Louise-Adelaide Lejemble 1830-1895
Peace and very humble greetings in Our Lord, who has just rescued from the miseries of this sad exile our very dear Sister Louise Adélaïde SAINT‑PIERRE DE SAINTE-THÉRÈSE, sister of the white veil and professed member of our Community. She was 65 years 10 months old, including 29 years spent in the holy religion of Carmel.
Our good sister, my Reverend Mother, belonged to an honorable and Christian family from the department of Manche. From her earliest childhood, she placed herself as a servant, a condition she exercised until the age of 36. It was at this time that divine Providence, which had already protected her from the greatest dangers, guided her steps towards our Carmel. She received the holy habit there and pronounced her vows in ordinary times.
From then on, her strong constitution allowed her to fill alone, for 15 years, the office of the bread of the altar; she worked there, so to speak, day and night with indefatigable devotion. It was after these 15 years, my Reverend Mother, that our dear Sister suddenly suffered from violent gout pains or chronic rheumatism, which forced her to stop all tiring work.
However, she did not remain idle, busying herself in the linen room and in the pantry department with a promptness and dexterity all the more remarkable in that her poor deformed hands seemed to refuse her any service. And during this assiduous work she devoted herself to prayer. Our pious and dear sister only left shortly before her death the obligation she had imposed on herself to recite every day, in addition to her office, the seven psalms of penance, the prayers of reparation proper to every day of the week, an office of the dead, a Stations of the Cross, his rosary, the litanies of the Holy Face, of the Blessed Sacrament, etc....
On Sundays she did not leave the choir and we saw her more than once, when the swelling of her feet forced her to take crutches, to go to her post in the morning and in the greatest cold. of honor.
For three years, my Reverend Mother, the cruel infirmity of our good Sister Saint-Pierre increasing day by day, she was reduced to never leaving her poor cell. His life became a constant martyr and it was then that little by little all consolation was taken away from him, even the possibility of being transported to the sick gate to hear Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion there.
Finally, last April, her condition appearing to us to be more serious, we thought it prudent to have her administered; a grace which, moreover, she demanded with the liveliest earnestness, believing herself on the eve of appearing before God; but long months of suffering were still reserved for him, like a veritable purgatory no doubt, during which the mental troubles, which had already afflicted him for a long time, increased to the point of sensibly weakening his faculties. This poor dear Sister showed us great compassion, seeing that nothing could distract her and dispel her sad thoughts.
However, my Reverend Mother, we were able to see with consolation that the feeling of gratitude was not extinguished in her heart. Last Friday, her state of infirmity being complicated by an attack of asthma which seemed dangerous to us from the start, she said to her first nurse: "O my good sister! don't leave me now, please...don't leave me! .... Here, if I were the good Lord, I would send you straight to heaven after your death for all the care you gave me And Saturday night during the silence, she tells us : "My good Mother, I thank you for your immense charity.."
These were his last intelligible words. After Matins, we returned to our dear sister and seeing her suddenly sinking, we hurriedly called our so devoted and so pious Chaplain who gave her Extreme Unction, holy absolution and applied to her the indulgence in articulomortis.
At certain signs, we recognized that our dear dying had her knowledge. She remained very calm all night, in spite of her cruel sufferings, and Sunday morning, feast of the Dedication of the Churches, a few moments after the Office of None where we had just sung that the Lord would forever wipe away the tears its servants in the blessed city, she expired quietly in our arms, in the presence of a large part of the Community. Our convent Mass was about to ring and the Holy Sacrifice was immediately offered for the repose of his soul.
Although we have the intimate confidence that the long sufferings of our dear sister, her lively piety and particularly her tender devotion to the adorable Face of Our Lord, will have made her meet at the end of life, the gentle gaze of a merciful judge , we beg you, my Reverend Mother, to make him return as soon as possible the suffrages of our Holy Order. Grant him, by grace, a communion from your fervent community, a day of good works, the indulgence of the way of the cross and a few invocations to the Holy Face. She will be very grateful to you, as well as to us, who have the grace to tell us, my Reverend Mother, with religious respect,
Your humble sister and servant,
Sister Agnes of Jesus,
ROI
From our Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception of the Carmelites of Lisieux, on 10 November 1895.
