To the Memory of Father Chevalier

Marie Louise Hartzer 1907

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved for ever!

Thuin, October, 1907.

My dear children.

The Heart of Jesus has just asked of us a sacrifice which, nevertheless, we have long foreseen and dreaded. On October 21st, He called to Himself our good and beloved Father Founder, and the next day a telegram announced to us the sad news. For a long time his health had been causing us grave anxiety, and the sorrows he had latterly experienced, in particular his brutal expulsion from the old presbytery, caused him to break up completely. At eighty-three such shocks kill. Even had things been at their best, we realised that we must soon lose him. Everything indicated this to us. Even so, the blow has fallen heavily and has filled our hearts with the deepest grief. He was so good, so saintly, so paternal and so full of concern on our behalf, this venerated Father. As for him, who has laboured so untiringly for the glory of the Heart of Jesus and of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, who has suffered so deeply and in so many ways, he has certainly merited an eternal recompense and doubtless, “Jesus and Mary have already crowned their faithful servant, their indefatigable apostle. But as for ourselves, his children, we would have loved to keep him with us, to have had his life prolonged. However, the hour of separation had come. Nevertheless, this parting will be only for a time. Soon, too. we will find our selves in Heaven with this good Father and rejoice with him in his triumph. Whilst awaiting the dawn of this happy day, he will surely watch over us with the same solicitude as of old and we will have in him a powerful intercessor with Jesus and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Let us pray for him, as is our duty, but at the same time let us ask him to watch over our dear Congregation, to guard it, to sanctify it and to communicate to it his own spirit which is the spirit of the Heart of Jesus. Our beloved Father has left us his counsels, his memory, his example. Let us use them all to our sanctification and so that one day in Heaven we may be his crown. As he was, let us be humble, very humble: like him. let us be good, affable towards everyone and all things to all. so as to win all to Jesus Christ. Let us be generous in sacrifice and unceasingly forgetful of self in favour of others. As our good Father, let us have a passion for the Heart of Jesus, a passion for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and a passion for souls, and thus, imitating his example, we shall reach our goal of eternal happiness.

In the next letter you will receive details of the obsequies of our venerated Father at which Mother Stanislaus and Mother Valeric assisted, since I could not make the trip at this season. The ceremonies were in every way worthy of him, and all Issoudun seemed impregnated with regret and respect. How well the Good Master disposes all things. Monsieur de Bonneval, to whom the Basilica now belongs, had a short time before obtained permission to transfer to the crypt the venerated remains of Rev. Father Vandel and likewise to prepare there a place for our good Father.
And so he entered in triumph into his dear Basilica by the wide-open main doors. After lying for a day and a night in the chapel of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, he now rests in the crypt under that same chapel, the chapel of her whom he so much loved and to whom he brought such great glory. Before his death he knew that he would repose there and this gave him much happiness.

Never may any one of us forget all that our good and beloved Father has done for us, and with what tender solicitude he watched over our cradle. He it was who brought us forth to religious life; he it was who laboured and suffered for our growth and extension. Let us be everlastingly mindful of this and hand down his memory to those of our Sisters who will not have had the happiness of having seen and known him. Let us teach them to love and venerate him as we ourselves have done. In return he will most certainly help us to advance in perfection and to become true children of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

In asking him to bless you one and all as he used to do of old. I ask you to recommend to him all my intentions. I embrace you very maternally,

(Signed) Sister Marie Louise.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved!

Issoudun, March, 1924.

Dear Sisters.

On the 15th March, the 100th birthday of our venerated Father Founder, we had a very intimate family feast. There, in the crypt of the Basilica around his tomb, his family were gathered together and if before us we had only his marble bust, we seemed to feel his soul hovering above our heads and his heart still beating in order to rekindle ours.

Without doubt, a more skilful hand than mine will give you a description of this feast and you will read it. Here I simply want to respond to your desire for some more intimate details about our Father Founder. You did not know him and you are eager to hear more about him in order to penetrate into his spirit and teachings. You are right. To call to mind his name is to relive a whole past of memories around the cradle of our Congregation which, under the inspiration from on High, he formed to be the living crown of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart . . . How beautiful he wanted this crown to be for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart! . . . He seized every opportunity to instruct the first Sisters who, being the foundation
stones, needed to be specially solid to support the whole edifice.

We can still see him with his kind smile, arriving among his children and explaining to them the Constitutions of their new-born Society. No one could reproduce his paternal accent when he said: “Do you know what the distinctive stamp of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is? It is humility, simplicity, interior spirit, charity . . .'” These accents were so penetrating that we were impregnated with them. His favourite motto was often on his lips and he strongly recommended us to say it each time that we met one another. If the feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart or St. Joseph was near, his heart could not allow such an opportunity to pass without reviving our fervour..”.

But it was especially at our ceremonies of Clothing and Profession that it was lovely to see him, and more so during the last years of his life. His stature and his fine face, encircled by his head of white hair, gave him a patriarchal look which, at the same time, attracted and was impressive. He was happy to see a new group placing themselves under the protection of Our Lady and his soul was filled with gratitude.

His apostolic spirit set us on fire for the far-away missions; but he always had as well some encouraging words for the Sisters who could not yet set out for Oceania. I seem to hear him saying, with his knowing, mischievous smile, to one or other whose heart was full at the thought that she was not chosen for the next departure: “Do not be distressed; your turn will come; I will take you to New Guinea.” He was always all things to all and gained all hearts to lift them gently to the Heart of Jesus.

If he was lavish with his counsels to the Sisters, you can guess that he was not less so to the one who was working with him at our religious formation. With his penetration of spirit, his sure judgment, his spirit of faith, he gave to our venerated Mother Marie Louise clear and practical directions.

The future of our Congregation preoccupied him greatly, especially when the winds of persecution forced us to seek a refuge in another country. It was a slow agony for him to see his Daughters, in small groups, go far away from Issoudun. This suffering was more cruel for him than the physical sufferings he had to support for some years.

Obliged to cede to the violence of the turmoil, he had to consent to the departure of the Novitiate and the Generalate. This cut him to the heart and this sad trial, added to so many others, overtaking him at the age of 82, dealt him his death blow. However, right to the end, he had the consolation of being cared for by one or other of us, guardians of the cradle in spite of the storm. In these last months of his life, so filled with sorrows, a ray of joy lit up his face, saddened by so many sufferings, when on Sundays, the little group of Sisters who remained at Issoudun came to visit and gather round him like a well-loved father whose time is limited. Then we spoke of those exiled, of the beautiful days of the past, of the tempest let loose, and in spite of all, of the hope of the future.

Two of his Daughters were with him during his last moments. Feeling himself going, he made a sign to them to come closer, and always good, forgetful of self, he said to them: “Dear children, I am going to leave you soon; tell your Mother and Sisters who are in exile that I will not forget them when I am close to the good God. I bless you and also the whole Congregation.”

Some minutes later, he was united for ever with the Heart of Jesus who had been the passion of his whole life. What a welcome he must have received from this divine Heart and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart whose tireless apostle he had been.

Sr. Marie X., F.D.N.S.C., One of the elderly Sisters of the family.