Venerable Mother Jeanne de Lestonnac

Obeying the will of her parents, she married, at the age of seventeen, the Marqu is de Montferrant, a d marquis de Montferrant Husband of Jeanne de Lestonnac and Baron of Guyenne. escendant of the first barons of Guyenne. This alliance was not to be useless to the work that this worthy wife was one day to undertake; without speaking of the authority she was to borrow from it in the future, one can say that divine Providence made her perform in marriage, in the holy education of her children, a sort of trial run for the wise conduct she was to maintain with regard to her spiritual daughters. The honors to which the marquise was raised since her marriage brought no change to her manners: she was always equally modest and reserved in her conduct. She knew how to please her husband according to the duties of her state, without displeasing her God; she was so tranquil in the embarrassments of domestic affairs, and so patient in the setbacks of life, so chaste in conversation, without any mixture of vain complacency, and so beneficent toward everyone, that she became in a short time, by the brilliance of her virtues, the object of admiration of the whole province. The death of her father, whom she loved tenderly, was very painful to her; but she showed, on this occasion, the perfect submission that one must have to the orders of God, who often deprives us of what we hold most dear to test our virtue.

The Marquise de Montferrant had seven children; death took three of them very early; two of her daughters became nuns; another, who was younger, remained in the world; only one son remained to her to be the principal support of her house in the world. She lived twenty-four years in the company of the Marquis de Montferrant, her husband, with whom she enjoyed all the advantages, all the fruits of a union and a peace that one could expect from such a Christian marriage. The time at which divine Wisdom wished to prepare this worthy mother for a nobler posterity having come, the death of the Marquis de Montferrant, her husband, occurred; she regretted him as much as she ought, and, after having rendered to him all the duties that a faithful and Christian wife owes to a good husband, she began to reflect on the state of full liberty in which heaven placed her by the separation from the persons who were dearest to her. It was then that she resumed more seriously than ever the practices suitable for a retired life: she lived as a recluse in the midst of the great world, where she still found herself engaged for a time, and she contracted a close bond with several holy ladies who had in view only the interests of God. The frequent use of the sacraments, her liberality toward the poor, her exactitude and fidelity in visiting the sick and the prisoners, the profound humility that appeared in all her actions, and the extraordinary care she had for all those she knew to be in need, made up her ordinary occupations. The practice of so many solid virtues could have sufficed for a person who had a grace inferior to that of the pious marquise: but it was time to leave the world entirely to have no more commerce than with heaven. The house that pleased her most was that of the Feuillantines of Toulouse, whose spirit and regularity she knew: she was received by the provincial of the Feuillants, who was then in Bordeaux, and to whom sh e had re Toulouse Episcopal see of Erembert. vealed the secret of her heart. Madame Charlotte de Sainte-Claire, who was superior of Toulouse, agreed with great joy to receive into her community a person whose reputation was known to everyone. Our prudent marquise nevertheless judged it appropriate, for wise reasons, to wait until her two daughters, who had become nuns at the Annonciade of Bordeaux, had completed their sacrifice and pronounced their vows, to then begin her own.

Having thus put all her affairs in order and given her son the education he could expect, she thought only of undertaking her journey to Toulouse, to enter the house she had chosen. It was then necessary to reveal to her son a secret she had always hidden from him; she presented to him everything most capable of making him acquiesce to the plans she had to withdraw: this dear son replied much more with his tears than with his words, and yielded to his mother's holy desires. Six years after the death of her husband, she embarked at the port of the Garonne with two young ladies of her retinue and a few servants; she was about to depart when Mademoiselle de Montferrant, the last of her daughters remaining in the world, learning of her mother's step, came to the boat which was still at anchor, to try at least to make her delay her departure; but her tears and her arguments had no more force over her mind than those of her brother. Madame de Lestonnac finally arrived in Toulouse, where she was very surprised to see the Marquis, her son, who had skillfully preceded her to try once more to delay her plans; but this generous lady remained always equally firm, so that she entered the house she had chosen on January 11, 1603, at the age of 46. She took the habit from the hand of Domne-Charlotte de Sainte-Claire, who was the superior, and was named Sister Jeanne de Saint-Bernard. It was a marvel of fervor during her novitiate; she surpas sed the most advanced in her sœur Jeanne de Saint-Bernard Foundress of the Order of Our Lady. virtues. Besides fasting, silence, bodily austerities, and the perfect mortification of the spirit, she was continually occupied with the presence of her God through a singular attraction she had for prayer; neither her status, nor her delicate constitution, nor her infirmities were capable of having her exempted from any point of the rule; the harshest mortifications were to her taste, and her courage always seemed to surpass the most difficult practices that could be proposed to her; nothing seemed difficult to her: in a word, she appeared at the same time both a novice and a master in the ways of virtue; the most perfect held her up as a model; and there was no one in the house who did not thank God for having sent them such a worthy subject.

But, as all this beautiful economy of the purest virtues of the religious state could only be maintained to the detriment of the strength and health of a body that was otherwise very delicate, and which, for having been subjected to the spirit, was nevertheless not accustomed to the excesses of the austerities that this incomparable novice undertook, she succumbed under the weight of such harsh penance, and her infirmities increased to such a point that she was obliged, on the advice of all the doctors and all the persons who guided her, to think of leaving the holy house she had entered. It would be difficult to express the pain she felt then, and the regrets of the holiest nuns she was soon to leave.

This pious marchioness was in the greatest sadness, when God, suddenly favoring her with a ray of light, calmed all her faculties, making her know that He wished to make her serve in the execution of the great designs He had for her: she saw at the same moment a great number of souls on the brink of hell, and on the point of being cast into it, if they were not helped by someone; she understood that it was through her care that a hand must be lent to them: she was instructed in the means that had to be taken by associating companions to second her zeal. She conceived at the same time the idea of an Order of young women who would employ themselves in the education of persons of their sex and who would be consecrated to God, under the protection of the most holy Virgin whose virtues they would strive to imitate. She was so consoled by the impressions she had just received in her prayer, that she no longer thought of the pain she had conceived from her separation from the holy nuns she had to leave. She left the monastery of the Feuillantines of Toulouse at the end of the month of December 1603, and returned to Bordeaux where she was received by her relatives with a joy that cannot be expressed; they imagined that heaven was justifying them in the opposition they had formed to her departure, and that it was compensating them for the absence they had only endured with great regrets. Madame de Lestonnac heard her relatives and friends reasoning in this way, while she was planning within herself the new design of leaving the world a second time to respond to what God asked of her fidelity. After having arranged and concluded the marriage of Mademoiselle de Montferrant, her daughter, with the Baron d'Arpaillant, a gentleman from Périgord, she no longer delayed in withdrawing; she chose, as the place of her retreat, the estate of La Mothe, a league from the barony of Landrias, of which it is a dependency.

Madame de Lestonnac, after having communicated at leisure with her God in silence regarding her project, left this solitude to go and seek in the city of Bordeaux guides wise and intelligent enough to second her in her enterprise; divine Providence made her find them in the person of the Rev. Fr. de Bordes and the Rev. Fr. Pier re Raymond, Jes R. P. de Bordes Jesuit who assisted Jeanne in the foundation of her order. uits equally pious and learned, and animated by an ardent zeal for the glory of God, and capable of making an affair of this importance succeed. They entered into the thought of Madame de Lestonnac; they saw clearly the utility and even the necessity of the new Congregation at a time when heresy had caused great disorders, especially through the poor instruction that was given to young girls; they were in several ways so enlightened by heaven regarding the establishment of the new Congregation, that they did not doubt that it had been inspired by God to the pious marchioness. Indeed, divine Providence favored this design; for nine or ten persons were found disposed to unite with Madame de Lestonnac; Father de Bordes instructed them on all their duties; he had them make retreats and extraordinary prayers; regulations and constitutions were composed, and all things being finally perfectly disposed, there appeared nothing more to be desired than the authority of the prelates and sovereigns to begin to form, from this small company, a body of a congregation.

His Eminence the Cardinal Mgr le cardinal de Sourdis Archbishop of Bordeaux who approved the Institute. de Sourdis, who then occupied the archiepiscopal see of Bordeaux and had been invested with the purple by Pope Clement VIII at the request of Henry the Great, was consulted on this matter. This was in 1606, two years after our widow had left Toulouse. He conferred about it several times very seriously with the Reverend Jesuit Fathers of whom we have spoken, and with Madame de Lestonnac, whose birth and virtues were not unknown to him. He first made all the objections that a pastor as enlightened and prudent as he was obliged to make on such an occasion, to better know if the matter came from God, and to better resolve all the difficulties that arise in such foundations; but finally, after having well examined the instruction booklets presented to him by the wise foundress, one containing the form of the Institute and the other the summary of the Constitutions and Rules of the Society of Jesus, upon which this virtuous lady had been very glad to rely as much as possible, this great prelate granted all that was wished of him; he approved with his council the noble design of the foundress and promised to second and protect her in everything he could. He permitted her, and even exhorted her, to write to His Holiness as soon as possible; His Eminence, some time later, had his secretary draw up the act of approval, which he signed. He even permitted the Marquise to choose, in his diocese, the deputies she would like to go and propose these things to the Holy See. This virtuous Cardinal wrote on his side to the Holy Father, praising the foundress and her Institute, and asked with great insistence for the confirmation of all that had been begun. The Sovereign Pontiff Paul V, who was then governing the Church and who had ascended the throne o f Sain Paul V Pope who approved the bull of erection of the Oratory. t Peter a year earlier, after having maturely examined with the Sacred Congregation the subject of the establishment and the Rules and Constitutions upon which it was based, willingly gave his approval by confirming this Institute of Our Lady through a Bull that was dispatched on April 7, 1607.

T he Cardinal de Sourdis Institut de Notre-Dame Religious order dedicated to the education of girls, founded by Jeanne de Lestonnac. having communicated the Bull to Mme de Lestonnac, she immediately asked His Eminence for a place in his metropolitan city where she could establish her first house; she was granted a place that was on the side of the port of the Garonne, near the Château Trompette; and she bought a very convenient house near the chapel of the Holy Spirit, which the Archbishop liberally ceded to her to serve as the first church for her nascent Order. The Marquise went to this place at the beginning of the autumn of the year 1607. She spent the entire winter there in the practice of religious virtues, until all things were arranged to take the veil publicly. She had different lodgings made, according to the plan of her Institute, to place nuns, novices, and seculars there. Only four followed her then to this new place, which was like the cradle of the nascent Congregation; their names are: Sévène Coqueau, Madeleine de l'Andrevie, Isabeau de Maisonneuve, and Marguerite de Puyferrat, all young ladies of rare merit, and in whom the prudent foundress had noticed dispositions very suitable for her design. They were aggregated to the Order of Saint Benedict, according to the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff, by an act that Cardinal de Sourdis had dispatched for this purpose on January 29, 1608; it was only a matter of giving them the veil and the habit of the Institute. This ceremony took place on May 1 of the same year, 1608.

Mme de Lestonnac was then fifty-five years old; but she was still full of vigor, and the joy of seeing herself at the end of her desires animated her with new courage to walk, with her daughters, in the ways of the most solid perfection. It was Father de Bordes who took care, by order of His Eminence the Cardinal de Sourdis, to lead this little flock, which in a short time made such great progress that it became the admiration of the whole province. God nevertheless permitted that this nascent Congregation be crossed in many ways: everyone, without excepting the closest relatives of the foundress, blamed this enterprise, treating it as ridiculous, and publishing that it was a design full of temerity whose end would soon give proof of what was being claimed; this is how people reasoned in the world. But the Cardinal, who discovered more and more the utility of this Order and the blessings that God poured upon its first beginnings, wished to perform himself the ceremony of giving the veil to five new daughters who presented themselves.

The foundress was grateful for so many favors from divine Providence. She therefore occupied herself with extraordinary care in training her novice daughters in all religious exercises and especially in the functions of the Institute she was establishing. She showed singular prudence in everything she prescribed; she drew from the fervor of her continual prayers that spirit of wisdom which leads all things to their end with as much strength as sweetness. This worthy Mother, seeing the progress her novices had made, both in the practices of virtue and in the knowledge necessary for them to attain the end of the Institute, did not wait for them to make their profession before entrusting them with the instruction of the children who presented themselves; her zeal led her to open classes which were soon filled with young girls of all ages to whom they taught what was capable of giving them a perfect education. When it was seen that the work was succeeding as well in execution as it had succeeded in all the projects that had preceded it, it was believed that it should no longer be delayed in being supported by royal authority, as it already was by the sovereign Pontiff. Marie de Medici and Henry the Great, who were reigning at the time, wholehea rtedly authori Henri le Grand King of France mentioned for the dating of the chapel. zed the enterprises of Mme de Lestonnac, whose eminent virtue and disinterestedness had been made known to them, through letters patent dated March 1609. However, God, no doubt to better affirm the first foundations of this nascent Order, permitted a new storm to arise which seemed destined to overturn the edifice. Mgr de Sourdis, prejudiced by persons who did not appreciate the designs of Madame de Lestonnac and relying on reasons that seemed good to him, suddenly changed his mind, telling the foundress and the novices that he wished them to reunite with the Ursulines who were also beginning to establish themselves in Bordeaux, and that they should form only one Order with them, and that he would immediately have them make their profession; otherwise, he would leave immediately for Rome where several important matters called him and where he was to make a fairly long stay. At this news, the pious foundress felt a sharp pain; but she had such confidence in God and in the protection of the Blessed Virgin, under whose name the new Order was being established, that after having sighed much toward heaven from where she expected help, the heart of the prelate, which seemed destined to be unshakable in his resolution, was suddenly changed in a miraculous way, while he was still at his castle of Lormont. Instead of continuing his journey to Rome, he returned to Bordeaux and went to declare to the superior and the novices that he would come the next day to receive their vows as they had so desired; which he did in fact on December 8, 1610, the day of the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and then he went on his journey. These holy daughters, seeing themselves thus favored by the care of divine Providence, testified their gratitude by an extraordinary fervor; they became excellent models of perfection for all persons of their sex. Several girls, of distinguished birth and merit, were happy to enter this new Congregation, where they found even more means of salvation than they had hoped for.

Soon new establishments were formed in the neighboring provinces; there are nine houses counted during the lifetime of Mme de Lestonnac: Béziers, Poitiers, Le Puy, Toulouse, Périgueux, Agen, Riom, Pau, and Saintes. As these new establishments belong more to the history of the Order than to the summary of the life of the one of whom we speak here, we will not dwell on them; we will only say that Mme de Lestonnac sacrificed many times the sweet rest of solitude and contemplation, which had great attractions for her, in order to go and lay the first foundations of the new houses that divine Providence offered her herself. After remaining for several years in the community of the city of Pau, where she enjoyed great peace, she was obliged, for reasons concerning the good of her Order and the glory of God, to return to Bordeaux; she gave a new perfection to the Rules and Constitutions of the Order there, after having conferred with illustrious men and the oldest nuns of her Institute; she also saw in the following all the houses in a perfect uniformity of spirit and practice, through the faithful observance of these same Constitutions.

It would be difficult to tell of the obstacles that arose and the difficulties that had to be overcome to have these new establishments accepted in so many different cities; but all these oppositions only served to make the strength of spirit and the heroic virtues of the pious institutress shine with more brilliance, who only wanted the execution of her designs insofar as she saw them conform to the interests of God, and who was accustomed to resorting to the power of prayer to carry, against the false prudence of men, what she knew would contribute to the utility of her neighbor. Her faith was so lively and her confidence in God so perfect that she obtained miraculous help several times, on occasions where naturally she should have been reduced to extremity. Her charity was so extensive that she distributed to all kinds of poor people the alms that had been given to her; she sometimes lacked everything in difficult times of high prices, and nevertheless could not bear that any poor person be turned away; she had distributed to families who were in need the little that remained for her community, being fully persuaded that God would never fail her in need. The quality of institutress and foundress obliged her, during almost her whole life, to exercise the office of superior; but one can assure that she never considered herself happier than when she found herself delivered from this employment by the secret designs of divine Wisdom, which finally provided her with the means to enjoy the sweet rest of the state of a simple subject. Her humility was the first of her virtues, and it was by the favor of this virtue, which knows how to hide the others, that this wise foundress tried to veil so many beautiful talents and perfections of body and mind with which she was favored. If she knew how to command, she knew even better how to obey, and neither her birth, nor the rare natural qualities she possessed, nor the great gifts of grace ever suggested to her ideas of preference above others. Her patience was insurmountable in the greatest labors; she sometimes delayed the execution of her designs to let the storm dissipate, but the contrarieties, from wherever they came, never made her abandon them entirely when she had been assured that they tended to the glory of God. The multitude of great affairs did not prevent her from finding the moments necessary to give nourishment to her soul in the exercise of contemplation; she joined bodily austerities to long vigils and fasts, and, depriving herself of everything, she made it a pleasure to grant everything to others as much as possible; the pure zeal for the glory of God was the first motive that made her act, and the salvation of souls was the second.

After a life so well-lived, she prepared for death with a sweet familiarity that she knew how to maintain between herself and her God; she had, especially in these final moments, a great devotion to the most Holy Trinity, to whom she often addressed her prayers and sighs. She was greatly consoled to be able to join her sisters once more to prepare, through a three-day retreat, for the annual renewal of vows; she followed in spirit as much as she could the other religious in the exercises of these three days; but, on the night of the second day, she was attacked at the same time by apoplexy and lethargy, which deprived her of movement and speech; she could, in this state, only receive the sacrament of Extreme Unction; but she had confessed the day before and had received Holy Communion. The Reverend Jesuit Fathers rendered to her, in this extremity, all the assistance that could be expected from their charity. They wanted to paint her portrait, but, having come to herself a little, she showed so much reluctance for what was desired that they were forced to send away the painter who had been brought for this purpose. The third day of the retreat having arrived, and the illness of this worthy mother always increasing, she was given notice that the renewal of vows was about to take place in the church and that she was requested not to leave this life in the absence of her dear daughters who wished to be present at her departure. The event happened quite happily as had been desired; for, scarcely had the religious finished their holy ceremonies when they were called to receive the final blessing of their pious mother, who rendered her soul to God a moment later; this was Thursday, February 2, the day of the feast of the Purification in the year 1640, around ten o'clock in the morning; she was 84 years old. It had been thirty-two years since the foundation of her Order had begun. Two religious from the house of Périgueux knew the following night, in a miraculous way, of the passing of their holy Mother. Her face appeared of a surprising beauty after her death. Her body, which remained five days without burial, showed no mark of corruption, and it exhaled, on the contrary, a pleasant odor. Her flesh retained the flexibility that is ordinary to living bodies, which made an experienced surgeon assert that there was, in all that he saw, something extraordinary and that he had never seen anything like it. The skillful painter who was called to finish the painting he had begun asserted, on several occasions, that he discovered, on the face of this pious deceased, features of beauty that surpassed his art.

The crowd of people who rushed to see the body was considerable. An infinity of people kept as a great treasure the things that had belonged to her, and the small pieces of her body, which were only granted to persons of distinction, are kept as precious relics. The body of this blessed one, which had been placed at first in the common vault, raised on two stone pillars, was transported subsequently, with the permission of the superiors, into the middle of the choir of the religious. When in the last century the religious of Notre-Dame were expelled from their house, they entrusted this sacred body to an inhabitant of the city who kept it with care; but this precious deposit having been discovered during the Terror, the custodian was imprisoned and the body buried in the garden of the City Hall. It was found th ere on Nov la Terreur Period of the French Revolution during which the saint's body was hidden. ember 23, 1822, and returned to the religious of Bordeaux. The cause for the beatification of Madame de l'Estonnac was introduced to the Congregation of Rites on September 6, 1834.

Besides the houses that the pious foundress had the consolation of seeing established during her lifetime, there were many others, such as in Narbonne, Villeneuve, Saint-Gaudens, Barcelona, Salers, Richelieu, Madrid, Pradelles, Gannat, Valence, Issengeaux, Langogne, Saint-Sernin, Saint-Junien, Saint-Léonard, Uzès, Perpignan, Issoire, etc.

We have extracted this biography from a work that the religious of Notre-Dame, of the community of Poitiers, dedicated to the Duchess of Burgundy.