ON BL. FRANCES OF AMBOISE, DUCHESS OF BRITTANY,
IN THE YEAR 1485.
CommentaryFrances of Amboise, duchess of Brittany. (B.)
BY I. D. B.
§ I. Of the more ancient biographers of Blessed Frances.
[1] The more ancient biographers of Blessed Frances are lacking; On 4 November of the year 1485, in the monastery of Les Couëts of the order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel near Nantes in Brittany, there departed to heaven Frances of Amboise, of venerable memory, widow of the late Peter, duke of Brittany; whom the nuns and the surrounding peoples at once pursued with such veneration publicly and privately that, the matter having been referred to the Holy See, the Sacred Congregation of Rites, on 16 July of the year 1863, decreed that the cult shown from time immemorial to the servant of God was established and that the honors of the blessed were accordingly to be accorded her. But we, about to illustrate her life, stick fast in the shallows, since we have not yet obtained ancient and nearly contemporary documents. For we wished for that manuscript Vita which about the year 1634 Leo of Rennes had under his eyes when he was writing a little book about our blessed woman, namely the Vita whose author was Jean de Montay, of the Order of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, a nursling of the Paris convent, who can rightly be proclaimed nearly contemporary with our blessed woman, since a short series of years intervenes between him and the death of Blessed Frances; for, on the testimony of the same Leo, he ended his manuscript with these words: Ce accomply par la grace de Dieu le premier jour de juillet l'an mille cinq cens quarante huict, à l'heure de neuf heures du matin, après avoir célébre la messe de l'octave de saint Jean-Baptiste. Je vous prie qu'il vous plaise prier Dieu pour mon salut. [This accomplished by the grace of God on the first day of July in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-eight, at the hour of nine in the morning, after having celebrated the Mass of the octave of St. John the Baptist. I pray you that it may please you to pray God for my salvation.] But we should be happier if there had come our way that contemporary Vita which is said to have been written by a nun, formerly a disciple of Blessed Frances. By this at least the character of the holiness with which Blessed Frances shone forth, and the norm of ruling which she employed when elected prioress, would have been well known to posterity [There was printed in Albert Le Grand, Les Vies des saints de la Bretagne-Armorique, Brest, 1837, p. 376–78, a little work which was named the Spiritual Doctrine of Blessed Frances, namely certain dicta which seem to have been both the arguments of the exhortations which she once gave to the nuns in chapter and the very rule which she strove to bring into practice by word and deed.]. But these things are only wished for.
[2] but the more recent ones which we have are to be used with caution. There are at hand only the monuments of a more recent age, namely those which His Eminence the Cardinal of Paris, François Richard, had in hand when in the year 1865 he wrote the life of Blessed Frances in two volumes Richard, Vie de la bienheureuse Françoise d'Amboise, 2 vols.. I would not wish to call into doubt the credit of the named men who are called Leo of Rennes
[Vie de la très illustre Françoise d'Amboise, fondatrice des religieuses Carmélites en Bretagne, 1634.] and Albert Le Grand of Morlaix [La vie, gestes, mort et miracles des saints de la Bretaigne Armorique. Nantes, 1637 and Brest, 1837. From this work the Vita of Blessed Frances, translated into Latin, came out in the Speculum Carmelitanum, vol. II, p. 742–52. To these can be added: Vie de la bienheureuse Françoise d'Amboise, duchesse de Bretagne et fondatrice des Carmélites, by Barrin, canon of the cathedral of Nantes and vicar general of the diocese, Rennes, 1704, and Guy Lobineau in the work Les Vies des saints de Bretagne, 1725, p. 314–41, who wrote a Vita of our blessed woman, which in the second edition, of the year 1837, was published in vol. III, p. 225–99, under the care of M. Tresvaux, canon and vicar general of the church of Paris. There can also be listed a little book, 8°, pp. 360, entitled La bienheureuse Françoise d'Amboise, duchesse de Bretagne, published at Nantes 1865 and 1867.], who attested that they followed most closely the documents noted above, and almost copied them out. But, the older ones being lacking, it is unfair to define what the more recent writers added to what was handed down, whether, polishing what was rudely said, they drew it away from its original manner of signifying, or how far, favoring the pleasure of readers, they changed the original appearance of things by rhetorical ornament. Besides, which we cannot do here, it is of the greatest importance to have tested the character of the writer: whether he labors under excessive credulity, whether he is not so preoccupied and in some manner blinded by zeal for the saint of whom he writes that he goes headlong into hyperbole. For this is quite often the vice of hagiographers, and perhaps of the eulogists of our blessed woman. For they greatly proclaim the part which she is presumed to have taken in governing the commonwealth, although the narrators of civil and ecclesiastical affairs and the chroniclers of that age scarcely touch on it in a word, and it is open to view that Peter, having begun his rule, was unmindful of preserving justice toward his kinsmen. Whence it is easy to conjecture that Blessed Frances had a part in affairs rather indirectly, namely in that way in which truly holy people possess the minds of their contemporaries and form them to every virtue; which the blessed wife exercised the more easily toward her husband because, as has been handed down, he was not averse to zeal for piety and the purpose of exercising virtue. And so prudence counsels us, pressed by this want of original documents, to dispatch in a few words the things we are about to hand down about Blessed Frances: always cautious not to give credit lightly to the biographers praised above, and diligently testing those who acknowledge that they received their knowledge from them. Reserving fuller treatment, if it should be necessary, for that most fortunate time when, our Bollandist colleagues having met with better fortune than ours, while according to their rule they diligently search the libraries, the desired documents will come into their hands.
[3] The mortuary elogium of Blessed Frances Let us make the beginning of our treatise by placing on the very threshold the mortuary elogium which was published from the manuscripts of Sainte-Marie des Couëts in Morice. There died our most illustrious and most reverend mother of blessed memory, formerly duchess of Brittany, Frances of Amboise, foundress of monasteries, first of St. Clare in the city of Nantes, which she built new in her own house at her own expense while the most illustrious prince Duke Peter was still living, and then, when she was a widow, of the Three Marys near Vannes, with an endowment of six hundred livres of perpetual revenue, the ground having been acquired from the religious of Bondon, in which, dedicating herself and her own to God and to the blessed Virgin, within a few years she came to such a summit and pattern of perfection that the daughters whom she had begotten in Christ elected her as their mother and prioress, and although with reluctance and very many tears she refused on her part with every possible effort, they obtained what, desiring it with most ardent wishes, they demanded. At length, by authority of the supreme pontiff Pope Sixtus IV, she was translated with all her nuns to this place of Blessed Mary des Couëts; who girded the cloister with a wall, and raised from the foundations the dormitory and the necessary offices of the new monastery, and very greatly adorned the church with a belfry, a vault, a pavement and other requisites, and besides enlarged it with annual revenues. But above all these things her virtues exalt her praises, which cannot be narrated even cursorily in the course of a short time, since she was more fervent and more urgent than all the others in vigils and prayers and religious exercises, deeper in humility. She died in the year of the Lord 1485, on the fourth day of November, on the sixth weekday, at the hour at which our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ expired for the salvation of the human race. And at once, when he had noted that she was buried at Sainte-Marie des Couëts, he added the memorial which was inscribed on marble, namely: Cy gist trés haute et trés noble dame sœur Françoise d'Amboise, en son vivant duchesse de Bretagne, épouse du bon duc Pierre, empuis la mort duquel entra la sainte et devote religion de Nostre-Dame du Carme et prit l'habit le jour de l'incarnation Nostre-Seigneur mil quatre cent cinquante-huit et audit jour fist sa profession l'an revolu, vivante sous clausure et entiere observance de notre bonne reformation jusqu'à son trespas, qui fut le quart jour de novembre au vendredy l'an 1485 [Here lies the most high and most noble lady Sister Frances of Amboise, in her lifetime duchess of Brittany, wife of the good Duke Peter, after whose death she entered the holy and devout religion of Our Lady of Carmel and took the habit on the day of the incarnation of Our Lord one thousand four hundred and fifty-eight, and on the said day made her profession when the year had come round, living under enclosure and entire observance of our good reform until her death, which was on the fourth day of November, on Friday, in the year 1485] [Morice, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire de Bretagne, vol. III, col. 488–9.].
[4] and the things which Taillandier relates To these we annex what Taillandier Histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, vol. II, p. 62. commented, having related the death of Duke Peter, who died on 22 September of the year 1457: "Peter left surviving one offspring born of an illegitimate bed, whose name was Joan. Indeed the race of princes is quite frequently branded by this accident of slippery nature, but very few have repented of having sinned as much as Peter. Near death he attested that through the whole time of his marriage he had lived with his wife as with a sister; and through the last years of his life he was accustomed to wear a hair shirt in penance for his offenses; which indeed is held as a sure indication of the exceptional piety which he held in his mind; and from the things which we have related above about his reign, anyone will easily form for himself the character of the prince. By nature he was sad, morose and suspicious; the scourges with which he once afflicted the devout duchess afford manifest proofs of this character." He seems to have remembered the things which are read handed down in the biographers, namely that once the duke, on account of the tongues of the malicious, to whom the holy manner of acting of Frances was hateful, held his wife as it were in hatred and afflicted her with such dire blows that blood flowed from her whole body, and even, almost all her attendants having been removed, kept her for some time shut up at home as if in prison.
[5] are to be brought back to the balance. On another occasion the learned historiographer Ibid., p. 78. undertook a fuller discourse about our blessed woman, but by notes written in the margin he refers to the Acts of Blessed Frances, not noting explicitly whether he inspected the original ones or not. To speak more briefly, the matter is this. When, her husband having died, Blessed Frances had been prevented by ill health from following the hard discipline of the sisters of St. Clare living in the city of Nantes, withdrawing to Vannes, she undertook to build not far from the city a convent of sisters of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, with this purpose indeed, that some day she might serve God in it under the rule. Meanwhile she was wholly intent on the divine service and on exercising the offices of charity toward her neighbor. As the year 1461 was drawing to its end, on account of a raging pestilence she had moved for a time to the small town called Rochefort. At about the same time Francis II was rendering his fealty to Louis XI, king of France, at Tours. The king, because he was not far from Saint-Sauveur of Redon, made a pilgrimage there for the sake of fulfilling a vow. Meanwhile Louis de Thouars with his two brothers had approached his daughter Frances, to exhort her to enter into a second marriage with the duke of Savoy. When she refused, he compelled her at least to follow the king, to render him fealty for the lordship of Benon, situated in the territory of Poitou. And to these things she gave her assent; yet she came to meet the king only in the city of Nantes, where, on account of the snares which her father had prepared for her, she was on the point of being carried off into France. So Taillandier. And indeed toward the end of the year 1461 King Louis stayed at Tours with Duke Francis Ordonnances des rois de France, vol. XV, p. 248 ff.; and in the Annals of Saint-Sauveur it is written A. de Courson, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Redon, p. 435.: In the year 1461 Yves joyfully received at home Louis XI, king of the French; he offered the precious gifts of the king vowed to the Saviour, and made him a sharer in the pious works and suffrages. And elsewhere in the prolegomena Ibid., p. LXXIV., when the stay of King Louis at Tours had been related, the distinguished M. de Courson, to establish the Breton pilgrimage, copied the following from Lobineau: Et tout après (c'est-à-dire après le voyage de François II à Tours) pour un vœu que le roi avait à faire à Saint-Sauveur de Redon, qui est au païs de Bretaigne; il alla (Louis XI) accomplir le dit voiage à tout petit nombre de gens, et de la revint au château de Nantes, avec icelui petit nombre, faire bonne et privée chière avec le dit duc, parce qu'il lui montra si grand signe d'amour qu'il ne pourrait au monde plus. [And immediately after (that is, after the journey of Francis II to Tours), for a vow which the king had to make to Saint-Sauveur of Redon, which is in the country of Brittany, he (Louis XI) went to accomplish the said journey with a very small number of people, and from there returned to the castle of Nantes, with that small number, to make good and private cheer with the said duke, because he showed him so great a sign of love that he could not in the world show more.] Therefore we think that this pilgrimage to Saint-Sauveur was undertaken while the rage of winter was still fierce, and is not to be tied to the months of the year already in spring, especially since the king seems then to have been staying far from the borders of Brittany. No one, therefore, will wonder if we deny the miracle which not a few biographers relate, namely that the Loire was in part and for a time so bound by frost that the ships prepared for carrying off the duchess were of no use. The same also profess that Blessed Frances was watched over so cautiously by the duke and the citizens that, without any prodigy intervening, she was altogether in safety. But with what mind the father came to his daughter I think rather obscure. Taillandier proposed this cause of that journey Op. cit,. p. 78.: "That lord (the viscount of Thouars), agitated by anger against his other daughter on account of the marriage she had entered into with the prince of La Trémoille, disinherited her, resolving in his mind that the whole abundance of his goods should be conferred on the blessed duchess, provided she contracted a second marriage with the duke of Savoy. Which plan, since it was pleasing to him, King Louis had promised that he would promote with every effort." And about this one may doubt. For then, as it seems, there had not yet been a peremptory decision of the lawsuit which, while Duke Peter was still alive, the daughter had brought against her father. Who, then, put on such kindness toward his daughter that her
he should write her heir of his goods, from whose free administration she wished him debarred? Was he not above all turning over in his mind to try everything so that his daughter might desist from pursuing him? Having obtained which, he could treat with his daughter about contracting a marriage. Afterwards, however, on certain conditions, he handed over his goods to King Louis to be possessed Legay, Histoire de Louis XI, vol. I, p. 297..
§ II. Synopsis of the life of Blessed Frances.
[6] Since we think it too foreign to our Acta to reprint that version which we noted was published in the Speculum Carmelitanum See above, p. 520., nor does it please us more to put into print again in the French tongue the reworking of Leo or of Albert, especially since now among the Analecta Bollandiana we always have the opportunity of publishing original documents as soon as, by God's favor, they come to light, those whom it will please to know the life of Blessed Frances will be satisfied by a shorter synopsis of it being presented, only those things being omitted which are judged common topics of hagiography.
1427. In this year, as is related, Blessed Frances was born, of her father Louis of Amboise, viscount of Thouars, prince and lord of Talmont, and of her mother Marie de Rieux.
Richard, Vie de la bienheureuse Françoise d'Amboise, vol. I, p. 1; Albert Le Grand, p. 547.
1431, 21 July, she was given as betrothed to Peter, count of Guingamp, second son of John V, duke of Brittany. Brought from there into Brittany, at the duke's court, under the Duchess Joan, she is taught piety; from her tender years she is held distinguished for mercy toward the poor, for singular reverence toward the holy Eucharist and for the desire of receiving that sacrament.
Contrat de mariage de Pierre II, duc de Bretagne et de Françoise d'Amboise, in Richard, vol. I, p. 325–30. Besides, ibid., vol. I, pp. 24, 29–32; Albert Le Grand, p. 348–9.
1441, 3 June, John V conferred on his son Peter a certain sum of money, that he might live more honorably in the marriage about to be entered into.
See the Letters patent, Richard, vol. I, p. 331–34.
1442. The wedding having been celebrated, they withdrew to the small town of Guingamp. There, provided you attend to the things noted on p. 521, they are said to have been, of one mind, so assiduous in the service of God that you would say they led the life of religious rather than of courtiers.
Richard, vol. I, p. 41–54; Albert Le Grand, p. 550–53.
1443, 29 April, Peter, lord of Guingamp, chose beforehand his burial in the collegiate church of St. Mary of Nantes, certain Masses having been established to be celebrated in perpetuity in memory of himself and his own.
See the Letters patent, Richard, vol. I, p. 335–36.
1443, 5 June, on the part of the same lord Peter it was petitioned that the lady Frances of Thouars herself, his consort, together with their children to be begotten of their flesh, should be buried in the said church, in and under the tomb or sarcophagus or monument of the lord Peter himself, when the occasion of their death should come.
Richard, p. 343. Unless you should think Peter a liar, having read this rescript you will conjecture that he had the intention of consummating the marriage.
1445. Toward the end of the year the blessed woman is believed to have stayed in the city of Nantes.
Taillandier, Histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, vol. II, p. 9, who writes this: La cour déjà fort nombreuse par la réunion de toute la famille ducale. [The court, already very numerous through the gathering of the whole ducal family.]
1450. Blessed Frances is praised both for the many prayers which she brought to Duke Francis that he should keep his hands from the murder of his brother Gilles, and for the works of charity which she diligently showed the same in his last sickness at Vannes.
Peter and Frances are said to have followed the funeral of his father, who had long since died, namely in the year 1442, but was now translated into the cathedral of Tréguier.
Richard, vol. I, p. 55–74; Albert Le Grand, p. 554–55.
1450, in the month of September, Blessed Frances seems to have been at Rennes, where the princes of Brittany were doing fealty to the new duke Peter, her husband; whom also, as is believed, she accompanied into the city of Nantes. The duke entered it in solemn pomp on 12 October.
Taillandier, vol. II, p. 38.
1451? Blessed Frances, as is related, exhorted Peter to exact just penalties from the wicked murderers of his brother Gilles; at another time, as they say, she prevented him from imposing heavier taxes on the common people.
Richard, vol. I, pp. 88, 111; Albert Le Grand, p. 556.
1453, 14 April, by letters patent given in the village of Bruz near Rennes, Peter made a settlement of six thousand livres to be paid every year to his wife, if she should survive him. Which the duchess herself, being present, approved.
Richard, vol. I, p. 346–49.
1453, at the end of the month of May, she seems to have been a sharer in the things which Duke Peter undertook to promote the canonization of Blessed Vincent Ferrer, when a chapter of the Friars Preachers was being held in the city of Nantes.
Acta Sanctorum, April vol. I, p. 524.
1454. About this time Marie de Rieux fled to the duke and duchess of Brittany, to ask for protection and defense against her husband, who, a public violator of the marriage bed, was treating her injuriously and insultingly.
Anselme, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, vol. IV, p. 147. From the appeal moved by the viscount of Thouars against the sentence by which the administration of his goods had been forbidden him, it is plain that Marie de Rieux remained with her daughter.
1454, 4 November, the duke and duchess brought a lawsuit against the viscount of Thouars, that he might be proclaimed deprived, as a prodigal, of the care of managing his household affairs. It was disputed with varying fortune, until on 6 September 1462 Louis XI decreed that such capacity was not to be diminished in the viscount.
Anselme, op. cit., p. 146–52. — Yet Blessed Frances by no means pursued her father with intention of harming him, since she always showed herself kind to him. For, as is recorded in the diploma cited, she had given her father a horse of five hundred écus, which he, to the insult of his daughter, had handed over to his concubine, ibid., p. 148.
1455, 23 March, the duke with the duchess redeem from François de Rieux the castle of Rochefort situated in the city of Nantes, taking on themselves the burden of paying the annual money of Marie de Rieux, who was the mother of the blessed duchess.
Richard, vol. I, p. 355–61. By these it is plain that Blessed Frances had care of her mother. She, as we have said, was exposed to the harassments of her husband and kinsmen.
The praised biographers contend, though with no arguments brought forward, that Blessed Frances about these times devoted much effort to having religious men set over churches and abbeys and to compelling beneficed men to the burden of residence.
Richard, vol. I, p. 128; Albert Le Grand, p. 556.
1455, 10 June, Calixtus III, by a bull given on this day, granted Duke Peter and Frances his consort the faculty of erecting a convent of the order of St. Clare in the city of Nantes or in another place.
Richard, vol. I, p. 363–65.
1456, 5 April, Frances was present at the elevation of the relics of Blessed Vincent Ferrer celebrated in the city of Nantes.
Acta Sanctorum, April vol. I, p. 525.
1457, 30 August, in the presence of the duchess, nuns were brought into the monastery which the duke and duchess had built for them at Nantes in the parish of Saint-Vincent.
Richard, vol. I, p. 362–66. Duke Peter was not present at this enclosure of the nuns; but Arthur, count of Richemont, was present; whence you will conjecture that the duke was then rather gravely afflicted by sickness.
1457, 5 September, Peter dictated his testament; and he decreed that, death intervening, Blessed Frances with some of the more noble men should undertake the care of executing it. Besides, the duke conferred on her an annual pension, and heaped her with these praises: Nous considerant la longue compagnie et société nuptielle que dés nostre jeune age et Françoise d'Amboise nostre trés-chere et trés-amée sœur et compagne espouse la duchesse avons eu ensemble, les bons et agréables services en grant obéissance et humilité que elle nous a fait tant durant nostre santé que en la maladie où nous esté et sommes détenus mesmes que elle y continue incessamment et qu'elle s'est trés-honorablement comportée et vers nous loyalement portée et acquitée… [We, considering the long companionship and nuptial society which from our young age we and Frances of Amboise, our most dear and most beloved sister and companion, spouse, the duchess, have had together, the good and agreeable services in great obedience and humility which she has done us both during our health and in the sickness in which we have been and are held, even that she continues in it incessantly, and that she has borne herself most honorably and conducted and acquitted herself loyally toward us…]
Morice, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire de Bretagne, vol. II, col. 703–9.
— On 22 September Peter departed this life.
Richard, vol. I, p. 149.
Thence, panting with desire for a more perfect life, the blessed woman seems to have conceived in her heart a vow not only of keeping widowhood but of entering religion. For in the bull of Sixtus IV, given in the year 1479, it is written: She, the said Peter her husband having died, desiring to serve no mortal man, but the one spouse Christ Jesus …, caused the house of Bondon … to be built.
Richard, vol. II, p. 322.
1450–57. She is reported to have tried to restrain, by example more than by words, the vanity of women, which, even with loss of decency, burdened the body with an excess of ornaments.
Richard, vol. I, p. 157; Albert Le Grand, p. 556.
1457, 31 December, there was juridically made on the part of Blessed Frances the surrender of many jewels which as duchess of Brittany she had in her keeping.
Richard, vol. I, p. 367–79. From these letters it cannot be deduced that Arthur treated his niece unjustly.
1458. To her paternal uncle Arthur de Richemont, duke of Brittany after Peter, she rendered devout services as he was dying.
Richard, vol. I, p. 192; Albert Le Grand, p. 559. He died in the year 1458, on 25 December, in the city of Nantes.
1459. In the account of Guillaume de la Noë, treasurer, which was begun on the first day of January, these words are written: Le feu duc, Arthur, cui Dieu pardoint, avait ordonné à duchesse Francoise quinze mille escus pour son trousselet et don mobiliaire. [The late duke, Arthur, whom God pardon, had assigned to Duchess Frances fifteen thousand écus for her little trousseau and gift of movables.]
Morice, vol. II, col. 1745.
1460, 16 February, Pius II gave Blessed Frances the faculty of erecting a convent of sisters of Mount Carmel beside the monastery of Bondon, situated half a league from the city of Vannes. This convent was called des Trois-Maries (1).
Richard, vol. I, p. 387–88, and Bullarium Carmelitanum, vol. I, p. 263–66.
1461. In the account of Pierre Landoys, treasurer, which pertains from 10 June to 1 January 1462, these things were noted at the beginning: La duchesse Françoyse jouit par cause de son douaire, de S. Aubin du Cormier, Gouello, Chastelaudren, Guingamp, Minibriac, Chasteaulin en Cornouaille, Duault, Ughelgoet, Chasteaulin du Fou, Landeleau, Karteix, Chasteaulin sur Treff et la Rochederien. [The Duchess Frances enjoys, by reason of her dower, Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, Gouello, Châtelaudren, Guingamp, Minibriac, Châteaulin in Cornouaille, Duault, Huelgoat, Châteauneuf-du-Faou, Landeleau, Carhaix, Châteauneuf-sur-Trieux and La Roche-Derrien.]
Morice, vol. II, col. 1756.
1461. The blessed woman is narrated at Rochefort, where, the plague
raging at Vannes, she had fled, to have publicly made the vow of chastity which she had long since conceived.
Richard, vol. I, p. 227–31; Albert Le Grand, p. 562.
1462. From the city of Nantes she made her way to the small town of Gâvre; where, as the year ran on, she cherished her dying mother with the highest charity, taking upon herself the debt by which she was pressed.
Richard, vol. I, p. 274–5; Albert Le Grand, p. 569–70.
1462, 21 June, Francis II, duke of Brittany, granted Blessed Frances the faculties belonging to her by right, so that she might establish annual pensions from which the nuns at the Three Marys could be maintained.
Richard, vol. I, p. 394–8.
1463, at the beginning of July, in the city of Nantes she was present at the baptism which was conferred on the son of Duke Francis.
Taillandier, p. 82.
1463, 31 October, at Vannes she received into her house the sisters of Mount Carmel who had set out from Liège to begin the monastery named from the Three Marys.
— 1 November, Blessed Frances led them into the duke's castle, where they stayed until the day of enclosure; and among them Blessed Frances remained as it were the servant of all.
Richard, vol. I, p. 280–5; Albert Le Grand, p. 370–1.
— She began to live in the monastery, but outside the enclosure.
Albert Le Grand, ibid.
1464, 19 October, Paul II commands the bishop of Vannes to lend his help to the blessed duchess in all things which pertain to the annual pensions of the nuns at the Three Marys and to the just government of this convent.
Richard, vol. II, p. 309–13.
1466, in the month of September, she is said to have made her way into the city of Nantes to Duke Francis, who, spurning his wife, was living publicly with a concubine, to bring him back to a better course. She had already tried this three times by letters sent; fragments of which, as if dictated by her, the biographers present.
Albert Le Grand, p. 571–2.
1467. In the account of P. Landoys from 1 October 1466 to 1 October 1467 are listed the places from which annual money came to Blessed Frances…
Morice, vol. III, col. 166.
1467, 8 December, Frances gave a loan of money to Charles, duke of Normandy, at his request; which is manifest from the letters written on this day.
Richard, vol. I, p. 399–400. And by this document we are taught again the piety which the blessed duchess continually bore toward her own.
1450–68. It was the custom of Blessed Frances on the feast of the Nativity to clothe a needy little boy in new garments. Which the convent of Sainte-Marie des Couëts received as handed down and kept, so that in an account made in the year 1791 the following was inscribed: Payé pour l'habillement d'un enfant pauvre en l'honneur du saint enfant Jésus, suivant l'usage établi par la révérende mère Françoise d'Amboise 42 liv. 10 s. [Paid for the clothing of a poor child in honor of the holy child Jesus, according to the usage established by the reverend mother Frances of Amboise, 42 livres 10 sous.]
Richard, vol. II, p. 136.
— A panel showing the mysteries of the Lord's passion, placed on the high altar in the convent of Nantes of the Order of Preachers, was held to have been given by the blessed woman; who seems to have conferred other gifts on the same monastery, as also on the sisters of St. Clare.
Albert Le Grand, p. 559.
1457–68. Twice a day she cruelly tore her body with rods or a harsh discipline, she fasted three times in the week, and on Friday, fasting, she served five poor people at table.
Albert Le Grand, p. 562.
1468, 24 March, in the city of Vannes, in the presence of Blessed Frances and of Jean Soreth, master general of the brothers of Mount Carmel, a public instrument was confirmed concerning the annual revenues acquired by the blessed widow for the support of the nuns of the convent of Bondon.
Morice, vol. III, cf. 161–63.
1468, 25 March, she began her novitiate among the sisters of Bondon.
Richard, vol. II, p. 7.
1468–1469. In the convent, compelled by the precept of obedience, she holds the first place after the prioress.
Albert Le Grand, p. 573.
— She was reproved by the prioress because, at the request of a novice singularly dear to her, who was about to make her profession, she had sent a letter to a certain religious to hear her confession.
Ibid.
— She had the care of the sick.
Ibid.
1469, 9 April, in favor of Blessed Frances, who not only put on the religious habit at the Three Marys but also made solemn profession, Duke Francis conferred certain goods for the support of the nuns.
Richard, vol. II, p. 314–16. And although it is admitted among the learned that no more than is fair should be attended to the laudatory formulas in which diplomas abound, we nevertheless think true the praises with which the blessed duchess is extolled in the aforenoted document, both for the faithfulness and piety which she showed her husband, healthy as well as sick, and for the most devoted mind which she kept toward the commonwealth.
1473, 27 June, Sixtus IV granted Blessed Frances, prioress of the house of the Three Marys, that the priory of the Île d'Arz of the Order of St. Benedict, accustomed to be governed by the nuns of the monastery of Saint-Georges of Rennes of the said order, of the same diocese, should be perpetually united to the said house, that the nuns, growing in number, might be more conveniently supported.
Bullarium Carmelitanum, vol. I, 302–4.
1474–78. In the account of Pierre Landoys a hundred livres are inscribed: A la duchesse Franczoise pour lui aider à l'edifice qu'elle fait faire au prieuré des Croix (corr. Couets) pres Nantes. [To the Duchess Frances, to help her with the building which she is having made at the priory of Les Croix (corrected Couëts) near Nantes.]
Morice, vol. III, col. 281.
1473–75. She is said to have introduced into the convent of Sainte-Marie des Couëts the practice of reciting the rosary spread abroad by Alain de la Roche, whom she had met either by letter or in person.
Albert Le Grand, p. 579.
1476, 22 June, at the instance of Francis, duke of Brittany, the priory of Blessed Mary des Couëts is granted to the sisters of Bondon, that Blessed Frances with some sisters may establish there a convent of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel.
Bullarium Carmelitanum, vol. I, p. 316–18.
1476, 16 August, Sixtus IV orders that, every lawsuit being removed and the business having been settled in those parts on the petition of Blessed Frances, she with some sisters should remain peacefully holding the priory of Sainte-Marie des Couëts situated near the city of Nantes; which the apostolic See had long since decreed.
Richard, vol. II, p. 317–21. Of our blessed woman and her nuns the pontiff speaks thus: In which house at the Three Marys the said Frances and her nuns had lived and were living with the odor of good fame under such austerity of life that they showed to other religious of both sexes the best example of living.
1476, Jean, viscount of Rohan, grants a respite to Frances, prioress of Bondon, that she may render him the office of homage due to him.
Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, vol. XXII, p. 247, no. 1710.
1477, 20 December, Blessed Frances came in fact into possession of the priory of Sainte-Marie des Couëts.
Morice, vol. III, col. 304–5.
1478, 13 December, Sixtus IV, kindly granting the petition of Blessed Frances, by his apostolic authority unites, annexes and incorporates the house of Bondon to the house of Les Couëts, granting besides to the sisters some spiritual goods.
Richard, vol. II, p. 322–27.
1779, 1 February, at the request of Blessed Frances, Duke Francis commands his officials to watch that no one prevent the bull of Sixtus IV on the incorporation of the monastery of Bondon and its goods with the convent of Les Couëts from obtaining its full effect.
E. Sioc'han de Kersabiec, La bienheureuse Françoise d'Amboise (1867), p. 340–41.
1479, 26 February, Sixtus IV confirms to Blessed Frances the peaceful possession of the priory of Sainte-Marie des Couëts.
Bullarium Carmelitanum, vol. I, p. 357–62.
1483, 20 September, Sixtus IV, having decreed the things that pertained to the peaceful government of the monastery, granted some privileges to the sisters of Blessed Mary des Couëts, who were then serving God there more fervently under Blessed Frances as prioress.
Richard, vol. II, p. 328–31.
1485, 28 October, she began to be more gravely afflicted by a disease which she is believed to have contracted while serving a sick sister.
3 November, having received the holy viaticum, at midnight she spoke to the sisters who had been summoned, and prayed for the heavenly blessing upon them. She asked the physician besides to go to Duke Francis as sent by her, that he might come to the help of the monastery burdened with debt. Then she wished to be anointed; besides, she commanded and admonished her two nieces, who had formerly entered religion with her, one called de la Trémoille, the other de la Floreliere, to keep the regular discipline so that they should never claim anything for themselves on account of their illustrious birth; all the novices too, brought to her bed, she exhorted to the greatest love of God.
4 November, she charged the vicar of the monastery that he must watch lest the rule which the reform held sanctioned should ever be relaxed in the monastery of Les Couëts. At length, the Stabat mater and the history of the Lord's passion having been read, rapt into ecstasy, as if she were enjoying a heavenly vision, she exclaimed: How beautiful the ladies whom I have always followed with special veneration; it has long been my wish to be their companion. Give place, that they may be received. So she is said to have addressed St. Ursula, who appeared to her with some companions to receive her soul. And a little after she gave up her spirit at the ninth hour. This we have found noted in a manuscript breviary of the fifteenth century of the library of Nantes marked no. 32.
Richard, vol. II, p. 87, 94; Albert Le Grand, p. 579–80; Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, vol XXII, p. 8.
§ III. Of the posthumous glory of Blessed Frances.
[7] In no other way than that in which we have described the course of life traversed by Blessed Frances on earth do we judge that the diverse vicissitudes of the glory with which she was endowed among men after death should be related, for the sake of clarity and brevity.
1492, the tomb in which Blessed Frances had been laid away was raised, as is related. The author, however, of the Disquisitio historica ac liturgica de cultu immemorabili beatae Franciscae brings forward no witnesses to vindicate the truth of the matter except the aforenoted biographers.
Richard, vol. II, 214–15; Albert Le Grand, p. 581.
1568, for fear of the heretics, who had resolved in their mind to lay waste the monastery of Les Couëts with fire and sword, the nuns fled into the city of Nantes, the sarcophagus of the blessed widow having first been buried deep in the earth.
Albert Le Grand, p. 584.
1592, 19 November, the nuns, raising the sacred clay of Frances from the hiding place in which it was laid away, placed it next to the grilles of the choir.
Ibid., p. 585.
1762, 29 March, in order to obtaining the solemn beatification of Blessed Frances, the Most Rev. Lord Pierre Mauclerc de la Muzanchère, bishop of Nantes, betook himself to the monastery of Notre-Dame des Couëts, the prioress and nuns of the same monastery asking that he open the tomb of Blessed Frances, and of all the things which were done on this
occasion, he drew up an instrument in due form [De cultu immemorabili B. Franciscae disquisitio historico-liturgica. Nantes, 1862, p. 38. You will read the instrument ibid., pp. 39–41, 58–61.].
When the time of the desolation of the churches of France came, at the end of the eighteenth century, the nuns, violently expelled from the monastery of Notre-Dame des Couëts, did not forget the veneration and love with which they embraced Blessed Frances, whom for four centuries already they had called by the name of mother. The tomb having been opened and destroyed by impious hands, the sacred relics were diligently gathered, and entrusted to the keeping of an upright and religious man who lived in the village of Les Couëts near the monastery. He faithfully guarded the sacred deposit, which he now hid underground in the garden, now placed in a hiding place at home, that it might be withdrawn from the wicked searches. A certain priest named Metayer, who had formerly discharged the office of chaplain to the nuns, coming again and again to the house of the above-praised man, whose name was Morandeau, celebrated the sacred mysteries before the venerable relics of Blessed Frances. At length, when France began to be at rest after so many and such great upheavals, the nuns came and carried away with them the deposit, which they held precious above all things, into the various places to which they went, whether to Vannes in Brittany or to Nantes into the monastery of the Carmelite nuns of St. Teresa, always and everywhere praying to Blessed Frances and honoring her sacred bones with the cult of veneration such as befits the relics of the saints. All these things, which we have narrated rather briefly, are lucidly set out in the two instruments already mentioned above [Namely the Testimony of M. Étienne Gely, canon of the cathedral church of Nantes, given on 17 January of the year 1851 (ed. De cultu … disquisitio, p. 79; this Étienne Gely was present in the year 1787 in the monastery of Les Couëts at the solemn profession of the sisters Claire du Trejet and Julienne Morisson), and the Letter of M. Jean Cadoret, honorary canon of the church of Nantes, to M. Louis de Courson, then vicar general of Nantes and afterwards superior general of the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, given on 17 November 1838, ed. ibid., p. 79–82.] and besides in the attestation [The instrument drawn up by the said gentlemen at Nantes on 17 January 1851, ibid., p. 84–85.] written by M. Murray, canon of the cathedral church of Nantes, M. Berrue, parish priest of the same diocese, and M. Lagrange, missionary priest, in the deposition of a certain Corbineau [The Testimony of André Corbineau received by M. Lagrange, missionary priest of Nantes, in the year 1851 on 17 February, ed. ibid., p. 86–7. This Corbineau in the year 1799 or 1800 received the little chest in which the relics of Blessed Frances were laid away, to hand it over to two ladies who had formerly been of the number of the sisters of Sainte-Marie des Couëts.], in another deposition, of Sister Victoire, formerly a lay sister in the monastery of Notre-Dame des Couëts [The Testimony of Sister Victoire, formerly a lay sister in the monastery of Notre-Dame des Couëts, received by M. Cadoret in the presence of the Rev. Mother of St. Augustine, superior, and of Sister of St. Vincent de Paul, bursar of the convent of Providence, and also of M. Jules Tigé, merchant, in the year 1840, on 22 September, ed. ibid., p. 87–8.], in the letter of the Rev. Mother Marie of St. Peter, prioress of the convent of Carmelite nuns of the city of Luçon Ibid., p. 89., of the Rev. Mother Aimée of Jesus Christ, prioress of the nuns of the same order in the city of Le Mans Ibid., p. 90., in the declaration of a sister likewise named Aimée of Jesus Christ, Carmelite religious of the monastery of Nantes Ibid., p. 90–91., in the letter of M. Tresvaux, a native of Brittany, canon of the metropolitan church of Paris Ibid., p. 91–2., and also in the letter of Mme La Ramée, formerly a professed religious of the convent of Notre-Dame des Couëts Ibid., p. 93–4., and finally in the declaration of Mme de la Salmonière, likewise formerly professed in the same convent Ibid., p. 95.. The sacred relics of Blessed Frances of Amboise, after the various wanderings which we have briefly indicated, were carried by the above-praised Mme de la Salmonière into the convent of the nuns called of Providence, in the city of Nantes, who devote themselves to the care of sick women. In this religious house Mme de la Salmonière fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1829, leaving the sacred treasure to the aforesaid nuns [Ibid., p. 45–6. Since this testimony is of the highest weight for showing that the relics of Blessed Frances were truly given as a gift to the convent of Providence, we have thought it should be copied word for word: "Moi sœur Jeanne-Marie Coguet de la Salmonière religieuse carmélite des Couëts, certifie que le reliquaire que nous avons déposé à la communauté de la Providence de Nantes, renferme les véritables ossements de notre bienheureuse mère Françoise d'Amboise, duchesse de Bretagne, religieuse et fondatrice du couvent des Carmélites des Couëts, près Nantes, où elle est morte en odeur de sainteté. Nous avons sauvé ces précieuses reliques, lorsqu'en 1792 on nous a chassées pour la troisième et dernière fois de notre sainte communauté. Nous avons eu le bonheur d'y joindre la ceinture, le bonnet et le mouchoir de S. Vincent Ferrier, qui avaient été conservés dans la dite communauté, depuis la mort de ce grand saint, ainsi que dom Lobineau en fait foi dans son histoire. En témoignage de quoi j'ai signé Sœur Jeanne-Marie Coguet de la Salmonière. Nantes, le 18 septembre 1828" [I, Sister Jeanne-Marie Coguet de la Salmonière, Carmelite religious of Les Couëts, certify that the reliquary which we have deposited with the community of Providence of Nantes contains the true bones of our blessed mother Frances of Amboise, duchess of Brittany, religious and foundress of the convent of the Carmelites of Les Couëts, near Nantes, where she died in the odor of sanctity. We saved these precious relics when in 1792 we were driven for the third and last time from our holy community. We had the happiness of joining to them the girdle, the cap and the handkerchief of St. Vincent Ferrer, which had been preserved in the said community since the death of that great saint, as Dom Lobineau attests in his history. In witness whereof I have signed, Sister Jeanne-Marie Coguet de la Salmonière. Nantes, 18 September 1828]].
1859, 10 and 12 August, M. François Richard, vicar general, deputed for this by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Alexandre Jaquemet, juridically recognized the relics of Blessed Frances which were being kept in the house of the nuns of Providence Cf. the instrument, op. cit., p. 96–100..
And this is the series of fortunes which the relics of Blessed Frances underwent. If anyone wishes besides to know the various testimonies of public veneration which were shown to our blessed woman through the course of the years, let him go to the book of the most eminent Cardinal Richard, who diligently collected them from the documents by means of which, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the process was drawn up which the people of Nantes brought before the sacred Congregation of Rites, that the solemn beatification of Blessed Frances might be obtained.
1863, 11 July, the sacred Congregation of Rites answers that the excepted case in the decrees of Urban VIII is established.
— 16 July, the supreme pontiff confirmed the cult shown to the blessed duchess.
1864, 27 September, the sacred Congregation of Rites approved the Mass and office of Blessed Frances. The office is from the common of those neither virgins nor martyrs, except for the hymn at First and Second Vespers, the verses and antiphon at the Magnificat, the lessons of the second nocturn, the hymn and verses at Lauds. The Mass is from the common of those neither virgins nor martyrs, except for the prayer.
[8] To make an end of what we have said of Blessed Frances, the miracles worked by her intercession must be recorded. In the monastery of St. Mary of Mount Carmel called Nazareth, founded in the sixteenth century near the city of Vannes by the sisters of Les Couëts, Sister Julienne of the Nativity, laboring dreadfully in her teeth and head, put on herself the tunic of Blessed Frances and was healed Richard, op. cit., vol. II, p. 223.. Likewise another sister of the same monastery, tormented with similar pains, obtained the same benefit when she had put on the cape of the blessed woman Ibid., p. 224.. In the monastery of Les Couëts a mason fell into a deep well full of water; but the relics of Blessed Frances having been brought to the edge of the well, he appeared at the top of the waters, and, seizing the rope which they had let down, escaped the danger of death Ibid., p. 224.. Once also a fire, which threatened ruin to the whole monastery, was suddenly extinguished as the sisters prayed to Blessed Frances Ibid., p. 225.. In the year 1597, when there was the greatest scarcity of wine, the wine which had been kept for the remedy of the sick received again, by the merits of Blessed Frances, the former flavor which it had lost Ibid., p. 226.. In the year 1601 a certain provincial of the Order of Mount Carmel, much tormented by the heats of fever, was healed at the tomb of the blessed woman Ibid., p. 234.. In the year 1679, on 20 March, Brother Sulpice, of the Order of Minors of the Observance, confessed in writing that he had three times recovered from a deadly disease by the merits of Blessed Frances De cultu immemorabili disquisitio historico-liturgica, p. 62..