Saint Fare of Champigny

Saint Fare, seeing herself numbered among the virgins and spouses of Jesus Christ by this anticipated consecration, strove to do nothing that would render her unworthy of such a great honor. She grew every day in grace and virtue, and she omitted nothing to complete the work of her perfection. Her wise and discreet conduct brought consolation to her parents and admiration to those who came to the castle. She spent part of the day in prayer and exercises of piety, and the rest of the time, she occupied herself with some manual labor, suitable to her sex and station. However, having reached the age of fourteen, her father wished to marry her off, and indeed betrothed her to a young lord of her own birth, who was regarded as a very advantageous match. The Saint, knowing of this design, was outraged with grief, and wept so much that she lost her beauty and her sight, and fell into an extreme languor. She remained in this state without the physicians being able to provide a remedy, until the end of three years, when Saint Eustace, passing through Pipimis ium again, vi saint Eustase Successor of Columbanus at Luxeuil, he healed Fara and intervened with her father. sited her and healed her perfectly, both of her languor and her blindness, upon the promise that the lord Agneric, her father, gave him, t hat he would not seigneur Agneric Father of Saint Fare, count and lord of Pipimisium. press her further to marry, but would leave her to her liberty.

Saint Fare, having been healed, thought only of using her health to praise and bless the heavenly physician who had granted it to her. But her father, forgetting his word and unwilling to break faith with the one to whom he had promised his daughter, resumed the matter of her marriage and carried it so far that the wedding day was already set. What will our chaste virgin do in such great danger of being torn against her will from the arms of her heavenly Spouse? She takes counsel with Him inwardly, and, having found a favorable opportunity, she slips away from her father's house and goes to hide in a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter, near Meaux. There, melting into tears and with her face pressed against the ground, she made this humble prayer: 'Apostle of Jesus Christ, who, by the power you have received from His hands, open the kingdom of heaven to the just and close it to sinners, I throw myself into the arms of your charity, and I beseech you to receive me into the number of the virgins of the Church; and you, my admirable Jesus, who have so much compassion for the afflicted when they approach you with a contrite and humbled heart, preserve, I beseech you, the flower of my virginity which I have vowed to you by your inspiration since the time of my earliest childhood.' One cannot conceive of Agneric's anger when he learned that his daughter had absented herself. He sent his servants in search of her, with orders to bring her back by force, or even to put her to death if she resisted too strongly. She was found in that chapel, fully prepared to lose her life rather than the inestimable treasure of her chastity. She was taken away, brought to the castle, and her father, having had her locked up, made her suffer for six whole months the harshest treatments that one could inflict upon a girl of her station.

At the end of this time, Saint Eustace passed through Pipimisium for the third time. He was very surprised to learn of the violence and outrages that had been committed and were still being committed against Saint Fare; and, unable to restrain his zeal, he gave a severe reprimand to this unreasonable father, threatening him with the punishments of God's justice if he did not repent of his crime and make amends by granting perfect freedom to the spouse of Jesus Christ. Agneric, frightened by his words, finally recognized his fault, and not only did he break off the marriage he had intended to force without his daughter's consent, and consented that she receive the veil of a virgin and nun from Gondoald, évêque de Meaux Bishop of Meaux who gave the veil to Saint Fare. the hands of Gondoald, Bishop of Meaux (614), but he also resolved to build a monastery in her honor. While waiting for it to be completed, she retired with two girls, one from Paris and the other fro Champeaux Place of origin of Guillaume's family. m Soissons, to a place called Champeaux, where she began to practice all the exercises of religious life.

She was then led to this new house by the same bishop of Meaux, in the company of several young women who wished, following her example, to abandon the world to live only in Jesus Christ. This prelate named her abbess, and, having consecrated her church under the title of the Blessed Virgin and the Prince of the Apostles, he gave her the abbatial blessing. She was superior more by the preeminence of her good works than by the authority of her commands. She was seen first in the choir, the most fervent in the psalmody, the most constant in prayer, and the most exact to all regular observances. One cannot sufficiently praise her respect and modesty during the divine offices, her humility in all her actions, her charity toward her daughters, her gentleness and kindness toward those who had the good fortune to approach her. Everything spoke in her, and her silence was no less eloquent than her speech. Her presence inspired peace, her gaze calmed the most agitated spirits, and the serenity and air of devotion that appeared on her face led to piety and recollection. Finally, one perceived in her something divine, which, while making her lovable, also made one love the divine goodness, which was its source. Many virgins, both from France and from foreign lands, attracted by the admirable odor of her virtues, came to place themselves under her guidance; even princesses and countesses preferred the austerity of the cloister to the dangerous pleasures of the world. Jonas, a monk of Luxeuil, note d a portion of them in Jonas, moine de Luxeuil Monk of Luxeuil and contemporary biographer of Saint Fare. his third book of the Acts of Saint Columbanus and Saint Eustasius, and several of this number have merited public veneration in the Church, such as Saint Sisctrude, Saint Hercantrude, and Saint Gibitrude.

Among the counsels that Saint Fare gave them, she particularly recommended a great purity of heart in all their actions, a constant fidelity in corresponding to the movements of grace and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, an extreme distrust of themselves in order to place their trust in God alone, a general withdrawal from everything capable of diminishing and weakening in them the ardor of divine love, a perpetual adoration of God present and working in the depths of their souls, an invincible perseverance in doing all the good they knew to be pleasing to Him, without ever relaxing, even in the smallest things, and an assiduous contemplation of His adorable perfections, in order to stir themselves to love Him more and more and never to fail in the promises they had made to Him. To make her exhortations more effective, she often set before their eyes the example of the glorious Saint Genevieve, who for a century had spread the odor of her virtues in Paris, in Meaux, and in the surrounding areas.

Her nuns rose through the practice of these teachings to such a high holiness that they were ordinarily favored with celestial visions, especially at the hour of death, as Jonas writes in the passage we have already cited. Our Saint having fallen so ill that there was complete despair of her recovery, Saint Gibitrude, who was her close relative, knowing how n ecessary her pre sainte Gibitrude Relative of Saint Fara, a nun who offered herself as a sacrifice for her recovery. sence was to her daughters, prayed earnestly to Our Lord to leave her still on earth and to take her own self from this world in her place. As she was making this prayer, she heard a voice from heaven that assured her she was heard; indeed, Saint Fare recovered, and as for her, she was seized by a fever from which she died. Her soul was carried at that very hour by the angels before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, to receive her final judgment there; but it was suspended, and another voice came from the throne of the Judge which ordered her to return to her body to expiate there, through penance, faults of which she had not entirely rid herself in the world, such as some resentments against her sisters who had offended her and some disgust and cowardice in the service of God. She therefore returned to life and lived for another six months with admirable innocence and purity, after which, having been warned of the hour of her passing, she expired most holily. Her cell was then filled with such a pleasant odor that one would have said that balm was distilling from all sides, and at the end of thirty days, according to the testimony of the same Jonas, who was present while a solemn mass was being celebrated for her, following the custom of the Church, such sweet odors were smelled in the basilica that they surpassed all the perfumes of the earth. Similar wonders happened to others, and there was one who, being in ecstasy during the exhortation of the holy abbess, was called to heaven by Our Lord; but she returned for a moment to herself to ask for the blessing and permission to die from her blessed superior, and she died effectively as soon as she had received it.

If God anticipated the good nuns of this monastery with so many favors, He was otherwise very severe in punishing those who strayed from their duty and transgressed the ordinances of their Rule. There were two who allowed themselves to be so seduced by the artifices of the demon that, not being able to subject themselves to a holy practice prescribed by Saint Columbanus, which was to disclose three times a day one's bad thoughts to the spiritual Mother, they only made this disclosure in appearance and as a matter of form. They therefore fell little by little into such great hardness of heart that, tiring of the rigor of religious life, they fled the convent at night and took refuge with their relatives. The Saint, having noticed their absence, had them searched for. They were found, seized, and brought back. The other sisters did what they could to lead them to penance, but in vain. Finally, they died miserably. For three years, one saw from time to time above their tomb a whirlwind of fire in the shape of a shield and one heard two voices in the confusion of several others, which each said while howling in a frightful manner: "Woe to me, woe to me!" This terrible punishment did a marvelous good to this monastery, and it must also teach all religious persons with what exactitude and sincerity they must fulfill what is ordered to them by their Rule and their Constitutions, or by the praiseworthy custom of their Congregation.

Saint Faron was indebted to Saint Fare for the resolution he took to leave the world and the burdens of marriage to embrace the clerical state. She was also the cause of several other spiritual blessings with which it pleased God to fill her entire family, so that she was incomparably more useful to him than if she had brought many children into the world who would have sustained its glory by rising to the highest offices of the State and distinguishing themselves in a military career. Finally, aged over eighty years, foreseeing, through a fever that seized her, that the hour of her death was not far off, she prepared for it with admirable fervor. There is nothing more touching than the exhortations she gave to her daughters. "Love God above all things," she told them, "and faithfully keep his holy law. Have perfect cordiality for one another; help and support one another, so that peace and concord may reign eternally in this house. Often recommend our friends and benefactors to God. Have compassion for the poor and the sinners and pray to Our Lord to supply by his mercy the help that you cannot render them. Do unto your neighbor all the good that you would wish to be done to you. Never follow your own judgment. Despise no one but yourselves. Always occupy yourselves with God and throw yourselves into his arms in all your troubles. Make vows and shed tears for those who persecute you. Bear the afflictions that come to you with submission of spirit and gladness, and never consider yourselves happier than when you are surrounded by crosses and tested by the greatest temptations." She also addressed very loving colloquies to Jesus Christ and to Mary before their holy images; then, making the sign of the cross and placing her left hand on her heart, she rendered her spirit into the arms of her heavenly Spouse, on December 7, 655. This great Saint is invoked for eye ailments.

In her will, she bequeathed a portion of her property to her brothers and her sister; but the greater part was given to her monastery. In speaking of this second portion of her property, she makes mention of her lands in Champeaux; but nothing proves that she had founded another monastery, and it appears that the abbey of Faremoutier later had a conventual priory built at Champeaux which was, at the end of the 11th century, replaced by a Ch apter of secular cano abbaye de Faremoutier Monastery founded by Saint Fare. ns, located in the diocese of Paris.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

In 695, the relics of Saint Fare were enclosed in a shrine, and several miracles were performed through her intercession. We shall report one of the most famous.

Charl otte Le Bret, dau Charlotte Le Bret Nun of Faremoutiers miraculously cured of blindness in 1622. ghter of the first president and treasurer general of France at the finance bureau in the generality of Paris, lost her left eye at the age of seven; this did not prevent her from retiring to Faremoutiers, where she took the habit in 1609. Her sight weakening day by day, she also lost her right eye and became entirely blind in 1617. She came to Paris twice to consult the most skilled oculists, who unanimously declared that her eyes were dead and that she would never recover her sight. To relieve her of the pains she frequently felt, her pupils were killed by strong remedies, so that she no longer felt any sensation, even through the application of vinegar, salt, or any caustic substance whatsoever. If she happened to cry, she only noticed her tears when they flowed down her cheeks.

In 1622, the relics of Saint Fare were taken from the shrine that enclosed them so that all the nuns could venerate them. Charlotte Le Bret was not content with kissing them; she also had them applied to her eyes. She immediately felt pain there, whereas for four years she had suffered nothing. Scarcely had the relics been removed when a humor flowed from her eyes. She prayed that they be applied to her a second and a third time, and, at the third time, she cried out that she could see. Her sight was indeed restored in that same instant, and she distinguished all the objects surrounding her. She prostrated herself to give thanks to the author of her healing, and the whole assembly joined her. The Bishop of Meaux had the facts legally verified and declared in his ordinance, rendered on December 9, 1622, that the healing was miraculous.

The relics of Saint Fare, which escaped revolutionary profanations, are now kept in the parish church of Faremoutiers and in that of Champeaux. This latter church belongs today to the diocese of Meaux.

Saint Fare is the patron saint of Aveloy. Her cult did not spread outside the diocese of Meaux until the 12th century, the era when they began to distribute her relics to various churches.

Taken from the Life of Saint Fare, by Jonas, monk of Luxeuil; from the History of the Church of Meaux, by Duplezeste, and from The Monks of the West, by the Count of Montalembert.