From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How we must Follow Christ's Way in Self-Denial  [IV]   
      
   CHRIST.   
   My son, since you know and have studied these things, blessed are you   
   if you do them. (John 13:17) Whoever truly loves Me knows and obeys My   
   commands. I will love him, and will reveal Myself to him, (John 14:21)   
   and he shall reign with Me in the Kingdom of My Father. (Rev.3:21)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3  Ch 56   
      
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   August 26th - St. Elizabeth Bichier   
      
   Born at the Château des Âges, Le Blanc (near Bourges), France, in   
   1773; died at Le Pay, Poitiers, August 26, 1838; canonized in 1947.   
   Jeanne Elizabeth Marie Lucy was born into a family with political   
   connections. Her father, Antony Bichier, was a public official and her   
   mother, Mary Augier de Moussac, was the daughter of another man who   
   held public office. The name was rather long for a small child, so she   
   was generally called Elizabeth. She was educated at a convent in   
   Poitiers, which made her feel at home. Her maternal uncle the Abbé de   
   Moussac, was vicar general of Poitiers, and the superioress of her   
   convent school was a relative, too. The only other detail we have of   
   her childhood is that she liked to build sandcastles.   
      
   When Elizabeth was 19, her father died. A few weeks later (February   
   1792), the National Assembly issued a decree against the property of   
   those citizens, the émigrés, who had left France in the face of the   
   Revolution. Because her eldest brother was among these émigrés and   
   mother was too old and sick to help, Elizabeth undertook the   
   management of her brother's property. She asked the Abbé de Moussac to   
   teach her property law and financial accounting. Although she was   
   unable to master these disciplines, what she did learn assisted her in   
   the future. Armed with a little knowledge, she fought and won a long   
   court battle to retain control of the family property.   
      
   In 1796, Elizabeth and her mother left their family home and went to   
   live at La Guimetière, near Béthines in Poitou. The local parish was   
   in upheaval due to the Revolution: Most loyal priests were exiled,   
   leaving only atheism and constitutional priests. In order to keep the   
   faith alive, each night Elizabeth would gather the farmers and their   
   wives for prayers, hymns, and spiritual reading at La Guimetière. Soon   
   she heard rumors of a priest saying Mass in a barn 25 miles away at   
   Maillé. The priest was Abbé Saint Andrew Fournet.   
      
   Elizabeth immediately sought him out at Maillé and the two became fast   
   friends. She often visited the barn at Petits Marsillys, and Fournet   
   wrote up a rule for her to follow as she began her life of teaching   
   and other works of charity, while discouraging her entry into the   
   Trappistine convent. So she continued her life at Béthines, leading   
   prayer, teaching young children, and tending the sick and needy.   
      
   Eventually, Andrew Fournet knew that Elizabeth was just the woman to   
   implement his vision of a small community of nuns to tend the sick and   
   teach rural girls. He told her, "There are ruins to be rebuilt,   
   ignorance to be remedied." Elizabeth felt that she did not have the   
   background or experience to lead such a project because she had never   
   been a nun, much less a superior. Upon her mother's death in 1804, the   
   two decided that she should undertake a year's novitiate at the   
   Carmelite convent at Poitiers. Knowing that she might never come out   
   again, Andrew soon arranged for her to be transferred to the Society   
   of Providence.   
      
   In the meantime, the Abbé Fournet wasted no time. He began to form a   
   community at La Guimetière, which included Madeleine Moreau, Mary Anne   
   Guillon, and two other young women. Despite her protests, Elizabeth   
   was called out of the convent after only six months. In May 1806, they   
   moved the community from La Guimetière to the Château de Molante near   
   Maillé. Here they began to teach the children, to shelter and care for   
   the elderly and sick, and to make reparations for the outrages and   
   sacrilege wrought by the Revolution against Christ in the Blessed   
   Sacrament.   
      
   Thus, the Daughters of the Cross or Sisters of Saint Andrew were   
   formed in Poitiers when the sisters made temporary vows in early 1807.   
   Elizabeth and Andrew only intended that it should be a local   
   congregation affiliated with an established order, but by the end of   
   1811, it was clear that they would have to stand alone. They moved   
   into a bigger place, Rochefort, in Maillé itself to house the 25   
   members of the community. Five years later their rule was approved by   
   the diocesan authorities of Poitiers.   
      
   Despite jurisdictional disputes, 13 new convents were opened in   
   1819-1820. The civil authorities did not object to small communities   
   of religious assisting the people throughout the countryside. Between   
   1821 to 1825, 15 more houses were opened in a dozen dioceses. Soon the   
   bishops were inviting them into their dioceses and the sisters   
   established communities in Bayonne, Béarn, the Basque country,   
   Gascony, and Languedoc. By 1830, they had 60 convents in France to   
   which Elizabeth traveled regularly. When the Basque house of Igon was   
   opened, its spiritual director was the young curate who became Saint   
   Michael Garicoîts, who helped Mother Elizabeth tremendously after the   
   death of Saint Andrew in 1834. She, in turn, encouraged Saint Michael   
   in the founding of the society of missioners called the Priests of the   
   Sacred Heart of Bétharram.   
      
   Mother Elizabeth was a gentle, resolute woman, who was undaunted by   
   difficulties. Her sole concern was the good of others. Elizabeth's   
   health began to fail in the fall of 1836. By spring she suffered   
   continual, acute pain and was subject to fits of delirium. After ten   
   days of agony borne with patience, Elizabeth died peacefully   
   (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Kalberer, Walsh).   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Give in to God: resist the devil, and he will run away from you. The   
   nearer you go to God, the nearer he will come to you. Humble   
   yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.  (James 4:7-8,10 )   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Stand fast, therefore, in this conduct and follow the example of the   
   Lord, 'firm and unchangeable in faith, lovers of the brotherhood,   
   loving each other, united in truth,' helping each other with the   
   mildness of the Lord, despising no man.   
   -- Saint Polycarp of Smyrna from his Letter to the Philippians   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O Lord Our God   
      
   O Lord our God, what sins I have this day committed in word, deed, or   
   thought, forgive me, for You are gracious, and You love all men. Grant me   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)