Letters of Adèle De Batz De Trenquelléon

Letters of Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon Volume One: 1805-1816 Edited by Joseph Stefanelli, SM Translated by Joseph Roy, SM North American Center for Marianist Studies Dayton, OH Monograph Series—Document No. 41, Volume 1—1999 This work is an English translation from the French Lettres de Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon: Fondatrice de l’Institut des Filles de Marie Immaculée, Marianistes, en collaboration avec le Père Guillaume Joseph Chaminade, Fondateur de la Société de Marie (Rome: Filles de Marie Immaculée, 1985). Copies of this work may be obtained from North American Center for Marianist Studies 4435 E. Patterson Road Dayton, OH 45430-1083 Printed by Marianist Press Cover icon: Colette Saunier Cover Design: Robert Hughes, SM Typesetting: Vanessa Blaylock Contents Editor’s Preface Summary Biography of Adèle Letters 1 to 304 Appendix One: Personal Rule of Life Appendix Two: Rule of the Association Appendix Three: The Actes Appendix Four: Concordance of Letters [not in electronic version] Appendix Five: Summary Table of Letters (1 to 304) Appendix Six: List of Religious and Secular Names Index to Persons Illustrations Adèle as a child Baron de Trenquelléon Baroness de Trenquelléon Map of the Southwest of France Château de Trenquelléon Chapel, Château de Trenquelléon Letter to Agathe Diché, April 10, 1806 William Joseph Chaminade Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Lamourous Editor’s Preface Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon was a prolific correspondent. Most of what we know about her is garnered from her own letters. The actual number of letters she wrote was certainly in the thousands. Of them, only 737 have come down to us. Her letters were first collected sometime after 1850 by Mother Marie Joseph de Casteras, her cousin and third Superior General of the Institute. They are here presented for the first time in a published English version. Two editions of her letters exist in French. One is a four-volume mimeographed version (1971- 74) prepared by Joseph Verrier, SM. In the first two volumes, going from 1805 to the foundation of the Daughters of Mary in 1816, the letters are arranged chronologically. In the second two volumes, they are arranged according to recipients. The second edition of her letters in French dates from 1985 (volume one) and 1987 (volume two). In this printed edition, prepared by the Daughters of Mary and published in Rome, all the letters are in chronological order. A concordance of the numbering of these two editions may be found in Adèle, A Biography of Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon, by Joseph Stefanelli, SM, pages 504 to 509; it is repeated in Appendix Four of this volume. Given the spontaneous and unrehearsed nature of these writings, the letters serve admirably to give us insights into the character, personality, spiritual development, and human frailties of this saintly and dedicated woman. From the earliest letter, written when she was not yet sixteen years old, to the last, written less than six weeks before her death at the age of 38, there is evident a close and loving relationship with her God, with her family, and with her friends. In his forward to the 1985-87 French edition, Verrier emphasized that “the same ardent zeal and thirst for souls which characterized St. Paul was to be found in this daughter of the Agen countryside, whose mother counted St. Louis among her ancestors.” Verrier continues, Toward her family she is always affectionate and respectful. With her superior, Father Chaminade, she is frank, considerate, and scrupulously obedient. With Saint Emilie de Rodat she gives free rein to the sentiments she habitually entertains: a high idea of the responsibility of a superior, a constant preoccupation with the sanctification and the health of her sisters, an overpowering urge to promote, by all possible means, the interests of God and the salvation of one’s neighbor, and the happiness she experiences in the protection and in the service of the Immaculate Virgin, despite her own imperfections and limitations. She is businesslike when dealing with temporal affairs. She displays a know-how, a competency, and a realism which she adapts to each particular case. When she addresses the superiors of the communities—some 235 times—she does so simply, naturally, and with no perceptible haughtiness; she is compassionate, stimulating, and a good counselor. Whether she writes to her sisters or to the novices, she avoids both sticky sentimentality and affectation. She patiently adapts to each person, totally forgetful of self, impelled only by the desire to open wide the paths leading to sanctity. Finally, to her friends beyond the walls of the cloister, she speaks from the heart and finds the words needed to encourage, sustain, console, stimulate—in short, to promote their faith life. Verrier also quotes the following comment by a theologian of the Sacred Congregation which studies the Causes for beatification and canonization. After examining these letters, he wrote, The writings of the Servant of God seem to warrant a very favorable judgment as to her moral personality in the supernatural sense of the term. They show that this true Servant of the Lord, from early childhood and during the whole course of her life in this world, was fully conscious of the supernatural responsibility stemming from the Christian vocation and from the call to religion. She resolved to honor this vocation, both by a generous and constant practice of the Christian virtues and by complete fidelity, without lapse or compromise, to her consecration, and to her total dedication to the service of god in the religious state. * * * The “summary Biography of Adèle” which precedes the letters in this English edition, as well as the “Summary Table of the Letters” at the end, both rely heavily on the French edition. The biography will help the reader situate to some extent the context of the letters. For a more detailed background, the reader is referred to Adèle by Joseph Stefanelli. Further information on many of the persons mentioned in Adèle’s letters may be found in Companions of Adèle, by the same author. A very valuable tool, even for the reader who is not at home with French, is the Index des lettres de Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon published by the Daughters of Mary, Sucy-en-Brie, in 1987. There the reader will find indexes to the letters, covering biblical passages, biblical names, saints, proper names, geographical locations, and authors and books cited. Especially valuable is the extensive (book length) topical index. References in that French Index are by letter number and paragraph. For that reason, this English edition has retained the paragraphing of the French original even when it does not follow accepted English usage. The reader should remember, too, that Adèle had no formal schooling. She wrote as she spoke, with little concern for the niceties of French style. She herself says, in the very first letter to Agathe, “It is not so much the style that should preoccupy us, but rather our own improvement.” The originals of these letters are conserved in the Archives of the Daughters of Mary in Rome. Most of them (384) were preserved by Agathe Diché (Sister Marie du Sacré Coeur). Some dates were added by later hands; some dates are subject to discussion. Generally, each letter is headed by an acte, or spiritual thought serving as a motto for the week. The French word acte has been retained because it has this special meaning in both languages. A list of some of these actes may be found in Appendix Three. The initials J.M.J.T. with which Adèle begins all her letters reflect her devotion to St. Teresa of Avila, whom she greatly admired and sought to imitate. Other appendices contain the Rule drawn up by M. Jean Baptiste Ducourneau for Adèle; some of her retreat resolutions; and the Rule of the Association, or Little Society. The originals of all these documents are also conserved in the Archives of the Daughters of Mary. Editorial items added within the text of the letters are enclosed in [ ]. Italics are used for other editorial comments, as well as for titles of books, special phrases, etc. Whatever was underlined in Adèle’s original text is underlined in this edition. * * * Translating early nineteenth-century letters poses a problem for a late twentieth-century translator: what to do about “non-inclusive” language. French, as in the English of that early period, uses the masculine noun where the sense obviously is more inclusive. Preachers of the day, addressing a congregation of only women, might well begin “Mes frères”; Adèle herself sometimes does just that when writing to her associates, all of whom are women. Such expressions have been rendered either as “brothers and sisters” or, in cases where the meaning is obvious, simply as “sisters.” The difficulty becomes especially pronounced with reference to God. Here it is much more than a matter of language; it is a matter of how Adèle images her God. And, beyond question, her image of God is “masculine.” She sees God especially as “father”—just, demanding, deserving of obedience, very loving, caring, protective, considerate, and compassionate. She relates to that God very personally. God is her father, her friend, her confidant, her lover, her all. Moreover, there are many passages in which she passes imperceptibly from “God” to “Jesus Christ,” and it is not always clear to which of the two the masculine pronouns (especially the possessives and the reflexives) primarily refer. The reader of her letters is certainly more interested in her “image of God” than in that of the translator. In many passages, where it can be done without violating either her style or, more importantly, her thought, inclusive language has been used.

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