Venerable Marie-Clotilde of France

Her tastes inclined her toward religious life, and she learned with sorrow that her brother Louis XVI had promised her h and to Charles-E Charles-Emmanuel Husband of Marie Clotilde, future King of Sardinia. mmanuel, Prince of Piedmont and future King of Sardinia. On August 27, 1775, the marriage took place at Versailles, and the princess departed to travel to her new home. Her conduct on this occasion touched every heart. There were twenty days of festivities in Chambéry, during which, through the affability and amiability of her manners, she endeared herself to all who approached her. Amidst all these celebrations, she did not forget to constantly raise her heart to God, and when she arrived in Turin, she outl Turin Capital of Piedmont where she resided. ined a plan of Christian conduct from which she never departed for the rest of her life.

Marie-Clotilde regularly attended two Masses every day, which she heard on her knees. A portion of her days was devoted to meditation and prayer. She went to confession every week and approached the sacrament of the Eucharist every two days. While serving God with all her heart, she did not neglect her temporal duties and showed herself to be a model of wives. She was filled with care and attention for her husband, anticipating all his desires, nursing him like a devoted servant when he was ill, and seeking to soften the troubles of his convalescence. She strove to turn his thoughts toward God and to help him accept his sufferings with resignation. She did this with great discretion, and her husband, whose complete trust she had won, called her his consolation and his spiritual director.

She maintained decency in her dress with the greatest care, convinced that it is an effective means of preserving interior purity, and that the forgetting of propriety soon leads to the most deplorable errors. This did not prevent her, in order to please her husband and her father-in-law, from dressing with magnificence; but she knew how to make those who approached her understand that she insisted they be dressed with decency. Later, she obtained her husband's permission to wear, outside of public ceremonies, clothing that was in harmony with her pious and retired life, and she kept this habit until the end of her existence.

Marie-Clotilde had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and, through her efforts, a confraternity whose goal was to r ender public worshi Sacré-Cœur de Jésus Devotion to the heart of Christ, linked to that of the Holy Face. p to this divine heart was established in Turin. To this she added great charity for the poor, and their relief was one of her principal occupations. Following to the letter the Savior's precept: Judge not and you shall not be judged, she never allowed herself to judge the actions of others; never did a bitter word or a word of criticism escape her lips; she was merciful toward all. She also had a very particular affection for the Mother of God. In her honor, she fasted on the eves of her feasts and every Saturday of the year; each day she recited the Little Office and the Rosary. To render her particular worship, she established a confraternity to which she gave the name of Our Lady of Humility and the Visitation.

She had a deep attachment to the Church and felt keenly all the sufferings endured by Pius VI, its head. S he adm Pie VI Pope cited as having approved the cult of Julie in 1821. ired his patience in the midst of his tribulations. She herself had need of this patience in the presence of the evils of France and the misfortunes of her family, which were followed by those of her husband's family. In 1798, a decree of the Directory made Piedm Directoire French revolutionary government that invaded Piedmont. ont a republic, and her husband was forced to seek asylum in Sardinia. The Christian wife did not abandon her spouse; obliged to separate from her entire court, she set sail with him for Cagliari. Charles-Emmanuel fell il l there, Cagliari City in Sardinia where the saint died and where he is invoked against fever. and the princess found herself forced to attend to the affairs of state in his place; during this time, she showed prudence and skill. Yielding to the advice given to them, they returned to the continent after six months. They first came to settle in Florence, then in Rome, from where events drove them away; they went to Naples and then to Rome, which they were a second time f orced Naples Place of the saint's death. to leave to withdraw to Naples. In the midst of these perpetual vicissitudes, Marie-Clotilde pushed her patience and submission to the will of heaven to the point of heroism. "Nothing remains for us," she would say; "but God is ours: God is with us; one has everything with God; when one has God, nothing is lacking to us."

Foreign to hatred, she forgave with a good heart those who persecuted the two noble families to which she belonged by birth and marriage. Conversing one day about the happiness of heaven, she said that our sweetest enjoyment would be, in that happy abode, to see seated at our side one of our enemies who owed us their salvation. Her exile and humiliations turned to the benefit of her piety. She assiduously visited churches, spent long hours there in prayer, alone and without any retinue, frequented the sacraments assiduously, and showed a piety that edified all those who were witnesses to it.

On March 1, 1802, after remaining in prayer for a long time in the Church of the Trinity in Naples, she returned home with a violent headache and a burning fever. She felt that her final hour was approaching and prepared herself with fervor for death through the fervent reception of the last sacraments of the Church. The King was at first inconsolable; but as he was, too, a great Christian, he said that he owed all sacrifices to God. When her sentiments were conveyed to the Queen, she exclaimed: "What happiness! I have nothing left to desire now but paradise."

She expired on March 7, with a smile on her lips. She was forty-two years old. The doctor who had attended to her could not help but exclaim when he saw her dead: "I rejoice that an angel has just flown to heaven." Her body was buried in the church of the nuns of the Third Order of Saint Thomas. Her virtues and several miraculous healings performed through her intercession led to the pursuit of her canonization, and on April 9, 1808, the Congregation of Rites awarded her the title of Venerable. Charles-Emmanuel entered the Jesuits and died there on Octobe Charles-Emmanuel Husband of Marie Clotilde, future King of Sardinia. r 6, 1811.