The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
A striking circumstance occurred while on her road to Warsaw, one
of those many incidents of the time which has made the history of
the French Revolution read like a romance. Having to descend from
her carriage at Thorn, her eyes fell on a woman poorly clad in
the street, evidently seeking employment; the expression of her
face was that of suffering, but of great sanctity. The princess
was so struck by it that she went up to her, and said by impulse,
"Madam, were you not a religious?" "Yes," she replied, impelled
to confidence by the sweet face of her who addressed her. And
then Louise learnt that the lady was an exiled member of the
French Sisters of Calvary, driven into exile; that her slender
means had come to an end; and that very day she had come out to
seek work or to beg, neither dismayed nor yet afraid, but putting
her full trust in Divine Providence.
Her wants were supplied, and she would have entered the same
convent as Madame Louise, but that she hoped to rejoin her own
community when they should reassemble. This shortly afterward
took place, and the generosity of Madame Louise furnished the
means for her journey home, and she lived many years in her
convent, leading a holy life, and died there in peace.
At last Madame Louise commenced her _third_ novitiate, and
found in her new order all that could perfectly satisfy her
heart. She took the habit in September, 1801, and all the royal
family of Prussia were present at the ceremony; the Bishop of
Warsaw preached the sermon, and bade her glorify her convent for
ever, not by the _éclat_ of her name and of her royal birth,
but by her religious virtues. The habit which she had taken,
added he, and which she had preferred to all the pomps of the
world, was but the exterior mark of a consecration and a
sacrifice that her heart had long since made. As a novice Madame
Louise redoubled her fervor and exactness in religious life, with
many anxious hopes and prayers that this time the day of her
profession would really come. A sorrow came upon her in the news
of the death of her early and loved friend, Clotilde of Sardinia,
whose soul passed to God in March, 1802, while her whole people,
anticipating only the voice of the church, called her a saint. On
the 21st of September, 1802, Louise made her solemn profession.
"I pronounced my vows publicly," she said, "but with such
feelings that I can truly say my heart pronounced them with a
thousand times greater strength than my mouth." She now retook
her religious name, which she had chosen twice before, Soeur
Marie Joseph de la Miséricorde. The life of an ordinary good
religious would have seemed sufficiently difficult for a
princess, but Louise would do nothing by halves. She practised
the highest virtues of her state, bearing undeserved blame
without a word of excuse; she never murmured under labors; she
was obedient, gentle, and humble. So anxious was she to prevent
her rank being an occasion for raising her to offices of
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