The Porziuncola Project
The Letters of Saint Colette of Corbie
Letter of St Colette to Sister Louise Bassande of the Colettines at Auxonne
c. 1416
To my dear and well-beloved daughter in God, Sr Louise Bassande, in the convent at Auxonne. May this letter be humbly presented to her.
Jesus + Maria
My very dear and much loved daughter in Our Lord, as humbly as I am able I recommend myself to you and to your good prayers before Our Lord begging you affectionately to always show yourself a good daughter, devout, humble, patient and obedient to your superiors and to all your good sisters for love of our Lord who was obedient even unto death - and always trust in the good advice of your dear sisters, because I have left you at the convent of Auxonne for your well being. It is a good convent and I know they are good religious.
Entrust your heart completely to God; for those of us who have left the world ought not to preoccupy ourselves with parents or friends, except to pray for their salvation. I recommend myself humbly to your Mother when she comes to see you, and to our Mother Abbess and all my good sisters, I pray the Holy Spirit to keep you in holy care and to fulfil all your good desires. Amen.
Sister Colette
I Letter of St Colette to benefactors at Ghent regarding the monastery being built by them as a gift to the order
18 May 1438 or 1439
To my most Christian and most honoured Sirs, Jean de Hot Kerbech, Daniel de Varrenewiic, Jean Willaert, Jacques de Bassevelde, Jean de Oeure, Jean de Wevere and to several others.
Jesus
Venerable and most honoured and very dear Sirs,
With the greatest humility of which I am capable, in the most perfect charity of our most merciful Redeemer, I recommend myself to you and to your holy prayers, so full of merit, and your intercession worthy of being heard. With all my heart I desire your good health and prosperity, spiritually and corporal, giving thanks most lovingly to God and to you for your very great love and charity you have for us and for our religious family, and especially for the great affection and diligence you have shown with regard to the convent, newly begun at Ghent, and for all assistance, goods and support that have come through you and by means of your goodness, and for the great care and good will that you have shown towards us several times, informing us by a special messenger of the state and progress of the said convent.
I humbly pray the most sweet, merciful and loving Jesus Christ to reward you a hundredfold in life everlasting for the goods you have given us here below, according to his fitting promise in the Gospels. May it please you to know that, with a view to arriving at this said convent (of Ghent), I have several times made the effort to reach the convent recently built in the town of Hesdin by my most venerable Lady of Burgundy, gathering together and assisting the Sisters to be brought there. But the advice of the nobles and merchants who are used to travelling in this country was that I would be putting them to great peril and risking their very lives because the situation is extremely dangerous and fraught with peril, even more for women and for religious than for others.
That is why I have had to make my excuse to the most venerable Duchess and Lady I have mentioned because it was not possible to go there at the present time. All the same, my intention is to go there with all haste as soon as the roads are safe, and indeed several of our brothers have already gone there to take possession of the convent. If I could only settle and accomplish the said journey and be at Hesdin. I could give you council and show you the way to bring to completion the said convent at Ghent. But presume as certain, and reflect upon, the dangers and perils of the present and the even greater and more difficult obstacles to come. Even if the convent were quite ready and assigned to them, I could not bring Sisters there because of the perils I have already mentioned, a situation which causes me great grief as much on account of the devotion and holy affection you have shown in constructing the said convent as over the failure to accomplish the good designs and holy intentions of the founders and benefactors of that same convent; which devotion and intention, both yours and theirs, will be rewarded by God, and for having a part in the prayers and suffrages of the Order, you neither will nor can be deprived of this offering. And, since I have been advised, in the face of the inconvenience already mentioned, present and future, and as I have no one able or suitable to be sent there at present, and also seeing that the site of the said convent has been given as an act of devotion to God and the benefactions have been made for love and reverence of God and his glorious Mother also finally in order that the said convent given to God should not fall with the passage of time into profane use, I ask you to take into consideration that all religious men and women are consecrated or deputed for the holy service of God, in order to honour him all the more and to carry on the good devotion and intention of those who have given towards the foundation.
So if it pleases you and the nobles of the town to agree together to place in this convent good and devout religious men or women with the due permission of those who have the right to decide such matters, so that they can live here observing their rule and serving God exactly and devoutly, then this would be greatly pleasing to me and I give my consent for it. For I have heard that already several wish this and are planning to bring it about, with whom I would not wish you to have any argument or dissension on account of the said convent. Given the inconveniences already cited, I see no way in which your good devotion could be speedily fulfilled, and no one knows what awaits us, whether death or life on this hand or that. So why should the said convent not be made over to those men or women who can the most surely keep it for God?
Very Christian and most honoured Sirs, I humbly beg the Holy Spirit to keep you in his grace and to lead you at the last to eternal life.
Written at Besancon, 18th May.
The most worthless handmaid of Jesus Christ and his useless petitioner,
Sister Colette
Letter of St Colette to all her communities on the death of Father Henri de Balme
16 February 1439
My dearest and well loved Sisters in God,
I recommend my poor soul before the Lord to your good prayers and petitions as humbly as I know how to, wishing you from my heart an increase in all the virtues necessary for salvation, and beseeching you most affectionately to live virtuously and grow continuously in the perfect love of God and in the true observance of your Rule and all that is ordered for your good.
May it please you to know that these days a great sorrow and anguish and bitterness of soul and body has come upon me, and not without just cause,for last Ash Wednesday after Matins the sickness of our Reverend Father Henri, became much worse so that on the Thursday, a little before midnight, he was taken to our chapel and there in the presence of our said brothers and fathers and myself received the most precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ with great devotion; and straight afterwards the sacrament of holy anointing, and after he had received it he took leave to his room, looking better than he had before or so it seemed to us. On the Saturday he became much weaker and on Monday too he spent the whole day in our chapel and oratory in our presence, in great devotion. and knowledge of God, as was apparent to us. He entered his last sufferings, all the recommendations of his soul, and at half past six in the evening, while praying and speaking with our Lord, his fine and glorious soul rendered itself gently and devotedly up to God, our blessed Creator.
Wherefore as earnestly as I can, as dearly and affectionately as possible, I recommend it to you, begging you with all my heart and entirely,that if you have loved him loyally while he was alive, your love will be not a whit lessened after his going, but rather increased, so that you will do your duty and pray most diligently to God for him, as you know he well deserves. Although I believe that it is a better thing that he is praying for us than we for him: and also I recommend his noble soul to your devout Father Confessor and to all my Fathers and Brothers; and I ask my own poor intention.
Praying that the blessed Holy Spirit will watch over you and keep you in his grace and finally lead you into the glory of paradise. Amen.
Written at Besancon, 26 February 1439
Sister Colette
II Letter of St Colette to the Poor Clares at Puy, also on Father Henri’s death
1439
To my very dear and much loved Mothers and friends in all the Sisters, this letter is humbly presented.
Jesus
My dearest Mothers and Sisters in the love of our sweet Saviour Jesus Christ.
As humbly and lovingly as I can, I recommend my poor soul before our Lord in your good prayers and holy intercession, desiring with my whole heart your spiritual and corporal good. And I pray you most earnestly to be good and perfect religious, loving, fearing and reverencing God above all else, keeping your holy Rule perfectly and following the good advice of the prelates set over you and the good ordinances and admonitions and example which our Reverend father, Brother Henri de Balme has so often shown and handed down to you; and I recommend and dearly as I can, for he is well worthy of our prayers and we are greatly bound to offer them, for he was always a true and good pastor to us. And always be well patient in everything and be humble, devout and perfect religious. I recommend to you our reverend Father, Brother Pierre de Rheims, who labours constantly for the love of God and for the good of religion.
May God who is unending, my dearest sisters, keep you always in his care. Amen.
Letter of St Colette to Pierre de Rheims (or de Vaux)
c 1439
Colette called upon Father Pierre de Vaux to replace Father Henri as her chaplain. He is obviously flustered about looking after a saint and she assures him that she needs no favours and that her soul is a poor and lowly thing and begs him, in the gentlest way, to look after his own! Father Pierre became her biographer
Jesus + Maria
My very dear and well loved Father in our Lord,
I recommend to you my poor soul, the poorest in all the world. Alas! What shall I be, what will become of me in the presence of the sovereign Judge? Indeed, I do not dare to think on my terrible offenses which I believe would cause utter despair; I am without any awareness of spiritual good.
My dear Father, with all the power of my poor soul, I beg you to make every effort that you can to love our Lord. May you heart be filled with the blessed Passion of our Blessed Saviour. Bear his pains and feel them like a true child of his. Follow after him wherever he goes, with ardent desire, and distrust all other love than his. May your hope be entirely in him and then I trust he will do much good for you.
Praise and thank him often, and may his holy fear be always in your heart, my Father.
Do not have any anxiety about me and do not bother about doing me any favours. Our Saviour has greater pity on me than I am worthy of.
May he watch over your soul. Amen.
Sister Colette
II Letter of St Colette to benefactors at Ghent regarding the monastery being built by them as a gift to the order
13th October 1442?
To my dear and honoured Sirs, Daniel de Varrenewiic, Jean de Oeuvre, Jacques de Bassevelde and Jean de Hot.
Jesus
Very dear and honoured Sirs,
as humbly as I may and know in the charity of our most piteous Redeemer, I recommend my poor soul to your good grace and to your devout prayers and holy intercession, desiring with all my heart your good health and spiritual and material prosperity.
I beseech you most affectionately that before all other worldly and transitory things your desire may be to love God perfectly and to serve him humbly and devoutly, loyally holding fast to his worthy and salutary commandments, which it is necessary to keep for the health of the soul, and to preserve your souls and consciences pure and spotless without mortal sin. Do nothing in the sight of his sovereign Majesty and glorious presence which you would not do before anyone lesser or greater than you. Wherever we are, we a always present to him, and he sees us clearly within and without and knows us better than we know ourselves, which is why in all places and at all times we should keep watch over our thoughts and our words, doing nothing which would be displeasing or detestable to him.
May it please you to know that through the sovereign bounty of God both myself and all our company have arrived safe and sound at the town of Besançon on 11 October without any further obstacles, for which we must certainly give all praise and glory to God. I humbly beg you to keep cordial watch over the convent and not to allow anything to be done for it which would be against God and contrary to the regular observance.
Very dear and honoured Sirs, I humbly beseech the holy Spirit to watch over you unceasingly and to keep you in his grace and to bring you at last to eternal life.
Written at Besancon, 13 October.
The most unworthy hand maid of Jesus Christ and his useless suppliant,
Sister Colette
Letter of St Colette to the Poor Clares at Ghent
End of 1442?
This letter to the community appears to have accompanied that to Marie de Boen
Jesus
My very dear and well beloved Mothers and Daughters and Sisters in God,
I recommend as humbly as I may my poor soul before our Lord most warmly in your good prayers and devout petitions. I desire your good health and spiritual and bodily prosperity, praying you most earnestly to take pains and be most diligent in your efforts to be true and perfect religious, basing all your works on the principle of profound humility, having your hearts enkindled with the perfect love of God, serving him with great care, humbly and devotedly, keeping your holy rule in its entirety, and rendering to him all you have voluntarily vowed and promised, resisting strong in virtue the persecutions and temptations of the devil. Notwithstanding that we are weak and feeble, our infernal enemy does not have the power to over come us, if we do not wish to be overcome, and posses our souls in patience in all contradictions and adversities.
We always profit and bear more fruit in tribulations and afflictions than in times of prosperity and consolation, and the straight and sound way,which leads to the everlasting Kingdom, unfailing and without turning aside from its course, is the one of tribulation and affliction unjustly caused and brave with patience. As for the daughters about whom you wrote to me, I have written to Mother Abbess telling her of my intention.
I recommend language pronunciation for the Flemish.
My good Father in Christ, Brother Pierre, recommends himself humbly to you.
I pray the Holy Spirit to keep you always in his holy grace. Amen!
Letter of St Colette to the Lady Marie Boen (or Bohun)
End of 1442?
Since this letter is in the archives of the Colettines of Ghent, we may presume that Marie subsequently joined the community. The use of the title Lady (Dame) suggests that Marie had been married and as Colette was reluctant to receive widows and says so in her constitutions this may well indicate Colette’s openness to all whom God may call.
To my dear Lady, especially beloved in Jesus Christ, Marie Boen (of Ghent)
Dear Lady and especially loved in our Lord Jesus Christ,
As much and as humbly as I can and may, I recommend myself always to your good grace and to your devout prayers and supplications before our Lord Jesus Christ; begging you to take ceaseless care to go from strength to strength in his most perfect love, remaining continually, strong and virtuous in his most holy and worthy service, for to those who set out on this way is promised the kingdom, but it is to those who persevere loyally that the crown will be given. And as long as we are in the present life innumerable perils are commonly found, which are indeed to be feared, especially our enemies, the world and the flesh which day and night wage war on us in diverse ways. Against these we must arm and defend ourselves, for it is needful for us to conquer them if we do not want to be overcome ourselves, and, as Saint Paul says, we cannot have the victory without a battle nor a crown without a victory. And because of ourselves we can do nothing without the aid and grace of the Lord, neither do good nor resist our adversaries, there is need for us to return to our good and true Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, and beg him to equip us with his weapons so that we can the more surely overcome. These weapons, among others with which he was armed in this poor world , while bringing about and fulfilling the mystery of our redemption in the face of these three adversaries were: against the world, true and holy poverty from his birth until his death stripped naked on the cross: against the flesh , pure, holy and perfect chastity of heart and body, born and conceived of a pure Virgin Mother: against the enemy, perfect humility and true right up to his death and all in perfect charity. And whoever is thus armed can go forward into battle with sure heart. In short, these are the weapons with which he has wished to equip those men and women whom by means of his grace he has wished to call into his service, and who have wanted to follow him in the worthy evangelical state and the holy apostolic life. And I beseech him in his infinite goodness always to watch over and guard you completely, and so to enlighten you with his grace, that you may serve him without end and love him in that state which is most pleasing to him, and fight for him loyally under his Church. Thus you will be able to love him everlastingly and reign in his glorious heavenly palace, in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Your unworthy handmaid who prays for you,
Sister Colette
Letter of St Colette to King Charles VII, regarding the proposed foundation at Corbie
c 1445
To our King and Sire
Jesus Christ
The most useless handmaid of Jesus Christ and your unworthy servant who prays for you, Sister Colette, a poor religious of the Order of Saint Clare, humbly begs your assistance.
For about a year, the Lord and Lady of Saveuse, moved by devotion and by the singular affection they have for our poor Order, have had the wish to form and construct a convent and monastery of the said Order of Saint Clare and of our manner of living,within the town of Corbie, and for this reason have obtained a bull and mandate from our Holy Father the Pope, and in order to carry it out in accordance with the instructions contained in it, presented it to my Lords, the Abbot and Prior of the convent of Saint Peter in the aforesaid Corbie as was necessary, praying and requesting them that they humbly agree to obey and give their consent. My Lord the Abbot replied saying that it was not his intention to contradict the bulls of our Holy Father, and that he had always shown himself content with them, and that the citizens, peasants and inhabitants of this town were also satisfied, and very much wished and desired it. But the above mentioned Prior and convent would in no way give their consent,although the said Lord and Lady of Saveuse offered and proposed to render back to them and make restitution of all financial interests which might be affected by this venture in what ever manner necessary. After this proceeding and offer, and with the consent of the said Abbot, the said Lord and Lady, the authority of the Holy Father, started building the said convent of Saint Clare. They have already laboured greatly and at great expense over it, as much in accomplishing the work as in provision of materials.
To hinder the work already begun on the wall, the said religious have obtained a mandate invoking the law of trespass from part of your Parliament, by reason of which they have forced the work to come to a stop. This has done great harm and retarded the work of God and the good already begun. Since then they have obtained yet another warrant in virtue of which my Lord de Saveuse and his followers are forbidden as regards this cause or matter in hand, whether with the authority of bulls or otherwise, to treat with the said religious except in your own Parliamentary court.
When the Duchess of Burgundy was informed of the difficulties and opposition, through pity and compassion for our poor Order, as she has written to you, she wrote several times to them and remonstrated with them, and even begged and requested them to be willing at last to give their consent; but to do this under any circumstances, they would finally in no wise agree. As the request is a devout one, and concerns chiefly the honour of God, the increase of his divine service and the salvation of the souls he has created and redeemed, we come back to you as our last and sovereign refuge in this poor world.
We beg in this your kind, devout and merciful assistance, as that following the most noble and Christian Kings who have preceded you, as you have always been accustomed to do without looking to creatures but purely and chiefly to the Creator, it will please your most kind grace to show us humble and cordial charity, granting this boon and so providing for the good work begun that it may be enabled to come to a speedy fulfilment. In this way God can be served with all readiness for the pure love of Jesus Christ, in reverence for his woeful death and sacred Passion. May it please you to redeem (text missing)...the place and the site where the said convent is to be. This place was given to us a long time ago as a gift for the love of God. Moreover, by the authority of your royal majesty and your absolute power, may it please you by a special favour to give leave and authorisation for the perfecting and finishing of the said convent, notwithstanding the said complaint of dispossession, giving and assigned as a propitious and fitting judge your bailiff of Amiens, or some other person to represent the interests of (the monks of the abbey). In no way do we wish to refuse them their rights and we want to render and restore to them all that is duly claimed and judged right, and even more. What disadvantage do they actually expect of this? Let them understand that these poor religious will have no claim at any time to have lordship or jurisdiction, neither rent, nor rating, nor revenue, but will live simply on alms in accordance with the evangelical counsel if Jesus Christ our Lord.
May it please you to agree to this through your grace and generous mercy, in all pity and compassion. It will also be a cause of goodness and favour for you and you will put the poor Order under an obligation to pray ever more and more for your high and holy intention a thing we would wish always to do with all our hearts as God well knows. Already your good and noble assistance the convents of the city of Puy in Auvergne and of Amiens in Picardy have been founded. Without it we could have done nothing so far, as I believe is also the case with many other good works in your noble realm.
Second Letter to the Monks of Corbie
(10 March 1446?)
Not content with Colette's answer, the monks pressed once more for her to bring the work of construction to a halt immediately. Colette wrote this second letter full of a humble grandeur, accepting their refusal of the convent. The manuscript is in the archives of the monastery of Amiens kept at Poligny.
Most honoured and reverend Sirs, as humbly as I can and may, I recommend my poor soul to your devout prayers and holy intercession. May it please you to know that I have received the letters which you have been pleased to write and send me, in which are contained several points touching on the foundation of the convent of our Order which Mgr de Saveuse is having built in your town. Having seen them, I have sent with all haste to the said Lord of Saveuse to request and beg him most strongly to desist from the said foundation, notwithstanding that I have already requested and prayed him on an earlier occasion most humbly to do so. Most honoured and revered Sirs, I humbly beg the blessed Holy Spirit to keep you in his holy grace and lead you at last to eternal glory. Amen.
Written at Hesdin, 10th March,
Your very useless handmaid who prays for you, Sister Colette
Letter of St Colette to the Poor Clares at Besançon
18 July 1446
To my dearest and most loved Mother in our Lord, to Mother Abbess and all the Sisters of the convent of Besançon, may this letter be presented.
Jesus Maria Francis Clare
My dearest and most well-loved Mother in our sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, as earnestly and as humbly and as affectionately as I may know, I recommend myself always to you and to your daughters. I recommend myself to them all together assembled, and to each one in particular, as if I named them with their own names. I beg them most humbly that you will always remember myself, my poor soul, my poor person, all my responsibilities with all my woeful intentions and our good Father, Brother Pierre, in your holy prayers before our Lord. They are so needful for me as our Lord knows and understands. I render thanks to God and to you for all the good you did me while I was with you, and I pray God that he will be your perfect recompense for it all. If it pleases you to have news of myself, I am as you know I am, as well as can be, enfeebled in body, while my soul is as God knows it to be.
My very dear and most beloved Mother, I recommend to you always the Holy Rule, the Holy Statutes and all the Holy ordinances; and that you take great care that everything is done and kept as it is necessary for it to be done and observed, so that you may render a good account before God of all that has been committed to you , and that faults should be justly punished as it says in the holy ordinances. And in carrying out your office have good patience, for you will receive a good recompense for all the labour you have.
I beg the Sisters most humbly for the love of God and for their salvation to strive with all their power to love and serve our Lord, and that they may be true religious, tending towards God alone, loyally keeping everything that they have freely and willingly promised God: the Holy Rule, the holy statutes and all the holy ordinances, so as to avoid the penalties prescribed for these transgressions, and much more so those which will come after this present life and so at last to have and possess the eternal life is promised to them. The labour is brief but the rest is long, for such little effort we receive a great recompense.
And for God, my Mother, I recommend that you take great care that the holy silence is well kept as well as the manner of speaking at the turn and at the grille as you know it should be. And may it please you to recommend me humbly to our good Brother confessor and to all the good Fathers and Brothers.
And I recommend to you, my Mother, the Abbess of Hesdin and all the sisters as well as all the others who are there.
I will not write anything else at present, except that I pray the blessed Holy Spirit to watch over you always in soul and body, and to give you joy, peace, health, salvation and life everlasting.
Written at Hesdin, the 18th day of July 1446.
Sister Colette
Unworthy handmaid of Jesus, at Hesdin.
II Letter of St Colette to the Benedictine Monks of Corbie
2 March 1446?
The monks of Corbie persisted in their refusal to allow a convent of the Poor Clares reform in their town. Colette's appeal of the King, supported by the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, made them afraid they would lose the support of Parliament or that it would be powerless to defend them. So they addressed themselves directly to Colette, to get her to desist. She gives them this answer; renouncing on behalf of Philip of Saveuse the projected foundation.
Jesus + Maria
To my most honoured and reverend Sirs, my Lords the Prior and the religious of Corbie.
Most honoured and reverend Sirs, my Lords,
I recommend my poor soul as humbly as I can and may to your holy prayers and devout intercession. May it please you to know that I have received the letters which it has pleased you to write and send me, telling how my Lord Saveuse wishes to build a monastery of our Order in your town of Corbie. and several other things touching on this matter which would be to long to list here. With regard to these letters and their contents, I assure you that it was not at my request but at the urgent entreaty and request of the said Lord of Saveuse, with the approval and authority of our holy Father Pope Eugene IV, with the consent and approbation of the reverend Father in God, Monsieur the Abbot and Count of Corbie, given and granted to the said Lord of Saveuse, for the sovereign honour and perfect love of God, the exaltation of his holy name and the extending of his holy service and for the salvation of souls and the increase of the spiritual and temporal good of the said town.
I agreed to the foundation and construction of the said convent not because I had any desire, intention or wish that this convent should be prejudicial to your lordship and your province, nor to that of the churches, nor that it would be for the detriment of the poor, the deprived or strangers. For if that were indeed the case, even if the convent were to be founded and completely finished with your consent and good pleasure, I would neither wish to live or stay there, for that would be to usurp the rights of others. But, before God, I believe that this said building would be for the honour or God and of yourselves, to the credit of your monastery, and profitable to it, as well as for the strengthening of yourselves and of the townspeople. as I have always witnessed and found by my own experience, in every place where our convents have been built, whether in large, average, or small towns, including ones smaller and poorer than Corbie, I have seen nothing that has not been provided by God’s bounty, without detriment or loss to anyone else. Niether the nobles, nor the inhabitants, religious or secular, have suffered any dishonour or loss, but have profited spiritually and temporally and have suffered any dishonour or loss, but have profited spiritually and temporally and have been consoled and strengthened thereby.
You ask me to agree to desist from the building of this convent, which I do, with regret, because I have no doubt that once you stand before him, the Lord would judge that you have no right to prevent so great a good.
Nevertheless, at you request I will notify his Lordship asking him to agree to desist from the said convent and to leave off the work, and that you have all judged against allowing the said monastery to be built during your lifetime as long as you can put up any resistance to it.
Most honoured and reverend Sirs, I humbly beg the Holy Spirit to keep you always in his holy grace and finally to bring you to everlasting glory.
Written at Hesdin,
the 2nd of March.
Your useless handmaid who prays for you,
Sister Colette
St Colette’s Letter of Affiliation to Seigneur Bartholome de Dijon
15 October 1446.
At Ty Mam Duw, we still use this text of affiliation for those people who have, for the love of God, served and befriended our community during their pilgrimage on earth.
To our very dear and much loved Bartholome de Dijon,
Sister Colette, humble religious of the Order of the Poor Ladies of Saint Clare and the other poor ladies of the said Order, wishes salvation in our Lord and spiritual consolation.
As it is as much for the love and reverence of God as for the good affection and devotion you have for our holy Order with the good esteem which you have for our poor religious, without any merit of ours, it has pleased you in your humility to stay and reside for a long time in our convent of Besançon, occupying and exerting yourself in the labours and service appropriate and necessary for the said convent and for the religious sisters and brothers of the said convent. We offer and grant to you in life and after death a full share in all the good works which it please God to give us, be they in masses, in fasts, in prayers and in vigils, abstinence and discipline or in any other benefits or good exercises which may be carried out in perpetuity in our congregation, as the most sovereign divine bounty may mercifully deign to accept them and find them pleasing in his sight.
Given at Ghent, under my seal,
15 October, the year of our Lord 1446.
Letter of St Colette to Brother Jehan Lanie de Puy
Second day of Lent, 1447 from Ghent
To my very dear Father in God, Brother Jehan Lanie de Puy.
Very dear Father in our Lord, I recommend myself to you as dearly as I can, and to your good prayers and intercession. I beg you, my dear Father, to love and fear our Lord indeed, for his sake keeping well with all your strength all that you have promised him, and to accept with good patience your feebleness and old age, and to acknowledge truly the graces which he has given you in the holy vocation to which you have been called by his bounty. I am sending to Puy, Father, Brother Jehan Frisseau to be confessor there, for I have heard that you truly no longer perform this office; have no doubt but that he and the Sisters will do all that they can to please you; for it is my wish and my desire that it should be so.
I thank you, my dear Father, for all the help and service that you have given to my Sisters who give you great praise. I pray the One for whom you have done this that he will be your eternal joy. Amen.
Written at Ghent, the second day of Lent.
Sister Colette Boylet