23 October - The family, the failure, the Cross
Pauline Marie Jaricot received much from her family, in terms of education and help of all kinds, from her father, Antoine Jaricot, and her mother, Madame Jaricot née Jeanne Lattier, and from her brothers and sisters. She had a clear fondness for her sister Sophie, who was 9 years older than she was and on whom she will rely after the death of her mother. In a letter dated 18 March 1823, after her sister's marriage and departure for the capital, Pauline will write: It seems to me that my heavenly Spouse could not be angry at the sort of emptiness which your departure left me, since it is in speaking of him that our hearts find all their joy in each other. Therefore, I looked for you in the early days like a child who had lost its nurse. It seemed to me that I could see you entering your house at any moment, and when I went to pray at Saint-Nizier, I thought I was praying close to my sister. Do doubt you will say, “What weakness! …what imperfections in your soul, my poor Pauline”! Yes, I agree, and I will try to become wiser and more submissive. However, the first movements will always be strong when it comes to my dear nurse (I dare not say my dear mother, for you know very well that I have only one mother, who is the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that I am jealous of having her as my Mother”. (Joseph Servel, Un autre visage, op. Cit., p. 15). Like her sister Sophie, she was preoccupied by her relationship with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Oh, let us not cease to beg him to make his power and glory burst forth on earth, so that sinners may finally fall at his feet and recognise him for their salvation, their happiness and their life. Men have become so proud that the humiliations of the Cross, the infinite Love of Jesus Christ makes little impression on their hearts... (Joseph Servel, Un autre visage de la Croix) (Joseph Servel, Un autre visage, op. Cit., p. 16).
There were secrets between the two sisters, areas of intimacy to which the other members of the family did not have access, even if later Philéas (1797-1830) would enter into their confidence, especially with regard to missionary commitments and, in a special way, after his ordination to the priesthood on 20 December 1823. Sophie was to support with her own money the initiatives that charity inspired in her younger sister and, for her part, Pauline was to share some spiritual confidences with her sister, especially those concerning the Eucharist and the infinite love of God. Both of them were to participate in the fight that their common director, Abbé Würtz, was waging at the time with some bitterness against the resurgence of Gallicanism and the "new philosophy" (see Joseph Servel, Un autre visage, op. Cit., p. 16). [Gallicanism was a movement in France in the early 19th century that tended chiefly to a restraint of the pope's authority in the Church in favour of that of the bishops and the temporal ruler] Pauline's faith and her commitment to various works, notably the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary, did not prevent her from experiencing difficulties and failures and from encountering the cross on her path as a committed laywoman.
Pauline, her father's heir, obtained the financial means to buy back properties, particularly in Fourvière, where she was afraid that Freemasonry would take hold. She alludes to this in her writings (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 414). Pauline, with her family, therefore, set out in order to safeguard the integrity of the Fourvière hill, by gradually reclaiming all the land in order to ensure its religious quality. After the sale of her Christian factory in Rustrel, Pauline was faced with a series of difficulties, debts, and numerous lawsuits. Pauline's total debt was evaluated at about 400,000 francs: 116,000 francs to her largest creditor, Boussairolles, heir of Mlle Deydé, about 100,000 francs for all the other mortgagees, the rest being divided between all the small creditors, who lent money because of both the confidence they had in Pauline and the reputation of the Rustrel business. (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 415). Pauline’s catastrophic economic ruin was so great that she became the beggar of Notre-Dame-des-Anges (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 375), forced to go from town to town to try to find the money to pay off her debts. She had some support in France and outside France, but it was not enough. The problems she was encountering with the Fourvière Commission, created on 7 March 1853, was an additional source of concern for her (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, op. cit, p. 424). This was because according to Mgr Lavarenne, circumstances had obliged her to take legal action against the Fourvière Commission, and the most respectable men, who were most sincerely Christian, regarded her with a distrust that went as far as hostility (Georges Naïdenoff, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 86). Pauline experienced the various troubles she faced in the last years of her life as a real, as she would say, martyrdom of the heart. (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, Paris, Œuvre pontificale de la Propagation de la Foi, undated, p. 32).
The Rustrel initiative did give Pauline some hope in its early stages. For several months, the blast furnaces of Notre-Dame des Anges smoked. At the beginning of 1848, it was possible to believe that the company could recover and contribute to the realisation of Pauline Jaricot's humanitarian and Christian goals. However, with the revolution of 1848, the social, economic and financial disruptions dealt a mortal blow to the establishment in Rustrel. In spite of her prudence, her request for advice and all the necessary guarantees, Pauline fell victim to a gigantic and cleverly organised swindle.
In May 1852, the factory was sold at auction for a third of what it had cost and Pauline was crushed under the weight of a debt of 400,000 francs. (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 32) How could she repay all the small subscribers to the work, her friends the workers, all the people who had trusted her and placed their modest savings in her hands? Her worker friends were the first to console her, to grant her time and did not show themselves to be as demanding as the rich lenders (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 32). When she realised that she had failed, Pauline sought advice from Mgr Villecourt, Bishop of La Rochelle, who had known her in Lyon since she was 17, when he was spiritual director at the Hôtel-Dieu, a few years before Philéas. He advised her to beg from one end of France to the other for the work of the workers, which he considered to be a useful initiative for the Church and, therefore, deserved to be supported by the efforts of Christian charity. In fact, the bishop attested to Pauline's role in the Propagation of the Faith in a very laudatory letter, where he wrote, "the pious foundress who, after having laid out the plan and the foundations of this work, left the glory to others, and wanted only oblivion, recollection and silence for herself" (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 32).
What is Pauline thinking about as she goes begging from house to house with letters of recommendation signed by priests and bishops? She meditates on the Stations of the Cross. Unfortunately, some worked to prevent the good ideas she might propose for recovering the lost money from coming to fruition, while others were coldly opposed. Pauline did collect abundant alms in France and abroad, thanks to her faithful friend, Mlle Maurin, who solicited donation in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and England, where the great Cardinal Newman welcomed with great sympathy the generous ideas represented by the work of Our Lady of the Angels. However, the donations were not enough to free Pauline from her overwhelming worries. She was unable to repay her creditors, especially the small ones, "her beloved little creditors" (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 33). She feared debts more than death, and she gave what she received and was eventually reduced to complete poverty, which her faithful Maria Dubouis agreed to share with her. On 26 February 1853, she registered as indigent at the charity office in the Saint-Just district. (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 33). In the last years of her life, Pauline experienced great suffering, which she accepted and remained ever faithful to prayer. She prayed to the Mother of Sorrows, abandoning herself to the will of God and praying for her adversaries, "Obtain for my heart a full and generous pardon for those who have offended me, afflicted me, crossed me and who afflict me and will afflict me again. If my pains are of any merit, I want my enemies to be the first to reap the fruits of them for their salvation and even for their temporal happiness." (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 34). The Curé d'Ars was right to say in one of his homilies, "I know a person who knows how to accept crosses, very heavy ones, and who carries them with great love... It is Miss Jaricot”. (Yvonne Pirat, Pauline Jaricot, op. Cit., p. 34).
Pauline saw an initiative she so greatly loved go up in smoke, leaving her in extreme poverty. This disaster accumulated on her head the stinging and cruel thorns caused by creditors, courts, journeys on foot, rude refusals, betrayals, calumnies, desolations; in a word, everything that is capable of bringing down the most courageous heart. God allowed this, no doubt, so that she who had lived for Him and for the salvation of her brothers and sisters might follow Jesus Christ to the end, dying for the people who condemned him. It was because of her faith, her trust, her fortitude, her gentleness and her serene acceptance of all crosses, that she showed herself to be a true disciple. (Appendix III, A Brief of His Holiness Leo XXIII, made in Rome, in the Church of St. Peter, June 3, 1881, in Sister Cecilia Giacovelli, Pauline Jaricot. Biography, op. cit. p. 332).
Pauline left a kind of autographical testament, written in the shadow of the tabernacle. Here are a few extracts. My hope is in Jesus! My only treasure is the cross! The share that has fallen to me is excellent, and my inheritance is very precious to me! I will bless the Lord at all times and his praise will be in my mouth continually. May God's most just, exalted, and holy will be done in all things! [...] What does it matter to me, then, O all powerful and all lovable will of the Saviour, that you should take away from me earthly goods, my reputation, my honour, my health, my life, that you should bring me down through humiliation into the deepest pit of the abyss! What does it matter to me [...] if in this abyss I can find the hidden fire of your celestial love [...] Oh, how happy I shall be if I can say, also by dying for you and for my brothers: this is what I was born to do and my task is completed! Jesus, priest and victim! Living host! Sacrifice and priest, I unite the sacrifice of my life to the sacrifice of the cross, the shedding of my blood to the shedding of yours. (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jarine). (Catherine Masson, Pauline Jaricot, 1799-1862. Biographie, Paris, Cerf, 2019, pp. 467-468; see also Georges Naïdenoff, Pauline Jaricot. J'étais si vivante de ma propre vie, Paris, Médiaspaul, 1986, pp. 87-88).