Life of St John Vianney.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

^6 THE CURri OF ARS.7011 that it yon can contrive to send me my pension forthe whole year, it will be a great convenience to me, as Ihave just made an important purchase formy church.Ifyou could even advance me that of the coming year, itwould be still better. My brother-in-law Melin has kindlypromised to give me a hundred crowns for a work ofcharity, but that will not be enough. I venture to hope,my dearest brother, that you will do me this favour."On this occasion, as his small income would not sufficefor the purpose in hand, he sold all that he possessed, andpurchased the house for the sum of 20,000 francs, whichwas about the value of his share of the property at Dardilly.When he had bought the house, he had not moneyto pay the legal expenses of the purchase. The next difficulty was to find suitable persons to take charge of theestablishment. His first idea had been to place it in thehands of religious, and his thoughtshad turned to theSisters of St. Charles, in grateful remembrance of the carewith which, under the Reign of Terror, they had preparedhim for his first Communion. He saw reason, however, toalter his plan, and resolved to place at the head of his infant undertaking two young persons of his own training,whom, without suffering them to aspire to the religiouscharacter, he had long exercised in all the virtues whichbelong to it, obedience, humility, simplicity, and absolutedependence upon Divine Providence.Benoite Lardet and Catherine Lassagne were both distinguished for their sound practical sense and solid piety.The one was to be, in his own words, the head, the otherthe heart, of the new foundation. To Catherine Lassae-ne ^we owe not only the facts here related by M. Mounioconcerning the Providence, but, as we have already seen,many of the details of the holy cure s ministry before the