Saint Colette

Having reached the age of four, this child manifested such a high knowledge of God that one could not doubt an extraordinary intervention of grace. Thus, she turned away from the games and ordinary vanities of children. Hiding in the most secret retreats, she poured out continuous prayers before God and already practiced orison. She grew in age and in virtues, encouraged by the examples of her mother who taught her to meditate on the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Her charity and her mortification were as ingenious as they were admirable. She deprived herself of her meals to give them to the poor. She stayed awake for long periods to pray and made her bed harder by placing pieces of wood in it. These virtues gave her great power over both men and the heart of God. On one hand, she exercised an attraction that she used to lead all those who approached her toward virtue, and on the other, she obtained miraculous favors from God, among others, to console her father, a sudden growth spurt that gave her a very tall stature, and to preserve her purity, the disappearance of the bright colors of her complexion.

Her parents having died, she distributed all her patrimony to the poor. She made several attempts at religious life in different communities; but she found nowhere what was necessary to satisfy her passion for sacrifice and her thirst for perfection. She wished, however, to separate herself from the world, and in absolute enclosure to serve God more freely. This is what was granted to her. Some pious people, with the consent of the Abbot of Corbie, had a dwelling built for her against the walls of a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, not far from the church of Saint John the Evangelist. The Abbot presided over her entry into this cell. It was in his hands that she made her profession of the Third Order of Saint Francis. In this new life, whether to embrace it or to practice it, she had as director and confessor a man of remarkable virtue, a fervent religious, Father Jean Pinet, a Franciscan from the convent of Hesdin and Custos of Picardy. He formed her in the practice of the rule. In his absence, she was guided by Jean Guyot, parish priest of Saint-Martin. In her cell, God continued to grant her extraordinary favors. He made her see the miserable state of the world, the incalculable number of crimes, and souls rushing into the eternal abysses in a crowd more pressing than snowflakes in a winter storm. She was so frightened by these flames of hell that devoured them that she grabbed the bars of her window, and her hand clenched so tightly that for a long time she could not withdraw it. Another time, our Savior showed himself to her all bloody, all disfigured as he was in his Passion, deigning to explain to her familiarly the infinite measure of his pains and the manner in which he had endured them. The demon, for his part, assailed her in different ways, as he had done since her childhood. She escaped his snares and was frightened neither by his threats nor by his violence.

The venerable Father Pinet saw in a vision a wonderfully beautiful virgin, who was cultivating a vineyard with great labor and sustained attention. She carefully pulled out everything that was harmful or useless and planted vigorous and fertile vines. It was revealed to him that this vineyard was the religious state and this virgin was Sister Colette, who all her life indeed worked to reform the state of her Order, as her excellent works proved subsequently.

As for her, enclosed for nearly four years in her narrow dwelling, she practiced extreme austerity and severe abstinence there. Covered with a hair shirt, she also girded herself with an iron chain armed with sharp points. She slept on the ground and had only a tree trunk for a pillow; her vigils and her prayers were continuous. It is thus that she reduced her body to servitude and submitted it to the spirit. She knew supernaturally and announced the death of her director while she was still in her reclusion. From that moment, every year, on the anniversary of his death, Father Pinet appeared to his spiritual daughter, all resplendent and full of gladness. This vision filled her with great joy and strengthened her singularly in the love of God. She made progress every day in this rigorous penance that she had embraced. Frequent visions sometimes supported her in her austerities, sometimes threw her into very painful perplexities. One day she saw herself transported to the foot of the throne of Jesus Christ. On one side, Saint John and Saint Magdalene asked that she might continue her solitary life; but Saint Francis and Saint Clare claimed her for the reform of their Orders. The Lord left the decision in the hands of his mother, and the Blessed Virgin acquiesced to the request of Saint Francis. However, fearing to be deceived by the ruses of the ancient serpent, Saint Colette did not dare to undertake this work nor add faith to these visions. That is why she consulted men distinguished by their science and piety on this subject. All unanimously were of the opinion that she should consent to do this work commanded by God himself. She still doubted, however, imitating the incredulity of Zechariah. She was struck with muteness, and even three days later with blindness for three other days; at the end of this time, having promised to undertake the reform, she recovered her speech and sight.

The Lord had struck her down; he wished to perfect her assent by a gentler action and at the same time show her the wonderful effects of the work he was imposing on her. In her cell, she saw a tall tree suddenly grow, of a graceful shape, covered with admirable flowers, sparkling like gold. They spread a very sweet perfume. Around this beautiful tree, several shoots grew. Seeing this and fearing some diabolical prestige, she pulled out and threw away the large tree and the small ones. A few days later, she saw in the same place a similar tree with other shoots. This time the trees changed place and transported themselves from one place to another. She was warned that this large tree represented her, and the small ones figured all the souls who, through her care and her labors, would be snatched from vice, brought to a better life, and directed in the practice of the highest virtues. Finally, this work was to be produced in the various states of society and different regions of the earth.

Reflecting on these wonders and revelations, and listening to the advice of wise ecclesiastical and secular persons, she feared offending God if she stubbornly resisted His call. Therefore, in fervent prayers with a deep sense of humility, she offered herself entirely to God to accomplish His good pleasure. Immediately, God sent her everything necessary for such an undertaking. He first gave her a perfect knowledge of all she had to do to carry out the reform. She wrote these things down immediately and made a memorial of them. Then, heaven sent her a man of great virtue to direct her conscience, from the Order of Saint Francis of Assisi, an exact observer of the rule, Father Henri de la Balme, a native of Bugey. He was leaving for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when a recluse from Avignon warned him that God was imposing another journey and an important mission upon him. He therefore came to offer himself to lead Saint Colette to the Sovereign Pontiff and to assist her in all her enterprises. He had brought with him to Corbie a generous lady, widow of the Lord of Brissay, and daughter of a very honorable family, named de Rochechouart. She desired to cooperate in the work of God. She offered her person, her family, and her goods to lead the servant of God to the Sovereign Pontiff. This spontaneous and benevolent offer inspired in Saint Colette great gratitude toward Madame de Brissay and fervent thanksgiving to God, who made it known more and more that this was His work and that one must expect a happy success from Him.

However, to observe the canonical rules, the recluse needed a dispensation from her enclosure. Antoine de Chalant, legate of the Holy See, having recently arrived in Paris, commissioned the Bishop of Amiens on July 23, 1406, to examine whether the alleged reasons were real, and in that case, to promulgate the dispensation. By letters of August 1, the prelate sent his vicar general to Corbie to execute the legate's orders. The latter, having prudently discussed and examined all the circumstances and motives, released her from her vow of perpetual reclusion to allow her to execute the orders of heaven. She left her cell on August 3.

At that time, the schism was still devastating the Church; in the judgment of the wisest men, individuals owed submission to the Pontiff in whose obedience they found themselves, until a general council had pronounced. There were saints in both parties. France was in the obedience of Benedict XIII; it was therefore to him that Saint Colette had to address herself, as she had already done throu Benoît XIII Pope who established the Institute as a religious Order in 1725. gh the intermediary of Father Henri to obtain the dispensation from her enclosure.

The humble servant of God was led by the Baroness of Brissay to the Sovereign Pontiff, who was then living in Nice. Prepossessed in her favor by certain extraordinary circumstances and by the information he had received from various personages, he welcomed her and her entire suite—Father Henri, the Baroness of Brissay, etc.—with great benevolence. It is even said that he knew, by divine inspiration, her high virtue and her design. Thus, a marvelous thing, upon her approach he rose and came to meet her. He received from her hand a small bag containing the petition she had made to ask for what was necessary for the execution of her project. He took note of it and then let her explain her views at greater length. She asked above all for two things: 1st, to be admitted to the profession of the rule that Saint Clare received from Saint Francis and which was confirmed by Innocent IV; 2nd, that provision be made for the reform règle que sainte Claire reçut de saint François Religious order whose way of life was adopted by Margaret. and re-establishment of the Second Order of Saint Francis.

These requests seemed so reasonable to the Sovereign Pontiff that he was disposed to grant them immediately. However, most of his advisors were of the opinion to delay. They were frightened by the youth of the postulant and the enormous burden she wanted to assume. Therefore, the answer was postponed to another time. A plague suddenly broke out in Nice. It struck the opponents in such a way that one saw the finger of God in it. The Sovereign Pontiff, having called Saint Colette, addressed to her a remarkable discourse on the perfection of the evangelical state she wished to embrace. He admitted her into the Order of Saint Clare by girding her with the cord and placing the veil on her head; he had her make her profession; finally, he established her as the mother and superior of all those she would reform or admit into the Order. It was with such humility, fervor, and respect that he performed this function that everyone expressed their admiration. He appeared to them like an angel. The cardinals and the Minister General of the Franciscans protested that they had never seen this pontiff perform any ecclesiastical function with such piety and respect. After having addressed to her further salutary warnings and told her with what discretion and prudence she should act, he assured her of the eagerness he would always show to help her in the reform she was undertaking. Finally, he recommended her warmly to her spiritual father, Father Henri de la Balme, and to the Baroness of Brissay, and he added in a loud voice: "Would that I were worthy to beg for the bread necessary for this nun!"

The humble servant of God returned to her homeland and sought, by herself and through friends, in the dioceses of Amiens, Noyon, and Paris, a suitable place to build a monastery. The Pope had authorized her and given her the power to admit even nuns from other monasteries and recluses who might present themselves. But the ancient enemy, always ardent against the works of good people, raised great obstacles for her. Her pious project met with adversaries who caused her much trouble and persecuted her in every way. Moreover, her former friends themselves turned against her with violence, and one saw verified in her the word of the Apostle: "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." She was finally forced to leave the place of her birth. Her director, whom the Pope had enjoined to guide and support her, seeing this unleashing of all evil passions, took her with two faithful companions who had assisted her in her reclusion, Marie Sénéchal and Guillemette Chrétienne, to Burgundy, to her brother Alard de la Balme, who received them with great kindness. He was immediately rewarded by the happy birth, after several days of fear, of the one who would later be Sister Perrine, an inseparable companion of Saint Colette for thirty years.

Father Henri went to the Duchess of Geneva, Blanche of Savoy, and obtained from her the free use of a part of the castle she possessed at La Balme. Saint Colette settled in this asylum with her companions. Soon she admitted Odile de la Balme, niece of Father Henri, and many other novices. She began with them the exercises of religious life according to the Rule of Saint Clare. The holiness of her life, her marvelous fervor, and her perfection in all things began to radiate and excite admiration. A great respect, a pious affection, and a profound veneration were conceived for her.

However, the Duchess of Geneva obtained from Benedict XIII a bull for the erection of a monastery in the city of Rumilly, which belonged to her. But this open city was not suitable in these times of trouble. That is why she was willing to solicit from the Holy Father the concession of the Poor Clare monastery of Besançon, which was almost abandoned. There were only two nuns left. It was granted to the reformer by a bull dated January 27, 1408, with the charge of providing for the maintenance of the two nuns with the goods of the monastery. However, the venerable abbess did not rush to take possession of it; she did not go to Besançon until March 14, 1410, accompanied by the Duchess of Geneva and her niece, Mahault of Savoy. An innumerable multitude, led by the archbishop himself, came to receive her far outside the city. She was venerated as a saint. It was a triumph. Her first care was to divest herself of the rents belonging to the convent and to provide for the needs of the two nuns. One embraced the reform, the other entered the Benedictines. She re-established the most exact observance of the Rule of Saint Clare, and divine grace soon brought her a large number of daughters of kings, dukes, princes, counts, barons, and bourgeois of every state and condition. They lived in extreme austerity and true poverty, having no income or assured goods, neither individually nor in common. All year long they fasted and never ate meat; summer and winter they walked barefoot; separated by a narrow enclosure from society and all contact with men, both ecclesiastical and secular, they lived in delicate purity and fervent devotion, practicing absolute obedience according to the rule of the first founder and glorious leader, Saint Francis. To promote this exact observance, the Minister General of the Franciscans had given them Father Henri as confessor.

Soon the monastery of Besançon, having become deserted due to laxity, could not contain all the elite souls that the exact observance attracted there. A first swarm went to found the house of Auxonne in 1412; a second, that of Poligny in 1415. The latter, poor and naked, was always more pleasing to the passionate lover of poverty. She made a longer stay there than in any of the others. Is it for this reason that Providence willed that her mortal remains find their rest there and the ho Poligny Current burial place of the relics of Saint Colette. nors of which they are worthy? When these three houses were well regulated, the development of the reform took a new impetus. Saint Colette installed her daughters at Bellegarde or Seurre and at Moulins in 1423, at Aigue-Perse and Décize in 1424, at Vevay in Savoy in 1425, at Orbes in 1427, at Le Puy in 1432, at Castres, at Lézignan, and at Béziers in 1433. Father Henri, for his part, under the inspiration of Saint Colette, worked for the reform of the monasteries of men. There was in Dole a recently founded convent where an attempt at reform appeared to have failed. This house was given to Saint Colette and Father Henri by apostolic authority. The young abbess, while leading her nuns to Auxonne, stopped there, and in the midst of multiplied ecstasies, implanted the reform. A lawsuit brought by some lax religious could not destroy the work, and Dole became for men what Besançon was for women, an abundant nursery. At the same time, other monasteries were also founded at Charieux, near Vesoul, and at Sellières, not far from Lons-le-Saulnier. Later, Saint Colette herself established the reform in the convent of Azille, near Narbonne. Her work could not subsist, even among the Poor Clares, unless it had religious men animated by her spirit to direct it, and not partisans of disastrous mitigations. Moreover, if the Second Order exerts a salutary action on the world by its examples and its counsels, the First, by the same means, and furthermore by preaching and its more frequent relations with the faithful, works much more for the regeneration of Christian society. And such was the mission of Saint Colette. Thus her religious multiplied rapidly. They were approved and encouraged by the Council of Constance. "By the purity of their life," says Wadding, "the perfect observance of their rule, they acquired such a high reputation that everywhere people wanted to have such men." Thus, before her death, Saint Colette had the happiness of seeing them called by the Sovereign Pontiff for the reform of the Mother House of the entire Order, the convent of the Ara Coeli in Rome. Finally, their progress was so rapid that thirty-eight years after Saint Colette, according to their necrologies, they were to number thirty-four thousand, working to revive Christian life in the world. What power of action! What fruitfulness! History has preserved fewer traces of the reform of the monasteries of men because Saint Colette operated it through intermediaries; however, it is no less certain that she was the living center of this immense movement of renovation that took place in the 15th century. Even for the Second Order, the chronicles have had the fault of speaking only of the convents where Saint Colette lived personally. Yet, through her disciples, she also developed her work immensely, which, in her lifetime, crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps, with the assistance of Saint Bernardine of Siena. The monasteries she founded herself were hearths that spread the sacred fire of charity far and wide, and most of them, after having gone through the revolutionary turmoil, still faithfully keep her rule and her observances. They are still ardent enough to provide, without weakening, burning coals with which other spiritual hearths are lit.

These works brought Saint Colette into contact with the greatest figures of the world. It was Duke John of Burgundy who gave her his arsenal for the convent of Poligny; the Duke of Bourbon founded the monastery of Moulins. The ex-King of Naples, Jacques de Bourbon, of the royal family of France, after having cooperated in the foundation of several convents and given his daughters to the reform, converted himself, became a disciple of Saint Colette, and embraced the reform. Others imitated them elsewhere.

The reward that all these great ones of the earth coveted was to see the servant of God sometimes, to share in her prayers, to receive her advice, and sometimes her reproaches inspired by Christian charity. It is not surprising that they had so much confidence in her intercession. Her life was more angelic than human, and heaven confirmed her mission, proving the power of her prayers through wonders and miracles.

In imitation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Saint Francis, she fasted for forty days and forty nights without any food. Her vigils and prayers were continuous; her bodily sufferings, her tribulations, her persecutions were incessant. The Lord permitted the demon to attack her in a visible manner through all sorts of frightful, hideous, or cruel illusions.

But He also supported her with extraordinary favors. One day, seated on the ground in the midst of her daughters, she was speaking to them of the extreme poverty that Our Lord, with His holy Mother and the Apostles, was willing to suffer for us. She exhorted them to imitate Him. While she was speaking, the twelve Apostles, like twelve venerable old men dressed in white robes, surrounded her and remained near her until she ceased speaking. Then they rose into the air, and the servant of God with them, until they disappeared from the eyes of the enraptured sisters. Often in her prayer she fell into ecstasy, was lifted from the ground, and sometimes so high that she disappeared. A similar favor was granted to her when she was traveling to Auxonne and Dôle, even in the presence of the religious. Her ecstasy lasted during almost the entire journey. She very often remained enraptured for several days. Obedience recalled her to herself. At the word of Father Henri, she would emerge from the divine colloquy. Another time, a marvelous flame escaping from her mouth illuminated her oratory.

Through the intermediary of the virgin apostle, Saint John the Evangelist, a gold ring, the insignia of her incomparable purity, was placed on her finger as the true bride of the King of kings. Many have seen and touched this ring, and she sometimes gave it to the religious to whom she entrusted a dangerous mission, to preserve them from any accident. She also received from heaven a gold cross containing a relic of the True Cross, which is still preserved at the monastery of Poligny. God took up her defense through wonders. She was threatened with death at Décize because the nuns had, by mistake, rung Matins before the hour and the inhabitants had believed it to be a treacherous signal given to the enemies; but the day was advanced for this city and Saint Colette glorified. In her numerous travels, her prayers chained highway robbers or men of war, just as dangerous in that time. They calmed swollen rivers, made streams fordable, or firmed the waters under her feet.

A saint was then stirring the world with his preaching and the innumerable wonders that accompanied them: it was Saint Vincent Ferrer. He had returned to Spain when Saint Colette was shown to him, prostrate before the divine Majesty, asking for mercy with ex treme fervor for the saint Vincent-Ferrier Dominican preacher who was the spiritual guide of Margaret. sins and iniquities of men. The God of all mercy and all consolation answered her thus: "My daughter, what do you want Me to do? Every day I suffer insults and reproaches from sinners; they blaspheme incessantly and they despise Me. They do not take account of My commandments." It is because of this revelation that the great doctor returned from Aragon to Burgundy, preaching all the while. He went to spend fifteen days at Poligny, near Saint Colette. They consoled and edified one another in heavenly conversations.

Above all, they occupied themselves with the evils of the Church and the measures to be taken to end them. The Council of Constance was then gathered. They wrote a joint letter to it to encourage the Fathers in their efforts, assuring them of a happy success. These grave interests were always the great preoccupation of this seraphic soul. It is for this that she mortified herself so cruelly, that she prayed, and that she had others pray. In her relations with the world, with the great ones of the earth, while working for their conversion, she did not lose sight of this great cause of the Church. When the Council of Basel was gathered, before it degenerated entirely into a schismatic conventicle, she maintained an admirable correspondence with the cardinal who presided over it. He urgently requested the help of the prayers of the one he called his mother, and he even asked in the name of the council for her intervention in delicate matters.

Through her advice and her prayers, she strove to prevent Amadeus of Savoy from allowing himself to be imposed a sacrilegious tiara by the conventicle of Basel. It was in vain. But she was firm in her resistance to the antipope who had been, as a prince, her protector and her friend. Her daughters of Vevay and Orbe did not submit to him, although living in a region that recognized him.

So as not to prolong this notice too much, one must pass over in silence many other admirable facts and wonders performed by her prayers. She knew the secret of hearts and possessed the gift of prophecy to a very high degree. Moreover, she resurrected several dead, four grown persons who lived for a long time afterward, and stillborn children to the number of more than one hundred. One of them was already buried outside of holy ground when the idea occurred to present him to her. She also recalled to life, but for only a few moments, a nun of Poligny who had died in a state of sin, and who, after having confessed, returned to the coffin.

Spiritual life, order, and regularity were ensured in the establishments of Burgundy and the south. Saint Colette could not forget Picardy, which, moreover, was calling for her. As sovereign of this province, the Duke of Burgundy also wished to sanctify it through convents of Poor Clares. He had chosen Hesdin. In 1441, Colette left with a suitable number of her daughters and came to found a convent in that city. Ghent had been requesting her for twelve years; she led a colony there in 1442 and finally another to Amiens in 1444. She wished to provide the same benefit to Corbie. Work was even begun there; but the stubborn resistance of the Benedictine monks caused this enterprise to fail, despite the successive intervention of the Duke of Burgundy, the King of France, and the Pope himself.

The work of Saint Colette was finished. Through her solicitude and care, she had either built entirely, or brought back to the observance of the primitive rules, fortified by her wise regulations, seventeen monasteries of sisters. Through her influence, she had caused many others to be reformed. For the service of these houses, she had founded or reformed a large number of monasteries for men. Many nobles or simple Christians, women of every condition, stirred by her examples and her wise advice, had embraced the Third Order of Saint Francis, so that the three Orders had been reformed and renewed by her. The time came when the Lord wished to deliver His faithful servant from the pains and labors of this world, to exalt her, to crown her, and to glorify her. He led her to the place where she was to end her penitent life.

She knew the will of God concerning her. She had received new favors at Hesdin, even deeper knowledge of the mysteries, a more vivid feeling of the sorrows of our Savior, especially of His agony in the Garden of Olives. She participated deeply in His anguish. To suffer

thus was her life. For her, the most unhappy day would have been the day on which she had nothing to suffer; this is one of her sayings. God satisfied her. All her life, her sufferings were continuous and unspeakable. They were only suspended when she had business to attend to. They would then resume, more poignant than ever. It was to perfect her likeness to the Savior that divine mercy added something more to pains that were already without measure. Thus prepared, she went to Ghent around Saint Nicholas Day in 1446.

At the end of February of the following year, she gave her final instructions to her nuns, made her last recommendations to her confessor Pierre de Vaux, assuring him once again that the reform was the work of God and that she had nothing to change in what she had done. Finally, on Monday, March 6, 1447, at eight o'clock in the morning, she rendered her soul to God. Her body remained flexible and even acquired a greater beauty after her death. More than thirty thousand people wished to contemplate it. It was necessary to break through a special door to let out this multitude that could not retrace its steps, pressed as it was by those who were arriving. It was laid to rest without pomp in the monastery cemetery, as she had ordered.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS OF SAINT COLETTE. — HER EULOGY.]

At the hour of her passing, in one of her houses, a multitude of angels was heard producing a celestial harmony, and one of them said: The venerable religious sister Colette has gone to the Lord. In another, she appeared all resplendent to a nun who had a singular devotion to her. In a third, she also showed herself in religious habit, but in such great beauty and with a face so radiant that the sister could neither explain it nor find a point of comparison. As this sister had never seen her, a child who accompanied Saint Colette said: It is Sister Colette, it is Sister Colette.

Many other wonders were accomplished, maintained, and even increased the veneration that had been vowed to her during her life. Peoples and religious alike invoked her and obtained signal favors. However, the inquiries for her canonization could only begin twenty-four years after her death. Her tomb, from which a delicious perfume escaped, was covered by an oratory. In 1482 and 1483, the recognition of the relics was performed and this tomb was adorned. Soon began the petitions of princes and ecclesiastical personages to obtain her canonization. There was no opposition. The Sovereign Pontiffs testified to the desire to be able to pronounce it as soon as possible. But the journeys were long; the procedures multiplied; a pope would die; troubles would arise and the acts performed would become partially insufficient. It had to be restarted. Thus the matter dragged on. Saint Pius V wanted to finish it by dispensing with formalities, when he died without having been able to realize his design. Finally, in 1604, the Poor Clares of Ghent were granted permission to celebrate the office of Saint Colette, and successively other houses. In 1624, her cell at Corbie, which had become a much-frequented oratory, was rebuilt, and a chapel erected next to it by the munificence of the princes of Lorraine and the royal family of France. From then on, the gathering of pilgrims to this sanctuary became innumerable. They came from all of Picardy and the neighboring provinces. In 1620, the Capuchins conducted very regular inquiries everywhere, and finally, in 1746, Benedict XIV declared that she enjoyed a very legitimate immemorial cult.

While the preparatory acts for the canonization were being carried out, the philosophical and schismatic spirit of Joseph II, Emperor of Austria, was preparing great bitterness for the daughters of Saint Colette. In 1753, he suppressed the convent of Ghent along with so many others. The nuns, through the intervention of Madame Louise of France, daughter of Louis XV and Carmelite of Saint-Denis, obtained permission to take away the relics of their foundress. Received in Poligny with true Christian charity, they brought their precious treasure there. It passed through the Revolution honorably and is still today surrounded by the veneration and piety of all Christians.

Finally, on May 24, 1807, the Sovereign Pontiff was able to execute the decree rendered as early as 1790, and proceed to the solemn canonization of Saint Colette. The shrine of Poligny was then opened to extract several relics. On May 1, 1867, it was opened again to extract a rib granted to the city of Corbie. This relic is venerated in the old church against which was the reclusion of Saint Colette. It is approximately in the place where the opening was through which Saint Colette confessed, received communion, and adored the Blessed Sacrament. Below, one can see pieces of the old grille that closed this opening, which is preserved in Bruges, and fragments of a robe of the Saint and a veil that was half-burned by the flame coming from her mouth.

"The patroness of Corbie and Ghent is honored on March 6 in the dioceses of Amiens, Paris, Besançon, and in all those of Belgium. Her name is inscribed in the Franciscan martyrologies of recent date, in those of Molanus, Canisius, Ferrari, du Saussay, etc.

"The reclusion of Saint Colette, at Corbie, had been destroyed at the time when the church of Saint-Étienne was sold to a private individual. Father Douillet, zealous to restore to the cult of Saint Colette its ancient splendor, bought back this monument, part of which serves as a chapel, and the other as a parochial orphanage, under the direction of the Franciscan sisters of Calais.

"The zealous dean of Corbie did not stop at restoring, in his parish, the cult and monuments of Saint Colette; for some time, he has been soliciting the Holy See for her office to be introduced into the Roman breviary."

The humility of Saint Colette was as profound as possible. In her eyes, her offenses were horrible. She was vile and abject, unworthy to live in the religious state. These are her expressions. It is because she was so completely stripped of herself that God could work such great things through her.

She had a burning zeal, an indefatigable ardor for the divine glory. Knowing from her earliest childhood the greatness of the sovereign majesty and his immense goodness, she applied herself to his service with an ever-livelier impulse. She forgot her fatigue, her weakness, her sufferings, and overcoming everything with her courage, after having appeared in the morning to be on the verge of succumbing, she was in the evening at the end of a painful journey, stronger and capable of spending another night in prayers, tears, and sufferings.

It is not surprising that, animated by such sentiments, she especially deplored and fought against the profanation of Sundays and feast days. It was for her a double-edged sword that pierced her heart. Thus, on every occasion, when giving her advice to preachers, princes, authorities of all degrees, and simple individuals, she prayed and conjured them to observe the feasts exactly. She saw the glory of God and the happiness of men equally interested in the fulfillment of this duty.

Her seraphic love for God naturally embraced her neighbor in its ardent flames. Even as a child, she gave admirable proofs of this. Throughout her life, she was not content to pray for the poor or to teach them by the example of her voluntary poverty to bear their pains and deprivations patiently, which is so important, but she always pleaded the cause of the little ones and the indigent before the great and the rich. Her examples were powerful. She became the channel of abundant alms. She stripped her houses to meet pressing needs. Thus, more than once, God miraculously multiplied provisions to reward her and allow her to continue her abundant alms.

By reading these few pages on her life, one can see what her faith, her trust in God, her divine charity, her obedience, and her mortification were. Do we need to praise her delicate and incomparable purity? Does the miracle she obtained in her youth, which extinguished the vivid colors of her face, not say enough? This delicacy was never belied, it is evident. Her presence inspired and commanded purity or at least the desire for this angelic virtue. Those who did not submit to this influence were soon punished and confused. Two knights visiting her, one was rolling improper thoughts in his mind. Saint Colette let out a cry of horror that made him return to himself. She had read his heart.

We have only indicated previously the innumerable wonders she performed during her life, the signal favors she obtained from heaven. We cannot extend ourselves further on the miracles obtained by her intercession since her glorious death. She assists those who invoke her in all their spiritual and bodily ills. However, some seem to be the special object of her power before God. She obtains offspring for sterile spouses; she protects children against the multiplied dangers in the early times of their existence, especially that of not receiving baptism. She delivers from neuralgias. By holy water with her bones, she heals sick eyes and many other infirmities.

She helps to resist temptations, troubles, and illusions caused by the demon, etc., etc.

We could cite recent examples that prove the effectiveness of her intercession in these different circumstances.

Here are the facts that can be reproduced in paintings and sculptures intended to represent Saint Colette:

Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare appear to her to recommend the reformation of the Seraphic Order.

In order to reward her tender devotion for the sufferings of the Savior, the Most Holy Virgin places in her arms the body of Our Lord, as it was when he was taken down from the cross. As a result of this devotion, every day, around noon, she felt in her own person the pains of Calvary.

Birds flutter around her head; a lamb is lying at her feet, or stands on its two front knees. As much as Saint Colette had a horror of impure little animals: slugs, ants, flies, she loved those that are the symbol of purity and innocence: lambs, turtledoves. Once, a lark was brought to her, that melodious bird that ceaselessly sings the praises of God, and which, a true disciple of the Gospel, worries neither about food nor shelter; she made it her companion and shared with it the poor bread of the convent. From that moment, the larks of the fields came to chirp their concerts at the window of her oratory, to peck and eat from her hand. Another person offered her a lamb, which was a great consolation to her, both because it represented to her the lamb without spot, and because at the moment of consecration, this charming companion of her solitude would bend its knees before the Blessed Sacrament; after which it would get up all by itself.

Angels surround her bed. If we are to believe the first author of her life, who was her confessor, when the blessed mother Colette was sick, and she remained alone during the night, the angels came to visit her, watched over her, and acting as her nurses, rendered her all the services that her sufferings and her dignity as the spouse of the Sovereign King required.

"Father Ignace, in his *History of the Mayors of Abbeville* (p. 814), gave the engraving of a painting that was in his time at the church of Saint-Gilles in Abbeville. The following inscription indicated its subject:

S. COLETTE, VIRGIN, PRAYING THE MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD TO INTERCEDE FOR SINNERS BEFORE HER SON. SHE APPEARED TO HER HOLDING HER LITTLE CHILD JESUS, ALL BLOODY ON A PLATTER, AND SAID TO HER: HOW SHALL I PRAY, MY SON, FOR THOSE WHO DISMEMBER THEE BY THEIR OFFENSES?

"Mr. Crouck, of Amiens, is the author of a beautiful and large composition that shows us the virgin of Corbie delivering a soul from the flames of purgatory.

"Let us mention, among the statues, the colossal statue that Father Douillet had erected on the mountain called Carrière Sainte-Colette. Tradition reports that she resided for some time in these quarries, when, after her return from Nice, she was poorly received by her compatriots.

"Martin de Vos engraved a popular image, which has become rare today, of Saint Colette, patroness of carpenters."

Prayer composed by Cardinal Bona for the Roman breviary: — Lord Jesus Christ, who have filled the blessed virgin Colette with heavenly gifts, grant us, we beseech you, that imitating her virtues on earth, we may enjoy with her the eternal joys in heaven. Amen!

Another Prayer that an angel brought from heaven to Saint Colette: (One recites the Ave Maria and the Gloria Patri, before saying the Prayer). May the hour of the birth of the God-Man be blessed; may the Holy Spirit, by whom Jesus Christ was conceived, be blessed; may the glorious Virgin Mary, of whom this God-Man was born, be blessed; may the Lord hear my prayers, through the intercession of this glorious Virgin Mary, and by the memory of this most sacred hour at which the God-Man was born; may all my desires be accomplished for their glory and for my salvation. O good Jesus! O Jesus Redeemer! do not abandon me and do not punish my sins as they deserve; but hear my most humble prayer, and grant me what I ask of you, through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, and for the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

His Lordship the Bishop of Amiens has granted forty days of indulgence to those who recite this prayer.

We owe this beautiful Life of Saint Colette to Father Douillet, parish priest and dean of Corbie, who kindly abridged, for the *Petits Bollandistes*, a considerable work that he published on the holy reformer whose parish was the cradle. The work of Father Douillet appeared in 1809, in Paris, at Bray and Estaux, 10-12 of 360 pages. It is the most exact and complete Life of Saint Colette. — Only the passages in quotation marks are by Mr. Corblet, who rendered a true service to the French language by publishing, in his *Hagiography of the Diocese of Amiens*, the Life of the Saint written in the naive, unctuous, inimitable style of the 15th century.