A Copy of the
Circular letter sent to Carmelite convents
on the death of
Mother Isabel
of the
Sacred Heart
CARMELITE NUN OF LISIEUX.
1882-1914.
" / am the lowly herald of
the "LITTLE QUEEN.
SISTER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART.
Authorised translation from the French,
ivith an introduction by
Dom Benedict Weld-Blundell, O.S.B.
THE KINGSCOTE PRESS,
3 DYER S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN, LONDON, E.G.
1916.
Declaration
Comformably to the Decree of Pope Urban VIII. We declare that
in the following pages the word "Saint" and "Miracle" are em
ployed in a purely human sense, and all intention of anticipating the
judgment of the Church is utterly disclaimed.
J. N. Strassmaier, S.J.
Censor Deputatis.
imprimatur :
Edm. Can. Surmont, Vic. gen.
Westmonasterii, die 17 Julii, 1916.
AUG 19 1955
This book can also be obtained at the
* ORPHANS PRESS, ROCHDALE, ENGLAND.
and the
CARMEL OF LISIEUX, FRANCE.
:-l/- Post Free.
I
/r,v/v a photograph taken in igob.
"I am the humble herald of the "Little Queen"
Sister Isabel of the Sacred Heart.
THE SERVANT OF GOD
TERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS-
prayer.
Long have I known that angel soul
That led my steps to Carmel s goal ;
I live the life she lived; I know
And love the cross she bore below,
I take her place and for my share
The cup of gall still standing there-
On me there blows the icy air
That chilled her soul when raised in
I, too, from earthly joys have flown
To give my love to Christ alone,
That thus untrammelled I might fly
In spirit to the realms on high.
Yet all that I renounced I hold ;
Our Lord repays a hundredfold
For thorns gives roses ; though I wait
On earth, I stand by heaven s gate-
SISTER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART.
ACT OF OBLATIOM
AS A VICTIM OF DIVINE LOVE MADE BY SISTER TERESA
OF THE CHILD JESUS.
In order that my life may be one act of perfect love I offer
myself as a VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO THY MERCIFUL LOVE,
imploring Thee to consume me unceasingly, and to allow the
floods of infinite tenderness gathered up in Thee to overflow
into my soul, that so I may become a very Martyr of Thy
Love, O my God ! May this martyrdom, after having
prepared me to appear in Thy Presence, free me from this
life at the last, and may my soul take its flight without delay
into the eternal embrace of Thy Merciful Love ! O my
Beloved, I desire at every beat of my heart to renew this
oblation an infinite number of times, till the shadows retire
and everlastingly I can tell Thee my love face to face !
PRAYER
FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF SISTER TERESA OF THE
CHILD JESUS.
"O Jesus, Who to confound our pride, didst will to be
born a little child, and Who later didst speak those words
sublime : Unless ye become as little children, ye shall not
enter the Kingdom of Heaven" vouchsafe to hear our humble
prayer on behalf of her who so perfectly lived that life of
spiritual childhood, and who has so persuasively recalled to us
its way.
Sweet Babe of Bethlehem, by the winning charms of
divine Infancy ! Adorable Face of Jesus, by the
humiliations of Thy Passion, we beseechThee, if it be for the
Thy divine Infancy ! Adorable Face of Jesus, by the
by Passion, we beseechThee, if it be for
glory of God and for the sanctification of souls, grant that the
halo of the Blessed may soon adorn the chaste brow of Thy
childlike spouse, Teresa of the Child Jesus and of the Holy
Face. Amen."
(100 days Indulgence. Cardinal Bourne,
Archbishop of Westminster, March 19, 1912.}
" O GOD, Who didst inflame with Thy Spirit of Love, the
soul of Thy servant Teresa, grant that we also may love Thee
and may make Thee much loved.
(100 days Indulgence. Cardinal Bourne, August i, 1912.}
jforeworfc.
Though every child, speaking generally, is born into this
world stained with Original sin, we do not speak of the child
as personally wicked ; nor again after it has been cleansed in
the waters of baptism, is it yet called a saint. These terms
we are accustomed to reserve till the child has grown to reason
and proved itself by its own responsible action, either by
following its corrupt nature on the one hand, or by subjecting
it to the influences of grace on the other. The course of
development taken by each child will, therefore, depend in
part upon the interior principle of self-government, but also
largely, perhaps more largely, upon environment, upon
training. For this reason the devil who rules over the king
dom of this world has his schools of wickedness in which he
trains his scholars to evil ; and Christ also has His schools of
virtue in which His scholars are trained to holiness.
The natural school of sanctity is the Christian home. How
many saints have been formed and trained in that school !
Examples readily occur to mind. In the Old Testament we
have the school initiated by Abraham and carried on through
Isaac to the third generation in the person of Jacob, extending
over a period of more than 300 years, and embracing many
other souls which came under the influence of these holy
Patriarchs. In Christian times innumerable instances occur.
There is for example the remarkable school of saints founded,
as one may say, by St. Macrina the elder. She trained her
son, St. Basil the elder in holiness. St. Basil and his wife,
St. Emmelia were blessed with ten children, and they trained
them all to eminent virtue, four of them attaining to the title
of saint, viz., St. Macrina their eldest daughter, St. Basil the
Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Peter of Sebaste.
Besides the natural school of sanctity, the home, our Lord
has provided, what we may call, the supernatural school of
sanctity the religious state. Here souls assemble, or are
gathered by Christ, for the express purpose of being trained
to perfection. When God establishes a new Religious Order
or Congregation, He usually raises the founder to heroic
sanctity to initiate a sound school or system of training, and
to serve as a model for his companions and successors
imitation. Innumerable instances can be recalled, as St.
Benedict whose training resulted in the heroic sanctity of
St. Maurus, St. Placid and his sister St. Flavia, his own
sister St. Scholastica and many others. Another conspicuous
example is St. Ignatius who trained to holiness St. Francis
Xavier, Blessed Peter Claver, St. Francis Borgia and many
others. Or again we may instance the Carmelite Order.
St. Teresa, having been raised to a high degree of perfection,
was directed by God to establish a Reform of her Order, and
to found Houses to train souls according to the spirit He had
given her. We see at once the effect of her teaching and
example by the number of scholars she brought to a high
degree of virtue. Thus at Valladolid, St. Teresa led Blessed
Beatrice of the Incarnation (Dona Beatrix Onez) to eminent
perfection in virtue. At St. Joseph s in Toledo, we may
mention Anna of the Mother of God; at St. Joseph s convent
in Segovia, there is Dona Anna de Xemena and her daughter
whom St. Teresa describes as "eminent servants of God."
Indeed, there is scarcely one of the convents that failed to
produce three or four or more eminent scholars of holiness,
under the wise guidance of their holy mother, and thus, there
was established in each convent a tradition and school of
sanctity.
On the other hand, where the tradition of a true interior
life is allowed to lapse, we see that the succession of holy souls
begins to fail. Outwardly, all may be well ; the discipline,
good ; the zeal, unabated ; but through the loss of the
tradition no real progress is made. After twenty and thirty
years in religion souls in such Houses may be heard to complain
that they are almost where they were at the beginning of their
conversion to God. They have unwittingly moved in a vicious
circle.
This, we believe, is too often the true explanation why
many reforms in more recent times have been without much
real fruit. The reform has begun and ended with exterior
discipline and observances, and these, however brave a show
they may make, have in themselves but little power to effect
a true interior reformation of life, without which the exterior
appearance of virtue is of little worth. The remedy in all
such cases is to take up the thread where it was broken : to go
back to the point where outstanding holiness ceased, and to
resume the old interior spirit, teaching, and tradition ; and
doubtless, the fruit of such a course will soon become apparent.
Where the tradition of a real interior life, from which alone
holiness proceeds, has been carefully preserved and handed
down in a community, a great responsibility rests on the
shoulders of each succeeding generation to maintain it intact
and to deliver it to those who shall come after them. Thus St.
Teresa * finds fault with those who say, if only I lived at the
beginning of the foundation, I should have been all right ; I
too would have become holy. For though it is true that
where the teaching is fresh at the fountain-head the prospect
of becoming holy is best ; " yet we should remember," the
Saint goes on to say, " that we also are foundations to those
who come after us ; and if we who are now living had not
fallen away from the fervour of our predecessors, and if those
who succeed us should not do the like, the building would
always continue firm and immovable . . . The excuse we
make in not belonging to the first beginnings is quite ridiculous,
for we consider not the difference there is between our life and
virtue, and the life of those saints on whom God bestowed
such great favours." That is so ; hence the Religious House
that maintains the true traditions of an interior life will
continue to produce outstanding scholars of holiness.
That the Carmelite convent at Lisieux has been mindful of
the warning words of their saintly foundress seems evident
from the number of souls this House has trained and continues
to train to eminent virtue.! The best known and most
popular of these souls is the "Little Flower," as she is
commonly called ; but there are others besides worthy of
notice, as Mother Genevieve of St. Teresa, Mother Marie-
Ange, and the subject of this biographical sketch. It would
be as interesting as useful to compare these souls together and
consider the points of difference between them, and where
they resemble one another. In that way we should see the
original elements, the raw material brought to the convent,
and the effect of the training to which these souls were
subjected, and their gradual transformation into eminent
servants of God. But this psychological study would take us
too far from our present purpose.
Yvonne Daurelle, in religion Mother Isabel of the Sacred
Heart, the subject of this sketch, was endowed by nature with
a very loving disposition. Unfortunately the circumstances
of her life were not such as would facilitate its development on
the best lines. She was early deprived of her mother by death
and her father by long absence in China. And though
* The Book of Foundation?.
t This is not intended to anticipate an} pronouncement the Holy See
may make on the subject.
affectionately cared for by an aunt, nothing could quite make
up for the loss of her parents and a natural home life. At the
age of eleven her home, such as it was, broke up on her aunt
embarking on a second marriage, and Yvonne was sent to
school.
All this had an injurious effect on the child s affectionate
and sensitive mind. She began to brood and to be filled with
melancholy fancies, thinking life to be very long and sad.
She was tortured too, with fears that her aunt no longer
loved her, and she could find nothing to give relief or
comfort.
As might be expected with her loving nature, active imag
ination, and somewhat loveless childhood, as her mind de
veloped, Yvonne turned with pleasure to reading stories at
first of adventure, but later of a kind that gave more play to
her affections. Human love," says her biographer, "became
a goal which lifted her out of the petty cares and worries of
daily life and made her look forward to the day when she
would meet with a heart at one with her own."
Having no object -except of her own creation whereon
to rest her abundant affections, they naturally recoiled upon
herself. Yvonne began to think that she was destined to
attain to greatness. This condition of mind manifested itself
with much simplicity on one occasion when Yvonne answered
a question put to the readers of a certain magazine. " Do you
think, it asked, " that the world will be destroyed by contact
with the comet which is coining?" To tin s Yvonne replied :
" No ; the comet will do us no harm for I have a presentiment
that my name will become famous, so the world must last long
enough for my fame to be established and be made known to
the ends of the earth."
At this juncture when Yvonne s young heart seemed to be
receding further and further from the Object which alone could
fill it, God, as if in compassion, stretched forth His hand,
touching her in some secret way, and revealing Himself to
her. To this grace, Yvonne quickly responded. Her heart
turned with icrvour to God, and under tne impulse of devotion
she resolved to embrace the religious life.
Though full of excellent purpose, Yvonne was still far from
the right path. She fell into the mistake so common with
souls in the first fervour of conversion. She formed an
exaggerated notion of the value of mortification. " She
thought," says her biographer, She must embrace extraor
dinary labours and trials, afflict herself day and night, spend
long hours in prayer, affect an austere manner," and
generally make herself ridiculous and troublesome to those
around her.
It was at this time that the Life of the " Little Flower"
fell, providentially, into Yvonne s hands, and it made her
realise that God called her to walk by the way of love. Now
at last Yvonne found her true vocation. Attracted by the
"Little Flower" and the lesson of her Life t Yvonne decided
to enter the Carmelite Order at Lisieux.
It is not our purpose to pursue Yvonne through the diffi
culties which beset her before she obtained admittance to the
convent of her choice, or to trace her subsequent progress in
virtue. We wished merely to show the character and so to
say, the material with its defects upon which the convent
training had to work. Yvonne, undoubtedly, was endowed
with an excellent nature, well suited for high spiritual attain
ment, but through the want of guidance, it had wandered into
by-paths which, if pursued, would ultimately have carried
her far away from God. How the school of perfection at
Lisieux took this young soul, gradually rectified what was
amiss, and led her step by step to true and solid virtue, and
apparently, to close union with God, is skilfully and pleas
antly told in the following pages.
BENEDICT WELD-BLUNDELL, O.S.B.
I
HER LIFE IN THE WORLD.
IV hen in m\ heart the mwhorn flame was lit
Thou cl(ii?ned si for Thinr own the love that burned:
Thou only, "JrsuSj eouldst content m\ soul
As for a love unlimited it yearned.
TERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS.
CHAPTER I.
Her Life in the World.
Yvonne Daurelle our Mother s name in
the world was born on January 29, 1882,
at Epinac (Saone-et-Loire). Her family, \vere
making no settled stay in that part of France
and the child was taken from Epinac to
Macon, from Macon to Ja Ferte-sous-Jouarre
(Seine et Marne) thence to Paris, and finally
to Provence, so that in after-times she did
not know which to call her home. Sunny
Provence was her favourite, with its Alpes
Dauphinoises, whose rugged grandeur con
trasts with the verdant and charming country.
In after-life the remembrance of its beauties
untouched as they came from the hand of the
Creator, led her to praise more fervently His
infinite love for sinful man.
At three years of age, the child lost her
mother whose place was taken by her mother s
sister. The aunt and her two sons vied in
petting the three orphans for Yvonne had
two brothers living; the third had died when
10 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
he was eighteen months old, soon after bis
mother s death.
Monsieur Daurelle left Macon with his
children and settled in Paris. He always
spent Sunday with his sister-in-law, to the
delight of his little daughter who was extremely
fond of him. However, this pleasure did riot
last long, as when she was five and a half he
went to Tonkin and she only saw him thrice
for a month or two at a time before she entered
Carmel.
His absence, and the loss of her mother
which she felt keenly as she grew older, made
a profound impression on the child. High-
spirited as she was by nature, she began to
brood and give way to melancholy fancies: she
thought that "life was long and very sad."
None the less, the young philosopher was the
life and soul of all the children s games so
long as they were boys sports, such as battles 5
pretending to be savages, boxing with her
brothers, and on wet days, toy-soldiers, billiards
or cards.
When Yvonne was old enough to begin les
sons she found them very tiresome. The school
room seemed a prison, especially on spring
days when the blue sky and the birds songs
HER LIFE IN THE WORLD H
made her pine for the open air and freedom.
She was very intelligent and held her own
with the best although she only studied enough
to avoid being kept in or given impositions.
At eleven years of age another change took
place in her life. Her widowed aunt married
Monsieur du Fay and the little girl became a
boarder instead of a day-scholar at the school.
The affectionate girl, who was greatly attached
to her foster-mother, suffered keenly. She
was tortured by groundless fears that her aunt
would care for her no longer, that she had
lost her mother for a second time, and as she
was not religious, she could not at first over
come her grief although she was shortly made
godmother to the little cousin who became
her pet later on.
On May 28, 1893, Yvonne made her first
Communion. She felt neither devotion nor
fervour, solely the reverential fear in which her
religion consisted.
" The words " Love of God " had no mean
ing for me," she owned. " I thought it was a
figure of speech for adoration. If only 1 had
been taught how good God is and how He
loves us, I am sure that my heart would have
responded to His love."
12 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
Her lifelong regret at having spent her
childhood and early youth in ignorance of
divine love aroused her zeal on behalf of
children. She longed to write an attractive
history of the Saints suited to their under
standing and brought out a pamphlet, " THE
SECRET OF HAPPINESS FOR THE LTTTLE ONES"
which has done great good to parents as well as
in the nursery. Yvonne spent the greater part
of her fourteenth and fifteenth years in Paris.
It was there that she came across Lamar tine s
later "Meditations." Hitherto, though passion
ately fond of reading, she had confined herself
to books suited to her age, preferring tales of
adventure which transported her to other
countries and peoples, and. although she did
not know it, taught her far more than her
half-hearted study at school. The volume
worked a re volution on her enthusiastic
character and ardent, dreamy imagination.
Human love dawned upon her, full of charm,
like an oasis in the dosort.. From that time
she cared little for the worries of dairy life, for
she looked forward to lull compensation when
she met with a heart at one with her own. As
she said in after-life: "The embodiment of
beputy on which rny imagination dwelt was
HER LIFE IN THK WORLD 13
Jesus, the most beautiful among the sons of
men. The sympathetic heart which alone
could respond to my impulses of affection was
the Sacred Heart. The bliss which springs
from love for which I longed was that reserved
by the Blessed Trinity for its elect."
In fact, the young girl was unsuited for this
world s affections and on the rare occasions
when she by chance met the heroes of her
fancy she felt chilled and disappointed. They
no longer pleased her when they ceased to be
imaginary. This new phase had unfortunate
effects upon her conduct.
"I had been fairly pleasant to live with until
now" she told us: "for it was natural to me
to dislike what was wrong and to be attracted
by what was noble. From that time, the
more or less commonplace realities of daily
life jarred upon me perpetually, and those
around me suffered from my bad temper in
consequence. I repaid kindness and attentions
with indifference or even with irritability.
When old enough to make some return for
the devotedness of my adopted mother, I
selfishly shut myself up in my room where I
indulged in foolish dreams and in reading and
writing about frivolous subjects."
14 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
From dwelling in this imaginary world, the
young girl developed an absurd desire for glory.
After her twentieth year, when describing her
defects, especially her pride, she wrote: "I always
thought that I should be somebody. Appar
ently she thought so now, judging from her
behaviour. She took in a little magazine
called Moniteur Litteraire, which asked some
questions every month of its young readers
and published the best answers. To the query:
" Do you think that, as some astronomers
declare, the world will be destroyed by contact
with the comet which is coming?" Yvonne
sent the astounding reply: "No; the comet will
do us no harm, for I have a presentiment that
my name will become famous, so the world
must last long enough for my fame to be
established and to be made known to the ends
of the earth."
Later on, after having read Francois Coppee s
La bonne Souffrance, she had the audacity to
forward to the author an original drama in
verse with a letter, in which she said: "I wish
to be the writer for whom you long, who, like
a second Chateaubriand, is to revive French
literature." Of course what appeared extraor
dinary self-conceit was in reality rather sim
plicity than pride.
HER LIFE IN THE WORLD 15
Yvonne disliked living in town : Paris, with
its heat, its dust, and its feverish excitement
seemed to her an l< imago of hell." She
delighted in the country, far from the gaiety
of towns, although she would have been
admired, for she was pretty and very good
style. She liked to be well dressed without
being coquettish or studied. When people
spoke of the want of modesty in the fashions
of to-day, she was glad to be able to say to her
self: " I never wore a low-necked dress." The
theatre was the only thing that made her
regret town, but she consoled herself with her
books.
She was now nearly seventeen, and her
mind, too serious to satisfy itself with frivol
ous reading, turned to more solid matter.
" It did not make me better or draw me
nearer God," she averred; "but my dreams
became less sentimental and I sometimes tried
to fathom the great mysteries of eternity."
At this period in her life, God enlightened
her with His preventing grace. On March 7,
1899, at Noves, in Provence, Yvonne, after
having read the chapter on enthusiasm in
L Allemagne, by the Protestant authoress
Madame de Stael, was strolling about the
16 MOTHER ISABKL OF THE SACKED HEART
garden. It was five o clock, and while watch
ing the splendid sunset, she meditated un
moved upon the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
Untouched by love, she strove to picture to
herself the existence of the Three in One,
when suddenly she stopped: her heart felt the
divine contact: earth and time seemed noth
ing to her any longer her soul was filled with
esteem, love, and longing for heavenly things.
" I have never lost that longing," she wrote
just before she died: " God has implanted it in
my heart like a dagger, cruel yet rapture giving,
at once my torment and my comfort: it acts
as a spur to goad me on in the spiritual life
that I may swiftly reach the goal of my desires."
The influence of the grace of her conversion
was permanent: at nineteen the young girl
felt that she had a religious vocation, and later
on, that it was for Carmel. She had become
very devout and communicated several times
a week; all her natural ardour was centred on
God.
Her director, a venerable Jesuit Father, was
so impressed by the marvels worked in her
soul that, at a meeting of the children of Mary
from which she was absent, he compared the
fervour of her love to that of St. Teresa.
HER LIFE IN THE WORLD 17
The devil, jealous of the truth which brings
peace and liberty to souls, made a fresh effort,
Yvonne eagerly read Saint Teresa s works,
misunderstood them, and became, to use her
own expression, " a thorough bigot." Melan
choly and unendurable in society, she was
constantly haunted by the words: "No one
can become a saint without undergoing great
labours and trials." She sought these
extraordinary " labours and trials " by rashly
inventing ways of torturing herself night and
day, besides which she spent long hours in
prayer, never spoke an unnecessary Avord,
affected an austere manner, and when she was
justly criticised and taxed with exaggeration
and her behaviour was laughed at, instead of
changing people s opinion by acting with
simplicity, obedience, and self-forgetfulness,
she offered it to God as a " great trial," found
at last and endured for love of Him.
Under this mistaken idea, she wished to
quit the world at once, and when her relations
declared that if she left them before she came
of age tbe police would be sent after her, she
gave way to despair. How she thanked God,
later on, for the delay over which she had
grieved so bitterly !
18 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
At the end of 1901, Sister Teresa of the
Child Jesus came to her aid. Yvonne cried
as she read her life and resolved on taking her
as her guide and model, offering herself as she
had done as a holocaust to all-merciful Love,
and declaring with her: "I, LOO, have found
my vocation my vocation is love!"
Henceforth the Carmel of Lisieux was her
promised land in which she wished to live and
die; it shone, in her imagination, like another
Thabor. There would she set up her tent in
her earthly exile; there would she taste the
sweets of voluntary poverty so long desired.
" Poverty," she wrote some time later, "freed
me from the superfluous possessions which
troubled and depressed me. I loved Jesus and
felt ill at ease amid the comfort that surrounded
me: love wants to resemble the beloved, and I
longed to live like Him 1 loved, so that having
shared His earthly lot I might share His lot in
heaven too. Above all, 1 hoped that after
learning by experience what was His exterior
life as a poor artisan,! should have a deeper and
more intimate knowledge of His interior life."
As the young girl expected to meet with
difficulties and complications about entering
Carmel, she asked her director to manage the
HER LIKE IN THE WORLD 19
matter. In spite of her entreaties he would
not press it, and waited until she was almost
twenty-one before writing to us. His letter
praised the postulant so highly that we felt
very little misgiving about her delicate health.
We had decided upon receiving her after
Easter, when Monseigneur Amette, then
Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, visited us on
his way to Avignon arid expressed a wish to
see her. In spite of difficulties, she resolved
to call on him. On reaching the Archbishop s
palace she found the principal door opened
for the entrance of an episcopal carriage. She
took the opportunity of looking in and saw
several ecclesiastics standing on the threshold.
One of them turned towards her and beckon
ing her, said: "This young lady has come to
see me. I recognised you from your portrait,"
added Monseigneur, as he drew her into the
palace. The result of the interview was that
Yvonne s reception was postponed indefinitely
on account of her family s opposition.
The poor girl returned to Noves in despair.
Feeling that the disappointment was under
mining her health, she wrote to us towards the
end of the year, begging us to receive her as she
would die of grief if she waited much longer.
20 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
We suggested that she should make a three
days retreat with our out-sisters. She received
the letter on the fourth of January and started
for Lisieux next day. Her aunt accompanied
her as far as Avignon where they parted in
tears, realising that their separation would be
final. The fervent postulant called at the
convent on the eighth of January, and made
a most favourable impression on us. Her
perfect breeding was evident. Her letters and
the clever society in which she had lived had
made us fear that she would be proud arid
supercilious, but we were pleasantly surprised
at finding her the very opposite.
Her extreme frankness almost cost her her
Carmelite vocation. From a remark dropped
by a doctor who did not know that she was
fretting because she could not become a
Carmelite, she thought she was neurasthenic
and told us so in all simplicity. We at once
took alarm. It seemed useless for her to make
a retreat outside and we advised her to apply
to the Visitation community at Caen, telling
her that it would be rash to embrace so
austere a rule as ours. She wept bitterly and
departed broken-hearted. However, her
frankness brought her back to Lisieux the
HER LIFE IN THE WORLD 21
same evening. She had said to the Superior :
" Reverend Mother, I dislike both your Order,
Saint Francis de Sales, and Saint Jane Chantel,
but I have determined to overcome my aver
sion for them if it is the will of God."
The situation was difficult, for although
exceedingly sorry for the poor girl, we had
decided upon sending her back to her family.
Next day, she made her first and last pilgrim
age to the grave of Sister Teresa of the Child
Jesus, begging her protectress to help her.
She felt as despairing as ever, but paid a visit
on her return to Monsieur Guerin, Sister
Teresa s uncle, who became much interested
in her. He took her to see a doctor next day
and on being assured that she was not neuras
thenic and that her health offered no obstacle
to her becoming a Carmelite, he pleaded her
cause with us warmly.
Yvonne was ver}^ joyful when she parted
with Monsieur Guerin. She was reminded of
a like episode in the life of Sister Teresa. "For
three days " Yvonne said, " I was plunged in
the deepest gloom, but on the third day I left
her uncle as she did, in the hope of being
received at Carmel, and the sky, which had
wept for three days, was cloudless."
II
LIFE AT CARMEL.
"Our Lord s yoke is easy and light; when we accept
it, it becomes sweet at once."
TERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS.
ft out a photograph taken in iqoj.
Sr. 3sabel of tbc SacreD Ibeart.
As a Postulant scattering flowers in a procession in
honour of the Infant Jesus.
WHO WAS IT LIGHTED UP THE DARKSOME ROAD
LIKE GLEAMING STAR WITH KINDLY, GUIDING LIGHT
THAT LED ME TO THE CRIB WHERE LAY MY SPOUSE ?
WERE NOT THE MAGI GLADDENED AT THE SIGHT?
THOU, O TERESA, WERT MY STAR THAT NIGHT!....
(Signed) Sister Isabel of the Sacred Heart.
CHAPTER II.
Life at Carmel,
The happy postulant entered Carmel on
January 13, 1904, under the name and protec
tion of Isabel of the Sacred Heart, a young
sister of Cardinal Amette s who had died a
holy death in 1883, in a Dominican Convent.
We soon discovered an attraction for prayer
and for regular observance in Sister Isabel of
the Sacred Heart, but she was less satisfactory
as regards manual labour, and until she left
the noviceship she seemed to do little that
was well done or useful. Incessant complaints
were made about her slowness, and the
postulant often felt that not only the Mother
Prioress, but the sisters too, would frequently
have had the right to blame her. In fact
she might with reason have looked upon
herself in the Community as a useless wheel
whose loss in a machine would not be missed.
She recognised afterwards that God was
leading her in the way she needed, as is seen
in her long poem "Spiritual Childhood" in
which she describes the graces which, unknown
to herself, were acquired by the frequent hum
iliations of the first years of her religious life.
26 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACKED HEART
Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus begins by
addressing a "little soul,"
Encircled by the mists and stifling shade
Within the valley stands the Mount of Love;
There must the soul descend until tis called
To rise above.
Like some fair floweret blooming mid the fields,
Whose beauty to all human sight is lost;
The sun is hidden, while from God come down
The rain and frost.
But when deep in the earth its roots have struck
And in the heart humility now reigns,
The sun shines forth and from its rays the soul
All joys attains.
THE LITTLE SOUL.
" Twas thus that Jesus treated me at first;
Humiliations came from every side,
Blame arid disdain o erwhelmed my fainting soul,
Yet these hard lessons made a prudent guide:
I realised how deep my misery,
How none but God is rich, with power supreme,
And in His love alone I place my hope
For all my works as things of naught I deem.
The "hard lessons" mentioned by the
"little soul" were mostly given by Mere Marie-
Ange. (1)
(i) The circular letter addressed to the Carmelite houses
after the death of the Reverend Mother Marie-Ange, of the
Child Jesus has been published under the title of " Une
conquete de Sceur Therhe de D Enfant Jesus" An English
translation is now ready.
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 27
The latter had just been professed when
Sister Isabel of the Sacred Heart joined her
in the novitiate and she became her "angel "(2)
and knowing her worth, we told her to
reprimand her companion whenever she
thought well.
Sister Isabel felt deeply humiliated at being
corrected by a young religious only a year
older than herself. One day, when asked how
she got on with Sister Marie- Aiige, the
postulant answered : " She annoys me with
her lectures; I know what she tells me quite
as well as she does." "Well, if you know it,
why don t you do it ? " was the reply. She
could only confess that her perfection consisted
more in theory than in practice and went
away rebuffed and resolved to do better in
future.
Another "hard lesson" lay in her ceaseless
struggle against a violent dislike for her
vocation which took the place, as soon as she
came to Lisieux, of the strong attraction that
had sustained her during the three years delay
in the world. Formerly she had enjoyed
spiritual sweetness and consolations but she
(2) A nun who is charged with teaching postulants the
customs of the religious life.
28 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
was now deprived of them. She had to
contend as well with too strong a natural
affection for the Mother Prioress, so that all
was gloom for her within and without.
As she seemed sad at times and so absent-
minded as to be very forgetful, we feared lest
hers might be one of those dreamy, melan
choly characters for which our Mother, Saint
Teresa, had no mercy.
After a graver lapse of memory than usual
it was thought well to tell her that she was
better suited to the active life and that she
must make up her mind to leave us. Never
shall we forget the expression of her face ; her
tears and silent grief together with her candid
avowal of her dislike to the life completely
reassured us. However, her postulancy was
lengthened to eight months and October 15
was fixed on for her clothing. The poor girl
had to endure a longer delay as unexpected
difficulties deferred the ceremony until Jan
uary 21, 1905, against the wish of us all.
Though she was forced to wait until Jan
uary 21 to wear the Carmelite habit, her
soul was clothed with the peace and joy of
Carmel s daughters from October 15. From
that day her violent repugnance gave way
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 29
to calmness and even joy, and in spite of her
trials, this joy increased as long as she lived.
While still a postulant, she was brought to
own, after having been blamed for a fault, that
she had been mistaken in thinking she had a
grand soul, for that in reality her soul was
petty and very weak. The poor girl had come
to us full of noble aspirations ; she asked for
sufferings and dreamt of martyrdom. She
had expected to suffer in observing oar Rule
on account of her delicate health, in which
she was evidently not mistaken, yet in spite
of her ardent desires of mortification she found
it difficult to make the little sacrifices of
giving up her will and the thousand other
petty trials to be found in the religious life.
Her failures taught her self knowledge and
henceforth she owned that her soul was
"paltry" and very weak.
Her novitiate was fervent and outwardly
differed little from her postulancy. She
was aid in the linen room and refectory and
had other duties which caused her to spend
the greater part of her time in sweeping and
dusting. She led a truly hidden life, gaining
a deeper knowledge of her own nothingness
30 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
and so drawing nearer to God Who sought
her wholly for Himself.
A fresh delay postponed the date of her pro
fession until March 19, instead of February 2,
as she had hoped. Later, she became devoted
to Saint Joseph and she was glad that she
had taken her vows on his feast, but at
the time she was deeply grieved at not conse
crating herself to God on the day our Lady
offered the Infant Jesus in the temple.
She possessed the deepest possible devotion
to our Lady to whom she had given herself
entirely some years before, after reading the
Traite de la vraie devotion a la Sainte
Vierye by Blessed Grignon de Montfort. The
book had done her so much good that she
used to give it to her novices in the hope
that it would profit them in the same way. She
composed the following little prayer which
she was fond of repeating as a renewal of her
offering.
"Beloved Mother, I renounce self and give
myself body and sou] to thee for time and for
eternity ; lead me to Jesus and may all that is
mine pass through thy hands to Him."
On her profession day Yvonne felt no
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 31
sensible consolation, but, like her saintly model,
Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus, she was
" inundated by a flood of peace." The sky was
cloudless and the sun shone brightly on that
day and to the newly-professed nun, nature
seemed keeping high festival. Four days
later the veil was given her by Monseigneur
Amette, afterwards Cardinal Archbishop of
Paris, who always retained a fatherly interest
in her. All her family were present on this
occasion.
Her profession retreat, like that of her
clothing, was spent in aridity, but she cared
little for that ; in fact she was glad to give
rather than to receive and often repeated
Sister Teresa s verses which urged her to be
generous :
Twas love that made of Thee an exile here,
Jesus my God, Victim of love for me !
Then take the cycle of my life as Thine,
For I would suffer, I would die for Thee !
After having given herself entirely to our
Lord, the novice strove more earnestly than
ever to follow in the steps of the angel of
our Carmel. It was strange that though, while
in the world, Yvonne felt her presence near
32 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
her constantly and an affection for her which
often made her weep, yet it ceased directly she
entered the convent. Still, she lived in the
spirit of her patroness, whose example was
continually held up to her and whose counsels
were heard; it was also owing to her that the
young nun s life as a Carmelite was offered
specially for priests.
Among her notes (which were never written
except under obedience) is the following :
"I came to Carmel, like little Teresa, chiefly
with the intention of sacrificing myself for
priests, realising how God must delight in the
soul of a priest and its immense influence
over the salvation and sanctification of other
souls. I have always kept this object of my
religious life in view and I feel confident that
after I die, I shall be able to help priests
specially ; I will make my dear Saint known
to them and induce them to follow in
her steps."
As regards herself, her efforts were centred
on entering the short, unfailing road that soon
attains to heaven. She practised the simple,
continual self-denial and abnegation that
characterised Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus.
"I have always been careful whenever I felt
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 33
a slight attachment to anything to mortify
myself at once. For instance, I always liked
my linen to be scrupulously clean, and as I
noticed that I was annoyed when for any
reason I received it less often, I realised that
I cared too much about it. I therefore took
means of changing it less frequently and soon
became indifferent in the matter, except as
regards neatness and reverence. I felt strongly
that little things of that kind can hinder
perfect divine union.
"Saint John of the Cross best taught me
this doctrine of detachment which was that of
our "little Teresa." He helped me in every
way to understand her and clearly proved to
me that divine union can only be obtained by
faith and self-denial. He also gave me a love
for the common way and made me distrust
what was singular, for which a mistaken
interpretation of Saint Teresa s words had
given me an attraction. But it was she who
revealed to me what intense love His creatures
can feel for the good God and made me long
to possess such love myself."
Sister Isabel says of the mortification she-
practised :
"I want to describe how the Master has
made me find joy in the cross.
34 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
"After my profession, folio wing the advice that
had been given me, I hastened to the "bleeding
Flower of Calvary " and plucked it continually
with the cross for its stem. This cross was*
the daily, perpetual mortification of our austere
life: austere indeed for one who refuses nothing
to the good God and who is perfectly faithful
to the Rule and duty. I no longer sought for
imaginary crosses and dreamt of them no
more, and as I received each day the grace to
bear my daily cross, I carried it cheerfully,
finding by experience that the first step is the
hardest, and that the generous acceptance of
a light cross brings with it a deep peace which
gives strength for greater and harder
mortifications.
" Fasting tried me very much : I found it
very hard to work in the morning on fast-days,
as I was obliged to do for several years while
I had sole charge of the refectory and swept
and dusted it. The weight of the Breviary at
Matins gave me a back-ache which was so
increased by the weight of our mantle on feast
days that as a rule, my prayer only consisted
in offering to God my poor back, which
occupied all my thoughts. When, later on,
I was forbidden to perform the penance of the
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 35-
Rule in such matters as fasting, want of sleep,
and other things, illness supplied their place.
I was very glad, as, had it been left to me, I
should have preferred, except in certain
moments of temptation, to take no care of my
health and to keep my Rule exactly."
Her confidences about exterior and interior
mortification are of a more recent date.
"Although acting with simplicity, I liked to
offer our Lord sufferings which were unknown
to others. For several weeks one winter I used
to be attacked every evening with a raging
toothache. I was glad to give it to God in
secret, but I thought it better to tell Mere
Marie-Ange who was then prioress, as to soothe
the pain which was caused by the cold I was
obliged to sleep in my clothes and feared it
would be against obedience to do so without
permission.
"God made me understand the vanity of
continually asking advice of superiors. Nature
loves it, for it soothes pride to be noticed. I
took an opposite course, and as soon as the
elections of 1909 were over, I arranged with our
Mother (who agreed to allow me to follow my
own way) that my sole direction should be to
ask her advice in case I needed it. I grew in
36 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
detachment and self-contempt. When I
received light of which I should have liked
to speak or when my soul was troubled and I
wanted to complain, I said to myself: Say
nothing: our mother has light enough; she
does not need mine; she hears enough about
suffering and temptations; I will not weary her
with mine. Then I thanked God for His
graces and allowed my pains and temptation
to be forgotten".
A few months after Sister Isabel of the
Sacred Heart was professed, Mere Marie- Ange,
who was still in the novitiate, fell seriously ill.
We knew that our little Sister Isabel possessed
strong good qualities and suspected that her
virtue was exceptional, for the hidden violet
is discovered by its scent. From that time we
let her see that we trusted her, but she still
descended lower and lower into the "fertile
valley of humility;" she was glad to "live
unknown and be made of no account". She
no longer dreamt of becoming "somebody"
and only cared to become a saint and make
one of the legion of little souls for which
Sister Teresa asked our Lord. Her soul was
transformed and all things appeared to her in
& new light. "It seemed as though scales had
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 37
fallen from my eyes", she said. Her behaviour
to her family in the past caused her the
deepest regret. She was heart-broken at the
thought of what they had suffered from her
mistaken piety, her want of real self-denial
and her selfish lack of consideration. She never
ceased to grieve over it as long as she lived
but comforted herself by trusting that God
would allow her to make full amends to them
in heaven.
The year 1908 was a trying one for her in
every way. Her health, which had appeared
excellent before her profession, seemed now to
be seriously affected and we were obliged to
take care of her during the summer.
She told us how, without using any decep
tion, she had managed to appear strong and
well before taking her vows.
"I entered Carmel resolved to act upon the
principle which I interpreted too literally, of
working as long as my strength lasted before
owning that I was tired. Thinking that it was
wrong to complain of anything but severe ill
ness, from the first I made it a rule to take no
notice of any discomfort or weariness but to
answer almost invariably when questioned
38 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
about ray health: "I am quite well." Conse
quently, I was spared no hardships arid was
not allowed to indulge in what appeared to
be whims in respect to food and clothes. In
this way I offered many a "hidden flower and
little sacrifice" to Jesus, but so unsuspected
were they that Mere Marie- Ange, who was also
in the novitiate but who was given a certain
amount of authority over me, went so far as
to say: "I must scold and try you, or with
such good health as yours there would be
nothing to suffer!"
During 1908, interior sufferings were added
to her bodily pains: she felt a disgust for
everything, and absolute dryness; the heavens
seemed like lead. Added to this, the devil
appeared permitted to torture her, for she lived
in the midst of perpetual terrors, with an es
pecial fear of evil spirits and thunderstorms.
The smallest cloud in the sky had such an effect
on her that she had to go indoors, and when
no cloud could be seen, she was uneasy about
the storm that might break next day. She
was delivered from the latter trial by persever
ing and trustful prayer to Sister Teresa of the
Child Jesus.
HER LIFE AT C ARM EL 39
Her fear of seeing the evil one inspired these
lines :
One rsight I feared a visit from the fiend,
But suddenly I lost all sense of dread
As flashed across my mind "The hour is come"
The words before His death the Saviour said
"The prince of this world cometh, but in Me
He hath not anything," declared our Lord.
Nor hath he aught in me, since all my sins
Are pardoned and rny soul to grace restored.
With all my miseries and ignorance,
Grieving I offer them again to Thee,
With all that gives the devil power to harm
Oh ! let me never his dire vision see !
This poor girl had suffered from a timidity
from earliest childhood which seems to have
culminated in a kind of martyrdom during
this year. She declared later on that her great
est sufferings came from her imagination, al
though she had had very severe and real pain
to bear. She sympathised deeply with others
like herself and told us playfully that when
she was in heaven she should feel great pity
for cowards and should do her best to help
them in fact she would be quite willing to
become their patroness although the title
would not do her much honour.
40 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
When, shortly after she left the novitiate, an
affection of her knee was cured by our little
saint, she seemed to enter upon a new phase.
So far she had only been a very fervent nun
walking dutifully in the road traced for her,
but henceforth we venture to say that she
initiated, marching boldly forward, exploring
the horizon, eager for light and convinced that
God intended to bestow fresh light upon her.
She resembled some splendid butterfly which
leaves its chrysalis, and spreads its wings, soar
ing far above the beaten track of men.
But before, she could say, like her sister
in heaven:
I know Thy secrets, for I am Thy bride, hell
delivered a violent assault upon her.
"For some days," she wrote, "I have under
gone a singular trial during which my will,
calm and at peace, has witnessed a violent on
slaught delivered against my soul by the
demon of pride. It reminded me of the war
between the good and bad angels: an accursed
voice exclaimed within my heart I would
rather possess nothing than possess all from
God: rather would I be annihilated than
receive beatitude and eternal glory as an alms-
given out of compassion.
HER LIFE AT CARMBL 41
"I clung by my will close to Him I loved,
anxiously awaiting the end of the battle with
out feeling the blows, resisting without effort;
indeed I even smiled at the furious attack,
anticipating that it was the fore-runner of great
graces, in which hope I was not mistaken. In
a short time I found myself united to God in
a way new to me and the words of our Lord
to Saint Teresa when He raised her to the
spiritual nuptials perpetually recurred to me:
"Show zeal for My honour like a true bride."
A zeal for souls and a longing to spend myself
for my divine Bridegroom consumed my heart."
Mother Isabel describes as follows the grace
of union which came after her trial :
"During prayer on the evening of the third
day I entered the interior of my soul, and
seemed to descend into the giddy depths of an
abyss where I had the impression of being
surrounded by limitless space. Then I felt
the presence of the Blessed Trinity, realising
my own nothingness, which I understood
better than ever before, and the knowledge
was very sweet. The divine Immensity in which
I was plunged and which filled me had the same
sweetness. My joy at seeing my own nothing
ness equalled my indignation at it during
those three days.
42 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
"This grace gradually grew weaker, but lasted
for a long while. For many months I never
opened a book during prayer; it was enough
for me to descend into the abyss. My soul
resembled a tiny shell floating peaceful and
solitary, upon a shoreless ocean. What a joy
it was! Now I often say to m} r self: let me
descend! but the scene is changed: I can no
longer find the deep abyss nor the infinite
space around me The good God has come to
the surface!
Some time afterwards she wrote:
"The light which has filled my soul since 1
entered the "Little way" has not come from
books but from the Holy Ghost, although I
have had neither ecstasies nor visions. My
prayer time always passed either in dryness
and in struggling against distractions, in trying
to forget the pains in my stomach, or in keep
ing my mind at rest in the presence of God
Whom I felt within my heart. I think that the
latter was a form of prayer of quiet, an obscure
contemplation in which, as with our saint,
"the Master instructed me without the sound
of words." I felt with delight that He was
beautifying my soul. I was like a flower
endowed with consciousness and able to love
HER LIFE AT C ARM EL
and enjoy the sun which had made it bloom
and given it colour.
"Without seeing anything with the eyes
either of the body or the soul I realised that
God was present, I felt His gaze bent on me
full of gentleness and affection, and that He
smiled kindly upon me. I seemed plunged in
God.
"My imagination was submissive and did
not act. I did not hear any noise that might
be going on around me. My soul looked fixedly
into the gaze invisibly bent on me and my
heart repeated untiringly "My God, I love
Thee!" While reiterating it with obscure but
deep joy, I longed that the divine gaze, the
spiritual Sun, should cause the virtues to
flourish in my soul, and was conscious that
my longing was granted and that this profound
peace and simple act of love concealed an in
comprehensible activity. Sometimes, remem
bering that our Mother, Saint Teresa, said that
when we feel we are so near the King we should
make our petitions to Him, I used to plead
for souls; but as a rule I did not pause for
that, being convinced that to repeat My God,
I love Thee! pleased Him better and included
all the rest."
44 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
There were times more favourable for mak
ing her petitions. During her illness in 1911
she wrote:
"My desires are infinite. . . I have often made
them known: firstly, the salvation of souls, of
all the souls now on earth and of those which
will exist until the end of the world; then that
divine love may reign in every soul; that those
consecrated to God, especially priests, may
reach the height of sanctity to which their
vocation calls them; to obtain baptism for
infants; that Purgatory may free its captives
and may be closed for ever by souls being
taught how to fly straight to heaven on leaving
this world; that physical and bodily pain may
be consoled, soothed, and to a great extent
abolished. Yet these desires, like Saint Teresa s,
become very grievous when I reflect that Jesus
Himself could not obtain the salvation of all
souls, nor make Himself loved by all, nor save
them all from the tortures of Purgatory or from
Lirnbo. I am troubled by the profound mystery
of God s will being frustrated in His wishes by
the contrary designs of His creatures, and
I pray: "Father, since this is so, I entreat
Thee to grant as far as possible the longings
of the Heart of Jesus, for all His desires are
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 45
mine," and this brings rne peace.
"This was, for a long time, my only way of
hearing Mass. When the sacred Host was up
raised after the words of Consecration, I used
to say: "Father, behold Thy beloved Son in
"Whom Thou has set all Thy pleasure; hear
Him!" This "Hear Him!" which expressed all
my longings, meant: "Grant all He asks;
realise all His desires!"
Sister Isabel wrote during the same year.
"The words of Sister Teresa of the Child
Jesus : " It is true that I shall see God in heaven r
but I am with Him quite as much on earth
as I shall be there" made rne aspire higher.
I thought that this was not a private conviction
of our saint, but that she was announcing, with
striking lucidity, a mystery of love which per
haps no one had ever ventured to believe or
proclaim before. I, in my turn, believed this
mystery;! believed that God, being Almighty,
can give Himself in this world to His creature
o
as He does in heaven. I believed that I might
hope for this privilege myself, and I have
enjoyed it and enjoy it still in very truth. I
do indeed believe that God has granted me to
love Him and to be as united to Him here in
as high a degree as 1 shall love and be united
-46 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
with Him in heaven, although in a mysterious
and unconscious manner.
"This light produced fresh light. My love
for God made me long to bo God so that I
might bestow the Divinity on Him and sink
into nothingness. This impulse of my heart
coming from such a poor finite, miserable,
little creature like myself taught me that He,
Who is generosity itself, could not show less
generosity than mine for Him I love, and I
concluded that the words of the Holy Spirit:
"You are Gods," should be taken literally.
Yes; God will make us like Himself; He will
communicate to us all of His being that can
be communicated ; He will, so to say, put His
Divinity at our feet and "will serve us" as
Jesus said. For God is infinitely humble,
which is to me His dearest attribute. He will
be glad to do this for His insignificant little
creatures, for love naturally abases itself
before the beloved, but this abasement will not
lessen His glory.
"Our Teresa preferred love to all the other
divine attributes; to her, love was seen in all
the rest of God s perfections. 1 feel sure that
she meant by this, that Love, if I may venture
to say so, is more than a divine attribute: Love
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 47
is God Himself, since Saint John said "God is
love". Therefore, if God and Love are one, it is
not difficult to prove that we can expect noth
ing from God but gentleness, affection, mercy,
devotion, kindness, and compassion; we may
feel sure that we have naught to fear from His
severity or His justice unless we commit the
sin against the Holy Ghost which cannot be
forgiven, and that sin is to despise and reject
Love. The faithful children of God should
never harbour a dread of divine chastisement
and judgment, which are only meant for those
who are His enemies.
"After all these beautiful thoughts," the
humble nun writes, " I am as weak and as
miserable as possible; I lament about nothing
and almost fall into despair about some trifle,
which convinces me that the light comes from
.above and that if the Saviour abandoned nie
for an instant I should sink into vice and be
lost eternally. When I feel on the edge of
the abyss and dread lest I should become dizzy,
I say the prayer of Blessed Margaret-Mary:
loving Heart ! I put all iny trust in Thee for
I fear all from my Aveakness, but I hope all
from Thy mercy! and after this act of confi
dence I am completely reassured."
48 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
To return to Sister Isabel s religious life. At
the elections in November, 1909, after the
death of Mere Marie- Ange, she was made Sub-
Prioress at the age of twenty-seven. The
community knew little of her, although she
had been asked to read to the novices and to
correct their exterior faults. She had been
second portress and had helped with the cor
respondence. Strange to say, in spite of the
literary talent she developed later on, Sister
Isabel was at a discount here at first as in all
else.
Soon after being put into her new office, she
was made mistress of novices. She treated
those in her charge with great simplicity. She
ruled them with "compassion and love" but
would not allow them to seek her direction for
their personal pleasure. "You came to Carmel
to find God," she used to say; "Seek Him in
solitude of heart where alone He can be
found." She told other novices who persisted
in remaining near her under the pretext of
wanting light: "Light is given to obedient
souls: go back to your cell where it is awaiting
you."
"I often made my novices bear the cross/
she told us, "especially what is most sanctify-
HER LIFE AT CAP.MEL 49
ing in the cross, that is, what brings disgrace
rather than physical pain, for what mor
tifies the mind and the heart is far more
meritorious than bodily mortification. I also
required the latter from them sometimes, such
as bearing without complaint whatever dis
comfort we feel, as our Mothers did in former
times and as our little saint constantly used
to do; I mean such things as cold, heat, ill-
cooked food, ill-fitting clothes, suffering in
silence annoyances not injurious to health. As
for instruments of penance, with the exception
of the disciplines ordered by the Constitutions,
I was afraid they might be instruments of
vanity for the novices as I found that they
used to preoccupy my own mind and prevent
my fixing my thoughts on God. It is plain to
me that, our life being one of constant morti
fication, we do better, except in the case of a
special call from God, to expend our fervour in
fulfilling the Kule, which is the expression of
the divine will and includes all the suffering
needed for our higher sanctification, instead of
performing acts of supererogation which often
come from self-will."
50 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
In her poem on "Spiritual Childhood," she
makes Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus say:
The limit of our love is that our love
Be limitless ; yet we must be discreet
Lest nature lead us to commit excess
In self-denial.
Christ s will it is alone that immolates
To follow that is holocaust complete....
.And again:
He said : " Take up thy cross " ! Tis then by this,
By taking up we find it : tis concealed
In virtue, victory of the tempted soul,
And ill repealed.
The cross is in our work, the pains of life,
In all the griefs, the wounds that crush the heart ;
In loss of friends, in illness and in tears
It has its part.
Unseen, it hides within the kindly act
Man shows to man, the deed that costs him dear ;
In gentleness, in peace within the home,
The cross is here.
Even in charity the cross is found
By the soul languishing for God, its Joy,
Which holds all bitter save its Good supreme
Without alloy.
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 51
Sister Isabel wrote to a novice :
" Never cease to mortify yourself in every
way as long as you live." These words of our
Mother, Saint Teresa, have sounded in my ears
during the Avhole of my religious life, but
particularly during my novitiate. If we con
tinually mortify ourselves, the bitterness of the
cross becomes sweet and we find more consol
ation in sacrifice than in consolation itself.
Let your love for sacrifice and the cross be
vehement, and the cross will once more be the
instrument of your salvation."
She told another novice who was frightened
by the words of Sister Teresa of the Child
Jesus : " The more we wish to be given up to
love, the more must we be given over to
suffering."
" To be given over to suffering " means to
submit ourselves as readily as the victim in
the hands of the priest to the petty mortifi
cations which occur continually in the relig
ious life or in the life of perfect Christians in
the world. To be given over to suffering is to
be perfectly faithful and vigilant in the practice
of virtue."
" There are people (do not be of their
number) who understand these words in quite
52 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
another sense : for them it is a tragic warning :
"Be wary of what you wish for : you long to be
given up to love. Take care; God is watching
you, and as soon as you are given up to Him
you will be tortured. If our saint had meant
this, she would have contradicted her own
teaching which she could have no longer
maintained. She, who ceaselessly called "little
souls " to the love of the good God, who
describes their heavenly Father as being as
tender and compassionate as a mother, would
have suddenly changed her tone and told them
that God is a tyrant and that those who
abandon themselves to Him can expect from
Him nothing but suffering ! . . . No doubt
this must have been the idea of the Carmelite
nun at X who did not dare to offer herself
to the merciful love of God lest the spiritual
troubles from which she always suffered
severely should become unbearable. After
struggling with herself for a long while, she at
last made the offering in fear and trembling.
What was her surprise at finding herself
filled at once with unspeakable grace and
completely delivered from all her former
sufferings ! " The shrewd novice-mistress soon
discovered when any zealous project was
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 53
exaggerated, and said to a newly professed nun
who wished to offer her life for the salvation
of religious.
" What a fruitful illusion ! " Fruitful " in
the sense that it would furnish you with
countless dreams that would come to nothing.
You must be more simple and humble : offer
to the heavenly Father, Jesus, the great, the
divine Victim, Whose sacrifice suffices for all
and for everything, and could purchase a
million worlds and more as well."
She wrote to another :
" The good God is powerful enough to grant
us all the graces we ask of Him without any
need of our offering Him compensations, as,
for instance that we should ask for desolations
for ourselves in order that others may be con
soled. The Master is kind and merciful
enough to console all of us. Confidence in
His liberality honours Him far more than
petty bargaining." She was not fond of self-
examination ; one of her novices kept this
note from her :
"Meditate on Teresa s words: "When charity
entered my heart I felt that I must forget self,
.and henceforth 1 was happy."
54 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACKED HEART
" All your troubles and discouragement
comes from thinking too much of self, of your
virtue, your sanctity, and the beauty of your
soul. From the spiritual point of view, you
are a little coquette who cares too much for
dress. Believe me, the best way is to forget
self : that is the secret of happiness."
She tells us how she discerned whether a
soul was walking by the " little way :"
;c It seems to me that the touchstone by
which we can discover unmistakeably whether
a soul is walking by the " little way," is to
inquire into its feelings of joy or sadness
regarding its imperfections and falls. If it
owns that it is saddened and discouraged by
interior humiliation, I think it has only started
on " the way," but if the sight of its misery
gives it peace and joy, and it prizes its own
powerlessness above all treasures, because it
relies for its sanctity on earth and its glory in
heaven solely on divine mercy, then I think it
is well on " the way."
" This seems to me the essential point in
our little saint s teaching and when this is
established, light about details comes by
degrees. But the joy felt at the sight of our
own weakness of which I speak is not a joy
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 55
which we can force ourselves to feel ; it does
not come from outside but from the depths of
our being ; it is independent of the will, and
springs from the inmost recesses of our heart,
embracing even the inferior and sensitive part
of the soul. Its source is the Holy Ghost,
which explains all.
" Then, is this joy a grace ? Certainly it is,
but though it cannot be acquired by our own-
efforts, it can be obtained by prayer. However,
the effort we make to face our own miseries
cheerfully appeals to divine love; as Sister
Teresa says in her charming way, we have
mounted a stair or two and Jesus comes down
and, like a lift, takes the soul and raises it to
the summit of the " little way " which is so
simple yet so grand in its love and truth."
One day she told a novice that she could
not become a saint in a day ; the latter
answered, " Mother, you are contradicting the
words of Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus, for
she said : God does not need time to perfect
His work of love in a soul. One ray from His
Heart suffices to bring the flower into bloom
for all eternity. "
Although it is rather long, we print entire
the well-judged answer given by the young
novice -mistress :
56 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
" It would be a mistake to interpret these
words literally. The speaker was thinking of
herself a saint already, a blossom riot yet
opened, but a marvellous bud only awaiting a
ray from the divine Sun to blossom into beauty.
She did not state that one ray from the Heart
of Jesus could make a branch, with neither
stalk nor bud, bear a flower. She was speaking
of a flower which only needed opening. If we
compare perfect sanctity to a flower, we must
liken souls entering the spiritual life to a green
stein in which the sap is mounting but whose
blossom is only in prospect, the germ being
hidden within a small twig. The little plant
must have been watered many a time and
the sun have risen and set again and again
before the flower will appear.
" In the first ages of the world God took
centuries in completing His work of sanctifi-
cation in souls. Later on ; He shortened the
life of man, yet we hear of holy hermits, hidden
in the desert from their childhood, who prac
tised heroic virtues until extreme old age. In
our days God seems in greater haste to fulfil
our longing to see Him face to face and by
raising a galaxy of young saints to the Altar
proves that He can accomplish His work of
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 57
sanctification in a few years. But, at least, let
us leave Him these few years which are almost
indispensable if we are to make any personal
effort towards it. True, He is free to sanctify
a soul without any co-operation of its own, to
raise an innocent being to the highest ranks
of heaven, bestowing on it greater glory and
love than on souls which have worked long for
Him on earth, yet, considering that God likes
to see us work humbly and trustingly together
with Him, I doubt whether He actually does
wheat we cannot deny in theory that He might
do. Surely He would prefer the company in
heaven of a soul that had lived in intimacy
with Him through contemplating the mysteries
of His mortal life of one which had loved
Him in prosperity and misfortune, which
had worked for Him by helping Him to save
souls and which had striven through the cloud
of faith to know and love Him as in the
Beatific Vision. Would He not take greater
pleasure in this soul, whose loving trust
depended on Him to raise it to sanctity, than
He would in the soul of an infant who died
after having been baptized, so that He could not
recall to its mind any such reminiscences ?
"On the other hand, God Who created time
-58 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
and Who has fixed our existence at an epoch of
time, uses time as one of the principal agents
of our sanctification. I know well that His
means are not limited and that He Who created
nature can easily supersede nature s laws.
But I also know that God, like a wise law-giver,
or rather, as One Who respects His Own work,
does not continually make exceptions to His
laws nor does He usually sanctify His predes
tinated by means of miracles.
"Doubtless He often overwhelms them with
some prodigy to effect their conversion, but
after that He always works by the same
system: self-denial. And what would that
self-denial be worth which lasted but a few
days, or weeks, or months? It takes several
years for neglect, desolation, arid profound
humiliation to do their work, in us. There
must be more than a year s novitiate before
the soul can say: " Now I have learnt my real
worthlessness; the silence which weighs upon
me, the humiliation which crushes me are not
& passing trial: I know that they will stay to
the end. "At first, the soul does not think
so; it imagines that it is but a passing storm
arid that it will soon revive. But when she
sees the years roll by bringing no change, when
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 59
no one ever mentions her, and -she is more
forgotten and neglected than ever, she realises
that it is no longer a plan designed to humble
her but a state in which she will probably
spend her life. I give this as an example, but
I could have cited many others, such as ill
ness. What abnegation and patience is
required when we are ill for years and cannot
tell when we shall either recover or die!
"Our Lord Himself proved to us by His
hidden life at Nazareth that our heavenly
Father requires us to work for years. Jesus
might well have left his carpentry and have
begun to preach when He was twenty years of
"God created us with more nobility than we
suppose and shows us astonishing respect; He
would lessen our grandeur did He not leave
us time to exercise our liberty; He wishes to
make friends of us and therefore leaves us
time to show our friendship for Him. The
friendship of a day, which has undergone no
trials, is brittle and we dare not depend on it,
but how sweet a thing is an old friendship
which has resisted every obstacle; how we
trust the old friend of whom we are as sure as
of ourselves!"
60 MOTHKR ISABEL OF THE SACKED HEART
Meanwhile the Mother Sub-Prioress spent
all the time left her by her eight novices in
working for her who had led her to Lisieux.
A few months after her election, the process of
the beatification of Sister Teresa of the Child
Jesus was brought forward and she was chosen
as witness of the holy nun s reputation for
sanctity in France and in other countries, and
undertook the long work of her deposition.
This deposition, which was noticed favourably
by the members of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal,
filled one of six large volumes forming the
process.
Before appearing as witness, Mother Isabel
spent the last months of 1910 in revising the
Pluie de Roses which had appeared some years
before. She re- wrote it almost entirely.
Henceforth she undertook this laborious work
at the end of every year and it cost her dear.
She liked to compose, to write down her
thoughts, to give reins to her imagination or
to pour out her heart, but this was a work of
patience performed simply as a duty. This
being so, it was very meritorious of her to
undertake by her own wish the third edition
of "La Pluie des Roses \ a volume of 550 pages
of close, small print, and also, on her death-
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 61
bed, weak and feverish as she was, to continue
and finish the fourth edition with its striking
preface a larger work than the former edition
which she had brought out, and at which she
had begun to work during the year 1913.
When she appeared before the tribunal in
February, 1911, an epidemic of influenza raged
in the community and in spite of her delicate
health, the Mother Sub-Prioress was almost the
only nun who escaped it.
In the midst of the consequent disorder,
anxiety and trouble which reigned for several
weeks, her soul was at peace in perfect union
with God. Much had passed since the time
when little Sister Isabel of the Sacred Heart
would willingly have sacrificed everything to
prayer, even the duties charity required. As
we said, for some years she had understood
that divine union is brought about by self-
renunciation and conformity of our will with
that of Him we love. She had written the
year before: "Like little Teresa, I know by
what passes in my soul that I shall not be long
in this world." On Christmas Day of the same
year, after the midnight Mass, we put in her
cell this short note from the Infant Jesus,
little thinking what deep pleasure it would
62 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACKED HEART
cause her: "As for you, my dearest bride,
you have risen above all systems and theories,
and rest on My Heart in the deepest union
that can be imagined in this world." These
words confirmed her forebodings and filled her
with unspeakable joy.
When the influenza was over, as her soul
was devoured by the ardent longing for heaven
which had never left her since her conversion,
she entreated our Lord to take pity on her
and at least to give her a sign that she would
not live more than two or three years. She
wished that our little saint should appear
to bring her the message, but Jesus preferred
to deliver it Himself.
She had been suffering severely for some
days with a violent sore throat, fever, and its
accompanying pains. On May 24, the Eve
of the Ascension, her exhaustion was so great
that she was ordered to go to bed at six
o clock. When we told her that we felt very
anxious about her, she reassured us by saying
"You need not be alarmed, Mother; you will
find me cured to-morrow morning."
However, next morning brought us a painful
surprise; during the night, in the first hour of
His feast-day, our Lord, as He rose to heaven,
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 63
had called His little bride, giving her, as a sign
of His summons, such a violent attack of
hemorrhage of the lungs that we thought she
would die. Another still more serious attack
occurred during the night of the twenty-eighth.
With her strong sense of discretion, Mother
Isabel would not at first recognise in this
anything but the sign she had asked for; she
refused to let herself be mastered by the hope
of a speedy death, fearing lest she might be
mistaken and her mistake might cause her
sadness and temptations. But as she saw we
were convinced that her end was near, she at
length consoled herself with the dream of
leaving this world for her true fatherland in
the near future.
However, weeks passed by; the rupture had
healed, and she had to resign herself to living
longer. God preserved her precious life to us
for three years more. May He be praised for it!
We no longer imposed "hard lessons" on
the "little soul" but confided in her frankly,
of which she humbly took full advantage: "I
had consented to be weaned from all human
love for the love of God", she owned; "and
for a time He accepted the sacrifice, letting
me taste its bitterness, but when He saw that
64 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE gACRKD HEART
the immolation was complete and that I did
not wish to renounce it in this world, He gave
me back more than I had ever dared to hope
for, so that I too can say: "I have received all
good things since I no longer sought them
out of self-love."
When the invalid rose again she was very
much tempted to give way to sadness. One
day, after she had been complaining a little,
she said:
"I have been thinking that my impatience
to go to heaven was very ungrateful to God.
I have regretted it deeply and have promised
to wait peacefully for as long as He likes until
He comes to fetch me. But 1 do not say
Though He should slay me, I will still hope
in Him : my heroism consists in saying
Though He should cure me, I will still hope
in Him. I found comfort in the thought
which suddenly occurred to me that I am not
kept here to embellish my crown, but to give
glory to God and to help the Church."
This rendered her exile less bitter, and she
summoned up courage to live amidst pri
vations, for she did not leave her cell during
the whole winter except to hear Mass and to
receive Holy Communion in the oratory. In
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 65
February she had a fresh attack of hemorrhage
which made us think that the end was near.
But her trials were not over, and some months
later she was about again and nearly as strong
as ever, so that she was able to go to Matins.
During the autumn and winter before and the
spring following her illness, she accomplished
an enormous amount of work. She revised and
finished her long poem The little Way of
spiritual childhood, (1) consisting of between
five and six hundred verses, written for a
community festival; another poem of equal
length entitled Divine tenderness, (2) a spirit
ual treatise on the same subject as the first
poem, a short account of the foundation of
the Carmel of Lisieux, and the life of Mother
Genevieve of St. Teresa, its foundress. Among
her other works may be mentioned her Hymn
to obtain the beatification of Sister Teresa of
the Child Jesus, (3) also the short life of
that saintly young nun which was translated
into twenty other languages and dialects, and
which gives a perfect epitome not only of the
life but of the power of intercession of Sister
Teresa.
(i). La petite voie d enfance spirituelle.
(2), La Douceur divine. (3). Cantique.
68 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACKKD HEAliT
The Italian edition of this pamphlet contains
tin excellent introduction written entirely by
Monsignor della Chiesa, then Archbishop of
Bologna, now Pope Benedict XV.
During September of the year 1912, Mother
Sub-Prioress was visited by her father, her
aunt and family. For their sakes as well as-
ours she was glad her health was better and
.tried to rejoice at being able, by degrees, to
resume all the duties of religious life.
The community were deceived and thought
that this improvement would last, so that, after
the elections, at the end of November, greatly
to our satisfaction, she was put back into her
place as Sub-Prioress, and showed herself
more affectionate, attentive, and self- sacrific
ing than ever.
The nuns were rewarded for their confidence
HS until the end of September she was able to
take part in most of our duties. But on
October 2, the hemorrhage returned and she
was soon obliged to resign herself to remain in
bed where she lay, busy and smiling, working
whenever fever or weakness left her strength
to hold her pen or pencil, teaching, advising,
and consoling her novices whenever she was
able to speak. It was then that we fully
HER LIFE AT C ARM EL 67
understood the change wrought in her soul
When she came from the world she was
wanting in simplicity, undeceived about the
world, and almost weary of it, yet, throughout
her illness, she was as gay and simple as a
child.
For the last five or six years she had shown
her love by constantly offering to God the
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and
two years before her death her whole being
passed into this sacrifice. On March 7, 1912,
the little victim of merciful Love said: "When
the holocaust is offered, it is certainly consumed ;
henceforth I wish to be a sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving."
It was not merely in theory that this
grateful soul consecrated itself to praising and
thanking all-merciful Love. All she said
witnessed to her affection and wonder at
the divine goodness. She always placed such
a construction upon what appeared the
harshness of Providence as to manifest the
divine tenderness.
At the end of September, 1911, she wrote:
"I was thinking the other night of the war
of which I had been told. It appeared to me
for the first time, not as a punishment but as
68 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
a loving correction meant by God to bring back
His children to the right path. He has tried
every kind of gentle means, and as these have
failed and His children persevere in their wick
edness or indifference, the heavenly Father
is imitating a doctor who, when every rem
edy has proved unsuccessful in healing a
wound, and all the resources of his art have
been exhausted, as the wound begins to fester,
has recourse to the knife and to cauterisation.
"The war will be the divine Surgeon s
instrument to save the life of the world in its
old age, gangrened as it is by impiety and
every vice.
"Yes, I do indeed believe that God is
always our Saviour; that His actions are al
ways prompted by mercy, even in the most
terrible disasters, and that only at the end of
the world will His goodness give place to His
justice. Although the ruin of Jerusalem
seems to me a punishment, it is the figure of
the last judgment."
The sole cloud upon her happiness was the
thought of the grief her death would cause her
father, her two mothers, one in the world, the
other in the cloister, the members of her
community, and her novices who she knew
HER LIFE AT CARMKL
loved her deeply. But when she learnt that
Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus had suffered
from the same fear and had asked Saint Joseph
to prevent anyone sorrowing at her death, our
dear Mother Sub-Prioress made the same
prayer confidently and from that time when
ever tempted to feel sad, she renewed her act
of trust and was happy again.
She was so devoted to our Father, Saint
Joseph, that during the last year of her life she
consecrated herself to him as fully as to our
Lady, the only difference being that she said:
Conduct me to Mary that she may give me
her Jesus, so that all may pass from me to
thee on its way to her!"
One day she told us how she wished the
Church would add his name to the Confiteor.
"How T should like to confess to Saint
Joseph!" she said. Perhaps some extracts
from this true Carmelite s writings on the Holy
Family would be appropriate here.
" I have lived for so long in spiritual intim
acy with the Holy Family on earth that I shall
feel that I have been with them before when
I meet them in heaven. I shall talk to our
Lady and Saint Joseph about what, in love
and imagination, I saw them doing, I shall
70 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
remind them of our hidden life of faith to
gether; I shall recall the time when we used to
long for the coming of Christ in men s souls,
and shall rejoice with them in His triumph.
How delightful it will be! I feel that I really
belong to the Ho]y Family, not as their servant
but as their little adopted daughter, and I
know by experience how happy and beloved
such a child is when the parents are affectionate
and kind. My pleasantest recollections in this
life are those of the hours passed in the homes
of Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. ... If it
has been such unspeakable joy to live ivith
them in faith in earthly exile, what will it be
to enjoy their presence face to face!"
She writes, speaking of their life of faith:
"What simplicity there is in the interior
lives of Mary and Joseph ! Theirs was more a
life of faith than ours is. We know all the
mysteries and are assured of their fulfilment;
the humilations of Bethlehem or Calvary are
effaced for us in the glories of the Resurrection
and the Ascension, while Mary and Joseph
only witnessed Christ s abasement. Had they
not continually kept in mind the mystery of
the Incarnation, had they given way to the
influences surrounding them, their souls might
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 71
have become dulled by doubt. What vigil
ance, what fortitude, their faith required!
Joseph must have died before Jesus began His
life as the Messiah, so that he lived and died
in pure faith. Mary had to wait thirty years
before her Son manifested Himself, and after
that she witnessed beside His miracles the
growing opposition of the Jews; the enthusiasm
of some among them contrasted with the
unbelief and hatred of the greater number,
finally, she saw the crowning wonder of Calvary
which seemed to set its seal upon the failure
of Christ s mission. How heroic was our
Lady s faith! She ought to be called the
Queen of believers, for no human being has
ever equalled or approached her in the
grandeur of her faith. What a joy for us
lesser souls, led by the simple, sure way of
faith, to see our heavenly Mother tread it
first!
O peerless Mother. By the common way
Thou lead et thy children to eternal day !
"It is to meditation on the holy Family that
I owe the love and respect for the poor and for
little ones which has taken the place of the
aversion, and almost disdain, I felt for them
72 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
until I entered Carmel. The lower classes of
society seemed to me a race apart from my
own. It was not until I lived in the cloister
that I truly understood the Evangelical teach
ing that all men are brothers and equal before
God. Before then, I felt a liking for people of
refined appearance, and respect and sympathy
for them, but the reverse for those who looked
poor and ignorant.
"Now it is the very opposite: When I notice
an uneducated handwriting among the cor
respondence I am predisposed to the writer
and am prejudiced against good paper and a
pretentious style. Now I know that the little
ones of this world are much nearer the truth ;
they have reached it if they love their humble
state and do not wish to leave it. It is a
great grace to be born destitute of worldly
goods and honours which are obstacles to
sanctity."
She was humble and devout to the last,
Humility was ever on her lips. One day we,
gave her an article on Lamartine in a
religious magazine. After having read it
she said :
" I had no idea that several of LamartineV
works had been put on the index : I did not
HEB LIFE AT CARMEL 73
think he had so separated himself from the
teaching of the Church. How thankful I
feel that God has preserved me as He has!
With the other gifts He has given me, He
has always inspired me with a deep horror of
pride. From the beginning of my spiritual
life I have always asked Him for a humble
heart, begging Him rather to deprive me of
my wits than to let me sin through pride.
But for some time I have dreaded pride no
longer because I trust in God : it is He
Who protects me from this enemy as He does
from all others ; I have no reason to fear one
more than another for He has power against
them all."
She discovered hidden and mysterious
meanings in the Gospels.
"While reading the Gospels" she writes,
I was struck with our Lord s words : The
kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing his
seed ; whether he sleeps or wakes, the seed
grows.
What a striking image of love ! For the
kingdom of God is the reign of divine love in
our heart. When once this love has been put
into it by the Holy Ghost it continues to
grow even if we feel or see nothing of it, if
74 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
only we " abide in love " by good works. It is
the development of Saint Augustine s words :
" Love, and do what you will." Love increases
in us even during our sleep; our actions
matter little ; so long as they are good, love
grows uninterruptedly in our heart."
She also delighted in some parts of the Old
Testament, as is shown by this fine passage :
"Moses is one of my favourite saints; he
must have been among those raised highest
in love. What trust he had to practise ! He
did indeed walk in " the little way ! " His
books of Exodus and Numbers helped me
immensely by increasing my confidence in
God. On reading his beautiful writings I
asked myself IIOAV it was possible that people
should call the Mosaic religion a religion of
fear. How loving, tender, and merciful the
good God shows Himself towards that un
grateful, rebellious, wicked, and hateful nation.
How full of love is Jehovah from Whom,
Moses so often obtains pardon for the children
of Israel! How kind, how touching, is His
unspeakable care for that hard-hearted people;
what wonderful miracles He multiplies for
their sake, watching over them with a mother s
affection and miraculously providing for all
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 75
their needs! And what intimacy there is be
tween the God, Whom the carnal Jews adore
with trembling, and Moses, to whom He speaks
"as a man is wont to speak to his friend."
(Exod. xxxin, n.)
"No one should maintain that in past times
God hid His loving Heart. It should rather
be said that man was terribly blind, for God
has always been the good God: He has never
been able to hide His love from us and in all
ages has invited souls to the intimacy of this
love and striven to reveal Himself to them.
No ! There has never been a law of fear, it was
merely that men were wicked, and if God is
better loved now it is solely because the
perversity and hardness of the human heart
has been forced to yield to the strength of the
love which, wearied with centuries of waiting,
has cast itself down like a torrent upon the
world by means of the Incarnation and the
Redemption. Love has triumphed because
He willed to triumph and spared nothing to
attain His ends. When we read of the marvels
of this love depicted in the books of Moses we
cannot be surprised at their being crowned by
those of the crib and of the cross. It is plain
that, even in those distant periods, God could
76 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
contain Himself no longer that He was
impatient to give Himself still more by giving
Himself impetuously to His poor little
creatures.
The Spirit of Truth continually taught her
soul. She said one day to her infirmarian:
" While making rny prayer a short time ago
I was thinking that, as clever men like the
company of educated people capable of under
standing and appreciating their work and
value the praise they receive in proportion to
its discrimination, so God loves to be sur
rounded by souls that understand Him,
because their praise renders Him greater glory.
Therefore He is greatly pleased when we beg
Him to reveal Himself to us, so that, knowing
Him as well as a creature can know Him, our
praise may give Him truer glory."
However, one of her novices has kept
these lines written by her: "Intellect and
intelligence are not at all necessary to advance
in "the way." The good God makes faithful
souls understand the mystery of love."
"I think" she wrote, "that there can be no
more secrets of love for God to reveal to me.
"I have but one desire: to love Him as He
has loved me, to give Him all He wished to
HBR LIFE AT CABMEL 77
receive from me, and more still. That is possible.
The perverse will of His creatures often changes
the divine plans, and, in the same way, my
devoted will may change these plans and make
them more sublime. When I offered myself
as a victim of love, was I not asking Him to fill
my soul with the floods of affection which He
cannot pour into the souls of the damned and
the fallen angels ? I begged Him then to trans
pose His graces ; is it not a favour of the same
kind which I ask of Him now?"
The originality of her mind was often
evident both in her words and writings.
Elsewhere she wrote:
"Jesus declared that the calamities of the
latter days would be shortened on account of
the elect. This is the same as though He had
said : We planned to punish the human
race but We know that the saints will pray
and oblige us to modify Our plan." Again,
when He stated : Heaven and earth will pass
away but My words will not pass away. The
meaning of these words to me is hopeful ; I
shall never forget it. I believe, indeed I feel
sure that the confidence of "little souls" will
greatly modify the chastisement of the latter
days ; they will pray and heaven will be
78 MOTHER ISABEL OP THE SACRED HEART
disarmed by the daring and trust shown by
those dear to the Heart of God. It is so easy
to disarm the good God. He is so sorry to
punish, so reluctant to be angry! Nothing
pleases Him so much as to give Him some
excuse to forego His wrath!
O Bliss itself ! It costs Thy loving Heart
A pang to make Thy children feel grief s smart !
"I remember what I used to feel for many
years when the Parce Domine was sung. To
say "Do not be angry with us for ever!" to
the good God Who is full of kindness and mercy
for ever!" I could not understand the prayer.
It is like the Litany of the Sacred Heart:
"Heart of Jesus, filled with reproaches, bruised
for our sins, Victim of sinners," and then,
when rny compassion was deepest for the
divine Lamb Who suffered so intensely to re
deem us, I heard the astonishing response:
" Have mercy on us ! " No, Lord ! Have
mercy on Thyself! Do not allow Thyself to be
misunderstood any longer but provide for
Thyself a multitude of consolers and friends
for Thine outraged Heart! Trouble Thyself
no more about us we are unworthy of it!"
In the following lines humility contends
with the most tender and ardent love;
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 79
"Last night, I could not sleep until nearly
two o clock in the morning, and I remained in
blissful intercourse with God.
"First of all, I meditated on the faults we
may commit through ignorance and I thought
that perhaps I might be guilty enough to
deserve hell and that consequently, but for the
divine mercy, I might fear being condemned.
Then I realised how inexpressibly God condes
cends in stooping down to us, as He has to
me, whom He has overwhelmed with unspeak
able graces, poor, unattractive little soul as it
seems to me that I am. I gave a momentary,
comprehensive glance over my past life and I
saw that what had attracted God to my
nothingness was that, nothing as I am, I had
been willing to accept His preferred love, and
had responded faithfully and trustingly.
"In His adorable humility, He had asked
but one thing of His creature. He had merely
asked it to be willing to receive His gifts, His
graces, His Love! If the creature does not
show contempt for these divine advances, it
is overwhelmed by them. What a monstrous
thing it is that a nonentity, such as we all are,
should show disdain for the offer of friendship
made to it by the Almighty! yet this disdain
80 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
is found in most hearts and the good God
is so destitute of souls that will receive His
graces, that, in His joy at meeting with one,
He is beside Himself and squanders His love.
How could such a soul die, except with ab
solute trust and self-abandonment regarding
its heavenly Father?
However, her trust and self-abandonment
were founded solely on the divine mercy; she
said:
"To reckon on one s own works, even were
they heroic, would be like a stupid country
man who put a farthing into the King s hands
with the idea of enriching him and the
expectation of profuse thanks and a rich re
ward. All our good works are like this farthing
and worth even less."
Like Sister Teresa she concluded:
My hands are empty and I am glad of it,
for, if they were full of my own virtues I
should be afraid of losing them on the journey
or of having them stolen by the devil."
The following lines might have been dictated
by Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus:
"I often renew the sacrifice of myself. I
understand why self-abandonment so appeals
to God. What He loves in it is not the gene-
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 81
rosity of a soul which gives itself up beforehand
to the suffering it knows may be in store for
it and which yields itself willingly to any kind
of anguish or martyrdom. No! It is not that
which delights and touches the divine Heart!
It is the fact that a weak little creature
which feels and knows its own weakness that
a creature beset by fears on every side, should
have such faith in the love and goodness, the
tenderness and kindness of its heavenly Father
as to throw itself blindly into His arms, ex
claiming : I trust in Thee ; I have not
strength to endure anything but I am certain
Thou wilt not tempt me above rny strength;
I trust that Thou wilt bear me in Thine arms
lest my foot stumble against a stone and that,
when death shall have brought me into Thy
presence, Who art my eternal happiness, I
shall wonder at the means by which Thou
hast ensured my everlasting bliss."
Further on, we read:
" I feel no doubt that directly I die I shall
be in the possession of the good God. I shall
be surprised, in heaven, at what I learn about
His power and beauty, but I do not think I
shall have any more to learn about His tender
ness and His love."
82 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
She expresses the same sentiments in this
prayer :
"0 my God! I trust firmly in Thy mercy
that if I were to die at this very instant Thou
would st take me straight to Paradise. It is
on Thy loving kindness alone that I rely for
the expiation of all my faults."
We, in our turn, firmly trust that the divine
loving-kindness will not deceive the bold
confidence of this great soul.
Before speaking of her holy death, we must
say a few words of her joy on the 9th of June,
the day of the introduction of the cause of
Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus. When, at
five o clock in the afternoon, we received the
news we had been anxiously expecting since
midday, Sister Isabel of the Sacred Heart
could not restrain her tears; her hand trem
bled as she held the telegram which she read
again and again:
PAPA PRONUNCIO PLACET INTRODUZIONE
SUOR TERESA.
" How grand everything is that comes from
the Church," she exclaimed.
She implored us to devote three days to
rejoicing and to keep them in a special manner,
although they were to be private, She herself
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 83
composed some songs for the occasion and,
after having devoted herself ungrudgingly to
obtain this first victory, she looked upon it as
her duty to express our grateful joy lo God in
every possible way.
We shared her feelings, and on June 19, 20,
and 21, the whole convent was hung with
garlands of leaves and roses, escutcheons, and
scrolls inscribed with thanksgivings or quo
tations from the words of the servant of God,
preparations for illuminations, etc.
His Lordship Monseigneur Lemonnier, our
Bishop, Monseigneur de Teil, and all the
reverend members of the ecclesiastical tribunal
honoured us with a visit on the first day to
admire our decorations and rejoice with us.
In the community-room the novices, as our
representatives, sang some verses of thanks
composed by their mistress and recited with
great feeling the whole poem of "The little
Way." Monseigneur added a kind word about
our dear Sub-Prioress who was absent.
Holy Communion was taken to her each
day through our flower-wreathed cloisters; two
postulants in white dresses threw blossoms
before the Blessed Sacrament and the invalid s
bed was strewn with roses,
84 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
This reminded her of a dream she had had
two years before in which she saw a coffin
carried by novices and two postulants robed
in white pass through our cloisters, garlanded
with flowers and foliage. She was struck by
the coincidence, which made her think her
death was very near.
This was in fact the case. Towards the
beginning of March, Mother Sub- Prioress was
in a very weak state, owing to her violent
perspiration, fever, and hemorrhage. As the
latter became more serious through the fre
quency of the attacks and the fever ran very
high, it was thought wise to administer the
last Sacraments to her on Friday, July 11.
Her sufferings, hitherto not very severe, soon
became much more acute. Repeated attacks
of hemorrhage caused the most painful sense
of suffocation, accompanied by a burning thirst
which never left her until she died. Oedema
of the chest supervened, accompanied with
terrible spasms of the heart, and, patient and
peaceful as she had always been in the past,
she begged us now with tears to pray "for her.
We made her inhale oxygen, but its effects
lasted but a very short time, and powerless as
we were to soothe her anguish we were almost
HER LIFE AT CARMEL 85
relieved when, on the eve of her death, her
devoted doctor told us that probably she
would not live through the night.
She was greatly consoled during that day,
July 29, on receiving, through the Reverend
Father Rodriguez, postulator of our Cause, a
few lines from our Holy Father, Pope Pius X,
giving us his blessing " in the humble expect
ation that the Most High would make known
His will concerning the servant of God,
Teresa of the Child Jesus."
Our dear daughter seized the precious auto
graph and kissed it fervently.
In the evening, when the community as
sembled round her bed, she remembered that
she had not been able to beg pardon of her
sisters, as her condition had necessitated
absolute silence. She now performed that act
of humility in the most lowly and touching
manner, thanking us affectionately for "the
extreme care that had been taken of her, and
for the kindness with which we had borne with
a poor invalid Sub-Prioress."
The calm and peaceful evening was folio wed
by a very restless night, and she suffered
severely at intervals during the whole of the
next day.
Ill
HER SAINTLY DEATH.
"/ entreat Thee to let Thy divine eyes rest upon
a vast number of Little Souls, I entreat Thee to
choose, in this world, a legion of Little Uictims
of Thy Love.
SISTER TERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS.
CHAPTER III.
Her Saintly Death.
Towards evening, the community assembled
in Mother Isabel s cell to pray for her as they
had the day before, arid the night of her last
hours drew on. Towards morning on Friday,
July 31, at about three o clock, her symptoms
made us summon the nuns hurriedly. How
she edified us ! It would take too long to recount
all the touching words she said and we should
find it difficult to describe our feelings as we
stood beside the "little child," as indeed she
seemed to be a frank and gracious child about
to cast itself into the arms of its Father with
out any anxiety or the slightest fear of His
judgments, for "little children do not lose their
souls."
"I am in a very good state to die in," she said,
smiling, at about six o clock in the morning :
"I (iTn going to die! I am going to see the
good God! Oh! What a solemn moment!"
We asked her whether she would like to see
our extraordinary confessor, as our chaplain
was absent, but she answered simply that she
felt no need for it. She had been to confession
90 .MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
two days before and had received the Holy
Viaticum from our Father Superior.
Her agony continued for some time; she
seemed to suffer severely and at last she sighed
and said: "What a long while it lasts ! What
shall I do ? " Then after a short silence she
turned to us and said: " I have been thinking
about priests," meaning that she had been
offering her sufferings for them.
Then she asked, when she would be happy?
On our answering : " In a few minutes," her
face became radiant and she exclaimed: "Oh!
Is it true, Mother ! Then I will do nothing but
make acts of love." And, taking up her crucifix
she kissed it, holding it firmly in her hands.
" My God, I Love Thee!" she repeated: "I long
for Jesus ! Jesus ! Come quickly ! "
After a pause, she exclaimed : " How I love
the Blessed Virgin, too ! Saint Joseph, too!
Little Teresa, too ! and all the Saints who had
a special love for God, too !" She put a peculiar
and tender emphasis upon the word " too "
which cannot be described. What expression
there was in her voice as she said :
" Mother, remind me of the graces that God
has poured upon me ! tell me what singular
love He has shown me. " She repeated
The Holy Viaticum being taken to the sick nuns.
(The second ivindoiv to the left is that of the infirmary ivhere
Mere Marie- Ange and Mother Isabel of the Sacred Heart died).
The Cloisters of the Convent decorated
for the Community Fete on the introduction of the Cause of
Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus.
( The door of the infirmary in which Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus died
is seen at the end of the right-hand cloister).
HER SAINTLY DEATH 91
" singular." " Recount what He has done for
His poor little creatures. Oh ! How I love
Him, I wish to die blessing Him." Her face
wore a beautiful expression that was new to it.
There was something poetic in the dignity of
the moment, like a note of heavenly music.
The eyes of the dying saint looked through
the open window opposite and seemed to
penetrate the secrets of the heavens. She
could see the rising sun gilding the dome of
our chapel. We never recall that look without
thinking of the lines from Divine Love:
The sun-rise brightens and new light
Has swiftly caused the day to shine ;
Time flies and I have reached Love s noon
And looked on Thee, O Sun divine !
Now, lightened by Thy purest rays
Mine eyes within Thy Heart can gaze.
The bell rang for the conventual Mass and
some of the sisters regretfully went away,
leaving the gentle victim of " love and thanks
giving," whose sacrifice seemed nearly consum
mated.
Just before the Sanctus bell she closed her
eyes and spoke no more. The infirmarian,
who had often noticed how absorbed the
invalid appeared between the two elevations
92 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
at Mass, begged our little saint in a whisper to
pray that at that instant of her last Mass the
dying nun might depart. Her prayer was
granted: at the moment the first bell sounded
her gasping but regular breathing suddenly
became slower and at the second ringing, at
the elevation of the chalice, she died quietly.
Her age was thirty-two years and six
months, of which she had spent ten years,
six months, and eighteen days in Carmel.
Next day when she lay exposed before the
choir grille surrounded with flowers where her
father came to weep and pray for a long
while we learnt that war was imminent.
One of the wreaths of white flowers
fastened by a tricolour ribbon lying at the foot
of the coffin bore this inscription:
"The chaplains and soldiers of the Oeuvres
militaires Catholiques of Normandy."
" May Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and
Mother Isabel of the Sacred Heart obtain for
us grace to do our duty generously as servants
of Christ and France!"
We felt sure that France might count that
day upon a powerful intercessor, another
advocate in heaven!
HER SAINTLY DEATH 93
She had written: "Now I repeat, in my turn:
I am restrained now, my victories will come
after death: I will rain down light and fire: I
will form a trio with Teresa and Marie- Ange
.and will help them until the end of the world
to make Love beloved."
Again she wrote :
"I shall soon see our dear saint for the first
time arid shall learn from Jesus all that she
has done for me. I suspect that it is to her I
owe my conversion and all the graces that
followed it, including those of knowing her,
loving her, wishing to imitate her and to enter
her Carmel, of following in her footsteps, and
soon, I hope, of dying absorbed in love as she
died. There is no doubt that I am one of the
souls she has most dearly loved and cared for,
yet I have never had the childlike feeling to
wards her usual with those she specially
protects; I consider myself as her little Sister,
and I believe she has chosen me to help her
in her mission of making God loved in an
entirely new manner.
"A long while ago, after the death of Mother
Marie-Arige, when I heard of our little
seraphim s prophecy about the "little souls"
who would fulfil her mission by glorifying
94 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
her "way", I thought that I should be one of
those souls, and that with Teresa and
Marie-Ange, I should form a little trinity
which would always act together and for the
same object: that I should share their happi
ness arid glory, and should attract hearts to
the "little way" by revealing to them the
divine loving-kindness."
A few days after her death, one of our
sisters was much struck by seeing after Matins
an immense star, or rather a sun, over our
Carmel, sheltering beneath it two smaller but
equally brilliant stars with which it formed a
triangle as it shed its rays over that part of
the convent in which Mother Isabel had died.
The sister s cell was lighted for a quarter of
an hour by the symbolic meteor and although
she knew nothing of the lines quoted above,
she burst into tears as she thought to herself:
"It is our little saint with Mother Isabel and
Mother Marie-Ange!
In one of her poems, Mother Isabel had
made Sister Teresa say:
And I, as sun, shall bring forth other orbs,
Thus, born from me, still other saints shall shine
Within the vault of heaven.
It has been a consolation to receive many
HKR SAINTLY DEATH 95
precious tributes in favour of our dear
daughter, especially the following lines from
the Archbishop of X. who after having made a
pilgrimage to our Carmel kept up a special
intercourse of mutual prayer with his "dear
spiritual sister", Isabel of the Sacred Heart.
"By a touching favour" writes His Grace,.
the two saints, Teresa of the Child Jesus and
"Isabel of the Sacred Heart rarely leave me. I
invoke them several times a day and feel that
they are near me. I shall have two graves to
visit now when I am able to go to Lisieux."
Monseigneur Lemonnier wished that the
principal members of the ecclesiastical tri
bunal residing at Bayeux should be present at
the funeral. Our venerated and devoted
Postulator, Monseigneur de Teil, would also
have been there, but they were all unavoidably
prevented. However, the ceremony was
affecting in its simplicity. After the Mass
celebrated by our Father-Superior and the
absolutions pronounced by the canons of
Lisieux, the open coffin was borne through the
cloisters by our two postulants and the
novitiate. It was the fulfilment of the mys
terious dream before-mentioned, for though
the cloisters were not actually garlanded
96 MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART
with flowers, the festivities seemed to have
been but of yesterday.
Since that day, Monday, August 3, the body
of Mother Isabel of the Sacred Heart has lain
in the cemetery of Lisieux between Teresa of
the Child Jesus and Mother Marie- Ange. We
feel full confidence in the heavenly "Trio".
From our convent of the Carmelites of
Lisieux, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and to the Immaculate Conception of our
Lady.
SISTER AGNES OF JESUS,
PRIORESS.
THE KINGSCOTE PRESS,
3 DYER S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN, LONDON, E.G.
AGNES de Je"sus, Soeur. BQX
Mother Isabel of the 7840
Sacred Heart. *L5
174,
G. H. NEWLANDS
Bookbinder
Caledon East, Ont.
