t upon him in a little silver vessel, which he had
had made purposely, when he went to the country. His Lordship had so
great a desire that every one should take it that he exercised
particular care in seeing every day whether the vessels of the church
were supplied with it, to fill them when they were empty; and during the
winter, for fear that the vessels should freeze too hard and the people
could not take any as they entered and left the church, he used to bring
them himself every evening and place them by our stove, and take them
back at four o'clock in the morning when he went to open the doors."

With a touching humility the pious old man scrupulously conformed to the
rules of the seminary and to the orders of the superior of the house.
Only a few days before his death, he experienced such pain that Brother
Houssart declared his intention of going and asking from the superior of
the seminary a dispensation for the sick man from being present at the
services. At once the patient became silent; in spite of his tortures
not a complaint escaped his lips. It was Holy Wednesday: it was
impossible to be absent on that day from religious ceremonies. We do not
know which to admire most in such an attitude, whether the piety of the
prelate or his submission to the superior of the seminary, since he
would have been resigned if he had been forbidden to go to church, or,
finally, his energy in stifling the groans which suffering wrenched from
his physical nature. Few saints carried mortification and renunciation
of terrestrial good as far as he. "He is certainly the most austere man
in the world and the most indifferent to worldly advantage," wrote
Mother Mary of the Incarnation. "He gives away everything and lives like
a pauper; and we may truly say that he has the very spirit of poverty.
It is not he who will make friends for worldly advancement and to
increase his revenue; he is dead to all that.... He practises this
poverty in his house, in his living, in his furniture, in his servants,
for he has only one gardener, whom he lends to the poor when they need
one, and one valet...." This picture falls short of the truth. For forty
years he arose at two o'clock in the morning, summer and winter: in his
last years illness could only wrest from him one hour more of repose,
and he arose then at three o'clock. As soon as he was dressed, he
remained at prayer till four and then went to church. He opened the
doors himself, and rang