abandon such foundations which, vitiated in their origin, would not be blessed by God." (I p. Constit., cap. XXXI, n. 1.)

It is not surprising that such a character, so upright and truthful, should give itself generously to every prescription of obedience. The Servant of God was a man of obedience. He always practised that great virtue in its perfection. He lost his mother at the age of seventeen and his father three years later. His sister, who watched over him while a seminarian and remained with him until his entrance among the Marists, could recall in his childhood only two very trifling faults against obedience, and they were, indeed, the exceptions that prove the rule. They show how his upright soul knew how to follow the straight road of obedience. During his stay at the Grand Séminaire, his conduct was ever irreproachable. He was for his fellow-students a model for imitation, one whose very appearance raised their hearts to God.

This virtue of obedience, which he had so perfectly practised in his childhood, at the Grand Séminaire, and during the five years of his parochial ministry, developed and shone with new lustre in the religious life. He was the child of his Society. He loved and served it as a child loves and serves its mother.

Scarcely four years after his entrance among the Marists, his Superior General appointed him Provincial, then Visitor, charges which he exercised for several years, and which showed the high esteem in which his zeal and virtue were held. Had he not been in the hand of God while resting in that of his Superiors, such confidence would not have been shown him.

On December 22, 1849, he wrote to Mlle. Guillot the following words which reveal his spirit of obedience. He was then at Lyons, Visitor-General of the Society of Mary, and Director of the Third Order:

"The Third Order occupies me, rejoices me, consoles me. I would wish to do a thousand times more for the perfection of these good souls, but my motto is: 'Do all by obedience, leave all by obedience, desire nothing out of obedience.' To leave Lyons tomorrow never to return, to see no more those to whom I am entirely devoted in God, to live and die in the corner of a stable or upon the highroad, wishing no word to be spoken of me after my death, to be confounded with paupers-this is what I desire, and I beg you to ask it for me.

Regarding his obedience toward his Superiors, Père Mayet writes as follows: "At a certain time, he received a letter from a Superior of the Society of Mary, which must have made the writer suffer much, for it notified Père Eymard on the part of the venerable founder of the Marists, of the prohibition in virtute sanctae obedientiae to do such and such a thing (1). For one so obedient and for whom a single word would have been sufficient, this was a rude blow. I saw him at this time. He used to tell me everything, but now he said not a word of his trouble. This gave me great edification when I later on learned the whole circumstance. He allowed himself not one word of complaint, but it made him ill.”

Here is another circumstance given by Père Mayet,

(1) Very probably Père Mayet here alludes to the Third Order of Mary of which Père Eymard was the Director. He was ordered to have nothing more to do with it.

which proves clearly what a spirit of obedience animated the Servant of God: "One day Père Eymard received one after the other, two severe letters from the Father General, reproaching him with several things, some of them turning on the subject of erroneous teaching. Père Eymard said to me: 'God be praised! That is good for me, makes me think. I need it. Besides, it is a sign of some great grace that God is going to give me.' Then he smiled with the air of one a little annoyed. In one of these letters, the writer urged him to lose no time in addressing a letter of apology to the Very Rev. Père Colin. The Servant of God said to me: "I shall do it to-morrow. I am not afraid to humble myself, to ask pardon and a penance. But it is not for man that I do so, it is for God!"

The circumstances accompanying this trial were of a nature to fill him with confusion, for they obliged him to take a place below his inferiors. That same day he remarked to a Marist, Père Mulsant: "God has deigned to shed on me precious favors. I have received a letter that has given me much pain. It will serve to keep me in humility."

XII

HIS HEROIC OBEDIENCE AND FORTITUDE,

E set forth in the last chapter of this biography

WE

the perfect obedience practised all his life by the venerable Servant of God. We shall now say a word of that obedience when directed toward the Supreme Pontiff of the Church, his Bishops, and all who held ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Venerable Père Eymard was too much in love with the Most Blessed Sacrament not to obey, first of all, the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, who instituted the Holy Eucharist; from the Pope, that love flowed to the Bishops of Holy Church, the consecrators of Priests; and then to the Priests, the consecrators of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

On his return from Rome, after having received from Pius IX, January 5, 1859, the Laudatory Brief, he wrote to the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament his unexpected success: "It is Pius IX, that grand and lovable figure of our century, Pius IX, who has suffered so much for the Church, who has laid upon the brow of the Blessed Virgin so beautiful a crown, and conquered to Jesus Christ so many nations-that Pontiff whom future ages will envy us, who has blessed us by giving us our first Laudatory Brief, composed under his own inspiration, signed by his own hand,also a blessing to the Servants of the Most Blessed Sacrament, contrary to ordinary custom, contrary to all expectations." Again he wrote: "Know that the benediction of the Church gives fecundity and stability."

His spirit of faith desired no other support than this unique strength here below, for it is the strength of God Himself. His confidence in the future rested on the thought that the Sovereign Pontiff having blessed his Work, it had thereby received life and the pledge of its prosperity. "When God blesses, it is for eternity, if we do not stay that benediction." These were his words to the Servants of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

On May 8, 1863, he obtained the Canonical Approbation of his Congregation. "How recall," said he, "the signal favor of 1863, when, after seven years of existence and trials, on May 8, the feast of the Apparition of Saint Michael, Archangel, the Holy Father signed our Canonical Approbation, perpetual, without conditions, without patronage, or the mediation of others. To be approved by Pius IX, the Pope of the Immaculate Conception-what a favor, what an honor for us!"

This sentiment of gratitude, this profound respect for the person of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, this spirit of dependence on the Holy See which was, so to speak, the foundation of all his conduct, the inspiration of his decisions, took afterward an affectionate, a filial character, manifested by his deferential attachment to all that emanated from the Holy See.

"The Holy Father," he said, "does not always command. He sometimes says: 'Such is my desire.' For us this desire is an order."

Again, he said: "Have confidence in the Church. It belongs to the spirit of the Society of the Most Blessed Sacrament to hold on to the Holy Father as to one's own vitals, because he is the Father, because