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The Will of Mademoiselle Le Gras17

Prostrate in all humility, in the belief that God is in all places, sole
being and creator of all immortal souls, with true knowledge of my own nothingness and impotence without his grace, I humbly implore his mercy on my misery, which has made me guilty of so much ingratitude for his goodness. I have offended this goodness by my sins, thus becoming unworthy to participate in the merits of Jesus crucified. Yet in these merits I place all my hope, and supplicate the Holy Virgin to be a true Mother to me and obtain for me pardon for the abuse I have made of the grace of God. To the moment of my death, and subject to the good pleasure of God, I supplicate my good angel guardian, Saint Louis, and all the saints to help me by their intercession in this important passage to which I submit myself, and "Leonard, Conferences, 722. 16Vincent de Paul survived Louise, but also died in 1660 on 27 September. His last will and testament, dated 7 September 1630, is published in Annales de fa Congregation de la Mission, 101 (1936):704-07. l'Richmont, The Ufe of Mademoiselle Le Gras, 351-65. Minor editorial changes have been made in this nineteenth-century text in paragraph division, word usage, and grammatical construction in order to facilitate its reading. The author wishes to present the contents of Louise's will but recognizes the need for an updated English translation that better reflects contemporary usage. 103 were I not obliged thereto, for the love of God, and to honor the moment of the separation of the divine soul of my Savior, who desires my salvation, that I may glorify Him eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I protest before God, and before all creatures, that I ~ish to live and die in the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, and I command my son, as far as I can, to do the same, it being the only path to paradise for which we were created. In the hope that God will grant him this grace, I beseech his bounty to take full possession of all that he is, to do in him and with him his most holy will. I likewise pray him to pour out his most efficacious grace, for time and eternity, the blessing which, as mother, he has empowered me to give, and which I now give him: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. I implore the sacred humanity of our Savior to have pity on our sinful souls at the hour of our death. I very humbly ask pardon of my good angel and of my most honored father and director, by whom it has pleased the mercy ofGod to hold me willingly attached to the accomplishment of his most holy will, for the little correspondence and fidelity I have shown for the charitable care that they have done me the honor to take of my salvation. I acknowledge that without this care I would often have turned miserably away from God. I also most humbly ask pardon of all my dear neighbors whom I have disedified or scandalized by my sins, of those whom I have displeased or offended in any way whatever, and of all creatures of which I have made bad use or contrary to the holy will of God. I abandon myself to God to make such restitution in this world or the next as it will please his merciful justice to ordain. The obligation of mother, together with the strong natural affection I have always had for my son, urges me to recommend him to remember the care which, for his salvation, the goodness of God had of his education, and to be grateful all his life, striving never to do anything contrary to God's most holy will. To aid you in this, my son, take .counsel in all your affairs of persons who are competent and who lead good lives. And that the advice you receive may be more useful to you, always ask it before forming your decision; otherwise you will not freely give your reasons for and against your proposals, and in that case you will deceive yourself. I rely so much on the kindness of Monsieur Vincent that I am certain he will never refuse you his assistance in your wants, whether 104 temporal or spiritual. You know how much we owe him, so I entreat you, should you ever be so happy as to have an opportunity to serve him or his company, you will do it with all your heart, remembering that you are particularly obliged to do so, not only in gratitude for all the benefits we have received from him but also for the service he renders to the holy Church, our mother. Do the same, and for the same reason, I beg you, for the gentlemen of the community of SaintNicolas- du-Chardonnet.18 I beseech my son often to remember to pray for the soul of his father,19 to remember his good life, how he greatly feared God and was scrupulous in keeping himself irreproachable, especially recalling his patience in the great sufferings which were sent to him in his last years and in which he practiced very great virtue. o my son, remember to honor always the Marillacs,z° and to serve them willingly, should God ever send the opportunity to do so. Also Monsieur the Count and Madame the Countess of Maure,21 and all those to whom I have the honor to be related. I know they will always retain their affection for me, and while you comport yourself as a man of honor they will never refuse you assistance in your wants, as I humbly supplicate them, remembering that their predecessors have always obliged us in that way, doing us the honor to acknowledge our relationship. What I say, my God, you know to be on account of the need my son, whom you have given me, may have, and not for vainglory. I declare that the heirs of Monsieur Gachier, in Auvergne, have on hand seven or eight hundred livres, without the interest of said sum, since the death of the late Monsieur Le Gras, my husband, which sum belongs to me as his first creditor, on account of my dowry and agreement. I have never known how to recover this money, in spite of my entreaties, from Monsieur Bonnefoy, his grandson and sole heir, against whom I did not wish to take proceedings up to this time, and I still entreat my son to settle this affair as quietly as possible. l"Michel Le Gras had already spent several years at the College de Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet (Correspondence, 2:13, n. 8). 19Antoine Le Gras. fhe Marillacs were from Auvergne. Louise's recommendation "to honor always the Marillacs" refers especially to the infants and children of Michel de Marillac, Keeper of the Seals (Coste, Life, 182). lIthe Count de Maure was the husband of Anne d'Attichy, cousin of Louise de Marillac (Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac: Correspondence and Thoughts, ed. Louise Sullivan, D.C., [Albany: 1991], 308). 105 I remember that, immediately after the death of Monsieur Le Gras, Monsieur Gachier told me he wished to pay the sum and started by sending me one hundred livres or more, which I do not remember to have receipted to his credit.22 I give and bequeath ten crowns of this money mentioped in the last article, whenever it shall be received, to the deserving poor of the town of Montferrand.23 I bequeath thirty livres a year in perpetuity, after the death of my son, to the venerable Priests of the Mission, first established with the blessing ofGod by Monsieur Vincent, in the College des Bons-Enfants, near the gate of Saint-Victor, on condition that they shall have three low masses said every year, namely, one on the first day of the year, the second on the feast of All Saints, and the third on the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin. These masses to be said at Saint Paul's and in the chapel of Saint-Amable.24 This obligation was imposed on me at the death of my father, and I have the power to dispose of it at my death; this power of disposal being given me by Monsieur de Marillac, deceased, former Keeper of the Seals. These aforesaid gentleman of the Mission shall, moreover, be obliged to give in alms, on each day of the celebration of said masses, five sous to the work, five to the poor; and also two tapers, weighing one pound, to be burned All Souls' Day during the holy mass said in the above-named chapel, and then given to the work. They shall, besides, feel bound to say three low masses, one on Saint Thomas's day,25 before Christmas--the anniversary of my deceased husband--and the other two on the anniversary of my death and that of my son. And this to honor the moment our Savior died on the cross, that the merit of this perpetual divine sacrifice may be applied to those who are in the agonies of death, and those in mortal sin to obtain from the mercy of God an efficacious grace to convert them. I leave eighteen livres to my confessor at the parish where I shall die, in gratitude for all the trouble his charity has taken with me, and "Louise added this paragraph in the margin and signed: "Marillac." "Antoine Le Gras was originally from Montferrand in Auvergne. It now forms part of the town of Clermont-Ferrand. "The chapel of Saint-Amable in Saint Paul's parish is where Michel de Marillac and Antoine Le Gras are buried (La Compagnie des Filles de la Charite Aux Origines. Documents, Elizabeth Charpy, D.c., ed. [Paris:1989l,994). 2521 December. 106 I wish him to employ that sum on any books or things useful to himself. I gave six crowns to my goddaughter, who is also the goddaughter of my son, Anne-Louise Metais, to be employed by her in presents when she shall be capable of doing so, and I recommend her to my son, in case her mother should die before she is either married or becomes a religious or is of an age to take care of herself. I give one crown to each of the confraternities here named, in which I have had the honor of being received, asking pardon of God for my many failings as regards the devotions prescribed by said confraternities, which leads me to realize that it would be better to be enrolled in a few and be faithful to them. The places where I have the honor to be enrolled are at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, for the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament; at the Jacobins, for the Confraternity of the Five Wounds of our Lord; at the Cordeliers of the Great Convent, for the Cord of Saint Francis; at the Jacobins of the Faubourg Saint-Honore, for the rosary; at the Augustinians of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, for the Cincture of Saint Monica; and at Saint-Laurent, for association to the Company of the Blessed Sacrament. I give six crowns a year to the Daughters of Charity--my dear sisters with whom I have had the honor of living for the last several years--of which eighteen livres shall be for ingredients to prepare ointments for the poor who come to their house. I declare that I should be obliged to do a great deal for them if God had given me the means to do so. Therefore, I beg my son to be always grateful for the charity they have shown me and to consider it a special blessing if he ever has occasion to be employed for them--in which I exhort him from my heart not to fail. I give and bequeath ten crowns to be distributed to the beggars on the first Sunday or feast day after my death, after a sermon given them by some charitable person, who will do this for the love of God, in the church of Saint-Laurent,26 or in the chapel, or rather at Saint-Lazare, if this be possible. I beg the preacher, in the name of our Lord, to speak only for the poor, teaching them their obligation to know God; who are the good and the wicked among the poor; how advantageous their condition would be for their salvation, if they use it well; what they should do to prevent themselves from being brought to begging; with '"The rnotherhouse of the Daughters of Charity was located in the parish of Saint-Laurent. 107 what humility they should ask an alms; their obligation to serve God and hear mass on Sundays and feasts; have them resolve to kneel in prayer morning and evening, and do it for the glory of God and the good of those souls who are lost for want of knowing the obligations for their state. I leave one crown every year in perpetuity to the Daughters of Charity, my dear sisters, to begin the year of my decease, on condition that one of them will say, every year, five rosaries for my son, namely, on the Presentation of the Holy Virgin, her Immaculate Conception, the third Friday of February, Good Friday and the Friday of Ember Days and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, between the hours of seven and eight, on the aforesaid days, to obtain from God a particular grace for those who receive holy orders. After my debts and legacies are paid, my son, as sole heir, shall enjoy my property. After his death, all I leave will pass to the poor, whom I constitute my heirs after him. In case he marries and has children, he and his children will enjoy it according to the law regulating substituted successions, but I intend and will that, should he have no legitimate offspring, the poor shall enjoy the little that God has given me, and for this purpose I humbly supplicate Monsieur Vincent de Paul, Founder and General of the Priests of the Mission, and after him his successors, to look after this disposition, so that should the substitution take place, they may collect the revenues and make the annual distribution, since I know that their principal duty is to labor for the salvation of the poor, for which I would willingly sacrifice my life. But in case that God gives the blessing of a firm establishment to the Company of Sisters of Charity in the parishes or if they can subsist as they have done for several years, remaining under the direction of the above named gentlemen of the Mission, my intention and last will is, that, with the exception of one hundred livres which these same gentlemen of the Mission will enjoy, the Sisters of Charity inherit, according to the above terms, the little that I leave, and thus they may have more means to assist the sick poor in the country places where they find less aid. I pray the goodness of God, should he please to give any merit to this disposition, to apply it as a means to bring down his mercy (of which we have great need) on the soul ofmy son and on my own soul at the moment of death. I very humbly beg Monsieur Vincent, by the charity God has given him for his neighbors and by the love he bears the sacred 108 humanity of our Redeemer, to pardon me all my failures in showing gratitude for the honor he has done me in exercising so much charity towards my son and myself, for which I thank him with all my heart and beg him to continue his holy affection for my son, to be to him a father, giving him good counsel and aid in all his needs. I also ask him to grant the prayer which for the love of God I make him, and his successors should God call him away before me, of being the executor of my will with my son, to whom I have proposed this substitution.27 In return for their charity on this point I promise, should God be pleased to show me mercy and permit me to enter his paradise, to do for them all that a soul can do. I commit and willingly abandon my soul into the hands of God, its creator and last end, and freely leave my body to the earth to await the resurrection. As to the place of my burial, I leave it entirely under the disposition of divine providence, to the care of Monsieur Vincent, whom I beg to remember the great desire I have testified to be buried alongside the wall at the foot of the church of Saint-Lazare, in the little court which, from bones found there, appears to have been once a cemetery. I still greatly desire to be buried there, and I ask it of his charity for the love of God. I also ask that there be placed as soon as possible against the wall in the same place a large wooden cross with crucifix attached, and an inscription at its foot bearing this title: "Spes Unica." The whole to be at the expense of the little I leave and which God has given me to dispose in this my will. For my funeral I declare that I do not wish any greater expense to be incurred than what is usual in the funerals of our deceased sisters. Anyone wishing to do differently never really cared much for me, because it is not right that my poor body should be given such attention since I so often offended God and my neighbor. Moreover, this would be to pronounce me undeserving to appear as having died a true Sister of Charity and servant of the members of Jesus Christ, although, nevertheless, I am unworthy of that quality. Behold, 0 my God, your poor creature, prostrate at the feet of your grandeur and majesty! Acknowledging herself a criminal and deserving of hell, to which your strict justice would have condemned me, were it not for the immense love which made your son become "In the margin, Louise had added: "the substitution that I made in this will, a little while before his marriage, in the room of the Daughters who serve the meal to the poor of the Hotel-Dieu, and he agreed to it." Louise de Marillac. 109 man to deliver me. May it please your divine majesty that I, with my son, be among the number of those who through your son will eternally glorify you! Deign to look kindly on the acts, desires, and dispositions made in this will, drawn up in the belief that such is your divine will, which has always directed mine, and without which I protest with all my strength never to will anything, and in which, I affirm, I wish to terminate my life, as I have this writing, which I have done and signed with my own hand, this Friday, the fifteenth day of December, 1645. Louise de Marillac, By the grace of God sound of body and mind. Codicil: 28 December 1653 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This day, feast of Holy Innocents, in the year 1653, I have reviewed my will, which I believe to be made in the best form in my power to bring about the best results. Accordingly, I confirm it and approve of all its articles and in as much as there has been a change in my son whom divine providence has destined for marriage and that by his contract I have given him 500 livres annual income, arranged in diverse deeds which have placed in his hands, and being assured by his own word, shortly before his marriage, that he will have no need of my little income--that it will be doing no wrong to him or his children if he does not receive it--I think Iam bound in conscience to declare what follows as my desire in the execution of my will, desiring with all my heart that if God gives it any merit, his goodness may apply it for the salvation of all the family and to draw mercy on my poor soul. First, as the gentlemen of the Mission shall not be obliged to have the masses mentioned in my will said until after the death of my son, he shall enjoy the thirty livres set apart for this purpose, which shall be collected from the rent for the city house which I reserve to myself. From this revenue also shall be taken all the other legacies which I have made, excepting the ten crowns of the money due to me in Auvergne. Should it happen, unfortunately, that this revenue be lost and that no recourse can be had to the property of Madame de Vandy28 who "Innocente de Marillac, half-sister of Louise de Marillac. She was the daughter of Louis de Marillac and his second wife Antoinette Le Camus (Coste, Life, 11:178). 110 sold it to me in exchange for revenue which she owed me on her property, I pray my son still to execute this my will, in consideration of all that he knows I have done for him, remembering that by the account rendered to him after the death of his father, my good husband (whom may God have in his mercy!) he is indebted to me I think 4,000 livres. God is my witness that I do this act in the belief that I am obliged to do so and not for the purpose of having the masses celebrated, in case the revenue be entirely lost, because this fund was assigned for that purpose. In consequence of this present declaration the deed of that revenue will remain in the hands of the Priests of the Mission, who will enjoy the remainder of the income, if there be any, conjointly with the Sisters of Charity. I beg them all to ask for mercy on me. The said deed will be found, with the account above mentioned, in the drawer of my cabinet from Germany, which I beg Monsieur Vincent to give to my son, together with the other few pieces of our furniture, of which he will find a memorandum, if it please God. You know, 0 my God, that I am wholly yours, that your providence has been, by divine grace, the guide of my conduct in every state of life, for which I humbly thank you, asking pardon now for all my forgetfulness and ingratitude. I offer you this little disposition, as made by your will, renouncing every other consideration. I beg you by the love of Jesus crucified to give your blessing to me, also to my son and his family, that we may glorify you eternally. Made and signed this day and year mentioned. Louise de Marillac. Codicil: 11 May 165629 This day, Thursday, being the eleventh of May, four hours from sunrise, in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-six, at the command of the lady Louise de Marillac,30 widow of Antoine Le Gras, deceased, who, while living, was equerry31 to the late queen, Marie de "The notaries who transcribed this codicil (1656), dictated by Louise, wrote it in the third person. "'At the beginning of May (1656), Louise had been gravely ill; she died 15 March 1660 (Elizabeth Charpy, D. C, "Louise de Marillac: Come Wind or High Water-Un the Evening of her Life," Echo of the Company (1988):317-24]. 31Calvet describes Antoine Le Gras as "Secretary of the Household to the Queen, Marie de Medicis, a sufficiently minor official, but with a future more than promising" (Jean Calvet, Louise de Marillac, trans. G.F. Pullen [London: 1959], 30). 111 Medicis, the undersigned notaries were brought to the house where the lady lived, in the Faubourg Saint-Denis, opposite the church of Saint-Lazare, where they found her in bed, sick in body, although sound in mind, memory, and understanding, as appeared by her words and manner: who said and declared that she had made her will, written entirely by herself on the fifteenth of December, one thousand six hundred and forty-five, also a codicil written by herself on the day of Holy Innocents of the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-three. Having read the will and codicil during her sickness, she wished to make a new codicil and for this end dictated and named to said notaries as follows: Having reason to be satisfied with the conduct of Michel Antoine Le Gras, equerry, her only son, bailiff in Saint-Lazare and counselor in the Court of Exchange, and with the young lady Le Clerc, his wife, on account of the respect and tokens of affection which she had received from her since their marriage; being assured that, should said son die without children, his goods and those he might have from said lady, his mother, would be used for the benefit of the poor, she therefore has revoked and does revoke the substitution which she made of her property by aforesaid will for the benefit of the poor, wishing that her son above named enjoy the same and freely dispose of it as he pleases. She wills and ordains, according to said will and codicil, that the revenue which belonged to her on the city house be for the benefit of the gentlemen of the Mission, to whom she has made abundant legacies and gifts on the conditions named by said will and codicils, and that they commence to receive them and accomplish the conditions prescribed on the day of the decease of her son. Moreover, to give on the first dividend received, thirty livres for the poor of Saint-Laurent, her parish, and eighteen livres for the legacies which she had made by her will to her confessor, and still· another eighteen livres to her granddaughter,32 the daughter of the above named son, during her life, to be employed in giving dinner to the poor of the parish in which she may live: at which dinner she will serve the poor guests. Wishing, moreover, the said will and codicils to be executed and begging Monsieur Vincent to be, with said son, executor of the present codicil. 32Louise Renee Le Gras, born in 1651, became by marriage Mademoiselle d'OrmilIy. She died childless ("Genealogy of the de Marillac Family," Spiritual Writings, 858). 112 This was thus made, said, and named by the said lady, Le Gras, to said notaries, and being reread to her by one of the same, the other being present, she has pronounced it to be well understood, in the said house where she was living, in a little room on the first floor, where she was in bed sick, on the same day and year, and she signed thus: Louise de Marillac. Le Garon et Galois, Notaries.

http://via.library.depaul.edu/

March 15th:

Vincent De Paul, Priest, 1660, and 'Louise De Marillac', Vowed Religious, 1660

Lesser Feasts and Fasts (Episcopal Church), page 132

Born into a family of peasant farmers in the village of Pouy in Gascony in 1581, Vincent de Paul showed an early aptitude for reading and writing. His father sold his oxen in order to send the boy to seminary, hoping that a clerical career would allow him to support the family. Later kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave, he studied alchemy under his master. While traveling to Istanbul, the alchemist died; Vincent was sold again, this time to a former Franciscan who had likewise been enslaved, but became a Muslim in exchange for his freedom. Vincent shared the Gospel with his new master’s wife; she was baptized and convinced her husband to return to the faith of Christ and escape to France. Later, while serving as a parish priest near Paris, Vincent began to devote his attention to serving the poor and destitute. With the support of the noble women of the parish, a ministry developed for visiting, feeding, and nursing the poor in and around Paris. As this ministry grew, he came to rely on a widow, Louise de Marillac, to oversee their efforts.

Louise de Marillac was born to a wealthy family near Le Jeux in Picardy; by the time she was fifteen years old both of her parents had died. She longed to become a nun, but was discouraged; instead, she wed Antonie Le Gras. Her husband died twelve years later; the union produced one child, a son with special needs. Francis de Sales, later Bishop of Geneva, who wrote the highly influential Introduction to the Devout Life became her spiritual director. At age thirty-two it was revealed to her in a vision that God would bring her a new spiritual director, whose face she was shown. When she met Vincent de Paul, she recognized his face from her vision. He invited Louise to assist in his expanding charitable ministry. She accepted his offer, poured herself into this ministry, and soon became the leader of the sisterhood. She led the order until her death in 1660.

In 1633, Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac formally founded The Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph (later the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul), or more commonly, the “Grey Sisters,” the first non-cloistered religious order for women devoted to acts of charity. The ministry of the Grey Sisters grew to include founding hospitals, orphanages, and schools. The nineteenth-century revival of religious orders within Anglicanism was greatly influenced by the spirituality and the work of the Daughters of Charity.

The Collect (Prayer) for Vincent De Paul and Louise De Marillac on March 15th:

Most Gracious God, who has bidden us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before you; Teach us, like your servants Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, to see and to serve Christ by feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and caring for the sick; that we may know him to be the giver of all good things, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.