre Dame, Paris, the 1 1th 
 of July, 1SS1, at the service of the month's mind 
 organized by the Society of St. Francis de Sales : 
 
 " When nineteen years of age Gaston de 
 Segur felt a sensation of fatigue in his eyes for 
 the first time, while working in the evening on a 
 drawing, representing the life of Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which required great care and delicacy of 
 touch. It was thus while serving as an artist 
 the divine Master, the object of his love, that he 
 contracted the germ of the cruel infirmity which 
 increased so terribly, and for which he never 
 ceased to thank God till the end of his life. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 39 
 
 The pain returned during his studies at the 
 seminary of St. Sulpice ; but yielded again to 
 care and a few weeks of rest and travel. 
 Finally at Rome it manifested itself for the 
 third time in a sudden and terrible manner." 
 The first of May, 1 853, one of his eyes became 
 suddenly blind.* It seemed to him that a cur- 
 tain, at first half transparent, then opaque, was 
 spread over the pupil and shut out the light. 
 From that moment he never doubted for an 
 instant the near approach of total loss of his 
 sight, and he recognized in this infirmity a 
 pledge of the goodness of God and of the pro- 
 tection of the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 " Mgr. de Conny, his intimate friend, hearing 
 what had befallen him, went that same day to 
 see him, and found him calm and peaceful. 
 Mgr. de Segur endeavored to demonstrate that 
 blindness was for him a great blessing: first, 
 because all infirmities are salutary; then, because 
 it would absolutely save him from the burden 
 of the episcopacy, of which he had a holy fear, 
 and that it would bring him back again to his 
 dear souls, to his dear little working people of 
 Paris ; finally, for a confessor it is very advan- 
 
 * He said sweetly: " The Blessed Virgin took one of my eyes 
 and sent it in my place to Purgatory." 
 
40 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 tageous to see only the souls, always beautiful 
 and lovely, when confessing and lamenting their 
 faults. Mgr. Conny, in recalling this conver- 
 sation, said: 'Any one who could have heard us, 
 would have thought it was I who had lost my 
 sight, and that Mgr. de Segur was consoling me.'" 
 Prom that time Mgr. de Segur prepared him- 
 self for the hard conditions of blindness. He learn- 
 ed to help himsalf with his eyes shut, and to say 
 the mass of the Blessed Virgin by heart; he 
 moved about his rooms with closed eyes, and 
 shaved himself without looking in the glass. (This 
 he did to the end of his life.) Apart from this, 
 he continued his life in Rome with the same 
 perfect cheerfulness. One of his greatest desires, 
 however, was to see his family again before be- 
 coming completely blind. The Blessed Virgin 
 obtained this favor for him. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 41 
 
 — XII. — 
 
 He took leave of the Pope after the feast of 
 St. Peter in 1854, to spend his vacation at the 
 Castle of Nouettes, where all his family were 
 assembled except the Marquis de Segur, who was 
 detained in Paris, but who arrived the morning 
 of the 2d of September. This seemed the mo- 
 ment awaited by divine Providence. 
 
 The following is the account of the sad affair 
 given by one of the brothers of the saintly blind 
 man : " That morning the neighboring physician 
 came to breakfast with us at the castle, and he 
 dissected in our presence the eye of an ox, which 
 he brought with him; by a singular and sad 
 coincidence, the dissection of this eye was to be 
 the last thing which Gaston was to see before 
 he lost his sight. 
 
 " After breakfast, as Gaston was walking with 
 us in the Park, he stopped suddenly, and said : 
 ' I am blind.' That was all. He returned to 
 the Castle and asked us to say nothing to our 
 mother, that she might be spared this pain a few 
 hours longer. At dinner time he descended the 
 stairs leaning on the arm of one of us, and took 
 
42 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 his seat at table. Our mother still suspected 
 nothing: he was seated in front of her, and all 
 of a sudden she saw that one of my sisters, who 
 sat next to him, was cutting his meaJ. 
 
 " She gazed at him intently, her countenance 
 changed, and she knew all. Sobs were heard for 
 a long time. He alone did not weep, but smiled." * 
 
 Some days after this scene took place, finding 
 bis sisters inconsolable, Monseigneur took them 
 aside, and said to them almost severely: "Is it 
 possible that girls as devout as you are, should 
 wish that I, who have every day for several years 
 offered on the altar the Spotless Victim, should, 
 now that He asks my poor eyes, refuse them to 
 Him? 
 
 From this time he loved to do some generous 
 acts every year on the second of September, and he 
 dated his important letters thus : " September 2, 
 IS. . . , anniversary of the ever-blessed day when 
 I beca me blind. , 
 
 * Sabine de Segur, by the Marquis de Segur. 
 
THE BLIND FKIEND OF THE POOR, 43 
 
 — XIII. — 
 
 In 1855, Mgr. de Segur sent in his resignation 
 as Auditeur de Bote, He could no doubt Lave 
 continued his functions, but he preferred to do 
 good by preaching and writing. 
 
 Having been appointed on the 8th of March, 
 1856, Canon-Bishop of the renowned Chapter of 
 Saint Denys, he went to Rome to ask certain 
 privileges for his chapel. Pius IX., who loved 
 him so much, received him very affectionately. 
 Monseigneur easily obtained a number of privi- 
 leges, but when he solicited permission to keep 
 the Blessed Sacrament in his private chapel, a 
 right which is not allowed even to Cardinals, his 
 Holiness positively refused. There came to the 
 countenance of the poor blind priest, such a 
 mute but intense expression of disappointment, 
 that the Pope, much moved, threw his arms 
 around him, and embracing him affectionately, 
 granted his request, adding : Ad consolationem. 
 " For your consolation." 
 
 Monseigneur, on his return to Paris, had these 
 two words spoken to him by Pius IX. put in relief 
 on the tabernacle in which, after his mass, on the 
 
4-4 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 13th of June, 1856, he had the happiness of 
 keeping the consoling Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 After his return from this visit to Rome, Mgr. 
 de Segur established himself in Paris in a 
 modest apartment at the end of the court 39, rue 
 de Bac, where he led the apostolic life which 
 killed him. 
 
 The following is almost an exact summary of his 
 day's routine up to the time of his death : at six in 
 the morning, in all seasons, came those whose 
 confessions he heard, and who assisted at the 
 mass which he said daily at seven o'clock. Then 
 began the defile of those whom Monseigneur call- 
 ed his clients, — some to ask assistance and protec- 
 tion, others to seek aid and counsel. 
 
 After breakfast he made visits, attended the 
 meetings of committees, presided at the counsels 
 of Works, etc., etc. At four o'clock he returned 
 to work j then he dined at seven, and retired at 
 ten. Two afternoons of the week Monseigneur 
 spent at Stanislaus College, of which he was 
 chaplain. Until towards the end of his life, he 
 received on Wednesday from four till seven. 
 Every year he left Paris for a month or six 
 weeks, to rest, he said; but he remained a week 
 here and a week there, in some of the provincial 
 seminaries, preaching retreats, and hearing the 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 45 
 
 confessions of the pupils. The little seminary 
 of Montmorillon, near Poitiers, was one of his 
 favorite stations; then came the little seminaries 
 of Seez, of Versailles, of Nantes, of Beauvais, of 
 Mayenne, of Saint- Claude, and of Sainte Anne 
 d'Auray. 
 
46 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XIV. — 
 
 No matter how fatigued be might be, Mon- 
 seigneur always received each visitor with a 
 sweet smile and gracious words ; his large eyes 
 seemed to live and see. His door was open to 
 all, and frequently a prince and a poor forlorn 
 wretch passed each other on the threshold. Both 
 were received with simplicity and welcomed with 
 cheerful humor. He said one day to a blind 
 deaf-mute who was presented to him by a relig- 
 ious of La Sagesse : " Let me see you thread a 
 needle, my child. 
 
 This charming gayety made work easy, and 
 piety attractive to all. 
 
 Who could count the material miseries as- 
 suaged, the aid distributed, the souls con- 
 soled ! No one ever appealed to his charity 
 in vain. 
 
 Gifted with a wonderful memory, Monseigneur 
 recalled not only the most trifling incidents, and 
 conversations which occurred long before, but he 
 recognized persons after years of absence merely 
 by passing his hand over their face and shoulders. 
 
THE SLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 47 
 
 All the sensibility lost to his eyes was given to 
 his sense of touch and hearing.* 
 
 Monseigneur was always lenient to others, but 
 he treated himself with monastic severity. He 
 ate little, fasted often, wore the same clothing 
 summer and winter, always slept on a little 
 worm-eaten wooden bed, one of those sort of 
 carryalls which are no longer made, but the reader 
 can imagine an old chest of drawers with a 
 mattress on the top of it : such was the modest 
 little bed used by the venerable prelate. His 
 room had no fire-place, or means of being heated, 
 In a word, it was an anchorites' cell. These 
 details help us to understand that spirit of mor- 
 tification which so powerfully aided our good 
 Father in the road to perfection. 
 
 Since we have spoken of Monseigneur's habits, 
 of the sort of life he led from the time he 
 became blind until a short time before his death, 
 our readers will be pleased to have us give them, 
 before going further, a description of his parlor 
 and chapel, and at the same time of his grand 
 souvenirs, relics, and other objects which are 
 still there, except a few given by his will to 
 
 We have experienced this ourselves, when, going to see him 
 every Saturday, we were recognized merely by the sound of the 
 voice, and were greeted by a sweet smile and the exclamation : 
 '* Ah, it is you, Rev. Fr. Gustave : how are you to-day ?" 
 
48 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 intimate friends. The family for the present 
 leave those which belong to them, and it is 
 hoped the friends will do the same. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 40 
 
 — XV.— 
 
 Mgr. de Se*gur's parlor was really a large 
 study, having on three sides book-cases filled 
 with all kinds of works, and on the fourth side 
 a large picture on a gold background, painted 
 by himself in honor of his first mass. 
 
 This picture represents the infant Jesus with 
 a very sweet expression, lying on straw and 
 lovingly pressing a little cross to his naked 
 breast. Above his head is a ciborium, from which 
 rises a host surrounded by brilliant rays. On 
 the upper part of the frame is written in large 
 letters : " Parvulus pro nobis," (He made Him- 
 self a child for us ; ) and on the lower part : " Sic 
 nos amantem qiiis non redamaret f " (He who has 
 loved us so much, who will not love Him in 
 return ?) Monseigneur wrote in small letters on 
 the blades of straw different aspirations of praise 
 to the Infant Jesus, and he loved after he was 
 blind to point them out to his friends.* At the 
 
 * A touching incident is connected with this picture. In 
 consequence of his great charity Monseigneur was often very 
 much embarrassed. One day, being much in need of money, 
 he determined to sell the picture of the infant Jesus, and at 
 once found a purchaser who offered a good round sum. The 
 day the picture was to be delivered, the porter who was 
 carrying it away, met on the Btairs Madame de 96gur, coming 
 to see her son. Knowing his holy prodigality, and suspecting 
 something, she made the man return with the picture, 
 scolded Monseigneur for not having told her of his embarrass- 
 ment, and advanced him the next day the sum for which 
 the picture was to have been sold. 
 
50 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 foot of this picture Monseigneurrendered forth his 
 last sigh (Griven to the Count de Segur-Lamoig- 
 non.) 
 
 Since the death of Pius IX. the deceased 
 prelate had placed in his parlor two handsome 
 glass cases: one contains the red pallium worn by 
 the Pope on the 8th of February, 1S78, the other 
 the cape and long soutane worn by Pius IX. on 
 the thirty-first anniversary of his pontificate, a 
 pen which he used in the Vatican three months 
 before his death, and a large portrait of the Pope 
 bearing his autograph. (Griven to Sainte Anne 
 d'Auray.) 
 
 In one of the compartments of the desk at 
 which Monseigneur used to dictate his admirable 
 little works, is a beautiful little statue of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas. (Given to Mgr. Sauve, Rector 
 of the University of Angers.) 
 
 On the mantle facing the picture of the infant 
 Jesus is a beautiful statue of Mary Immaculate, on 
 the pedestal of which is a very costly Bible. On 
 each side of the statue are two small pictures, 
 one of St. Francis de Sales, painted by Savinien 
 Petit, after Philip de Champaigne, the other of 
 St. Peter, painted by the illustrious deceased. 
 This little work of art merits some description. 
 In 1852, when Monseigneur had just been ap- 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 51 
 
 pointed Auditeur de Rote, he offered the Holy 
 Father this beautiful picture of St. Peter, paint- 
 ed in water-colors with a gold background, and 
 in imitation of mosaic. Good Pius IX. was struck 
 by the character of the painting, and deigned to 
 accept it with great pleasure. " St. Peter is my 
 patron," he said ; "his picture shall always re- 
 main there before my eyes at the foot of my 
 crucifix : it will help me to think oftener of him 
 and to pray better. Some months afterwards, 
 fearing some accident might happen to it, the 
 Pope had the holy picture hung on the back of 
 the royal velvet canopy of his throne, just above 
 his head. " I love that picture so much," said 
 he, u it is so devotional (molto divota). When I 
 am troubled I lean my head against it, and I 
 pray to St. Peter to help me." 
 
 The little picture of St. Peter remained thus in 
 the audience chamber of Pius IX. till the end of his 
 life : that is, for nearly twenty-six years. It was 
 still there the day of his death, February 7, 1878. 
 
 Having asked and obtained this precious sou- 
 venir of Pius IX. — become now almost a relic — 
 Mgr. de Segur conceived the wise idea of having 
 this picture chromo-lithographed, and sold for the 
 benefit of the Peters Pence. (Given to the Mar- 
 quis de Segur.) 
 
52 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 Monseigneur. heard the confessions of youths and 
 men in his parlor, seated in an arm-chair, beside 
 which was an oaken kneeling-bench for the pen- 
 itents. This blessed relic, where so many souls 
 had been comforted, was left by his will to one of 
 his spiritual children. (Given to the Abbe Chau- 
 mont of Paris.) 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 53 
 
 — XVI. — 
 
 Monseigneur made his chapel a veritable place 
 of sanctity, decorating- it with artistic taste and 
 princely luxury. He always took pleasure in 
 saying: "The true Master here is the Blessed 
 Sacrament." The entire chapel is tinted red, and 
 the ceiling painted blue and studded with golden 
 stars, and the altar is raised under a sort of can- 
 opy which shelters the majesty of the Holy Eu- 
 charist. The lower end, hung with red velvet, is 
 strewn with rows of little gold hearts, the num- 
 bers of which cannot be seen without emotion 
 when it is known that each one of them was giv- 
 en by the young priests whose vocation was rec- 
 ognized and decided by Monseigneur. Above 
 the tabernacle stands a statue of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin and on the lower part of the altar is inscribed 
 the invocation, Immaculatce Yirgini Deiparce. On 
 the tabernacle, to the right and left of which are 
 reliquaries, forming graceful temples, is the mon- 
 ogram of Christ, with the words : " Hie adest vita, 
 cortum, amor. " Here is life, heaven, love." 
 (Given to Dom G-rea of St. Claude.) 
 
 On each side of the altar are two beautiful pic- 
 tures, painted by Monseigneur, St. Peter on the 
 
54 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 left, and St. Paul on the right. (Given to R. F. 
 Delaporte of Paris.) 
 
 In front of these two pictures hang two lamps 
 of beautiful design, which are greatly admired. 
 One of them, of which the other is a copy, was 
 burned in the confessional of St. Peter in Rome. 
 The one which served as a model is very old. 
 It was a gift of Henry IV. to the Holy Sepul- 
 chre, in gratitude for the birth of Louis XIII. ; 
 and before it was brought back to France it had 
 been nearly two hundred years in the Grotto of the 
 Agony. 
 
 It was given by the Patriarch of Jerusalem 
 to Mr. de Segur-Lamoignon, on a visit which 
 he made to Palestine, while attached to the 
 embassy at Constantinople. (Given to Dom- 
 Grea.) On the Gospel side of the altar two 
 frames are fastened to the wall. One contains 
 the crown worn by Sister Jane-Frances (in the 
 world Sabine de Segur) when she took the habit. 
 The other the veil, cross and discipline which 
 she wore on the day of her death. Near by the 
 same memories are evoked by the relics of the 
 head and bones of St. Sabine, a Roman martyr. 
 (Given to Madame Fresneau.) 
 
 Small statues made from a solid piece of stone 
 are placed all around the chapel. They were 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 55 
 
 sculptured and decorated by an Oblate of Poi- 
 tiers. They represent : St. Denis, St. Dominick, 
 St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis de Sales, St. 
 John the Evangelist, St. Hillary, and St. Mar- 
 tin.* (Given to Dom Grea.) 
 
 A magnificent statue of St. Joseph, given to 
 Monseigneur by the members of the Congress of 
 Poitiers in 1872, faces the altar. (Given to 
 Miss Pauline d'A.) 
 
 Just beside the entrance is a credence, on which 
 stand seven magnificent ornamented candles. 
 They are the seven candles which were used at 
 the grand pontifical mass celebrated by our 
 Holy Father, Pius IX., on the papal altar of 
 St. Peter, the 29th of June, 1864, the day of the 
 canonization of the Japanese martyrs. (Given 
 to Rev. Fr. Delaporte.) 
 
 On the Epistle side a gold mitre under a globe 
 attracted attention. This was worn by Pius IX. 
 when he proclaimed the dogma of the Immacu- 
 late Conception, and afterwards presented by him 
 to Mgr. de Segur. This precious souvenir is no 
 longer in the Chapel. (Given to the chapel of 
 the Grand Seminary at Issy.) 
 
 * The precious souvenirs which Canon Crea of St. Claude is 
 to possess: that is, the altar, the lamps and the statues were 
 left to him by Mgr. de Segur. on the express condition that he 
 would arrange them just as be found them placed in his chapel. 
 
56 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 Under the statues already spoken of are the 
 noted relics of a great many saints. Two of 
 these reliquaries contain bones of all the holy 
 canonized Popes. (Given to Rev. Fr. Delaporte.) 
 A brief, richly framed, which hangs above the 
 place where stood the mitre of Pius IX., attests 
 that Monseigneur has the power of giving at the 
 end of a mission or retreat preached by him, the 
 grand papal benediction. The same brief grants 
 numerous indulgences to the recital of the rosaries 
 given by Monseigneur to his penitents. In an- 
 other frame placed beside the one just mentioned, 
 this same privilege is renewed by Leo XIII., 
 April 24, 1878. This was the first brief he signed 
 as Pope. (Given to his nephew, Henry de Segur.) 
 Two inscriptions surround the border of the 
 ceiling of the chapel. On one side the date 
 December 8, 1864, and the words of Pius IX., 
 addressing himself to the Blessed Virgin : Tu es 
 Immaculate; then the date of the definition of the 
 Infallibility, and the Blessed Virgin, as if speak- 
 ing to Pius IX., saying : Tu es infallibiUs. 
 
 Some time after the proclamation of the dogma, 
 Monseigneur had his chapel decorated as it now 
 is, and these two inscriptions painted there. 
 The second remained unfinished for nearly a 
 year, with the first six letters, thus: Tu es in. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 57 
 
 The cause of the delay in completing it was so 
 singular that Monseigneur always attributed it to 
 the intervention of the devil. 
 
 In the early part of July, 1S70, the paintc. i 
 (very good Christian men, whom we had the 
 honor of knowing), were working diligently, 
 because Mgr. de Segur was soon to leave Paris 
 to take his vacation. On the day for his depart- 
 ure, all the work was done except the inscrip- 
 tions. The first was finished in the morning, 
 and on returning from their breakfast the paint- 
 ers commenced the second. The poor men 
 having eaten something poisonous for breakfast, 
 were attacked with a frightful colic, and could 
 not finish their work. Monseigneur went away 
 that same evening. The war broke out, then 
 followed the siege of Paris and the Commune, and 
 his apartments remained closed for eleven months. 
 
 Did this not seem like a ruse of the devil, 
 who, enraged at seeing the great union of all 
 the bishops of the world on the subject of the 
 infallibility of the pope, wished to play them a 
 trick after his own fashion, by impeding the 
 inscription of the word " infallibility "in a 
 chapel, and leaving there, as it were, in irony the 
 words, Tu es in (art thou within) for nearly a 
 year? 
 
58 TIIE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XVII. — 
 
 Many of the papers and Catbolic reviews have 
 already given an account of the interviews of the 
 holy man of Tours, Mr. Dupont, the apostle of 
 the picture of the Holy Face, and of the Ven. 
 Care of Ars, Mr. Vianney, with Mgr. de Segur 
 a few years after he became blind. That 
 excellent journal, The Friend of the People, from 
 which we have already borrowed many details 
 about Monseigneur, seems the best informed. 
 
 The following is the account which it gives of 
 these interviews : 
 
 " Monseigneur,'' said Mr. Dupont to him one 
 day when receiving a visit from the prelate, 
 " why do you not ask our Lord to cure you ? 
 You do so much good now : what would you not 
 do if the good God were to restore your sight ! " 
 
 " I consider, dear sir," replied the prelate, u that 
 the Blessed Virgin did me a very great favor when 
 I became blind, and I certainly do not wish to de- 
 prive myself of it. I will nothing to be cured." 
 
 " You at least will not prevent my praying 
 and asking for your cure ? n 
 
 " 1 will not prevent you, for the good God 
 after all, will do what pleaseth Him." 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 59 
 
 u Will you pray with me ? " 
 
 "Oh no, or rather, I will pray with you wil- 
 lingly, but instead of asking for my cure, I will 
 ask, on the contrary, to remain blind, if it id the 
 will of God." 
 
 " Very well, let us pray before the Holy Face." 
 
 How was the good God to do? Here were 
 two saints praying together, and one asking just, 
 the opposite to the other. Which would He hear T 
 
 This charming account has been heretofore 
 entirely unknown, but it is absolutely authentic. 
 He heard them both. After a few moments' 
 silence, Monseigneur exclaimed : " Ah, Mr. Du- 
 pont, I see, I see the Holy Face. How good. 
 God is ! " And immediately he added : " I see 
 nothing more." At the same time he described 
 the picture of the Holy Face, the frame, the wreath 
 which surrounded it, the lamp that burned in 
 front of it, and all of the little oratory which he 
 could take in at a glance. But he was blind 
 again. Mgr. de Segur had vanquished Mr. Du- 
 pont, but the latter, so to speak, had vanquished 
 the good God. 
 
 Another charming contest was that which took 
 place not on the ground of prayer, but that of 
 humility, between the excellent prelate and the 
 Cure of Ars. 
 
60 THE BLEND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 In 1863, Monseigneur came to Ars, and asked 
 the holy cure, as soon as he met him, for his 
 blessing. He was about to kneel, but the good 
 old man (who had the advantage of seeing well) 
 caught him by the arm, and tried to kneel first 
 and ask the prelate's blessing. He in his turn 
 restrained the good cure, and an actual struggle 
 ensued. 
 
 " M. Cure, it is I who came to see you." 
 
 u But, Monseigneur, I am only a poor pastor, 
 and you are a prelate. This would be contrary 
 to sense." 
 
 "My object in coming to see you, was ex- 
 pressly to obtain your blessing. You cannot 
 refuse me.' 7 
 
 " You are my superior, Monseigneur, and you 
 ought to give me your blessing." 
 
 " Your superior ! not at all : I am only your 
 parishioner. You have jurisdiction over me, and I 
 have none over you. 
 
 11 You give your blessing to everybody. It is 
 a privilege of your prelature, and you will bless 
 me." 
 
 " M. Cure, I am forty -three years old and you 
 are seventy. I beg your blessing." 
 
 The Cure of Ars acknowledged himself van- 
 quished : he gave his blessing to Monseigneur? 
 
THE BLIND FltlEND OF THE POOR. Gl 
 
 then immediately knelt. u Each one in his 
 turn, Monseigneur," he said, and he received the 
 prelate's blessing last. 
 
 They conversed a very long time, but not of 
 the Stoqk Exchange or elections. Among other 
 things, Monseigneur de Segur said to theCuie: 
 " Would you cure me ? ;; 
 
 " Monseigneur," said the Cure of Ars, " if we 
 ask your cure of the good God, we will obtain it, 
 I am sure, but you will not do as much good as 
 you do, being blind." 
 
 11 Oh, certainly not ; never let us speak of it 
 again. I knew it, but I am glad to have heard 
 you say so."' 
 
 When Monseigneur went away, Mr. Vianney 
 said, as he saw him going : " There is a blind 
 man who sees more clearly than we do.' 7 
 
 Father Hermann, of holy memory, once went 
 to Lourdes with Monseigneur. The celebrated 
 Berryer accompanied them as far as Poitiers. 
 
 Our prelate said mass at the Grotto, and good 
 Father Hermann, who served his mass, begged 
 him to ask for his cure ; but Monseigneur turned 
 a deaf ear to entreaties. The Carmelite prayed 
 as if he would take heaven by storm, after the 
 manner of the saints, but here again Monseigneur 
 had the victory. 
 
62 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 The person who related this fact to us was 
 present, and was one of the party who accom- 
 panied the two apostles. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. b6 
 
 — XVIIL— 
 
 After Monseigneur became completely blind 
 he thought only of one thing : to save as many 
 souls as possible by the diffusion of popular 
 books placed within the reach of every-body. 
 
 He wrote successively seventy of these works, 
 and a few days before his death, assisted by the 
 Abbe Diringer, his devoted secretary,* he cor- 
 rected the proofs of the Miracles of Lourdes, 
 which was intended to be a sequel to the work 
 already known under the title of The Wonders 
 of Lourdes. 
 
 The most popular of Monseigneur de Segur's 
 works are : Answers to the Most Prevalent Objec. 
 tions Against Religion ; The Enemies of the 
 Pastors; Great Truths ; Is there a God Who 
 Interests Himself in Us f The Free-masons : 
 What they Are, What they Do, Wltat they Wish; 
 Hell — If there be One — What it Is, How to Avoid 
 It; To the Apprentices; Counsels to Children; 
 Confession, Prayer and Communion. Answers 
 to the Objections, etc., is the only work written 
 by Monseigneur before he became entirely blind. 
 
 * The friends of the Abb6 Diringer will be pleased to learn 
 that the Archbishop of Chambery, the intimate friend of Mgr. 
 de Segur, has just paid the Abbe the delicate attention of ap- 
 pointing him honorary Canon of his Cathedral. 
 
64 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 He told me himself one day, that, when he 
 was a very young priest, having just left the 
 seminary, he fell dangerously ill from his con- 
 tinued work and study. His chest being the 
 seat of his illness, he was ordered to drink noth- 
 ing but asses' milk. It was during the forced 
 repose of his convalescence that he wrote that little 
 marvel of erudition. His grandfather, the acade- 
 mician, considered Les Beponses one of the great- 
 est books of our century. This little work has 
 been translated into eleven languages, and mure 
 than a million copies have been distributed. 
 
 The Free-masons, a work which exposes the 
 iniquities of this abominable society, was the 
 cause of an attempt at assassination. One morn- 
 ing in May, 1869, about a quarter past seven, 
 during Monseigneur's mass, a man who seemed 
 anxious to hide his face, entered the chapel ; he 
 wore blue glasses the better to disguise himself. 
 The Abbe Diringer, who assisted Monseigneur 
 at the altar, and Methol, who served the mass, 
 were struck by the singular appearance of the 
 stranger. 
 
 After mass, when his turn came, the stranger 
 approached Monseigneur and asked him, to his 
 face, if one could not be a Catholic and a free- 
 mason. Monseigneur, at first a little astonished 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. G3 
 
 at this singular question, soon guessed from the 
 embarrassed manner of the stranger, that he be- 
 longed to this society. " You are a free-mason, 
 are you not V he said. "If you have come to 
 confession, kneel down and I will absolve you in 
 the name of God, otherwise tell me why and for 
 what object you come here.'' 
 
 " I come to warn you, sir," replied the stranger, 
 "that at the last meeting of the Lodge your 
 death was decided upon, because of your pamph- 
 let, which reveals what our society is." 
 
 "Ah," replied Monseigneur, "you cry out on the 
 house-tops that it is a benevolent, philanthropic 
 society, and when it is exposed, it hires assassins 
 to silence those who show it in its true light. 
 Then it does evil." 
 
 " That may be," replied the free-mason, " but 
 because you have rendered an important service 
 to a member of my family whom I love very 
 much, I warn you of the sentence which has been 
 pronounced against you. Now I beg of you not 
 to reveal my name if it comes to your knowledge, 
 and to say nothing whatever of our interview, for 
 if you do I will be killed." 
 
 "Why, my poor friend," asked Monseigneur, 
 " do you not leave this accursed society ¥ " 
 
 "I cannot," replied the stranger, in a low 
 
SO THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 voice. " To continue the service which I came to 
 render you ; I warn you that you ought to take 
 precautions at once, for although I do not know 
 exactly the day appointed for your assassination, 
 I know that it is to be before the opening of the 
 Council." 
 
 Monseigneur thanked him, promised not to 
 reveal his name should he learn it, and the 
 stranger left abruptly. 
 
 Those about Monseigneur took precautions 
 and were suspicious of every strange face. A 
 few days afterwards, about nine o'clock in the 
 morning, a suspicious looking individual, with 
 uncovered breast and wearing a decoration, rang 
 the bell and asked to go to confession to Mgr. 
 de Segur. It was the brave cook, Urruty, who 
 received him. Seeing this fellow with his cigar 
 in his mouth, asking to go to confession aroused 
 his suspicions. He replied that Monseigneur was 
 not receiving then, and moreover, he told the 
 stranger that he was not known in the house. 
 He then tried to bribe the brave Urruty by offer- 
 ing him money. This proceeding showed what 
 he was, and in less than a minute the man and 
 the money were rolling down the stairs, and 
 from that time nothing more was heard of the 
 affair. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 67 
 
 Monseigneur, however, prepared himself for 
 death. He wrote two important letters, one to 
 his mother, the other to the Pope, which were 
 not to be opened till after his death. He had a 
 letter written to Pietri, then Prefect of Police, 
 to notify him of the threats of the free- 
 masons. Napoleon III., warned by him, used 
 his reports and knowledge of the society to pre- 
 vent a crime which would have made a great 
 sensation.* 
 
 The work on Hell did an immense amount of 
 good. In this book Monseigneur relates a fact 
 which he learned from his mother. We will 
 give it here, as it may cause indifferent people to 
 reflect. 
 
 rt At Moscow, in Russia, a short time after the 
 horrible campaign of 1812, my maternal grand- 
 father, Count Rostopchine, military governor of 
 Moscow, was allied with General Count Orloff, 
 a man celebrated for his bravery, but as impious 
 as he was brave. 
 
 " One day, after a good supper, Count Orloff 
 and one of his friends, General V., a Voltarian 
 
 * In 1871. Mgr. was one of the first on the list of the victims 
 drawn up.by the Commune. They went several times to visit 
 and search his house, and it was his absence alone which pre- 
 vented his being made hostage and martyred, 
 
OS THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE FOOR. 
 
 like himself, began to scoff frightfully at religion, 
 and above all at hell. 
 
 " ' If by chance,' said Orloff, ' there should be 
 something the other side of the curtain ? ' 
 
 " ' Very well/ replied General V., ' whichever 
 one of us goes there first, will return and tell the 
 other of it. Do you agree to that ? ' 
 
 " l An excellent idea ! ' replied Count Orloff, 
 and both of them, though somewhat under the 
 influence of wine, gave their word of honor very 
 seriously not to fail in this engagement. 
 
 "A few weeks later one of those great wars which 
 Napoleon then had the faculty of creating, broke 
 out. The Russian army entered the campaign, 
 and General V. received orders to leave immedi- 
 ately to take an important command. 
 
 " Two or three weeks after he left Moscow, 
 very early one morning, while my grandfather 
 was dressing, his bedroom door opened suddenly, 
 and Count Orloff appeared in his night-dress and 
 slippers, his hair standing on end, his eyes hag- 
 gard and pale as death. 
 
 " ' What, Orloff, is that you, at this hour and in 
 such a dress ? What is the matter with you f 
 What has happened f ' 
 
 " < My dear,' replied Count Orloff, ' I believe 
 
THE BLIND FE.IEND OF THE POOR. 61) 
 
 that I am becoming crazy. I have just seen 
 General V.' 
 
 " ' General V.? He has returned then ! ' 
 
 " ' Oh, no ! ' replied OrlofF, throwing himself on 
 a sofa, and taking his head between his two 
 hands. 'No, he has not returned, and that is 
 what terrifies me.' 
 
 " My grandfather, understanding nothing of 
 this, tried to calm him. 
 
 " ' Tell me,' said he, ' what has happened to 
 you, and what all this means ! ' 
 
 11 Then, forcing himself to overcome his emo- 
 tion, Count OrlofF related the following : 
 
 " l My dear Rostopchine, some time ago V. and 
 I swore to each other that the first one of us 
 who died would return and tell the other if 
 there were any thing the other side of the cur- 
 tain. Well, this morning, scarcely half an hour 
 ago, I w T as resting quietly in my bed, having 
 been awake for some time, not thinking in the 
 least of my friend, when all of a sudden the 
 curtains of my bed were rudely opened, and I 
 saw two feet from me General V., standing there 
 very pale, with his hand on his breast ; and he 
 said to me : There is a hell and I am there ! 
 Then he disappeared. I Ciime immediately to 
 
70 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 see you. My head is splitting. What a strange 
 thing ! I do not know what to think of it !' 
 
 " My grandfather calmed him as well as he 
 could, but it was not an easy thing. He spoke 
 of hallucinations, of nightmare. Perhaps be 
 dreamt it. There are many extraordinary, inex- 
 plicable things, and other commonplace things of 
 this kind which console free-thinkers. Then he 
 ordered his carriage, and took the count back to 
 his house. 
 
 " Ten or twelve days after this incident a bearer 
 of dispatches brought to my grandfather, among 
 other news, that of the death of General V. The 
 morning of the same day when Count Orloff saw 
 and heard him, and the same hour when he ap- 
 peared at Moscow, the unfortunate general went 
 out to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, was 
 shot through the breast, and fell dead ! " 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 71 
 
 — XIX. — 
 
 Mgr. de Segur will live in his writings as the 
 immortal apostle of the daily visit to the Blessed 
 Sacrament. He has realized, we may say, the 
 ardent desire of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
 " Compelle entrareP " Compel them to enter the 
 festival hall." 
 
 Besides the popular works alieady mentioned, 
 the pious prelate wrote little tracts for pious per- 
 sons. In the Lamp of the Sanctuary he reminds 
 us with what care and respect we must cherish 
 the flame wnich reveals the adorable presence 
 of the Saviour. In Venes tous a moi, " Come, 
 all to me," he makes a pressing appeal to visit 
 our Lord as frequently as possible. In the pam- 
 phlet, La France au Pied du Tres- Saint Sacre- 
 ment } "France at the Feet of the Most Holy Sac- 
 rament,' 7 he would cast all of France at the feet 
 of Jesus, by establishing pilgrimages to the sanc- 
 tuaries where our Saviour has miraculously man- 
 ifested Himself. The little book La Messe, " The 
 Mass," explains the divine Sacrifice in a practical 
 - and elementary manner. Les Saints MysUres, 
 11 The Holy Mysteries/' gives a plain and detailed 
 explanation of the meaning of the prayers and 
 
72 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 ceremonies of the mass, with a very severe crit- 
 icism of certain abuses, not in conformity with 
 the holy liturgy. In Holy Communion, and in 
 Tous les huits jours, " Once Every Week." he 
 would have pious persons and pupils in Chris- 
 tian institutions assiduous in receiving commun- 
 ion frequently, even daily. 
 
 Monseigneur wrote Holy Communion after a 
 sacrilege which was committed in his chapel, and 
 which he felt most keenly, The devil at one 
 time instigated five young men to go to confession 
 to Monseigneur, to receive communion from him, 
 and to keep the Sacred Host. A week after- 
 wards three of them, their conscience tortured with 
 remorse, cast themselves at his feet, confessed 
 their crime and mingled their tears of repent- 
 ance with the tears of love shed by the good 
 prelate. 
 
 The other two did not return. Perhaps they 
 went elsewhere to seek pardon. 
 
 Monseigneur showed his love for the Blessed 
 Sacrament not only by his writings, but by his 
 deeds.* A month before his death, he gave a 
 last example of this by instigating the Eucharistic 
 
 * The greater part of the profits Mgr. de S6gur derived from 
 his numerous works, was devoted by him to maintain the vo- 
 cations and to defray the expenses of poor young men entering 
 the seminary. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 73 
 
 Congress at Lille, and its success occupied his last 
 moments. His name alone contributed greatly 
 toward its favorable reception, not only in France 
 but elsewhere. In one of the general meetings 
 of this Congress (of June 28, 29, 30, 1881), held 
 fifteen days after his death, a remarkable note 
 from his well -beloved brother, the Marquis de 
 Segur, was read, and received with unanimous 
 applause. As it refers to our subject we will 
 give the following edifying and touching extract. 
 It was at the foot of the tabernacle in his 
 chapel that Mgr. de Segur renewed his strength, 
 exhausted by his superhuman labors. It was 
 there that he said mass with such devotion, that 
 those who heard it could not remain uninfluenced 
 by his fervor, nor lose the memory of it. It was 
 there that he rested himself after his confessions, 
 and that he recited with his arms crossed, the 
 Miserere of St. Francis of Assisi. It was there 
 that he spent two hours nearly every night in 
 profound adoration, wearing the cowl of the Trap- 
 pists, the uniform sacred to this heavenly guard. 
 It was there that Jesus gave himself to him and 
 communicated to him the gift of making Him 
 loved, and of spreading the love of the Holy 
 Eucharist, that principle and source of all virtue, 
 and of all strength in this world. Sometimes 
 
74 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 however, he missed his nightly communing with 
 his divine Master (this we knew only after his 
 death, through his faithful servant, the discreet 
 companion and witness of his life who kept this 
 secret till the end). But if he left Jesus in the 
 Blessed Sacrament it was to go to Jesus suffering 
 in His sick and in His poor. On those nights 
 he went out secretly with his guide to visit some 
 dying person whom he had not been able to visit 
 during the day, to bring consolation to some fam- 
 ily in tears about a bed of pain. Or even to 
 watch for an hour or two beside the dying, and 
 assist them in their last moments. Then he re- 
 turned to his cell and slept sweetly on the board 
 and mattress which served him as a bed, but not 
 until he had, on his return, prostrated himself be- 
 fore the Blessed Sacrament which Pius IX. 
 granted him the privilege of always keeping in 
 his chapel to console him for his infirmity. By 
 a strange and remarkable coincidence it was the 
 thirteenth of June, 1856, that the sovereign Pon- 
 tiff granted him this marked favor, and it was on 
 the thirteenth of June, 1881, twenty-five yt ars 
 afterwards to the day, that the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment was taken from the chapel at the same time 
 that the remains of the venerable prelate were 
 carried out never to return there airain. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XX.— 
 
 We can say without fear of exaggeration that 
 our holy bishop has made our Lord, the Blessed 
 Sacrament, His Mercy, and His Adorable Heart, 
 better known and loved by multitudes of the faith- 
 ful, than any other priest of the age. The good 
 which Monseigneur did as confessor alone was 
 very great. From intimate contact with his soul 
 some drew the courage necessary for duty, others 
 fidelity to the Church, and all drew the holy 
 strength of a religion without weakness, and the 
 secrets of the mystical life. 
 
 The disciples of this director of conscience 
 were numerous, and they are to be met every- 
 where, among magistrates, manufacturers, mer- 
 chants, lawyers, in the army, and even in political 
 assemblies. His spiritual children are to be 
 found in the cloister, at the altar, and in the pul- 
 pit. Through them it may be said, he is always 
 the living word, the perpetual sacrifice.* 
 
 Monseigneur had great love for the Third Order 
 of St. Francis, of w 7 hich he was a member. In 
 a very clear and concise work he explains the 
 object of the Order ami the necessity of entering 
 
 * Funeral Oration, by Mgr. Merrnillod. 
 
76 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 it. We know that he made more than a hundred 
 or more of his spiritual children enroll themselves 
 in this confraternity. 
 
 He had a particular regard for the brother- 
 hood of the Third Order of the Capuchins, in Paris. 
 In his will, the Rev. Father Francis Mary of the 
 Blessed Sacrament did not forget his brothers in 
 St. Francis. He left to their chapel precious 
 relics, three vials, one of which contained the 
 ashes of St. Francis, another a piece of St. 
 Claire's mantle, and the third a piece of the hab- 
 it of St. Joseph of Cupertino, and also a little 
 casket inclosing the celebrated relics of St. 
 Anthony of Padua. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 77 
 
 — XXL— 
 
 This great apostle had no diocese, but all 
 France was tire theatre of his apostleship. By his 
 devotion to such multitudes of good works, he, so 
 to speak, wore himself out ; for with his strong 
 constitution, Monseigneur might have lived much 
 longer. 
 
 He fully accomplished the desire which he ex- 
 pressed one day : "I would much rather ivorJc hard 
 for thirty years than indolently for forty yeans." 
 
 For many years he contributed to the compila- 
 tion of Des Petites Lectures, " Evening Read- 
 ings,'' the publication of which he greatly 
 encouraged. He attended, whenever his occupa- 
 tions permitted, the meetings of those concerned 
 in this good work and at each meeting he presented 
 an article on the principal truths of religion. 
 Whenever, in any of the numbers of this publica- 
 tion there were pages full of genius, enthusiasm, 
 pious humor, and at the same time of solid 
 doctrine, they could almost with certainty be 
 attributed to the indefatigable prelate. 
 
 Some years ago he founded the Academy of 
 St. Philip Neri, the members of which met 
 at his house every Wednesday evening. The ob- 
 
78 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 ject of this society was to strengthen in faith 
 students, literary men, lawyers, etc. 
 
 La France Militaire recalls, in its number of 
 July 1, 1881, that a letter of Mgr. de Sfegur 
 greatly contributed to having the law for chap- 
 lains passed, and that during his presidency ^ it 
 constituted itself a committee for the application 
 of this law. 
 
 After the war of 1870-71, when the voluntary 
 exiles from Alsace and Lorraine took refuge un- 
 der his protection, Monseigneur established a work 
 which gave to these patriotic fugitives their daily 
 bread and the dignity of labor. He was admir- 
 ably seconded on this occasion by several men 
 devoted to good works, particularly the Abbe Le 
 Hardy du Marais (now Bishop of Laval), and by' 
 a lady very well known for her zeal for good 
 works, the devoted Miss P. 
 
 But the work which interested Mgr. de Segur 
 the most, and which fatigued him very much, 
 were those of St Francis de Sales, the Union of 
 Catholic Workingmen, and the Society of Young 
 Men of the Faubourg Saint Germain, consisting 
 of two hundred members, of which he was presi- 
 dent and spiritual director for more than twenty 
 years. While saying a few words of each of 
 these societies we will have an opportunity of 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP TITE POOR. 79 
 
 showing the humility, piety and amiability which 
 distinguished him whom w r e knew so well. 
 
 We will speak first of the Society of St. 
 Francis de Sales, the oldest and most important. 
 
SO THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XXII.— 
 
 At the time of the death of Rev. Fr. d'Alz in, 
 founder of the religious order of the Assumption, 
 Mgr. de Segur wrote an article on the part taken 
 by this eminent apostle in the foundation of the 
 Association of St. Francis de Sales. 
 
 Who could give a better account of the origin 
 of this work than he who was the President-Gen- 
 eral for twenty-two years ? We will also insert 
 the letter which appeared in the Bulletin of St. 
 Francis de Sales (the January number of 1881), 
 and which so well shows the humility of the 
 writer. 
 
 "After the great Pope Pius IX., of holy memory, 
 Father d'Alzon was, with Mgr. Mermillod, the 
 real founder, or rather the principal instigator of 
 the work. Father d'Alzon and Mgr. Mermillod 
 had earnestly called the attention of the Pontiff to 
 the imminent danger to the faith from the renew- 
 ed increase of Protestant sects, together with se- 
 cret societies, and revolutionary ideas, which are 
 in themselves a summary of revolution and liberal- 
 ism. Pius IX. on two different occasion expressed 
 to them the desire he had of seeing established 
 and organized in all Catholic countries a grand 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 81 
 
 association of faith, of prayers and of alms, which 
 could be affiliated with that of St. Peter, as a 
 sort of interior propagation of the faith. 
 
 " Encouraged by such high authority, Father 
 d'Alzon and Mgr. Merrnillod came to Paris, the 
 great city of good and evil, and considered the 
 best means of realizing the salutary wishes of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff. They came and asked of me 
 no other concurrence in the work than the use 
 of my modest parlor, that they might have an 
 exclusively Catholic place of reunion for the prin- 
 cipal representatives of good works, the clergy, 
 religious, and laity. 
 
 " The meeting took place on the Feast of St. 
 Joseph, March 19, 1857. There were present: 
 Rev. Fr. Lacordaire, with one of his assistants ; 
 • Rev. Frs. de Ravignan de Pontlevoy and 
 Olivaint ; Rev Fr. Laurent, then Provincial of the 
 Capuchins of France ; Fr. Etienne, Superior- 
 General of the Lazarists, with Fr. Salvayre, 
 Procuror-general of the mission ; Rev. Fr. 
 Petetot, who had just founded the Oratory ; Rev. 
 Fr. Ratisbonne, Superior of Sion j Fr. JHamon, 
 pastor of Saint Sulpice ; Fr. Deguerry, pastor 
 of the Madeleine; Fr. Desgenettes, pastor of 
 Notre Dame des Victoires ; Fr. Duquesnay, then 
 dean of Saint Genevieve now Archbishop of Cam- 
 
82 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 bray j Mgr. de Conny and Mgr. de Griradin j Mgr. 
 
 Le Prevost, Superior of the Brothers of Saint Vin- 
 cent de Paul, with Mr. Maignen, Mr. de Mon- 
 talembert, Mr. Louis Veuillot, Mr. Bailly de Sur- 
 cy, the Vioomte de Melun, Mr. A. Cochin, Mr. 
 Auguste Nicholas, Mr. Baudon, Mr. de Lambel, 
 Brother Philippe, Superior-General of the Chris- 
 tian Brothers, with Brother John (the chaplain) 
 and several other notable Catholics. Mgr. Mer- 
 raillod and Fr. d'Alzon explained the special ob- 
 ject of the meeting, and it was unanimously 
 agreed that with the blessing of the Archbishop of 
 Paris and the bishops, the very simple statutes 
 of a grand association of faith, alms and prayer 
 should be submitted to the approbation of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff. I was charged by the meet- 
 ing to prepare these statutes, and to send them 
 without delay to each of our venerable bishops. 
 
 " The idea of Pius IX., so well explained by 
 Rev. Fr. d'Alzon and Mgr. Mermillod, was real- 
 ized, and the association was also unanimously 
 placed under the blessed patronage of St. Fran- 
 cis deSabs, and thus the work was founded. 
 
 "I was made president, notwithstanding the la- 
 bors with which I was already overwhelmed; 
 but good Fr. d'Alzon assured me that he would 
 discharge all the duties, and then the meeting ad- 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 83 
 
 jomned. I organized the first secretaryship for 
 corresponding with the bishops, and for the re- 
 ceipt and the distribution of the first alms. I 
 was soon able to lay at the feet of the Holy 
 Father the first thirty-six episcopal affiliations, 
 and they went biavely to work. 
 
 "At the end of two or three months Rev. Fr. 
 d' Alzon, delighted with his success, left me to 
 carry on the work as best I could, and returned 
 to Nimes, where he was called by his other great 
 works. It was thus that Rev. Fr. d'Alzon 
 was the real founder of our dear Association 
 of St. Francis de Sales. 
 
 " f L. G-. de Segur." 
 
 This sublime work, perhaps the most indis- 
 pensable of the age, has for its object : 
 
 1. To found, to maintain and to develop all 
 associations which have for their object the 
 Christian education and preservation of youth. 
 
 2. To establish parochial libraries, and to 
 spread on avast scale books and popular writings. 
 
 3. To have missions and retreats preached in 
 cities and in the country. 
 
 4. To come to the pecuniary aid of poor coun- 
 trv churches threatened with interdiction. 
 
84 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 Since its foundation up to the present time, 
 the Association of St. Francis de Sales has received 
 from France and from other countries seven millions, 
 five hundred thou sand francs, and dispensed nearly 
 seven millions, three hundred thousand francs. 
 
 Unfortunately the only foreign countries in 
 which it is established are Belgium (where it 
 works very well), Italy, Switzerland, and Canada. 
 It ought to take root in all countries, and col- 
 lect seven millions — not in twenty years, but in 
 one year — in order to do all the good it is inten- 
 ded to do. 
 
 In our country all the pastors of France ought 
 to establish this association in their parishes. 
 When once installed among them they will find 
 in it a great auxiliary. 
 
 A month before his death Mgr. de S6gur ad- 
 dressed a letter to the bishops, accompanied by a 
 report of this association for 1880-81, and among 
 other things he said this: 
 
 " How many schools established and main- 
 tained by the Association of St. Francis de Sales, 
 Low mauy missions given, thanks to its aid in 
 money and pious objects, how many patronages 
 and works of perseverance founded and sustained, 
 how many poor churches saved from interdiction, 
 how many good books and popular works cir- 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 85 
 
 ciliated to oppose the deluge of an immoral and 
 impious press, and how many spiritual graces 
 obtained by those who enter the communion of 
 prayers and good works of more than fifteen 
 hundred thousand associates ! " 
 
 Then let us establish this admirable work, for 
 if we let faith and the life of faith disappear from 
 among us, what will become of the works of the 
 Holy Infancy, and of the Propagation of Faith ? 
 
 France will be filled with Chinese more heath- 
 enish than those of China, and the poor mission- 
 aries will wait in vain for money and assistance. 
 Let us not hide from ourselves that this is a grave 
 period. The free-masons unmask their batteries, 
 and by their teachings will cover France and the 
 neighboring countries with a close and formi- 
 dable net-work.* 
 
 * At the time this work appeared the president of this impor- 
 tant Association of St. Francis de Sales was not appointed, 
 
86 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XXIII. — 
 
 "When, in 1871, after the misfortunes of the. 
 war, the Catholics felt the necessity of re-estab- 
 lishing social peace and of bringing back the 
 working class to the service of God, the little 
 group of good men who resolved to found at 
 Nevers u The Working-Men's Catholic Union/' 
 knew that they could in no way better insure 
 the success of this foundation than by begging 
 Mgr. de Segur to accept the direction of it. Al- 
 though already well burdened, he accepted. By 
 the foundation of a central office, which became 
 the centre of assistance and instruction to aid in 
 founding other works, the " Working- Men's 
 Union/' under the impetus given by its presi- 
 dent-general, developed rapidly. The Congress 
 which meets every year under the auspices of one 
 of the episcopal palaces, has just called attention 
 to the increased number of Catholics throughout 
 Fiance, of the patronages of scholarships and of 
 apprenticeships, and of the increased number of 
 working rooms, of the unions of workmen, sol- 
 diers and sailors, and the societies of perseverance 
 for the young, etc., and gives the methods best 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 87 
 
 adapted to render them fruitful. In ten years 
 1,800 works have been founded. 
 
 This wonderful Congress, charming council of 
 charity, assembles at its meetings the elite of 
 those whom Catholic France counts among her 
 devoted men ; of the clergy, such as the Abbes 
 du Fougerais, Le Boucher (called the " Dean of 
 Works"), Tournamille, Timon-David, Fossin, 
 Fr. Ludovic, a Capuchin, surnamed " Peter the 
 Hermit of the Nineteenth Century," etc., etc. 
 Among the laity, men like Leon Harmel, "The 
 Apostle of the Workshops," Wagner, Meignen, 
 Peigne-Libeau, etc., etc. This Congress met 
 the first time at Nevers (1871), then at Poitiers 
 (1872), at Nantes (1873), at Lyon (1874), at 
 Reims (1875), at Bordeaux (1876), at Puy 
 (1877), at Chartres (1878), at Angers (1879), at 
 Grenoble (1880), and at Mans (1881). 
 
 These grand assemblies, which have called 
 together at times as many as nine hundred 
 Directors of Works, as at Nantes, were presided 
 over by Mgr. de Segur whenever his health 
 permitted. 
 
 His humility was often put to the test by the 
 praise bestowed upon him by the bishops present 
 and the profound respect with which they inspir- 
 ed him alone constrained him to keep silence. 
 
83 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 At Nantes during the first general meeting 
 (Aug. 25, 1873), Monseigneur delivered an ad- 
 dress, in which his zeal for the workingmen, 
 and his great love for the Blessed Sacrament 
 were strikingly manifested. " Yes," said he, 
 " it is God who will give us success. We will 
 not save the workingmen if we know not how 
 to be saints; it is by our sanctity that we will be 
 of use to the Church and to the country, and 
 this sanctity, fruitful source of all good, we will 
 draw from the love of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 The Eucharist ! the priest in the mass ! the faithful 
 in holy communion ! There is no other strength 
 save in the Blessed Sacrament, and there is all 
 strength. " 
 
 At the end of this Congress, the members, 
 headed by Monseigneur, left Nantes, to make a 
 pilgrimage to Saint Anne d'Auray. At the 
 meeting which took place in the little seminary 
 at the close of the pilgrimage, the Bishop of 
 Nantes, who was present, delivered in his dis- 
 course the following little address to the presi- 
 dent of the Congress: 
 
 "We would express, gentlemen, our lively 
 gratitude to Mgr. de Segur, who is so active in 
 the cause of Catholics and workingmen. God 
 has closed his eyes on the things of this earth 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 89 
 
 that be may always have them open to things 
 divine and eternal. He has given himaioie- 
 sight of the things of life and of the needs of 
 society. He enlightens by his books those who 
 think they see, and leads them to the true lighr." 
 
90 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XXIV.— 
 
 Mori seigneur being prevented by his health 
 from assisting at the Congress at Reims (J 875), 
 the archbishop of the diocese presided in his 
 place. He wrote on the 20th of August from 
 Sainc Anne d'Auray, to one of the members of 
 the Union, to excuse his absence. 
 
 " Providence," said he, " Who guides all 
 things, even the Congress of the Nineteenth 
 Century, has marvellously disposed all that con- 
 cerns this one at Reims. Instead of a poor, 
 blind, decrepit president, you have been provided 
 with a charming one in Mgr. Langenieux, the 
 great friend of good works, and one whose con- 
 summate experience will lighten your labors." 
 
 At the Congress of Bordeaux (Aag. 25, 1876, 
 the feast of St. Louis, his patron), His Eminence, 
 the Cardinal had a magnificent crozier presented, 
 to Mgr. de Segur. Mgr. de la Bouillerie, coad- 
 jutor of Bordeaux, made the presentation in the 
 following words : 
 
 " Monseigneur, the good wishes yesterday so 
 gracefully expressed to Your Eminence by Rev. 
 Fr. Dulong de Rosnay, in the name of the mem- 
 bers of this Congress, and those which I address to 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOK. 91 
 
 you to-day, are somewhat at variance. To-day 
 it is not a question of a vow, bat of a present, and 
 that present is a crozier. Oar hearts are ready 
 to offer it to you, Monseigneur, but the artist is 
 not; the crozier which was destined for you is 
 not yet finished. Meanwhile His Eminence 
 charges me to place in your hands his own 
 crozier." The two prelates then embraced, and 
 the emotion in the audience was intense. 
 
 The opening of the Congress of Chartres (in 
 1878), the most interesting which had taken 
 place, was signalized by the violence of the 
 revolutionary journals, which overwhelmed with 
 abuse the members and their president. 
 
 In one of the general assemblies (Sept. 12), 
 the Abbe Brettes,* first Vicar of Notre Dame de 
 Clignancourt at Paris, avenged the Congress in a 
 remarkable discourse. This is what he said in 
 reference to Mgr. de Segur: 
 
 " I know a prelate who has a habit which I 
 may be permitted to call singular. 
 
 " Imagine where, for twenty years he regularly 
 spends New Year's day? You would find it 
 difficult to guess, so I will tell you : among the 
 poor sick orphans of the Brothers of St. John of 
 
 * Author of the articles which appeared in L'Ami du Peuple 
 (The Friend of the People), after the death of Mgr. de Segur. 
 
93 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 God. This is, gentlemen, one of the men that 
 they present to the people as their enemy. 
 
 u Since I began by an indiscretion I will con- 
 tinue it, and give you the name of this guilty 
 one : it is Mgr. de Segur. Yes, Mgr. de Segur, 
 whom a public paper has dared this morning to 
 speak of as a l Foreign Prelate,' when his family 
 has been distinguished for centuries in the service 
 of France j when by his title he is Canon-Bishop 
 of Saint Denys in France, when he is devoting 
 his life to reform France, and is killing himself 
 by his labors." 
 
 The first day of the meeting Mgr. de Chartres, 
 in the opening discourse, paid a compliment to 
 Mgr. de Segur : 
 
 " It is my good fortune to have beside me this 
 prelate, renowned for his virtues, whose name is 
 synonymous with that of zealous promoter of all 
 good works, who by his charming and lucid writ- 
 ings, and by the founding of that admirable 
 Society of St. Francis de Sales, has done such an 
 immense amount of good, not only in France but 
 in all parts of the world." 
 
 At the general meeting, Sept. 1 1, Mgr. de Ver- 
 sailles also charmingly portrayed Mgr. de Segur: 
 
 " We are happy," said he " to find again in our 
 midst this venerable prelate, who is so touchingly 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 93 
 
 associated with St. Francis de Sales, and who 
 has only to speak to obtain a joyful obedience 
 from every one." 
 
 Mgr. Richard, coadjutor of Paris, when pre- 
 siding at the last meeting of the Congress on the 
 thirteenth of September, recalled in his closing 
 address a reminiscence of his young ecclesias- 
 tical days, which referred also to Mgr. de Segur : 
 
 " I am happy, gentlemen, to meet again your 
 President General. It is many years since 
 I first met him serving the poor at the Semi- 
 nary of Saint- Sulpice. I feel sure that the 
 service of charity has the grace of uniting souls ; 
 for I believe that for thirty-two years we have 
 never met without recalling that common service, 
 notwithstanding the very grave events which 
 have since transpired. * 
 
 In 1879 Monseigneur felt the first attacks of 
 the illness which brought him to the tomb. He 
 was to have presided at the Congress of the 
 Union, which met at Angers, on Sept. 1. He 
 was only able to send that letter which he wrote 
 from Saint d'Auray to one of the members, and 
 which so faithfully portrays his character : 
 
 " I resign myself," writes he, " knowing that 
 passive resignation to the divine will is more 
 
 * Report of the Congress of the Union. 
 
94 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 efficacious for good tlian the most ardent activity. 
 The three hours during which our Lord remained 
 immovably nailed to the Cross were more precious 
 than the thirty-three years of his evangelical life. 
 
 " To-morrow, the second of September, it will 
 be twenty-five years since I became blind. I 
 beg the members of the Congress to make a 
 communion of thanksgiving in order to celebrate 
 with me l my silver wedding of blindness.' " 
 
 Since 1879, Rev. Father Delaporte, Superior 
 of the Fathers of Mercy, has been president of the 
 Central Office of the Union. He is a man of good 
 works and very well known in Paris. During the 
 past year he has written for the Bulletin of the 
 Union the articles entitled "Letters to Sebastian," 
 which are enjoyed very much by the young 
 workmen. 
 
"THE BLTND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 95 
 
 — XXV. — 
 
 Besides the two associations of which we have 
 just spoken, the one which held the next place 
 in Mgr. de Segur's affection was the " Society 
 of Young Men of the Faubourg Saint Germain," 
 established in 1853 in the parish of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas by the Vicomte de Melun, of holy 
 memory, for the perseverance of clerks, appren- 
 tices and workmen, living in that quarter. 
 
 After his return from Rome, Monseigneur 
 devoted himself assiduously to this work. He 
 went there every Sunday as soon as mass was 
 over, about half-past twelve, accompanied by 
 his faithful secretary. 
 
 On the eves of feasts, from nine o'clock in the 
 evening till midnight, he would endure any in- 
 convenience to hear the confessions of his nu- 
 merous penitents, and the next day he would 
 desert his dear chapel and go to say mass among 
 them. 
 
 During Holy Week his ardent and impressive 
 words, and the gayety of his heart, attracted the 
 greater part of the men in the neighborhood. 
 We quote as an example one of the kind letters 
 he wrote to each one of the members of the so- 
 
96 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 ciety, a few days before the feasts. It shows the 
 kindness and friendship he felt for these young* 
 men. 
 
 "Paris, March 15, 1S77. 
 
 "My Dear Child: 
 
 Cl Easter is approaching, and I appeal to your 
 pleasant recollections and to your good heart. 
 We are going to have in a few days our grand 
 annual retreat, which for several years has been 
 so extensive and of such great importance. 
 
 " The retreat will open on Monday evening 
 at a quarter past eight precisely. The meetings 
 *a ill be daily as usual. I will preside, please God, 
 with the good Abbe de Cabanoux. We count 
 upon you without fail during this blessed week. 
 
 " On Easter Sunday I will celebrate the mass 
 for the general communion at eight o'clock pre- 
 cisely. It will be followed by the distribution 
 of roses and blessed bread. 
 
 " The retreat will close with Vespers and Ben- 
 ediction, which will immediately follow the late 
 mass. 
 
 "If you have any companions you can bring 
 to us they will be as welcome as yourself. 
 
 a I beg the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph to 
 render fruitful by their blessings your good will, 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 97 
 
 and the efforts which we will all make to present 
 to our Lord at Easter a beautiful bouquet of per- 
 fect, pure souls, all firmly determined never to 
 sin again after such a blessed resurrection. 
 " Your father and friend, 
 
 " ^ L. Gr. DE SEGUE. 
 
 " Canon-Bishop of St. Benys and spiritual di- 
 rector of the Association. " 
 
 Every year, when he left Paris, Monseigneur 
 always wrote to his young men. We have at 
 hand an extract from one of his vacation letters 
 dated September 1, 1871. We quote it to prove 
 what we have already stated, that is, that Mgr. 
 de Segur loved to date his letters on the anni- 
 versary of the day he became blind. 
 
 "I ask you all, my dear children, to say for me 
 to-morrow, the second of September, a fervent 
 " Our Father' 7 and " Hail Mary," in thanksgiving. 
 To-morrow it will be seventeen years since our 
 Lord deigned to bestow upon me his true cross 
 in taking away my sight. It is a grace which 
 I did not merit, the value of which I feel every 
 day more and more. " 
 
 This was so like Mgr. de Segur, who used to 
 say that God had given him three great graces 
 
98 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 in his life. These were: " being born a Chris- 
 tian, being a priest, and being blind. " 
 
 Since its foundation, the Association of the 
 Young Men of the Faubourg Saint Germain has 
 giveiTto the Church twenty priests and religious, 
 all spiritual children of Mgr. de Segur. The 
 association has a small society of St. Vincent of 
 Paul, which visits and assists fifteen families. 
 
 When one of the association married, and 
 Monseigneur was free on the day of the ceremony, 
 he considered it an honor to give the nuptial 
 
 blessing. 
 
 It was a touching coincidence that the last 
 marriage which Monseigneur celebrated (April 
 27, 1881) was that of one of the mem- 
 bers of the association, our intimate friend, Mr. 
 Pierre P., and it was a former member of the 
 Bame society, the Abbe Fossin, of Poitiers, who 
 gave the last communion to Mgr. de Segur when 
 he was dying. When the news of the death of 
 their venerated president was known, the society 
 wept for him as for a father, and they all deter- 
 mined to execute to the letter his last wishes. 
 
 The beautiful crown of camelias, violets and 
 lilies which attracted attention on the day of his 
 burial, was an homage of their gratitude. One 
 of the member of this society, Mr. Germain J., 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 99 
 
 was obliged, by circumstances which occurred 
 since the death of Monseigneur, to leave Paris and 
 Europe. Before embarking for Central Amer- 
 ica, this good young man carried out his pious 
 thought of going to Pluneret to pray at the tomb 
 of his spiritual father, and to place his voyage 
 and his future under his holy protection. This 
 act did honor, not only to him who performed it, 
 but also to the society of which he was a member. 
 The worthy assistant of Mgr. de Segur in this 
 work, the Abbe de Oabanoux, first Vicar of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas, inherits his ardor and zeal for 
 the work, and is now the spiritual director of the 
 association. One of the vicars of the parish no 
 less zealous than he, assists him in this apostolic 
 work. 
 
100 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 — XXVI.— 
 
 Mgr. de Segur, like the saints, had to endure 
 humiliations. One more than all others tried 
 him most severely, for it impeded his zeal. 
 
 He was suspended: a seal was placed on the 
 lips that preached ; the hands that blessed and 
 pardoned were tied by his bishop ; but like St. 
 Alphonsus de Liguori, he complained not ; he 
 uttered no word of reproach, and under the weight 
 of this poignant sorrow, he remained the priest, 
 smiling under the immolation. * 
 
 After the Council Mgr. de Segur returned from 
 Rome, having the permission of the holy Father 
 to give the " Papal Benediction " at the close of 
 all the assemblies at which he presided. 
 
 A day or two after his arrival, the Director of 
 the Arch -confraternity of Notre Dame des Vic- 
 toires, begged Monseigneur to have the kindness 
 to preside that evening at their meeting, to address 
 them a few edifying words, and also to give them 
 news of the Eternal City which he had just left. 
 
 The invitation coming late, Monseigneur had 
 not time to go to the archbishop and have the 
 right which the Pope granted him approved by 
 
 L * See the Funeral Oration, by Mgr. Mermillod. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 101 
 
 the Ordinary. He went in the evening to Notre 
 Dame des Victoires, and naturally gave the "Pa- 
 pal Benediction." 
 
 Mgr. Darboy using his prerogative, forbade 
 Mgr. de Segur to hear confessions for twenty- 
 four hours. It was just the eve of a feast, and 
 he was obliged to close his door to all his spir- 
 itual children. One of them, whom we know, 
 was able to i>ain admittance, and found Mon- 
 seigneur weeping. He asked him the cause of 
 his trouble, and the gentle prelate told him the 
 affair very simply and without one bitter com- 
 plaint. 
 
 This was the cause (known to few) of Mon- 
 seigneur's suspension. As the subject is a very 
 delicate one, it will be understood why we re- 
 frain from making any comments on it. More- 
 over, we have neither the right nor the author- 
 ity to do so. 
 
102 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 — XXVII. — 
 
 On the ninth of February, 1874, Mgr. de Se- 
 gur lost his mother, whom he venerated and loved 
 beyond measure. This death was a blow 
 from which he never completely recovered. 
 
 Even his strong nature was not able to support 
 this shock. 
 
 Mine, de Segur, born at St. Petersburg, was 
 a Greek schismatic, like all her family. The Em- 
 peror Paul I. was her godfather. She became 
 a Catholic in 1814, at the age of fifteen, and 
 made her abjuration at Moscow. Her mother, 
 nee Countess Protassow, was a real saint, 
 devoting herself solely to God and her children. 
 
 In 1800, at the age of thirty-two, she had the 
 happiness of becoming a Catholic. * 
 
 * The grandmother of Mgr.de Segur practised her religion 
 faithfully and courageously. She went every morning in a ca- 
 lash drawn by four horses to the Catholic church of St. Louis 
 of France in Moscow, where she heard mass and received com- 
 munion. 
 
 Such an example as this the schismatics considered scandal- 
 ous, and it finally displeased them greatly. The governor sent 
 word to the princess that if she did not watch more over her 
 words and actions he would write of them to the emperor, who 
 was then Nicolas I. She said to the bearer of this message: 
 
 " Tell the governor that I myself am going to write to the em- 
 peror this very day," 
 
 Here is her letter: 
 
 "Sire, the Governor of Moscow threatens to inform Your 
 Majesty that I am a Catholic, and that I go every day openly 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 103 
 
 Madame de Segur's features were not regular, 
 but she had a very sweet smile, her large brown 
 eyes had so much life and expression, and her 
 sincerity and intelligence were so remarkable, 
 they made her sympathetic with all who ap- 
 proached her. Her piety was angelic, she re- 
 ceived communion every day. Her dearly be- 
 loved son received her into the Third Order of 
 St. Francis on the fifteenth of August, 1866, in 
 the chapel of Nouettes, and she took the name 
 of Sister Mary -Frances of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 Madame de Segur wrote at the age of fifty - 
 seven, the twenty motherly stories of the " Bib- 
 liotheque Hose" real little masterpieces, writ- 
 ten very naturally, and with a peculiar charm. 
 
 in my carriage to the Catholic church, as I have been in the 
 habit of doing since I had the happiness of leaving schism to 
 enter the bosom of the true Church. 
 
 " In acting thus I use the right which good sense and the 
 law give me. I do nothing extraordinary, and nothing is far- 
 ther from my thoughts than the wish to give any annoyance 
 whatever by ridiculous ostentation. I will continue then as I 
 have been doing. 
 
 •' Your Majesty can if he wishes, have me arrested as being 
 guilty of being a Catholic and of professing it; you can confis- 
 cate my property and exile me to Siberia, but all this is periect- 
 ly immaterial to me. What you can never do is to prevent me 
 from following my conscience, make me abandon my faith or 
 turn me from the service of my God. 
 
 " Sire, beware! in a few years you, like all the rest of the 
 world, will die. You will be judged, and if the Sovereign Mas- 
 ter finds you as you are at this moment, out of His Church, 
 which is the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, He 
 will condemn you ; and the power you now possess will not save 
 you from going to hell. May your Majesty think seriously 
 upon this, for it concerns your salvation." (My Motheb.) 
 
104 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 To obtain from God a special blessing, each time 
 that she commenced one of these, she made a 
 vow to have a certain number of masses said for 
 the deliverance of the souls in purgatory. 
 
 She became a widow in 1863. Count Eugene 
 de Segur, the father of Monseigneur, was a tall, 
 handsome, noble and distinguished looking old 
 gentleman with white hair. He was with his 
 brother, Viscount de Lamoignon, at the Castle de 
 Mery (Oise), when he was taken suddenly ill on 
 the fourteenth of July, 1863. The pastor came 
 at once and heard his confession. The next 
 day he received Extreme Unction and the 
 holy viaticum with great fervor, and died on the 
 sixteenth of July at half-past four in the morning. 
 
 At the Castle of Malaret during the winter of 
 1872-73, Madame de Segur had the first se- 
 vere attack of the terrible heart disease which a 
 year later took her away from the love of her 
 children. A very painful eczema which the doc- 
 tors cured too quickly, complicated and aggra- 
 vated her disease to such an extent that in Sep- 
 tember, 1873, her life was almost endangered. 
 
 From that time her condition grew worse, and 
 was but one long agony till the day of her holy 
 death. 
 
 The thirtieth of January, 1874, she had the 
 
THE BUND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 105 
 
 consolation of seeing all her children assembled 
 around her bed. She blessed them tenderly, 
 then addressing Motiseigneur she said, " Let me 
 bless thee once again, thou particularly, my dear 
 child, who hast ever been the consolation of all 
 my life." 
 
 She died piously ten days after, on the ninth 
 of February, a quarter of an hour after she had 
 received from Mgr. de Segur the grand Francis- 
 can absolution, in articulo mortis. 
 
 Her heart is placed in the Monastery of the 
 Visitation, rue de Vaugirard, Paris, and her body 
 is buried at Pluneret, near Sainte Anne d' Auray.* 
 
 During the first days of her agony she said to 
 Monseigneur : " I hope that God in His good- 
 ness will deign to give thee when I am gone 
 some proof to console thee and let thee know 
 where I am." 
 
 He had the happiness of receiving this consol- 
 ing proof. Mr. R. a skilled chemist, who em- 
 balmed her heart, had for three days a violent 
 fever, but the moment Madame de Segur's heart 
 was placed in his hands the fever left him com- 
 pletely. 
 
 After the death of his mother, Mgr. de Segur 
 went every week to the Visitation to say a prayer 
 
 * " My Mother," by Mgr. de S6gur. 
 
•106 THE BLI1TD FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 .before the relic of his mother. This was the pil- 
 .grimage to which he was the most assiduous after 
 the tabernacle of his chapel. 
 
 One of Mgr. de Segur's sisters thus describes 
 sthe close union which bound these two lives: 
 Ji Mamma was Gaston and Gaston was Mamma." 
 

 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 107' 
 
 — XXVIIL— 
 
 Four years after the death of his mother, and' 
 on the same day of the month Mgr. de Sdgur re- 
 ceived a new shock by the death of him whom he- 
 called his true Father, the great Pius IX. The - 
 Pope had great affection for him, and Monseigneur 
 reciprocated it fully. His love for Pius IX. was- 
 not for him alone, but also for the Papacy. He 
 loved and venerated the Pope, and he is assur- 
 edly one of the men of this age who most effica- 
 ciously combatted Protestantism, Jansenism and 
 Gallicanism. 
 
 He had the glory of thus making powerful 
 enemies for himself, the honor of suffering much> 
 for our holy Church, and the consolation of seeing: 
 the final triumph of that cause which he had so 
 valiantly defended. A few days after he lost 
 the sight of his left eye, the Holy Father asked 
 Monseigneur very kindly what the physician said, 
 adding, "for such maladies I know but 
 three remedies: good nourishment, fresh water, 
 and patience. " " Holy Father/' replied Monseig- 
 neur, " I have much more confidence in the third 
 remedy than the first." 
 
 April 8, 1875, Mgr. de Segur being in Rome, 
 
108 THE BLIXD FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 was permitted to join the Holy Father in his 
 daily walk in the Vatican gardens. 
 
 Cardinals Bilio, Oreglia and Franchi accom- 
 panied His Holiness. In their presence the 
 Pope began to eulogize Mgr. de Segur and his 
 writings. He, happy and proud of the approv- 
 al of the Pope, appeared confused by the praise 
 of himself, which his humility repelled. " Mgr. 
 de Segur," said the Pope, "does so much good, and 
 this good extends to all countries j for his little 
 "books go every where, and are, so to speak, scat- 
 tered to the four winds of heaven ! Yes, yes," con- 
 tinued the Pope, " all the world knows and loves 
 Mgr. de Segur ; " and turning to the prelate he 
 said : " How do you manage to do so much good 
 with all your works ? These books are so clear 
 they are within the comprehension of every one. "* 
 
 At the death of Pius IX. Monseigneur went 
 to Rome expressly to attend his obsequies. An 
 ecclesiastic who accompanied him told us that 
 Monseigneur's grief during the funeral ceremon- 
 ies was so great it was painful to witness. 
 
 Mgr. de Segur had been Prelate of the Papal 
 Household since Nov. 19, 1858.1 
 
 * " L' Univers" July 11, 1881. 
 
 t Mgr. de Segur was, besides, Honorary Canon of the Cathe- 
 drals of Poitiers, of Puy, of Reims, of Saint Cloud, of Seez and of 
 Vannes. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 109 
 
 — XXIX — 
 
 The death of the great Pontiff, following that 
 of his loved mother, his sister Sabine, his father, 
 and finally, the death of his little god-son and 
 nephew Louis de Pitray, coming to Mgr. de Se- 
 gur, one blow after the other, afflicted him deeply.* 
 
 These sorrows, the austere life which he led 
 and the continual tension of mind consequent on 
 his blindness, caused a slight congestion which 
 greatly reduced his strength, and caused serious 
 anxiety. The danger was by great care averted, 
 but as soon as he recovered, the holy bishop, in- 
 stead of resting, returned to his duties. 
 
 How could he rest, having the heart of a pviesf , 
 and seeing around him thousands of spirit- 
 ual children imploring the succor of their 
 Director and Father. In consequence of this 
 holy imprudence he had a second attack of par- 
 alysis of the brain, August 23, 1880. 
 
 This attack yielded to the same care, but this 
 time his health was very much undermined, and 
 the dear invalid never completely recovered. 
 
 * Like many other friends of God, Mgr. de S6gur had a pre- 
 sentiment of his approaching death. When taking leave of 
 Mgr. de Girardin, who was dying, he said, '• I will join you, 
 dear friend, in a very short time. " 
 
HO THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 Nevertheless he resumed his labors, blessing, con- 
 fessing r giving God to souls, and giving himself, 
 to the entire exhaustion of his strength. 
 
 The malady returned suddenly and this time 
 proved fatal. 
 
 On his birth-day, Good -Friday, the fifteenth 
 of April, 18S1, just as he was preparing to go to 
 Stanislaus College, he was seized with dizziness, 
 which obliged him to keep his bed. A few days 
 afterwards he set to work again. He revised the 
 constitution of the Society of St Francis de 
 Sales, in order to insure its workings and its 
 prosperity after he had gone, heard confessions 
 again on Ascension Day, then on Saturday, the 
 twenty-eighth of May, he went to bed never to 
 rise again. 
 
 His physician and friend, Dr. M., was sum- 
 moned in haste, and declared that there was very 
 grave serous congestion, which was soon com- 
 plicated by inflamation of the lymph. As there 
 was not sufficient air in his cell the doctor ordered 
 Monseigneur to be placed on a bed in his parlor. 
 Methol found in the garret an iron bed which be- 
 longed to him. He tested its strength and 
 brought it down at once. 
 
 The holy blind man had no suspicion of this 
 change, and it was on a borrowed bed at the 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. Ill 
 
 foot of his beautiful picture with the golden 
 background, that he rendered up his soul to 
 God. As he grew worse the doctor spoke to 
 him of Extreme Unction. Monseigneur received 
 this suggestion as a blessing, and on the feast of 
 Pentecost at two o' clock, he received the holy 
 oils, in full possession of his senses, and exclaim- 
 ed as soon as he had received them : " How good 
 it is ! how good it is ! " 
 
 He lingered three days longer on this bed of 
 suffering, breathing painfully, but smiling, pray- 
 ing and blessing every body. He wished to 
 have repeated to him the names of those he loved 
 most, his spiritual children, and the holy priests 
 and religious with whom he had most friendly 
 relations. 
 
112 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 — XXX.— 
 
 On Wednesday, tha eighth of June, the eve of 
 Monseigneur's death, as the end seemed to be 
 approaching, about one o'clock in the afternoon 
 the prayers for the agonizing were recited. When 
 they were finished he said joyfully in a loud voice : 
 Alleluia. 
 
 His excellency, the Apostolic Nuncio, came on 
 Tuesday and talked to him for a long time in 
 Italian, Monseigneur answering in the same lan- 
 guage. ' ' You have been greatly favored, " said 
 the representative of the Holy See, u in having 
 been known and loved by two great Popes. " The 
 Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. de Larisse, 
 and a multitude of priests and religious also came. 
 Wednesday evening the Abbe Diringer, seeing 
 the pilgrims coming one after another to this holy 
 death-bed, asked him if he was not very tired. 
 u I will give my blessing till my last breath," re- 
 plied earnestly the priest of Jesus Christ, and he 
 did so to the end, and it may be said that this 
 last day of his life was not the least active. 
 
 While he was thus blessing others our Holy 
 Father the Pope sent him a consolation very dear 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 113 
 
 to his heart. His Holiness having learned from 
 his Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio at Paris, 
 the imminent danger in which he found this great 
 servant of the Church, the Holy Father sent him 
 twice the apostolic benediction, so powerful in 
 opening the gates of heaven. In the evening his 
 excellent physician, Dr. M., seeing there was no 
 hope,took leave of him, and bending over his couch 
 said, "Since you have blessed every body, now 
 bless your physician, who has cared for you as 
 best he could. " The dying man, smiling tender- 
 ly on him, blessed him and his wife and children 
 very distinctly, while the doctor lovingly pressed 
 Monseigneur's hand to his lips. Mgr. de Segur's 
 three last words were to a priest who owed to him 
 his vocation to the priesthood, and who asked 
 him to take him to paradise. He replied : " Par- 
 adise ! there is nothing but that ! " To a pastor 
 of Paris, the Abbe Le R., his friend of thirty 
 years, who asked him to obtain for him purity of 
 intention, he also replied : " Yes, yes, purity of 
 intention is everything." Finally, to another of 
 his spiritual sons, who, about one o'clock in the 
 morning, said to him that the Blessed Virgin 
 would come to his aid in death, he answered again 
 very distinctly : " I earnestly hope so." These 
 were his last words. Then commenced his ag- 
 
114 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 ony, and for two boars he was a prey to a crisis 
 of suffocation, which rent the hearts of all present. 
 About three o'clock this cruel ordeal ceased, and 
 was followed by profound quiet. The only 
 signs of life were manifested by occasional sighs, 
 which came farther and farther apart. Finally, 
 just at dawn, at twenty minutes of four, he gently 
 rendered up his soul to God, after a life of sixty- 
 one years, and an episcopacy of thirty-three years. 
 His face immediately assumed an expression of 
 heavenly peace, which it preserved till his burial. 
 The thousands of persons who saw him from 
 the hour after his death till Saturday morning, 
 when he was placed in a coffin, noticed this an- 
 gelic smile. Even from his coffin he seemed to 
 smile on them and bless them.* 
 
 * " Bulletin of St Francis de Sales," the July number. 
 
THE BLIND FBIEND OF THE POOR. 115 
 
 —XXXI.— 
 
 Even in death Mgr. de Segur wished to preach 
 abnegation, which ranked first in his great virtues. 
 
 He was clothed in death as he himself had in- 
 dicated. His feet were bare like St. Francis of 
 Assisi, whose spiritual son he was j he wore a 
 purple soutane in sign of submission to the holy 
 Church, and his white chasuble showed even in 
 death bis love for the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 Monseigneur lay in state four days in his parlor. 
 On Saturday the body was placed in the coffin. 
 
 During these four days innumerable multi- 
 tudes of the pious faithful came to look upon him 
 for the last time. The room was filled with 
 flowers, crowns, prayers and tears. 
 
 Monseigneur's family, who remained beside 
 the venerable deceased all day, were not able to 
 watch during the night. Mr. Philip L., a ter- 
 tiary of St. Francis, had the pious idea of organ- 
 izing a night-watch to be kept by the tertiaries 
 in memory of the love which their spiritual father 
 had for the Third Order. The first watch how- 
 ever, at their request, was given to Messrs. Leon 
 G. and Anthony G., Officers of the Society of 
 
11(5 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE FOOK 
 
 St. Francis de Sales, and two or three friends of 
 Monseigneur and his family. 
 
 We had the honor and consolation of keeping 
 the second watch, and of contemplating all night 
 the cherished features of him who was fur ten 
 years our friend, our benefactor and our father. 
 
 Messrs. Louis I., a medical student, who ren- 
 dered the last services to Monseigneur, Paul B., 
 Adrian de M., Celestin B., an artitt and pupil of 
 the Central School who painted Monseignenr's 
 portrait, all tertiaries and spiritual children of 
 Monseigneur, were the companions of our watch. 
 
 About ten o' clock we witnessed an affecting 
 scene, which proved the affection the servants of 
 Monseigneur had for their master. The good 
 Urruty had been on guard all the evening. Be- 
 fore going to rest he said his night prayers, kneel- 
 ing at the foot of the bed. When he stood up his 
 eyes were bathed in tears, and he sobbed aloud 
 as he kissed the feet, the hands and the face of 
 Monseigneur. He left the room looking back 
 and gazing fixedly at him, as if he was not to 
 see him again the next day. The poor servant 
 expressed so much pain and sorrow it was heart- 
 rending to see and hear him. 
 
 What a pious, holy night we passed. Every 
 hour we recited a part of the Little Office of the 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 117 
 
 Blessed Virgin, and every half hour a decade of 
 the dear little rosaries which our dear father, 
 1\ ing there before us, was so fond of distributing. 
 We applied all the indulgences to the repose of 
 Jb.s holy soul, feeling assured, however, that they 
 profited more to the souls in purgatory than to 
 his. Instead of praying for him we prayed with 
 him. During the night we took the liberty of 
 cutting a small piece from the purple soutane in 
 which Monseigneur was buried, a holy theft, the 
 only excuse for which was the desire to possess a 
 relic of a future saint. 
 
 The companions of our watch were, I must con- 
 fess, rather scandalized at our pious larceny, bat 
 they were glad afterwards to accept a piece of it. 
 Since then, by a particular favor, we have the 
 good fortune to possess a glove which was worn 
 by the pious prelate. 
 
118 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 — XXXII. — 
 
 In conformity to the last wishes of Mgr. de Se- 
 gur, his funeral took place in his parish at mid- 
 day on June 13. 
 
 His funeral in its simplicity was like that of a 
 poor man 5 in the concourse which attended, like 
 that of a prince ; and in the evidences of piety 
 testified by the people, like that of a saint. 
 
 The fifth carriage almost disappeared under 
 the crowns which were the faithful homage of 
 his friends and the faithful poor. 
 
 Among the crowns were distinguished those 
 sent by the society of the Young Men of the Fau- 
 bourg Saint Germain, by the officers of the Soci- 
 ety of St. Francis de Sales, by the Central Office 
 of the Workmens 7 Catholic Union, by the ser- 
 vants of Monseigneur, by the Tertiaries of St. 
 Francis of Assisi, by Stanislaus College, by the 
 Society of Alsaciens-Lorrains, by the Catholic 
 Circle of Luxembourg, by the Society of the 
 Young Men of Notre Dame des Buttes, by the 
 Society of St. Paul, by the Society of Orphan 
 Apprentices of Auteuil, etc., etc. Delegations 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 119 
 
 from these societies walked at the head of the 
 cortege, carrying their banners. 
 
 The chief mourners were the Marquis de Se- 
 gnr. Count de Segur-Lamoignon, Baron de Mal- 
 aret, and the Viscount de Pi tray, Fresneau, 
 senator, brothers and brothers-in-law of the de- 
 ceased. 
 
 Among those present, numbering about two 
 thousand persons, were all the dignitaries of the 
 Church, of the Magistracy, of the bar, of the 
 government and even of the army. 
 
 In the choir of the church of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas were to be seen : Mgr. Ferrata, repre- 
 senting the Apostolic Nuncios, Mgr. Richard, rep- 
 resenting the Cardinal of Paris, and Mgr. Maret, 
 representing the chapter of Saint Den vs. The 
 clergy of Paris and the members of the different 
 religious Orders were largely represented. 
 
 The pastor of the parish celebrated the mass } 
 and Mgr. Richard gave the absolution. Accord- 
 ing to the last wishes of Monseigneur there were 
 only thirteen candles around the catafalque, 
 twelve in honor of the apostles, and one in honor 
 of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 During the ceremony the organ, played by the 
 great Master, Gounod, the intimate friend of Mgr. 
 
120 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 de Segur, admirably portrayed in tender strains 
 the sorrow of all present. 
 
 After the services, the coffin remained in the 
 church until six o' clock in the evening, in order 
 that the pious multitudes might satisfy their de- 
 votion and render homage to the memory of the 
 deceased. 
 
 The body was then placed in a vault of the 
 church to await transportation to Pluneret, Mor- 
 bihan. 
 
 On Thursday, June 3 6, when the body was 
 removed, a large crowd assembled again at the 
 church of St. Thomas Aquinas, to pray for the 
 last time near the remains of the lamented prelate. 
 
 Just as the cortege started a frightful storm 
 broke over Paris, the people flew from the streets 
 to places of shelter. But the friends of Mgr. de 
 Segur, glad of an opportunity of showing their 
 love for him by disregarding the storm, followed 
 the coffin calmly and recollectedly, in this pour- 
 ing rain, as far as the Western depot where the 
 body was placed in a car to be taken to the de- 
 pot at d'Auray. 
 
 The mortal remains of Monseigneur arrived at 
 Sainte Anne d'Auray at eight o'clock the next 
 morning. 
 
 A large group of relations, of friends and of 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 121 
 
 priests met the remains of the venerated prelate, 
 and escorted them to the Ghurch of Pluneret, . 
 where they assisted at the masses which were 
 immediately said for the deceased. 
 
 The service was announced for eleven o' clock, 
 and although the day and hour had to be decid- 
 ed almost at the last moment, a great multitude 
 crowded around the doors of the sanctuary a good, 
 hour before the ceremony began. At eleven 
 o'clock Mgr. Becel entered the church, and took 
 his seat on the pontifical throne which was pre- 
 pared for him. Some time before his arrival the 
 choir was already filled with priests from the 
 suburbs of Sainte Anne, some from a great dis- 
 tance ; among whom were Mgr. Sauve, Rector 
 of the Catholic Institution of Angers, and Mgr. 
 de Coetus, one of the most eminent priests of the 
 diocese of Nantes. All the little Seminary of 
 Sainte Anne, to which Mgr. de Segur had so 
 often preached, attended his funeral. Count de 
 Monti, Count de Lambilly, Messrs de G-ouvello, 
 de Saint Georges, de la Ville-Boisnet, de Perien, 
 d'Englade and a great number of the dignitaries 
 of Morbihan, came with the bishop and the clergy 
 to do homage to the memory of the venerable 
 prelate. If the day of the funeral had been known 
 and announced earlier, instead of sixty priests, 
 
122 THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 
 
 there would have been three hundred present. 
 After the absolution given by Mgr. Becel, the 
 coffin was carried out of the church, by eight 
 priests wearing stoles, who would not yield to 
 anybody the honor of this precious burden. This 
 was a voluntary and touching homage paid to the 
 sanctity of the deceased by the good clergy of 
 Moibihan. On each side walked children and 
 young men, carrying bouquets and crowns of 
 natural and artificial flowers, which were to be 
 placed on the grave of this beloved apostle of 
 youth. The mourners were led by the Marquis 
 de Segur and Count de Segur-Lamoigon, brothers 
 of the deceased, and his brother-in-law Mr. Fres- 
 neau, senator from Morbihan. Monseigneur's 
 two faithful companions for more than twenty 
 years, the Abbe Dirringer and the devoted Methol, 
 followed, weeping, the coffin of him whom they 
 love J so much. 
 
 The cemetery of Pluneret which Mgr. de S£- 
 gor chose for his burial place, is about a hundred 
 paces from the Church of Pluneret on the road 
 to Sainte Anne. The church of St. Anne stands 
 about two miles from there. 
 
 The venerable prelate chose it first, because it 
 is one of tlie places of rest where (hey pray most for 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OF THE POOR. 123 
 
 r 5, and because his mother, his dearest love on 
 earth, rested there, awaiting him for seven years... 
 He took pleasure in adorning with the testimony 
 of his faith and his artistic taste the enclosure re- 
 served for the burial of his family. Nothing 
 could be more imposing, more striking and more 
 devotional than this little corner of earth, the im- 
 age and reflex of paradise. 
 
 A simple slab of blue granite of Kersanton, and 
 at the head of the grave a cross of the same stone, 
 such is the humble monument that the grandson 
 of a Rostopchine, and of Marshal de Segur, the 
 descendant of the Mole and of the d' Aguesseau, 
 wished to have placed on his grave. 
 
 This monument is exactly like the one he had 
 placed on his mother's grave. The mother and 
 son rest side by side. A railing surrounds the 
 two graves, forming a little enclosure in which 
 there is room for ten more graves. Surmounting 
 this enclosure, as if blessing and protecting those 
 who there sleep their last sleep, are three statues : 
 in the middle Our Lady of Lourdes, at the right 
 St. Francis of Assisi, lovingly contemplating his 
 crucifix; the left, St. Francis de Sales, holding 
 in one hand his pen as doctor of the Church, and 
 in the other one of his immortal works. It was 
 Mgr. de Segur who had all this done, and he ar- 
 ranged all the details and directed their execution, 
 
124 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 He also composed his own epitaph, or rather, 
 the following very simple and pious inscription on 
 the cross, these three words which so completely 
 sum up his whole life: 
 
 " Jesus, my Life and my Love." 
 On the slab at the foot of the grave : 
 
 Ave Maria Immaculata, 
 
 Gratia plena Deipara. 
 
 Here lies 
 
 in the peace of 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 LOUIS GASTON DE SEGUR, 
 Priest. 
 
 Prelate of the Holy Roman Church,* 
 
 Canon-Bishop of the Chapter of St. Denys, 
 
 Brother Francis Mary of the Blessed Sacrament 
 
 of the Third Order of St. Francis. 
 
 Born at Paris, April 15, 1820. 
 Died at Paris, June 9, 1881. 
 
 IN PACE. 
 
 Jesus Deus Meus, 
 Propitius Esto Mi hi Peccatori. 
 
THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 125 
 
 The little bags of earth hanging on the arms 
 of the cross excite the curiosity of strangers, who 
 ask the meaning of them. 
 
 They are testimonials of gratitude. The fact 
 is, in this part of Morbihan fevers are prevalent 
 among the farmers and working people, and it is- 
 a general pious custom to ask to be cured of this 
 sickness through the intercession of persons whose 
 lives have been particularly edifying. They fill 
 a small bag with a little of the blessed earth tak- 
 en from the grave, they wear it as long as the 
 fever lasts, and when it ceases they place the lit- 
 tle bag on the grave of the person whose interces- 
 sion they have invoked. 
 
 The grave of him whom the Church and Chris- 
 tian France mourn, is already a glorious sepulchre, 
 and the memory of the good which he has done to 
 so many souls, surrounds him with honor and re- 
 spect even in the humble cemetery of Pluneret. 
 
 There is not a day, scarcely an hour when the 
 humble grave is without visitors. Peasants and 
 great ladies, workmen, and men of the higher 
 classes, young men and ecclesiastics living in 
 the country, and many from a great distance, 
 succeed one another, not to pray for the soul of 
 Mgr. de Segur as the holy prelate wished in his 
 humility, but to implore his intercession with God. 
 
126 THE BLIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. 
 
 Sometimes the modest cemetery is invaded by 
 whole bands of pilgrims, as well as by more or 
 less numerous groups of visitors, besides those who 
 come separately to invoke the intercession of 
 God's indefatigable worker there at rest.* 
 
 * We have these details froin a letter of J. de Moussac. a nephew 
 of Mgr. de Segur, published in the Bulletin of the Union. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Mgr. de Segur's heart was carefully embalmed 
 by the same chemist who embalmed his mother's, 
 and it was placed on the 21st of July, 1881, by 
 the estimable Abbe Diringer, in accordance with 
 Mgr. de Segur's wishes, near his mother's, in the 
 Convent of the Visitation, rue de Vaugirard. 
 
 A few days after the death of Mgr. de Segur, 
 the young men among his penitents followed their 
 good inspiration of spending a night of adoration 
 before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the 
 chapel of the National Vow, and offered it up for 
 the repose of his soul. This was a touching tes- 
 timonial of gratitude and charity. 
 
 At mid-day on July 11, the Association of St. 
 Francis de Sales had a solemn service celebrated 
 for their founder. The service took place at the 
 Cathedral in Paris. His Excellency the Cardinal 
 presided. It was on this occasion that Mgr. 
 Mermillod delivered the beautiful funeral oration, 
 from which we have borrowed several extracts 
 for this little Memoir. 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 All the works, founded, sustained, or presided 
 over by Mgr. de Segur were represented at this 
 ceremony, which has not been equalled since the 
 day on which Rev. Father Lacordaire delivered 
 the funeral oration on O'Oonnell. The attendance 
 was estimated at five thousand persons. 
 
 Besides the archbishops and the clergy of Paris, 
 there were present the Bishops of Vannes, of Au- 
 tun, of la Basse-Terre, of Chipia (Mexico), of Te- 
 naire (in partibus), and Mgr. Dnion, Superior of 
 St. Louis-des-Franeais at Rome. 
 
 The council of the Society of Saint Francis de 
 Sales, not wishing that Mgr. de Segur's apart- 
 ment, the scene of so many conversions and of so 
 much virtue, should pass into the hands of stran- 
 gers, charged themselves with a renewal of the 
 lease, while awaiting the best disposition to make 
 of it. A subscription for " The Work of the 
 Apartment of Mgr. de Segur " was opened at the 
 Association of St. Francis de Sales, and at Mon- 
 seigneur's house, 39 rue du Bac. 
 
 On several days in the week, from one o'clock 
 till three, visitors are admitted to the apartment 
 of the deceased prelate. 
 
 We learn that the greater part of the things 
 willed by Monseigneur to his friends, will remain 
 where they are for the present. The altar alone, 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 which was sent off to Saint-Claude (Jura), will be 
 replaced by one no less precious from the chapel 
 of the castle of Nouettes. At this altar Mgr. de 
 Segur celebrated his first mass after lie became 
 blind, and before this tabernacle Sabine de Segur 
 received the first idea of her vocation. 
 
 By permission of the cardinal archbishop of 
 Paris, an anniversary mass is said in Monseig- 
 neur's chapel at 8 o'clock on the ninth of every 
 month, at which his friends and spiritual children 
 are invited to assist. 
 
 Since the death of Mgr. de Segur several 
 authentic cures have been brought to our knowl- 
 edge. They have been obtained by simply touch- 
 ing a piece of his clothing, or at the close of a 
 novena made under his patronage. 
 
 A miracle which took place during his life 
 and which he always concealed, is also soon to 
 be made known. Our holy Mother the Church, 
 always wise and prudent, not having yet made 
 public these occurrences and this miracle, we can 
 merely mention them. 
 
 In conclusion, here is a little story as simple 
 as it is touching, that all Christian souls will 
 read with interest and emotion. The hero is our 
 holy Blind Man, Mgr. de Segur, the heroine a 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 little paralytic. The incident took place at the 
 tomb of Pierre Olivaint. 
 
 On June 29, 1877, Mgr. de Segur said mass 
 in the chapel of the Martyrs, 35 rue de Sevres, 
 to obtain the cure of little Cecile de X., a 
 charming child of eight years, who had been 
 paralyzed a long time ago by congestion of the 
 brain. For the nine preceding days the father 
 of the little invalid had brought his child to the 
 tomb of Pierre Olivaint and his companions, and 
 he had asked his friend Mgr. de Segur, to say 
 the mass at the close of the novena. 
 
 The child, lying on two chairs near the altar, 
 followed the mass with recollection, contemplat- 
 ing all the while the holy celebrant. 
 
 When the mass was finished the father put his 
 dear child on her feet and tried to make her 
 stand up, but in vain : she was still complete] v 
 paralyzed. The child was taken to her carriage, 
 and the following dialogue took place between 
 her and her father : 
 
 " Well, my darling, you are not cured ? " 
 
 "No, papa." 
 
 " You nevertheless fervently asked it of the 
 good God ? " 
 
 The child did not answer. 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 ' What! v exclaimed the father in astonishment, 
 "did you not ask the good God to cure you? " 
 
 " No, papa." 
 
 " What then did you ask Him? " 
 
 " I asked Him to cure Mgr. de Segur." 
 
 " But it was for your own cure that the novena 
 was made and the mass was said." 
 
 u Yes, papa ; but seeing Mgr. de S£gur blind 
 made me so unhappy, I could not help asking 
 God to cure him instead of me." 
 
 The father made no reply ; he wiped away 
 the tears of emotion and embraced his child with 
 a tenderness mingled with respect. 
 
 Mgr. de Segur was deeply moved when he 
 heard what had occurred. He wrote a letter to 
 the little invalid, which her parents have carefully 
 preserved, and we are happy to give it here, as 
 an admirable lesson on the usefulness of suffer- 
 ing, and at the same time as a precious testimony 
 of the sanctity of the writer, who now sees God 
 face to face in the splendors of eternity. 
 
 Castle of Livet, June 23, 1877. 
 " My Good Little Oecile : 
 
 (i Your excellent papa told my brother and he 
 wrote me, that on the 29th of June, during the 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 mass which I celebrated on the tomb of our holy 
 friend, the martyr Pierre Olivaint, your good heart 
 prompted you to speak to the good God of my 
 infirmity, forgetting your own. Although that 
 was very natural on the part of a good little 
 Christian like you, while I thank you for it, I 
 cannot help telling you, however, that uncon- 
 sciously you wished to play me a naughty trick. 
 "You see, my dear child, there is nothing 
 more salutary on earth than to have to suffer with 
 the good God, and to carry with Him the cross 
 of privation. In one sense it is rather hard, but 
 in another sense, a thousand times more heroic, a 
 thousand times more holy and more salutary j 
 it is very preferable, as it leads to heaven and 
 helps us very much to avoid sin and to resemble 
 Jesus Christ. Moreover, I have not the least 
 desire to be delivered from the holy and sanctifying 
 infirmity which our Lord in His adorable mercy 
 deigned to send me more than twenty-four years 
 ago. I entreat you very earnestly, my little 
 Cecile, to desire, not your cure, but your saactifi- 
 cation. You will tell me perhaps, that the one 
 would not interfere with the other. That is true, 
 but it is still truer that sanctification is much more 
 difficult in one state than the other, and when the 
 good God Himself nails us beside Him and with 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 Him on the cross ; it is much safer for us to re- 
 main there than to descend. Of every thousand 
 who are now in hell, I wager that, there are nine 
 hundred and ninety who could be at least in 
 purgatory if they had had the chance of being 
 blind, deaf or paralyzed, or afflicted with some 
 good big infirmity ; and of the poor souls who 
 are suffering excessively in purgatory there are 
 at least nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thous- 
 and who would have long since been enjoying the 
 eternal and holy beatitudes of Paradise if some 
 very disagreeable infirmity had mercifully held 
 them back from the precipice of frivolity, worldly 
 pleasures, vanity, coquetry, gluttony, etc. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear little one. Permit me as an 
 old companion in misfortune to bless and embrace 
 you. I bless a thousand times all those you love, 
 and who love you. 
 
 " f L. G. de Segur." 
 
 Mgr. de Segtjr's Will. 
 
 Extract from Ms last wishes. 
 
 "This is the expression f of my last wishes. 
 
 " In the name of the Father, and of the Son 
 
 and of the Holy Grhost. In the name of our 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 " I die as I have lived, in the faith of the 
 Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church and in 
 the most entire submission to the Holy Apostolic 
 See, in the love of the Most Blessed Sacrament 
 f the Altar, and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
 in filial love to the Holy Immaculate Virgin 
 Mary and her good mother St. Anne. 
 
 "I die hoping in the mercy of God, and under 
 the special protection of my well-beloved patrons 
 St. Peter, St. Gabriel the Archangel, St. Joseph 
 St. John the Evangelist, St. Francis of Assisi, 
 St, Francis de Sales and St. Louis. 
 
 : 'Idiein the hope of meeting again in the 
 bosom of God all those I have loved on earth 
 and those who have been good enough to love 
 me, particularly my dear mother, my father, my 
 lister Jane-Francis, and my true father the great 
 and holy Pius IX. 
 
 " If in my writings there should be found the 
 least thing in opposition to the present or future 
 teachings of the Holy See, I retract and condemn 
 it with all my heart. 
 
 " I desire to be buried in the habit of the 
 Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi, and with 
 bare feet as a sign of poverty, with the scapular 
 of the Sacred Heart and the blue scapular of the 
 I.nmaculate Conception j in a purple soutane, in 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 token of my dependence on the Pope and the 
 Church of Rome, in a white alb and chasuble in 
 token of my ardent love for the Holy Eucharist, 
 and the ever-blessed Virgin, and also of my firm 
 faith in the resurrection to come. I wish the 
 holy Gospel, the crucifix blessed and indulged 
 by Pius IX., and the holy rosary to be placed 
 on my breast. 
 
 "My heart will be embalmed and placed be- 
 fore the Most Holy Sacrament in the convent of 
 the Visitation, where my sister Sabine had the 
 happiness of living and dying, and where my 
 mother's heart already reposes. I ask the dear 
 good Sisters of the Visitation to allow my poor 
 heart to be deposited in their midst, to remain 
 there in perpetual adoration before the Most Holy 
 Sacrament, and to participate in all the prayers 
 and communions of the community. On the 
 leaden box in which my heart will be enclosed 
 these words will be engraved : ' Jesus, my God, 
 I love and adore Thee with my whole heart in the 
 Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. ' 
 
 " I do not wish any display or unnecessary 
 expense at my funeral. Just where I die I de- 
 sire a simple Low Mass to be said, with twelve 
 candles around my coffin, six on each side, and a 
 thirteenth at the head as indicated in the ceremo- 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 nial. At the ceremony before my burial I -wish 
 exactly the same rule observed. 
 
 " I bless with great fatherly tenderness, all my 
 spiritual children, as well as all the dear com- 
 munities where I have had the happiness of 
 exercising my ministry for so long a time, par- 
 ticularly the seminaries of Poitiers, of Montmor- 
 illon, of Seez, of Sainte Anne d'Auray, and the 
 little community of the pupils of Saint Sulpice. 
 
 " I bless for the last time and with great love, 
 Stanislaus College and the Association of Ap- 
 prentices, and Young Men of St. Thomas Aquinas, 
 more especially the children and young men 
 whom I have directed and loved so much. 
 
 " On leaving them for a time I wish to impress 
 upon them all the importance of this triple vow, 
 upon the observance of which depends their sal- 
 vation and happiness : 1. To preserve all their 
 lives a true love and regard for the authority of 
 the sovereign Pontiff. 2. A great practical love 
 for the Holy Eucharist and for Communion. 
 3. A sweet filial love for the Blessed Virgin, the 
 Queen of Purity. I ask them all to remember 
 their poor father in their prayers and communions. 
 Of those among them who have the happiness to 
 be priests I ask a perpetual memento at the 
 Nobis quoqite peccatoribus of the mass. 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 " I bless most especially, and for all their lives, 
 all the members of my family, my nephews and 
 nieces, as well as their children. I conjure them 
 all never to abandon the service of God, to live 
 holily, and always to remain in humble and entire 
 submission to the teachings and guidance, and 
 devoted to the cause of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. 
 
 u I hope that the grace of vocation to the priest- 
 hood and to the religious life having been once 
 given to our family, will not be taken away from it, 
 and that our race to the end may have the distin- 
 guished honor and great happiness of giving priests 
 and religious to Jesus Christ and to His Church. 
 
 " I recommend myself with great confidence 
 to the pious, faithful associates of St. Francis de 
 Sales, and beg them when I am gone to redouble 
 their zeal for and devotion to the interests of the 
 Church, the preservation of faith and the develop- 
 ment of our holy works. St. Francis de Sales 
 will render to each one a hundred-fold for all 
 that he does for his association. 
 
 " I also beg all our Brothers and Sisters of the 
 Third Order of St. Francis de Sales to be very 
 worthy members, and I hope that they will all 
 become apostles of the society. 
 
 "I humbly beg pardon of God and of all 
 those whom I may have disedified or scandal- 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 ized, and for all the evil that I have committed 
 in any way whatsoever. 
 
 "I affectionately and gratefully return thanks 
 to all those who have done me good, either spirit- 
 ually or temporally, and I recommend my pour 
 soul to their prayers. 
 
 " I pardon with all my heart, and for the love 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, all the injuries which I 
 may have received from any one whomsoever, all 
 the slight or grievous pain or sorrow they may 
 have caused me. I hope God in his goodness 
 will deign to pardon all who may have calumni- 
 ated me. 
 
 "Blessing God for His innumerable mercies, 
 for all His graces, for my holy vocation, for my 
 blindness, for the good which he has permitted me 
 to do, and for the evil he has enabled me to avoid, 
 begging him for the last time, to pardon all the 
 faults of my life, blessing all those I love and 
 pardoning every-body, I remit my soul into the 
 hands of my Saviour, I place it in his adored 
 and adorable heart, and I consecrate my last sigh 
 and my eternity to the Holy Immaculate Virgin 
 Mary, Mother of Grace and Queen of Heaven. 
 
 "May my holy father St. Francis, and my 
 dear patron, protector and friend, St. Francis de 
 Sales, deign to obtain for me the grace of a holy 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 death, and present me themselves to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 " The second of September, eighteen hundred 
 and eighty : the twenty sixth anniversary of the 
 ever- blessed day on which I became blind. 
 
 " f Louis- Gaston de Segue, 
 
 " Prelate of the Papal Household, 
 " Canon-Bislwp of Sf Denys." 
 
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