Venerable Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament

Having lost her mother when she was only eleven years old, she abandoned herself into the hands of the Blessed Virgin, asking her for the grace to be sheltered from the dangers of the world in a cloister. She obtained this favor. Her uncle, prior of Saint-Étienne in Beaune, having ceded this priory to establish Carmelites there, obtained permission for her to enter at the age of eleven, to be nurtured there and to remain, if God preserved the desire in her. On September 24, 1630, she made her first communion, during which she found herself as if enraptured in God and received inexpressible graces. Upon leaving the chapel, where she had received her Savior, she was led to a hermitage consecrated in honor of the Mother of God, where her face appeared so beautiful that one would have taken it for that of an angel. She began to pray there and gave herself anew to the Blessed Virgin. Her virtues soon began to shine forth in this holy family. Her humility was profound; she was always seen in great confusion regarding herself, and nothing could be added to the exactitude of her obedience, nor to her love and benevolence toward the sisters. Her indifference to all things, her evenness of spirit, and her prudence were so extraordinary that the whole house looked upon her as a model of virtue, and her conversation was eagerly sought.

Prayer occupied her mind so much thereafter that she lost all the natural knowledge she had acquired, and even that of the city where she was and the creatures she had seen there. She received communion as many times as she could obtain permission; each time she remained for four or five hours in ecstasy, and learned admirable secrets of heaven. The angels and the Saints conversed with her in such great familiarity that one sometimes heard her answer them: "Since it pleases you, most glorious Saints, that I adore with you, let us adore, let us adore without end our eternal God!" However, Our Lord made her know that these favors were still nothing in comparison to the holiness to which He wished to raise her. He therefore operated in her a new consecration, which, having sanctified her soul, spread from there to her senses and to her whole body, and produced therein an admirable purity. Her face then became so resplendent that she no longer appeared as an earthly creature, and even the nuns dared not fix their gaze upon her.

After these preparations, Our Lord having given her an incredible love for the cross, He charged her to suffer for sinners, in order to appease the anger of His Father, who was irritated against them. He made known to her the holiness of the state of religious souls and the fidelity He desires from them, and told her that very few corresponded to the excellence of their vocation. She spent ten days suffering very great pains for them, and did not cease during all this time to pray for all religious Orders. She then saw how much this amiable Savior is despised and dishonored by Christians who receive Him in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar in a state of mortal sin, and what punishments are prepared for them, and for this reason, she endured extraordinary torments for three months. At the same time, she felt to the quick the lack of disposition and preparation that many of those who are in grace bring to the reception of this august mystery, and she entered into such great respect for Him that she did not even dare to raise her eyes to look at Him on the altar; this was the reason why her mistress, seeing her one day completely overwhelmed with pain and entirely penetrated by the feeling of her unworthiness, permitted her for that day only to abstain from Holy Communion; but she had hardly retired to the hermitage in the garden, when, having begun to pray, she was suddenly rapt in ecstasy, and Our Lord, clothed in priestly vestments and accompanied by a multitude of blessed spirits, gave her communion, saying these words: Qui manducat meam carnem, et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet et ego in illo: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him." Her good mistress, who had led her to this place, saw Our Lord with her own eyes and heard these words: and it is she who bore witness to this wonder.

She was occupied all her life with the adorable mystery of the childhood of Jesus; but that did not prevent her from having a share in the other mysteries, and from receiving very strong and very sanctifying impressions from them. At the age of thirteen, He made her experience all the pains of His Passion. On Ash Wednesday, having led her in spirit into His desert, He revealed to her that He had spent entire days and nights there asking for mercy for sinners; that He had remained there for twelve and fifteen hours with tears in His eyes, His face dismayed and pressed against the ground; that the fasts and vigils of forty days, although very painful, were only the least of His labors, that His battles against temptations there were as if infinite, and that it had been an inconceivable humiliation for Him to see Himself tempted by the devil. On Holy Thursday, she was in spirit in the Garden of Olives, where Our Lord revealed to her great secrets about the sadness of His holy soul, about His sweat of blood, and about His agony. He also made her feel the enormity of the sin of Judas, and she asserted that one could not conceive what Our Lord had endured from the infamous kiss of that wretch. The next day, she saw in what manner He had been led before Annas and Caiaphas, and then, to experience the pains He had suffered on these occasions, she was herself bound invisibly over her whole body, in such a way, however, that the marks appeared on her neck and arms, and that her pains were so stinging that one could not see her without shedding tears. She also learned that the blow that the Son of God received from one of the servants of the high priest had been so violent that His face had become all swollen and bruised. The affliction she felt at seeing her Spouse so indignantly treated made her long sympathize with His outrages and pray for the conversion of sinners. She then had a share in the torments of the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross, and the crucifixion, and something similar to what was done to the body of the Savior was done to her body; so that, around three o'clock in the afternoon, she was for some time as if dead, without any feeling or movement appearing in her. She then knew more than ever the enormity of the sins of the world, the greatness of the severity of God against sinners, and how much His justice weighed upon His Son, to make Him bear the punishment that was due to our crimes. From the evening of Good Friday until Easter day, she remained in perpetual adoration of her dead Spouse; but on this day, which is that of the glorious resurrection, she rose again, so to speak, herself; all her pains disappeared, she was rapt in ecstasy at communion, and in this rapture, she saw the glory of her triumphant Spouse, and she had a share in the joy that there is in heaven on the day of such a great feast.

A few months later, she received a new and quite extraordinary impression of the mystery of His divine childhood, which was the one to which she was primarily consecrated. Our Lord showed Himself to her as He was at the moment of His birth, His circumcision, His presentation in the temple, and His childlike conversations with the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph, and brought her into a great conformity with these states. She was then clothed with the incomparable virtues and perfections that He possessed therein, which sometimes gave her such a ravishing beauty and such a majestic air that the nuns no longer recognized her. It was at this time that her Spouse charged her with the salvation of an infinity of souls, the success of the greatest affairs, and even the preservation of the person of the King and the princes. Above all, she was obliged to bear the sins of a nobleman whose death she was made to know was near and who was placing great obstacles in the way of his conversion. She prayed and suffered for him with great fervor, which had such a happy effect that, while in the service of the King, he died there in a Christian manner on the same day she had predicted, and after a few days of purgatory, during which she redoubled her prayers for his deliverance, he entered heaven to enjoy eternally the happiness that the holy sister had procured for him. She also applied herself with admirable tenderness to the salvation of several other noblemen, whose deaths she knew, and for whom she obtained mercy.

During her novitiate, she was tested by her superior and her mistress in all sorts of ways; but these trials served only to make the solidity of her virtue shine forth more and to make it known that what was happening in her in an extraordinary way was a guidance of God and an operation of the Holy Spirit. As the time of her profession approached, she prepared for it with incredible fervor, which merited for her a rapture in which the persons of the Most Holy Trinity revealed themselves to her in a way that we cannot imagine. When she made her vows (on the day of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, in 1632), the nuns saw rays of light appear on her body. Saint Teresa made it known to her that she took her singularly as her daughter, and Our Lord invisibly contracted new nuptials with her. On the feast of Christmas that followed her profession, the holy child Jesus placed Himself in her arms, small, as He was at the moment He came into the world. She urged Him to grant a Dauphin to France and that he might be a prince after His own heart. The child assured her that she would not die until she saw her desires fulfilled. Indeed, Queen Anne of Austria finally gave an eldest son to Louis XIII.

On the day of this happy birth, as the Te Deum was being sung at Matins, Sister Marguerite had an ecstasy, during which she took a crown that she had had prepared, and, placing it with singular respect on an image of the Son of God, she said, all transported with joy: "O holy child Jesus! Your promises are now fulfilled; grant that this prince whom You have given us may be forever submissive to Your power; that he may have no greatness that he does not recognize as coming from You, and that he may place his glory in making You reign in his States." It was later learned that this long-desired Dauphin, who was named Louis XIV Louis XIV King of France during the ministry of Olier. , was born at the same moment she had made this prayer.

As she sought day by day new ways to procure the glory of the holy childhood of the Savior, she had the thought of having a chapel built in his honor. Scarcely was it finished when divine Providence raised up an infinity of people to join Sister Marguerite in devotion to the holy childhood. Cardinals, bishops, abbots, doctors, religious men and women of all kinds of Orders, lords, ministers of State, presidents and councilors of sovereign courts wrote to her on this subject and to recommend themselves to her prayers. The most remarkable for piety was the Baron de Renty; this virtuous gentleman made a journey to Beaune, where, having see n this holy so baron de Renty Devout nobleman who maintained a spiritual union with Marguerite. ul, he contracted a very close union with her. He was already a great servant of God, but he became quite another through her means and the assistance of her prayers. There was established between them an invisible commerce that was maintained without visits, without letters, and without the intercession of anyone, from which he drew marvelous advantages. He said himself, in a letter he wrote after the death of Sister Marguerite, that he was but a stone before she had lent him her hand, and that it was to her that he was indebted for the softening of his heart. He calls her elsewhere an oracle of heaven, a very elevated soul, and a miracle of grace and goodness; and elsewhere still he assures that she had nothing that did not bear grace and unction, and that he received great help from her, as much for himself as for others. The same devotion to the holy Childhood caused several lords and ladies of high quality and several communities to send magnificent gifts to Sister Marguerite's chapel to adorn it and to testify their respect toward this great mystery. The bourgeois and other persons of lesser condition also wished to have a part in this work of piety; which is no small proof that the finger of God was in this work, and that the holy sister had undertaken it only by his movement and his inspiration. But there is no need for any other assurance than the heroic virtues with which her soul was filled and which shone forth in all her actions.

As for the love she bore to God, it appeared sufficiently by her continuous application to his presence. Others necessarily interrupt it by sleep; but for her, who did not sleep, she never interrupted it, and she was day and night in an actual adoration and love of his divine perfections. From this came her ardent and insatiable desires to suffer: from this came that serenity and that joy which could be read on her face in the midst of her greatest torments, whether they were caused by demons, or whether they came from the violence of her illnesses. The fire of this heavenly love was so kindled in her prayer that her body was all ablaze with it, and her mistress left it in writing that she saw her, during this exercise, all covered and as if clothed in a sun. She employed the best part of the night preparing for communion; and when she was ready to receive this divine food, her beauty increased admirably, her eyes became like lighted torches, her face appeared all radiant, and there exhaled from her mouth and from all the organs of her senses an exquisite and ravishing odor, so that the nuns contemplated in her a vivid image of the splendor of the Saints. Many people received great graces only from having seen her receive communion. A lady having considered her in this state was powerfully touched by God; all the sins of her life were clearly represented to her, and she conceived an ardent desire to serve God with all her heart. The same thing happened to a merchant who, having lost all his property for having stood surety for another, had a strong temptation to despair. He came to hear Mass in the church of the Carmelites; and when communion was being brought to the nuns, he perceived the little sister with a luminous and angelic face. This sight operated a marvelous change in his soul; he passed as if from earth to heaven, and at that very instant his spirit was healed of all his troubles. Some time later, having asked to speak at the grille, he made known the happiness that had come to him, and testified that he no longer cared for the goods of the earth, after having seen in Sister Marguerite an image of those of heaven. Thereafter he remained so content and so full of fervor that he could not tire of recounting the grace he had received.

The other virtues of this excellent spouse of Jesus Christ went hand in hand with her love; her humility, her gentleness, her patience, and her obedience were so pure and so perfect that no other books were needed in the monastery than the example of her life and her actions. Nothing was ever perceived in her that appeared reprehensible, nor where one could suspect any self-regard or the pursuit of her own interests. In everything, she followed the movement of the Spirit of God, who was so much the master of her heart that He always led her to what was most holy, and which was least inclined toward the inclinations of nature. She had the gift of prophecy to a very eminent degree. She often discovered the most secret thoughts of the nuns in her monastery. She prophesied the death of Mother Madeleine of Saint Joseph, a Carmelite nun, four years before it happened; she assisted in spirit at her passing, and saw her soul ascend to heaven through the ministry of angels, without passing through purgatory. She also predicted the defeat of Matthias G allas, genera Mathieu Galas General of the German troops whose defeat was predicted. l of the German troops, even while he had entered Burgundy with a formidable army and was striking terror throughout that province; and indeed, he was cut to pieces at Saint-Jean-de-Losne, without having been able to execute any of his grand designs against France.

The Son of God was so jealous of her holiness that He did not allow her to apply herself to what was being said when people spoke of futile things or worldly affairs. One day, her mistress having brought her to the parlor, where one of her relatives was asking for her, and the conversation having insensibly turned to the marriage treaty of one of her cousins, she was so enraptured out of herself that she heard nothing of this news. The same thing having happened to her several other times, her mistress finally asked her why she did not answer. She was then obliged to tell her that as soon as people began to hold secular discourses, her brothers, the angels and the Saints, would spiritually take her into their company, and separating her from everything earthly, would make her praise God with them. If it happened that some people came to see her while in a state of mortal sin, it was impossible to make her go to the parlor. A woman whose reputation was poor having one day desired to speak to her, as no reasonable pretext could be found to refuse her request, they tried to bring her to her; but at that very instant she became immobile, and as several nuns tried to move her from her place, she was lifted from the ground, her face shining, her arms extended, and with an air so majestic that they dared not do her violence. These wonders must serve as a great instruction to souls consecrated to Jesus Christ, to teach them with how much care they must flee the interviews and conversations of the world.

Sister Marguerite's ordinary food was only a few herbs and roots boiled in water, of which she ate only once a day. Toward the end of her life, she was obliged to take an egg because of her great austerities; but it was a lot if she managed to finish it in three days. Her most acute illnesses did not make her reduce her penances; and, however weak she was, she did not fail to take very harsh disciplines every day and to wear almost continuously on her body a belt and iron bracelets bristling with spikes. Her superiors nevertheless eventually brought some moderation to this, but they did not prevent her from performing some new and extraordinary penances every day. When she was twenty-five years old, Our Lord told her that He wished to draw her to Himself in four years. He made Himself known to her again as He was at His birth, and told her that this state should henceforth be the continuous object of her thoughts. She then felt so separated from all present things, and so strongly drawn to the crib of her Savior, that from that moment she was never seen to separate herself from it. It would be a negligence to see the warning that God gave to Sister Marguerite of her death, four years before it was to happen, without reflecting that we, who are very great sinners, have an obligation to take heed early on, to prepare for this formidable hour; and that we must employ all the more time and care as we are infinitely removed from the holiness of this spouse of Jesus Christ. Having finally fallen ill in the month of March 1648, she suffered from great vomiting which lasted nearly two months and deprived her for a long time of Holy Communion; God later granted her the grace to receive Him every day. The effort of her vomiting was such that the nun who assisted her, although the most robust in the house, would instantly become covered in sweat while supporting her. She spent her days and nights in this way, devoid of any relief, and yet without showing any weariness or losing any of the tranquility of her heart, and a marvelous sweetness and beauty always appeared on her forehead and in her eyes.

The doctors, no longer understanding anything about her illness, testified that they did not know how she could survive, and told the nuns to have the last sacraments administered to her. To prepare for this, she made her general confession and humbly asked for forgiveness from her superiors and all the nuns of the monastery. Notwithstanding the extremity to which the pains had reduced her, she had herself placed on her knees to receive Extreme Unction, and she received it in such a state of penance and contrition that it seemed to those who saw her that she was the most criminal of all creatures. The superior, seeing her in such great and continuous horror of her sins, asked her which of all those she had committed caused her the most pain. She replied that it was a lie; the Mother having asked her at what time of her life she had committed it, she said that she was still small; but, the Mother having replied that children were not capable of great sins, she said that she knew it well, but that it showed the depth of malice that was in her; furthermore, that she had wasted so much time and had served the holy child Jesus so poorly, that it caused her extreme displeasure. She had confessed this lie a hundred and a hundred times and had performed very harsh penances for it: nevertheless, when she represented it to herself, it was an affliction that cannot be expressed.

Although, during all this great illness, she took only two or three spoonfuls of broth in the morning and as much in the afternoon and her stomach rejected them at the same instant, she did not fail to survive for three months in this state, to the astonishment of everyone. The day before her death, as she was besieged by pains so extreme that one expected only the hour she would give up her spirit, she said these words: "I die a daughter of the Church, I die with joy, and, although I have great reason to fear, because of my sins, I hope nevertheless from the goodness of my God that He will have mercy on me. I die in a lively faith in all our holy Mysteries, I ask pardon of my God for all my great sins." Then she publicly accused herself of all the offenses she thought she had committed in her life, that is to say, of this lie uttered in her childhood, of her wasted time, of not having served God well, and of some other faults of a similar nature, which she considered as great crimes.

On the same day, in the evening, after having responded to the prayers that are said for the dying, she lost her speech; but, having come to herself and the Father confessor having told her that she would not die so soon, she asked him if it would be for a long time yet. Upon which the prioress said to her: "My sister, are you tired of suffering?" — "Oh no! oh no!" she said, "it is all my joy, but I have a great desire to go to God." The Mother replied: "But, my sister, I have had so much affection for you, do you then have no sorrow to leave me and to leave me so afflicted?" She answered her: "When the hour of the holy child Jesus has come and it pleases Him to draw me to Him, oh! I want no one but Him alone." The confessor having asked her if her mind was troubled: "I am," she replied, "in perfect peace; I die supremely content; it seems to me that the holy child Jesus is calling me with His infinite sweetness to go to Him." The confessor added: "When will it be then, my sister, that He will grant you this grace?" She entered into a great recollection and said: "It is today Monday, it will be Tuesday." And it was indeed on Tuesday that she died.

Some hours before her death, as she reached out her arms to a sister to be lifted a little on the headboard, the confessor said to her: "My sister, you are here on the pyre of your sacrifice; you must remain bound there like Isaac and attached like the Son of God on the cross, and immolate all kinds of relief to His love." At that very instant, she lowered her hands and showed no inclination to move, whatever pain she felt; but she held herself as if she had been glued in her place. Some time before expiring, she remained for the space of a good quarter of an hour with her eyes raised to heaven with a face full of joy. It was the holy child Jesus who, accompanied by the Angels and the Saints, was coming to take her with them. Being near to giving up her spirit, she turned all of a sudden toward the confessor, and, although overwhelmed by pain, she struck her chest three times with such force that the infirmary resounded with the noise, asking thereby for the final absolution. She received it, and at the same instant she went to enjoy the glory in the heavens and to receive the reward that her labors and sufferings had earned her. She expired with the sweetness of a little child, with the peace of a perfectly innocent soul, and with the love of a true spouse of Jesus Christ, on May 26, 1648, aged twenty-nine years, three months, and a few days.

Before and after her death, very sweet perfumes were smelled throughout the monastery, and she appeared to various nuns whom she delivered from their sufferings. Her linens, her clothes, and her blood still give off the same odor, without any artifice ever having been applied to them. Her skin was found pierced in an infinite number of places, whether by the hardness of her bones or by the violence of the pains that had consumed her. Whatever care was taken to keep her death secret, it was impossible to hide it. The people flocked to the church in crowds to have the consolation of seeing her. She remained exposed for two days, during which three priests were continually occupied in having rosaries touched to her body. The religious and persons of quality were among the first to come to visit her and to ask, as a great grace, for even a rose petal that had touched her. The sick were brought there, and those to whom the excess of their illness did not permit it wanted to have some flower that had been on her coffin, and a very large number of them were cured.

## RELICS. — CARMELITE MONASTERY OF BEAUNE.

The body of Marguerite was buried in the small chapel of the holy Infant Jesus, and a copper plate was placed on her tomb on which a short inscription was engraved. At the Revolution, the Carmelites of Beaune were driven from their monastery; their buildings were converted into a prison. Then, as if impiety, in its madness, had hoped to annihilate even the memories that irritated it, it came to lift the stone of the tomb of her whom the people loved, in order to tear out the bones. The lead casing that lined the coffin was removed and transported to the Town Hall, and the bier opened; nevertheless, against all expectations, the remains of Marguerite were respected. The head of the municipality, warned of what was happening, was able to arrive in time and have the body thrown back into the pit, which was immediately closed again. He only took advantage of this circumstance to remove, without anyone noticing, the frontal bone of the skull of the venerable Marguerite, which he gave to his sister, a former prioress of the Carmelites.

A few years later, peace being restored to the Church, the body of Marguerite was again threatened by the project of opening a street, which cut the buildings of the former Carmelite convent in two. The tombs of the two venerated founders of the house, Mother Élisabeth de Quatrebarbes and Mother Marie de la Trinité, were this time as compromised as that of Marguerite. There was no room for hesitation: with the permission of the mayor, Mr. Brunet de la Serve, accompanied by a doctor, the chaplain of the Carmelites, and several people, went to the former Carmel convent. The three coffins were removed and taken to the new house of the Carmelites, where they were opened. The bodies of the former founders were intact. That of Marguerite, which had been opened and thrown back without precaution into its vault, was dislocated; the bones no longer held together. It was easy to recognize them by their small size, Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament being very small. Nevertheless, to be better assured, a doctor restored the entire skeleton, which lacked only a few finger bones, later found in the vault, and the frontal bone. It was only then that the prioress of the Carmelites, present at this recognition, told the visitors that after the expulsion of the community, Mr. Terrand had given her a bone of their venerable sister, preciously preserved by her in a box sealed with the seal of the Carmelites. Once the box was opened, the doctor recognized that it contained the frontal bone, which, applied to the void of the skull, adapted so well that one would never have suspected that it had been detached. The subtraction made by Mr. Terrand had become an incontestable proof of the authenticity of the mortal remains of Marguerite.

The body of the blessed sister was enclosed in a new and solid oak case, which was deposited, with the coffins containing the remains of the first two founders, near the entrance to the choir of the chapel. It is there that they remained until the moment when the community was transferred to the current monastery. The house acquired by the Carmelites, at the end of the Revolution, to practice their rule, lacked air and space. The chapel could not contain the faithful who crowded there on the twenty-fifth day of each month, to receive the blessing of the Blessed Sacrament, given in accordance with the little office of the Holy Childhood of Jesus, composed by Sister Marguerite. In 1836, the current monastery was built in one of the suburbs of the city, dedicated to the holy Infant Jesus and to Saint Stephen, to recall at once the devotion established by the holy nun who is the glory of the Beaune convent and the memory of the first monastery founded in the former priory of Saint-Étienne. The mortal remains of the two founders of the house were deposited there with the heart of Mr. de Bretigny, one of the main founders of the French Carmel.

The inner bier in which Marguerite had first been buried, and which was very well preserved, was set aside and exposed to the veneration of the faithful in a small room that precedes the parlor. A large number of people come there every day to deposit objects belonging to the sick recommended to Marguerite. The confidence that one once had in her is perpetuated, and numerous facts, which those who have recourse to her regard as miraculous, maintain this pious veneration.

Here is the description of the Carmelite monastery of Beaune, in the sad state in which it is found today:

In the center of the small town of Beaune is a vast quarter whose silent streets the stranger almost always traverses alone. Here and there extend long buildings, whose ancient plaster does not yet remove the severe aspect through the cold perspective of figured courses which are staggered, with a singular monotony, from the base of the walls to the roof line. Vast paved courtyards isolate these buildings from one another. Some are entirely uninhabited; others have been assigned to public services: the city has placed its gendarmerie barracks, its prisons, and its schools there.

One of these buildings dominates all the others by its height and more imposing mass; irregularly pierced openings and considerable mutilations so alter its primitive physiognomy that the traveler would ask in vain what its destination could have been, if the south gable, cutting its sharp facade against the black masses that neighbor it, did not indicate an ancient church. One still sees on this gable remains of a cornice and friezes sculpted in the taste of the Renaissance, medallions of the same style, and two richly framed niches; but the niches are empty; an insignificant window, established in a large bay, has broken the harmony of the main decoration, and the great door has been walled up.

In the lateral side of this church, a small door has been opened which leads into the shop of a poor shoemaker, through which one penetrates into the edifice. It is at present cut in its height by several floors, and divided by numerous partitions, raised as the needs of its new destination required. The lower part of the sanctuary serves as a recreation room for children; the upper floors are occupied by classrooms; the architectural lines of the altarpiece are destroyed, and the beautiful decorations that surrounded the colossal statues of the Mother of God and of Saint Joseph have disappeared.

It is vaguely known that this edifice was the church of a Carmelite convent, and that all these deserted courtyards, these long empty corridors, were trodden by pious cenobites. But who knows that all of France had, two centuries ago, its eyes fixed on this monastery? Who knows that the doors of this church, today sealed, were then opening, constantly gaping, before the innumerable crowd of pilgrims, and that kings themselves came, in all the pomp of their majesty, to kneel on these slabs to venerate the remains of one of the humble daughters who inhabited these places?

The memory of her who had obtained so much celebrity is, however, not extinguished; it has survived the revolutions that laid low the powers of the century, overturned the world, and chased from their pious retreat nuns, very weak against the storm that swept away royal dynasties; this memory still lives in Burgundy in the heart of the people, and one encounters in poor families the image of the holy Carmelite of Beaune, of the Venerable Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament.

Pope Pius IX bestowed the title of Venerable upon this illustrious servant of God.

We have used, to compos e this biog pape Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. raphy, the Life of Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament, by Louis de Cissey Louis de Cissey Biographer of Marguerite du Saint-Sacrement. , and that which Father Amelotte wrote.