[469] On the eve of August 24, 1797 preparations were being made in the monastery for an extraordinary celebration. This time it was not going to be a simple "taking of the veil" as we saw in the last chapter;1 nor was it to be a solemn profession of faith by some privileged novice admitted to consummate her sacrifice joyfully. On August 24 one could see at the foot of the altar a virgin with many years of service, but rich also in the fruits of virtue gathered along her way since she took her first steps on the path of a religious life.
The Reverend Mother Marie-Catherine [Payen] de Noyan de Saint-Alexis, elected Mother Superior the previous May, had reached the fiftieth anniversary of her consecration to the Lord.2 After having renewed her sweet and sacred vows every morning for fifty years,3 today she wants to sing a new heartfelt hymn to God. She longs to affirm to Him reverently one more time, "that the yoke of her holy service is neither harsh nor cumbersome, that she in no way finds herself inhibited by her bonds, and that she would wish rather to multiply them and rebind the knots even more closely each day."
[470] Monseigneur Denaut,4 coadjutor, came down from Montreal for the occasion, as did a number of clergymen, some citizens, and friends and relatives of Mother Saint-Alexis. The church was decorated as if for the grandest occasion. From four o'clock in the morning until nine, Masses were said at the High Altar, at the Chapel of Saint-Coeur de Marie, and at the chapels of the two halls. At the community mass celebrated by Monseigneur Denaut, Mother Saint-Alexis renewed her vows, and all the nuns took communion. After giving thanks and having a light breakfast, His Grace went to the convent door where the community was waiting as a group. The nuns greeted the Prelate as he passed through the ranks leading Mother Saint-Alexis and followed by the clergymen. There were no less than 36 priests. When the procession reached the Community Hall, Monseigneur presented a seat to the "heroine of the feast"; then everyone took their places and the recital and songs began. It would take too long to speak here of each member of the cloister family in turn; instead let's listen to what these youngest nuns have to say to their venerable Mother Superior in presenting her with a crown of Strawflowers.5
[471] I
Tenderness has more than one language;
Everyone expresses it in her own way.
Under this emblem is our tribute;
All that comes from the heart is good.
II
Your daughters speak together
In commemorating your fifty years;
It is a chain of "everlastings"
Which time will never stain.
III
As each ringlet of the wreath
Recalls to mind times past, 10
We can see what time can't touch:
The spirit, heart, and virtues.
IV
Oh, lucky garland!
How she preserves her freshness,
And each year for a long while yet
May we be able to add another bloom.
A few more happy refrains followed these first verses: there were
then some charming scenes in which filial piety showed itself in all its
grace and tenderness. Finally, two from the company of novices of Mother
Saint-Alexis, plus Mother Françoise Hiché de Saint-Henri6
and Mother Louise Parent de Saint-Charles7
sang a new song in honour of Saint-Alexis.
I
Alexis, while still young,
Burned with love for God alone;
One fine dawn
Heralded the most beautiful day. 20
To live among the novices
And dedicate to her Saviour
The first fruits of her wisdom
Was her heart's only wish.
II
From a world she rejects,
Despising all false riches,
And with these knots adorning her
In the name of the sweetest bonds,
Following the ambition which inspires her,
Alexis, in this holy place, 30
To a world which admires her,
Said an eternal good-bye.
III
Study of the laws and holy customs
Filled her time.
Soon every voice
Called her to the highest ranks;
This choice, which everyone endorsed
Except the modest Alexis,
Immediately revealed in her
The full value of her abilities. 40
IV
Faithful to her duties,
Nothing can match her fervour;
Everything about her is pleasing and charming:
Her charity, her sincerity.
Through her natural generosity
She wins every heart;
Alexis is the model
And the idol of her Sisters.
V
Already for half-a-century,
Alexis, in these hallowed halls, 50
Your splendid qualities
Have made every heart happy.
Let's proclaim our prayer,
And entreat the Lord
That in lengthening your career
He may also lengthen our happiness.
After some gay verses had been sung to a different tune by all the
voices, the venerable guest of honour then made a speech offering Monseigneur
Denaut a box on the cover of which was a depiction of Saint-Alexis himself
under a staircase in his father's house.8
She also asked His Grace to invite the clergymen present to take whatever
pleased them from among the tasteful objects laid out on a table or hung
from the branches of two fir-trees above which Monseigneur Denaut had written,
"Help yourselves!" Thus each of the 36 churchmen took away a souvenir of
the feast.
Then there was a magnificent dinner for the whole house9
given by the friends and relatives of Saint-Alexis.[472] The pupils
of the boarding-school also took a very active part in the celebrations
by presenting a pastoral from the obliging pen of M. Jean-Baptiste Raimbault.10
We also should note that for the occasion, "all the actresses, who numbered
nine, were done up with curly hair and crowned with white roses and lilies."
In the absence of the actual names of these little girls, which have not
been handed down to us, we give those names which each carried according
to her role.
Recited Passages
Agnès: Why all these preparations, Myrtil?
Why all these bouquets?
Do you want these flowers and garlands
To decorate the altars? 60
Do you want, just as on the Holy-days,
To consecrate these offerings to the Lord?
Myrtil: What! On this happy day
When the heart opens itself,
When pleasure and joy
Shine in every eye,
You alone are unaware of the reason
For the beautiful rapture which inspires us...
You alone, Agnes, don't know the occasion
Which fills us with unanimous joy... 70
Ask our hearts, ask our eyes,
All speak to tell you...
But Chloé, it falls to you to inform her
About the feast we are celebrating today in these halls.
Chloé: With all my heart, Agnès, I long to teach you
That which with so much ardour you desire to hear.
Alexis, the jewel and honour of these halls,
Has now for fifty years been dedicated to the Lord.
Today we celebrate the pleasant remembrance
Of this happy and remarkable span. 80
Agnès: Our allotted time so long, so soon runs out!
Ah! How quickly time flies past
[473] For those who near this tender Mother
Live out their life.
For them a half-century is at most like ten years...
The years are like days, the days minutes.
Let's go without further delay,
Let's go present to her our compliments and our tribute.
May nothing more stop our generous enthusiasm;
Through our songs and all our efforts, 90
To her goodness let us leave a pledge of our love.
Sung Verses
Clémence:Oh you, daughters of the dawn,
Flowers, whom dawning rays
This morning made bloom,
Answer to our tune!
It is Alexis who is honoured;
Lavish on her your scented praises,
Relay to her our sentiments.
Hortense--carrying a jasmine flower11
(Air: "Triste raison")
Of her generosity, and her great kindness,
Which makes our days here pure and serene, 100
This sweet jasmine is, in our eyes, the emblem.
Can it pass into more worthy hands?
Rosalie--holding a rose (Air: "Ah, vous dirai-je maman")
The rose of our gardens
Rules the fates of the flowers;
Thus from our hearts, without reserve,
Alexis receives our homage.
The rose is queen of flowers,
Alexis, queen of hearts.
Prudence--presenting some pansies (Air: "Avec les jeux du village")
The qualities which are admired in her,
Both her prudence and her candor, 110
And the reverence which her brow inspires,
Are symbolized in this flower.
Might I be able, without displeasing her,
To praise her brilliant merits?
The praise would be sincere,
But her virtue holds me back.
Flore--holding some carnations (Air: "Charmante Gabrielle")
Heaven adorned her soul
With most perfect gifts;
The flame of divine fire
Shines through all her qualities: 120
Fervour, tender piety,
Secret raptures --
You must understand them all
Represented in these carnations.
Delphine--with a bouquet composed of myrtil, iris, and strawflowers
(Air: "Du confiteor") I
The other morn, with dreamy air,
Seated in the shadow of a wood,
I was contemplating which flower
I would use for my tribute.
Suddenly several kinds at once
Came to mind to complicate my choice. 130
[474] II
Among the roses and the lilies
I saw a strawflower blooming brightly,
With some green myrtil and some iris
Growing around it;
I was about to pick it when a voice
Curtailed my choice with these words:
III
"The "everlasting" and the tender iris
"Mark the recompense of heaven.
"Join them for Alexis
"With the myrtil--which is hope." 140
And of these blooms I made my choice;
Please accept all three.
Our Mother of God must also have her share of love in this sweet
family celebration; and so, during the afternoon there was also a reverent
service in the Chapel of Notre-Dame des Anges.
[fin]
NOTES
1 On pages 451-455 of the Monseigneur Saint-Vallier
volume there is a summary of a ceremony held on September 24, 1787 for
the acceptance of two young girls into the school as Novices. It includes
a report of the questions and responses, the kinds of music and songs,
plus a few details of the pageantry that accompanied the service. At the
end of the same volume (682-692) there is an extensive description of a
Profession of faith.
Return to Article
2 Marie-Catherine de Saint-Alexis served as Mother Superior
for almost 19 years: from 1772 to 1779, from 1785 to 1791, and from 1797
to 1803. She lived her entire life in the Augustinian convent, having arrived
there when she was about eighteen months old (c.1731); however, her origins
are mysterious. Her mother was Catherine d'Ailleboust de Menthet who was
widowed from her much older first husband, Jean-Baptiste Charly St. Ange
on November 9, 1728 only days after giving birth to their fourth child,
Jean-Baptiste-François, in Montreal. Apparently before getting married
again on November 17, 1731 in Montreal to Pierre-Jacques Payen de Noyen
(who had spent much of 1730 and 1731 in France), Catherine brought the
baby Marie-Catherine to the Notre Dame des Anges convent in Quebec where
Catherine's sister Marie had taken vows at the Hôpital Général
in 1717. The first child (Pierre) of Catherine and Pierre-Jacques was born
the following June 30. Thus the paternity of Marie-Catherine is obscure.
She nevertheless entered the novitiate in April 1745 ("à peine à
son quinzième printemps") and took her vows on August 24, 1747.
She died on November 9, 1818 at the Hôpital Général.
MSV 495 and 720. See also Jetté 5, 231, and 884; Tanguay IV, 265;
and DCB II, 131-2, 1036; and IV, 611-12.
Return to Article
3 A "lustre" is a period of five years. Due to the rarity
of this term in English, I have translated "dix lustres" as its equivalent.
Return to Article
4 Mgr. Pierre Denaut was born in Montreal on July 20,
1743. He studied in Montreal and Quebec City, being ordained at St Pierre
d'Orléans by Mgr. Briand on January 25, 1767. He served as Vicar
to the Bishop from 1790 to 1795, and as Coadjutor from 1795 to 1797. He
became Bishop of Quebec in 1797 and remained so until his death on January
17, 1806 (Allaire I, 155).
Return to Article
5 The following nine stanzas (56 lines) comprise the
opening "ode" section of the réception. Although not properly
part of the "play," this part has been included here because of its intrinsic
connection to the rest of the presentation. It also provides a valuable
comparative tool, highlighting by contrast the more dramatic nature of
the réception itself.
Return to Article
6 Marguerite-Françoise Hiché was born
in Quebec in 1725 to Henri Hiché, a notary, merchant and "seigneur,"
and Marguerite le Gardeur de St. Pierre. She took her vows in 1745 and
died on May 23, 1805. Two of her sisters, Marie-Louise and Marie-Félicité
were also nuns at the Hôpital Général. (DCB III, 44;
and MSV 719-20)
Return to Article
7 Madeleine-Louise Parent was born in Quebec in 1729
to Louis Parent, a merchant, and Susanne Blanchon. She took her vows in
1748 and died on November 8, 1810. (Jetté 878; and MSV 721)
Return to Article
8 Saint-Alexis's namesake (var. St. Alexius, July 17)
lived during the fifth century. He is known in a document from Edessa,
Syria simply as "Man of God." He was an itinerant beggar who died in abject
poverty. In the legend of Saint-Alexis, he is the son of the Roman senator
Euphemiam. As a child he learnt the value of charity and early in his life
he became a benefactor of the needy. As a young man he sought a purer life
in the wilds of Syria far away from the materialism of Rome. However, he
eventually returned to Rome and was employed as a servant in his own father's
house where no one recognized him and he was given lodging under a staircase.
Only after his death was his identity revealed (Delaney and Thursten).
Return to Article
9 Emphasis of printed version.
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10 L'Abbé Jean-Baptiste Raimbault was born in
Saint-Aignan d'Orléans in France on February 4, 1770. He studied
medicine and served as a surgeon in the army. From Belgium he went to London
and eventually to Canada. He was ordained at Longueuil by Mgr. Denaut on
July 26, 1795. Throughout his long service as a priest and teacher he remained
actively interested in the arts as a musician and poet. He died on February
16, 1841 in Nicolet (Allaire IV, 12).
Return to Article
11 The seven flowers presented to Saint-Alexis as well
as the "characters" making the presentations signify the important qualities
being praised in the Mother Superior. The jasmine, presented by Hortense
(deriving from Latin for "garden"), represents "heavenly felicity" and
was considered an attribute of the Virgin Mary. Hortense credits the gift
with the qualities of generosity and kindness. The rose is of course a
powerfully symbolic flower, in this context symbolizing intellectual beauty
and spiritual love. In addition, it is associated with the sacrificial
blood of Christ through the presence of its thorns. In third place and
most fittingly, Prudence (a name alluding to wisdom and foresight) presents
the pansies which represent thought, reverie and mediation. The five-petaled
pansy is also iconic of humankind itself, reenforcing the power of its
rational symbolism. Flore (from Lat. flora, flowers, blooming) offers
carnations which embody the idea of "pure love," reflected in the Mother
Superior's "fervour" and "tender piety." Finally, Delphine, a name which
is derived from the Greek delphinia (or "loving sister) and is known
as an epithet for Apollo (Delphinos) whose shrine was at Delphi, presents
the bouquet of myrtil, iris and strawflowers. The three form together the
symbols for immortality (strawflowers or everlastings), purity (iris),
and hope in victory (myrtil, as in a "crown of myrtil"). See Chevalier,
Gravelaine, Vries, and Yonge, passim.
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