{"id":25911,"date":"2025-01-22T18:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T18:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=25911"},"modified":"2025-02-12T18:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T18:15:17","slug":"mother-mectilde-and-adoration-part-iii-all-things-work-together-unto-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2025\/01\/mother-mectilde-and-adoration-part-iii-all-things-work-together-unto-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Mectilde and Adoration, Part III: All Things Work Together unto Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Duc<\/a>This is part III in our series of articles about how Mother Mectilde began the life of the Benedictines of the Perpetual Adoration. Click here for part I <\/a>and here for part II<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n

Navigating the Avenues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One does not found a monastery without obtaining ecclesiastical authorization. Monasteries come to birth, and develop, and thrive within the Body of Christ, that is the Catholic Church. At the time of Mother Mectilde de Bar, the avenues of ecclesiastical jurisdiction were exceedingly complex. Given that Mother Mectilde and her little community were living in the territory of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s in Paris, she needed, first of all, to secure the permission of the abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s, the natural son of Henri IV, who was the Duke of Verneuil, the bishop of Metz.<\/p>\n

The Request Refused <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Abbot-Duke was utterly opposed to the foundation of new monasteries. Paris, he argued, was already cluttered with too many cloisters vying for economic support. He had promised the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, that he would forbid the foundation of new monasteries in his territory. Already, for lack of resources, six ancient communities under his authority had ceased to exist. In vain did the Countess of Ch\u00e2teauvieux beg the Queen to make an exception; the Queen remained inflexible.<\/p>\n

A Vow in Time of Crisis<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Anne<\/a>
Anne of Austria<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Divine Providence was at work, all the same. “We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to His purpose, are called to be saints.” (Romans 8:28) France was in complete turmoil. Forces in rebellion against the crown were gaining ground. The court was obliged to flee to Compi\u00e8gne. The Queen Regent learned, to her dismay, that the rebellion had spread from Paris and Bordeaux to Orl\u00e9ans and Angers. In desperation she turned to the Abb\u00e9 Picot\u00e9, a priest of Saint-Sulpice, and beseeched him to make whatever vow he thought necessary to obtain from God the return of peace, order, and stability to France.<\/p>\n

Anne of Austria<\/p>\n

The Queen’s Vow: Adoration and Reparation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The good priest, knowing absolutely nothing of Mother Mectilde’s proposed foundation<\/em>, vowed that if tranquillity were restored to France, the Queen would found a house of religious vowed to adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in reparation for the outrages committed against the Sacred Body of Christ. The Abb\u00e9 Picot\u00e9, in all likelihood, had heard that the consecrated Host was, more than once, trampled under foot by soldiers, and even fed to their horses. Miraculously, no sooner was the vow made in the name of the Queen than the whole situation changed. On 21 October 1652, Louis XIV entered Paris in triumph. The revolt was over; peace returned.<\/p>\n

The Royal Yes <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the meantime, the Abb\u00e9 Picot\u00e9 learned of Mother Mectilde’s project. Struck by the affinity between the vow he had made in the name of the Queen and the foundation that Mother Mectilde desired to undertake, he spoke of it to the Queen on 8 December 1652 while the latter was in retreat at the Benedictine abbey of Val-de-Gr\u00e2ce. The graces of the retreat must have been in operation because he found the Queen well disposed. In execution of her vow, the Queen ordered the Duke of Verneuil to authorize the foundation in his territory of Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s. The Duke-Abbot immediately entrusted the whole affair to his Vicar General, Dom Roussel, a Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, and the prior of Saint Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s.
\nTo be continued.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part III in our series of articles about how Mother Mectilde began the life of the Benedictines of the Perpetual Adoration. Click here for part I and here for part II. Navigating the Avenues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction One does not found a monastery without obtaining ecclesiastical authorization. Monasteries come to birth, and develop, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":25914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mectilde-de-bar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Anne-dAutriche.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-6JV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25911"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25947,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911\/revisions\/25947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}