Bathilde Bertin, widow Bérès 1828-1904
Peace and very humble greetings in Our Lord Jesus Christ who has just called to Him, in the Month consecrated to his divine Heart, our dear Sister Virginie, Bathilde, MARIE-EMMANUEL, professed member of our Community. She was 75 years, 10 months old, including 25 years, 6 months of religious life.
Our dear Sister was born in Les Sables-d'Olonne from a most honorable family. She was the thirteenth of fourteen children with whom the Lord enriched this Christian home. His parents, intrepid souls from Vendée, continued the well-known traditions of generous hospitality of their ancestors. How many priests, hunted down on all sides, found a safe shelter in this pious abode during the dark days of the revolution! Our good Sister, on this subject, told us a thousand most interesting episodes. She did not fail to recall again, not without a certain pride, well in keeping with the Vendée motto: “GOD AND THE KING! that the Duchess of Berry herself had been hidden for several days in this same asylum which could have been called the Maison des Proscrits.
But we must return to our little Bathilde, growing up every day in this atmosphere of faith. At the age of 7, she was boarded with the Religious of Chavagnes, and when at 20 she had to leave this holy house, witness to the purest joys of her childhood and youth, she thought she heard the call of God and wanted to embrace religious life.
Her mother did not refuse her consent, but on the condition that she spend a whole year in the middle of the world. Alas! this world that our young girl would have liked never to know, soon captivated her heart, and she soon entered into the bonds of marriage.
Having become the mother of two children, she saw them born in Heaven on the very day of their appearance on earth. Alone, a little girl: Elisabeth, gave him for six years, her caresses and her smiles; but, like her brother and sister, she was not destined for the labors of a long exile. A terrible epidemic came to plague the children of his age; and, while her mother prepares to send her, dressed in white, to escort the mortal remains of her young companions, Elisabeth cries out, bursting into tears – “Oh! no, mum, I'm not going! why do all the little girls fly up there to see the good Lord and the Blessed Virgin, and why I alone remain on earth? I want to die too, I want to go to Heaven! »
Three days later, this privileged person of the Lord, exchanging her tears for the joys of her country, was in her turn to swell the white procession of the Innocents.
After these ordeals and many other longer and more cruel ones, our good Sister, having lost her husband, returned to her father's house. She was then only 35 years old; but his ideas of religious life seemed to have fled forever. Long years thus passed in total oblivion of his first desires. Finally God gave them back to him with the sweet fervor of his youth, in very intimate and providential circumstances. A holy priest was the instrument of divine mercy towards this soul. After having tried it for a long time and wisely, he sent it to the Carmel of Poitiers. Our Mothers being complete indicated our monastery, and on January 4, 1879, she was received there with joy by our beloved Mother Marie de Gonzague, then Prioress.
At that time, our venerable Mother Geneviève de Sainte-Thérèse, of such sweet and holy memory, exercised the office of Mistress of Novices. Our dear Sister Marie Emmanuel therefore had the precious advantage of receiving a most perfect religious formation. She had a special need of such help to overcome trials which her age and independent habits made particularly difficult for her.
“Forgive me, my dear Mother, she often told us, after certain vivacities of character, I am not from Vendée for nothing! But if my head is hot, my heart is even warmer. Ah! Poor Sister Emmanuel! she added with a smile full of shrewdness, you just have to mourn that time when you were in charge of all your brother‑in‑law's servants, that time when no one acted without your advice. Now it's all over, here you are forever reduced to obeying... Get into the idea that you'll be the last of the Community here! »
It was not in our hearts, my Reverend Mother, that our good Sister Marie-Emmanuel ever had the last place. How much our venerated Mother Geneviève appreciated the devoted and intelligent care with which she surrounded him for several years! How much more did she edify the entire Community by her dedication to the various offices entrusted to her! Her spirit of poverty, her forgetfulness of herself, the eagerness she displayed in obliging her sisters, the gratitude she showed them for the smallest services, truly won her all sympathy.
The robust health of our dear Sister served for a long time the ardor of her zeal and when, in recent years, her strength did not allow her to follow our holy observances in their entirety, at least she did not cease to follow again and again the naturally charitable inclination of his heart. On laundry days, for example, everyone could see her sweeping and preparing the refectory alone, washing the bowls, helping in the kitchen, all with a spirit that could have put the excessive fatigue she imposed on herself in the dark. .
In private, our dear daughter constantly expressed to us her happiness and her gratitude to see herself in the house of the Lord. How many times have we heard her say to us, with touching modesty: “Mother, is it possible that I am a Carmelite, that I live among angels, me, a poor sinner! Often, in the solitude of our cell, when certain events of my past life come to mind, and I compare that life with the one I lead today, I feel so moved that I can no longer stick to it. So I'm going to walk through the monastery, until I completely forget these memories, most of which cause me so much pain! »
The moment was approaching for our dear Sister to go and sing in Heaven this hymn of eternal gratitude, full of joy and sweetness, which does not create discord, as in our songs of exile, with a single bitter note.
After suffering, for many months, from severe sciatic pain, she was attacked, in the course of May, by an organic affection of the stomach which soon put her down by the frequency of vomiting, at every extremity. We cannot tell you, my Reverend Mother, the edification that our beloved Daughter gave us during the few weeks of her cruel illness. She had asked us to place in front of her bed one of her pictures of the cell, object of her particular devotion. On this pious image of Jesus in the prison, the eyes of our venerable invalid very often stopped with much love. One day, when she was suffering more from her inability to move, she said, contemplating her: "He is well attached, Him!" Don't we both have to agree? And when some refreshing drink was presented to her, she still looked at her dear image, saying, "Isn't that sensuality?" Jesus did not accept relief in his sufferings. »
It was in these sentiments of tender and resigned piety that, on Tuesday, June 14, our good Sister Marie-Emmanuel received in full knowledge Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction.
While the Sacristine Sister was preparing the altar in the infirmary and getting ready to adorn it with lilies, our dear patient said to her: "Sister, please don't put any lilies for me, you know very well that I don't deserve a lily..."
Between the two ceremonies, our devoted and so pious Chaplain pointed out to her, in a touching exhortation, that on this day of the feast of Saint Elisha she must remember the chariot of fire which took away the prophet Elijah, his Master and his Father. “Your chariot of fire, my dear child,” he said to her, “is the good Jesus you have just received. A little more time, and this chariot of love and mercy will take you to Heaven. »
These words greatly encouraged our beloved sister; but her sufferings always increasing, she was afraid of losing patience: "How difficult it is to die!" » she repeated. How hard! Pray for me, have mercy on me! Where is the good Jesus? So the journey from heaven to earth is very long? How late it is to come! There's a mystery there." Thus our dear patient never ceased to edify us, and unwittingly kept the peace and serenity of his soul.
All our sisters gave him their commissions for heaven. One of our Mothers having told her that she was going to be very happy to find Mother Geneviève and Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus up there, she continued quickly: "But I won't have the trouble of looking for them to find them. ! They are the ones who will come to meet me. I still hear my little Thérèse promise me: At the time of your death, she said, I will come, accompanied by your three little angels, and together we will take your soul to heaven. I hope she will keep her promise.
When we arrived near our dear daughter, her face, altered by suffering, nevertheless expressed the sweetest joy. She held out her arms to us, like a little child to its mother, caressed us, and in a thousand ways showed her gratitude; for, it must be said again, to the praise of this soul of faith, her love for her Mother Prioresses, whoever they were, never ceased to equal in her heart the respect she always had for them.
We told her one evening to pray to the Blessed Virgin not to allow her to die at night, since she wished not to cause any fatigue to her sisters, and that, nevertheless, she wanted them all present at the supreme moment. Immediately turning her gaze to the statue of Mary, placed close to her bed, she took on a very childish and charming expression, and said to her, squeezing our hand: “Do you hear what my Earth Mother would like? Fulfill his desire, O my Heavenly Mother! »
On Monday, June 20, the eve of her death, we brought her, in the morning, a branch of roses, in order to give her the joy of offering them to our beloved Mother Marie de Gonzague, whose feast it was. She fell asleep with these flowers, and no longer remembering when she woke up where they were going: “Why these roses? she tells us. At the same moment our dear Mother entered the infirmary, and our poor dying woman, quickly taking her roses, offered them to her with a trembling hand, with this simple word, in which all her heart passed: "My Mother!" »
From that moment, the life of our dear sister was nothing but a long and painful agony: “When will the good Jesus come? she repeated. Oh ! how I suffer! You whom I loved so much, she said again to her devoted nurse, ask Jesus to come and take me. I can't take it anymore! »
This so good God heard the groans of his faithful servant. On the evening of June 21, at 8:XNUMX a.m., her earthly purification having been completed, after a final absolution, surrounded by all her Mothers and Sisters, the Holy Name of Jesus on her lips, she fell asleep peacefully in the Lord's kiss. .
This date of June 21 gently made us think that our humble sister, who believed herself unworthy of lilies, was going to be presented to her Judge by a lily of purity, the Angélique St-Louis de Gonzague, to prove to us, no doubt, that n the Jardins du Ciel, the violets of humility can mingle their shy scents with that of the most beautiful lilies.
However, my Reverend Mother, as the judgments of God are unknown to us, we beg you to give our dear sister Marie-Emmanuel the suffrages of our Holy Order as soon as possible. By grace, a communion of your fervent Community and the indulgence of the Via Crucis and the six Paters. She will be very grateful to you, as well as to us, who have the grace to tell us, with religious respect, My Reverend and very honored Mother, Your humble Sister and servant,
Sister AGNES OF JESUS
thank you
From our Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception of the Carmelites of Lisieux, June 27, 1904
