Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Laval, François de, 1623-1708
soon as the prayers for the dying had been pronounced, he asked to have
the chaplets of the Holy Family recited, and during the recitation of
this prayer he gave up his soul to his Creator. It was then half-past
seven in the morning, and the sixth day of the month consecrated to the
Holy Virgin, whom he had so loved (May, 1708).
It was with a quiver of grief which was felt in all hearts throughout
the colony that men learned the fatal news. The banks of the great river
repeated this great woe to the valleys; the sad certainty that the
father of all had disappeared forever sowed desolation in the homes of
the rich as well as in the thatched huts of the poor. A cry of pain, a
deep sob arose from the bosom of Canada which would not be consoled,
because its incomparable bishop was no more! Etienne de Citeaux said to
his monks after the death of his holy predecessor: "Alberic is dead to
our eyes, but he is not so to the eyes of God, and dead though he appear
to us, he lives for us in the presence of the Lord; for it is peculiar
to the saints that when they go to God through death, they bear their
friends with them in their hearts to preserve them there forever." This
is our dearest desire; the friends of the venerable prelate were and
still are to-day his own Canadians: may he remain to the end of the
ages our protector and intercessor with God!
There were attributed to Mgr. de Laval, according to Latour and Brother
Houssart, and a witness who would have more weight, M. de Glandelet, a
priest of the seminary of Quebec, whose account was unhappily lost, a
great number of miraculous cures. Our purpose is not to narrate them; we
have desired to repeat only the wonders of his life in order to offer a
pattern and encouragement to all who walk in his steps, and in order to
pay the debt of gratitude which we owe to the principal founder of the
Catholic Church in our country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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