Louise of France, OCD (Louise-Marie; 15 July 1737 – 23 December 1787) was a French princess and Discalced Carmelite, the youngest of the ten children of King Louis XV and Queen Maria Leszczyńska. She entered the Carmelite convent at Saint-Denis in 1770 and took the religious name Thérèse of Saint-Augustin. She served as prioress in 1773–1779 and 1785–1787.
Her cause for canonisation was opened in 1902 and she was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1997.
Contents
Early life
Birth
Louise was born at the Palace of Versailles on 15 July 1737, exactly as predicted by the royal physicians. Her parents already had seven daughters and two sons before her, but one sister (Marie Louise) and one brother (Philippe, Duke of Anjou) had already died. As Salic law precluded women from inheriting the throne, Louis XV hoped for a “spare” son from this pregnancy. After the birth, he played a joke on the crowd gathered outside, announcing the birth of a son. The news spread and people celebrated with public feasts. The newborn's maternal grandfather, the deposed King Stanisław of Poland, prepared to travel to Versailles. By evening, the truth was clarified, and Stanisław stayed home. France and the royal court were saddened by the birth of another girl.
Daughters of the French king, known as filles de France, were referred to simply as madame and their given name. French royal children were baptised immediately upon birth with a simplified ceremony called ondoiement (performed by the Archbishop of Vienne for Louise). The baptism was completed a few years later, when godparents and given names were assigned. Until their full baptisms, Louis XV's daughters were known by numbers. Accordingly, Louise was called Madame Septième as his seventh (living) daughter.
An anecdote claims that the King announced that he and Queen Marie would have no more children by calling Louise Madame Dernière (“the last madame”). However, the historian Poignant argues that this story was invented and spread by the Marquis d'Argenson, known for his malignant rumours. Queen Marie Leszczyńska, when she learnt of her baby's gender, whispered to her husband in an exhausted voice, “I would suffer once more [and] just as much [to] give you a duke of Anjou”. Louis XV and France still hoped for a future son, but Louise was his last child.
Infancy in Versailles
The royal children lived in an apartment in the aile des Princes (“Wing of Princes”) of Versailles. They shared an antechamber and a cabinet for receiving visitors, where a private altar also stood. The walls and furniture were upholstered in red damask and covered with protective red serge outside of the most important ceremonies. The rooms were decorated with tapestries of mythological and historical scenes. There had been no changes made to the apartment since the time of Louis XIV's children and there were no personal touches added, except the dressing table, provided to each princess at birth and differing in design. That of Louise was upholstered in gold and silver brocade with colourful flowers and lined with green taffeta.
Just like her sisters, Louise had her own bedroom with three beds and a cradle. She shared this with her wet nurse, Madame Anne (d')Hoppen, one of the (sous-)gouvernantes (there was a chief gouvernante and two vice-gouvernantes), the remueuse or “[cradle] rocker”, who was tasked with dressing and bathing the baby, and two chambermaids (who shared one folding bed as one was always awake). Louise received a complete set of solid gold tableware, engraved enfans de France (children of France, with contemporary spelling) at her birth, used only on special occasions. Every item for personal use, including chamber pots, bore the same inscription. The ingredients of their breakfast porridge were brought in a sealed container, inspected, cooked publicly, and tasted first by the gouvernante.
Louise and her siblings were under the care of the gouvernante, Marie Isabelle de Rohan, Duchess of Tallard (Madame de Tallard), who was in charge of every aspect of their upbringing. Each princess was given a large retinue. A foreign visitor to the court recorded his amazement at seeing the princesses run around the palace always followed by at least fourteen people. Like all aspects of their lives, the relationship between the children and their parents was regulated by courtly etiquette, although the King did occasionally bend the rules in private. From the moment of birth, the children participated fully in courtly representation; their meals and their morning and night dressings were public for courtiers (as were those of their parents).
Shortly after Louise's birth, Chief Minister Cardinal de Fleury announced that the presence of so many little girls “embarrassed the court” and cost too much, as well as taking up valuable space that adult courtiers needed. Except for the three eldest, (eleven-year-old Madame, Louise-Élisabeth, whose engagement was being negotiated, her twin Madame Henriette, and six-year-old Madame Troisième, later Madame Adélaïde), the princesses were thus sent to a convent. The Queen opposed the decision, but she was too afraid of her husband and his powerful minister to challenge it.
Childhood at Fontevraud Abbey
Louise was not yet one year old when, on 16 June 1738, she was sent to far-away Fontevraud Abbey with her three elder sisters: five-year-old Victoire, four-year-old Sophie, and two-year-old Thérèse (known as Madame Quatrième, Madame Cinquième, and Madame Sixième, as they had not yet been baptised). Louis XV was away at Rambouillet for a day of hunting; his emotional reaction to the separation from his daughters is unknown. Louise shared a carriage with one of their sous-gouvernantes, Jeanne Françoise de Biaudos de Castéjá, Madame de La Lande and two chambermaids. They were followed by eight coaches, two chaises, twenty wagons of luggage, and members of the royal bodyguard. Louise's wet nurse, Madame Hoppen, accompanied her. The total retinue of the four girls consisted of 120 people and 200 horses. Civilians along the way were obligated to provide lodging and necessities.
The sisters arrived in Fontevraud on 28 June amidst a cheering crowd, received by a guard of honour of local gendarms. A feast was held for more than two hundred guests, with illuminations and fireworks. The next day, Madame de La Lande returned to Versailles and responsibility for the princesses was handed over to the abbess, Louise Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart. In late 1739, renovations started on a building known as the Logis-Bourbon (“Bourbon residence”) near the abbey, built by Éléonore de Bourbon, aunt of King Henry IV. It was extended with a new wing and a private chapel for the princesses, but they could only move there in 1741.
For three years during the renovations, Victoire and Sophie lived in the abbess' apartment and Thérèse and Louise in a neighbouring, badly maintained house. The poor living conditions may have contributed to a serious illness Sophie, Thérèse, and Louise suffered in late 1738. The youngest was so ill that the abbess ordered her baptism on 20 December, which is when she received the name Louise Marie. The cermony took place in the local parish church of Saint Michael, and the sick girl was placed under the Virgin Mary's special protection, dedicated to wear white for a year. The Queen remarked on the illness in a personal letter, identifying it as dysentery, adding that “one has but pains in this cruel world, but thank God, we are not made to stay here”. As an adult, Louise remained fond of the church where she had been christened, received her first communion, and was confirmed, and where she and her sisters celebrated Easter every year (ordinarily, they heard mass in their private chapel). In 1755, the princesses donated a painting of Saint Joseph and the Christ Child to the church.
Adulthood in Versailles
In early 1748, fifteen-year-old Madame Victoire became “bored” with living at Fontevraud and petitioned her father to be allowed to return to Versailles. After some hesitation, the King allowed her to do so. In November 1750, Sophie and Louise followed suit. Compared to Victoire, who was considered “extremely pretty” and amusing in conversation, Sophie and Louise were less of a success. Sophie was very shy and socially awkward, while Louise's health was weak. According to a contemporary, “her head was a little too big for her body”, apart from her visible spinal disease. Her father's mistress, Madame de Pompadour described her as “very short, not at all shapely, [with] features that are more bad than good, but with that a delicate appearance that is more appealing than if she were beautiful”. The Duke of Luynes, in his diary, agreed that Louise was “undoubtedly short, but with a lot of character”.
Among the princesses, only the eldest, Louise-Élisabeth married, becoming duchess of Parma. Louise only met her on Louise-Élisabeth's second visit to Versailles in 1752, and she died of smallpox in 1759, on another visit to France. Louise-Élisabeth's twin, Henriette, had died in 1752 of the same disease, leaving four princesses in Versailles: Adélaïde, simply called “Madame”, Madame Victoire, Madame Sophie, and Madame Louise, known collectively as Mesdames de France. The King referred to them by nicknames: he called Adélaïde Logue (“Dud/Tatters”), Victoire “Coche” (“Piggy”), Sophie “Graille” (“Scrap/Mite”), and Louise “Chiffe” or “Chiffie” (“Rag/Rubbish”).
Mesdames were led by Adélaïde, considered “masculine” in behaviour and impulsive with changeable moods, but also physically beautiful. She had a strong personality, reinforced by the fact that, after the death of Madame Henriette, she became the senior princess. Mesdames were free to do as they pleased, without their parents' interference. In their first years at court, they only socialised with a small, select group of people. They aligned themselves politically with the conservative Queen Marie and their brother Louis, the Dauphin, supporting the power of the Catholic church and the supremacy of the royal court over the parlement of Paris. They travelled from palace to palace with the court and participated in representation. Louise was an excellent and admired horse rider, who often accompanied her father on his hunts.
While the timid Victoire and Sophie accepted the dominance of Adélaïde, Louise, considered more intelligent than any of them, struggled. A “fiery and passionate” person, she spent her first years in Versailles with enjoying the luxuries of the court, indulging in straining exercise, food, and dresses. In these early years, she was seen as “the most wordly, beyond comparison” of Mesdames, described as “very pretty, cheerful, and witty”. Adèle d'Osmond, Madame de Boigne claims in her memoirs that when she heard that Louise had left Versailles at night (to join a convent), she asked, “With whom?”, implying that she may have eloped with a man.
Life as a Carmelite
Background of the decision
By 1762, Louise had decided to join the Carmelite order, a community her mother liked. In 1751, she had participated in the vow-taking ceremony of Madame de Rupelmonde, a courtier who became a Carmelite after losing her husband, son, and father, but she doubted for a long time whether she was strong enough to endure the rigours of Carmelite life. She nevertheless focussed on her spiritual life by writing a diary of her religious journey, following the liturgical year, meditating on the events of the lives of Christ and the saints on related feast days and examining her conscience. In 1752, the death of her sister Henriette, whom people considered saintly, made a great impression on her: she observed it was “sweet” to die as peacefully and religiously as Henriette had, but feared that her life did not make her worthy of such an end. She increasingly found court life to be a tedious and frustrating round of social occasions which she attended out of obligation, and which distracted her from religion.
Behold the bondage in which I find myself, the unrest in which I live, my interrupted prayers, my disrupted meditations, my thwarted devotions; behold the worldly affairs that assail me […] Oh, my good Mother [Teresa of Ávila], what more is needed? My days are slipping away, my years are passing; alas! What will I have left to offer God? […] Open the door to your house for me at last, oh, my Mother […] I need all your help to declare myself to the one whose consent I require…
A series of events in the late 1760s led to a crisis for Louise. She was deeply affected by the banishment of the Jesuits from France and resolved to secure their return, as well as the conversion of the King from his dissolute lifestyle. This was followed by the death of her brother the Dauphin in 1765, her maternal grandfather Stanisław Leszczyński in 1766, her sister-in-law, Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony in 1767, and her mother Queen Marie in 1768. This arrival of Madame du Barry in 1769 finally pushed Louise to ask his confidant and spiritual advisor, Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris to intercede on her behalf with the King so he would permit her to enter the Discalced Carmelites, a cloistered and austere religious order. The Archbishop informed the King of his daughter's vocation on 30 January 1770, disturbing the father, who repeatedly said, “this is cruel”, but adding, “if God asks her, I cannot refuse her”. On 16 February 1771, he finally responded in a letter: “If this is for God only, I cannot oppose his will and your desire […] I embrace you with all my heart, dear daughter, and give you my blessing”.
Mistress of novices and convent treasurer
The day after taking her final vows, Louise was appointed mistress of novices, overseeing thirteen young women. She was beloved and appreciated by the novices for her guidance. By the end of 1771, Louise was made dépositaire (treasurer), entrusted with the finances of the convent. She carried out this role for a long time and actively.
Between 1779 and 1785, she oversaw the rebuilding of the ruined church under Richard Mique, giving precise instructions on structural work and decoration. She opposed work on Sundays and feast days, requiring a written promise from Mique not to build then. Before Mique did so, Louise told the hired labourers that if they worked on holy days, “they would be doing so for the glory of God, and that [she] knew to keep the strings of the purse well enough that assuredly their profanation would not be paid”.
In the convent, her health was much better than it had been in Versailles, apart from the occasional cold and attacks of gout. She fit in well, happy to serve the others and nurse sick nuns, but she also participated in their small amusements, such as poem writing or embroidery.
Prioress
Louise was elected prioress of the convent on 25 November 1773. She served for two consecutive temrs from 1773 to 1779, and during a third term from 1785. Her decision to retire from court made her a great asset for the clergy, who were constantly petitioning her. Louise used her influence with the King to secure ecclesiastical positions for those she supported. In general, she used her power as a former princess to help the conservative Catholic cause, such as fighting Jansenism (one of the greatest theological debates in France at the time). She worked to re-convert nuns who had embraced Jansenist doctrine. Being a sincere traditionalist, she blamed the Enlightenment philosophers for the spread of “impiety”.
When Louis XV lay dying in 1774, Mesdames laboured to convince him to confess his sins and repudiate Madame du Barry as a sign of his repentance. Louise prayed in support of them in the convent and the goal was achieved. On 26 May, two weeks after Louis XV's death, his grandson, the new king Louis XVI visited his aunt at Saint-Denis. Reportedly, Louise continued to solicit favours for others during the reign of her nephew, to the degree that Queen Marie Antoinette supposedly said to Madame de Boigne, “Here is another letter from my Aunt Louise. She is certainly the most intriguing little Carmelite in the kingdom.” When the interest of the Carmelite order was at stake, she readily corresponded with worldly powers and used her royal influence. She was also active in charity. In June 1782, she gave assistance to thirteen Carmelite nuns expelled from Brussels by Emperor Joseph II.
After Louis XVI's accession, Louise was often visited by her niece Madame Élisabeth, who wished to unite her prayers with that of her aunt for the king's welfare. An anecdote is given about one such visit: “Mme Elizabeth arrived at the convent one day quite early, and begged to be allowed to wait on the nuns at their dinner. Leave being granted, she put on an apron and, after kissing the ground, went to the Tour to receive the dishes. All went well, till, as she was distributing the portions, the tray slipped and a dish fell. Her embarrassment was extreme. To relieve her, the august Princess [Louise] said, ‘My niece. After such a gaucherie the culprit should kiss the floor.’ This Mme Elizabeth hastened to do, and then cheerfully resumed her office of waitress.” It was rumoured that Élisabeth may wish to join her aunt in the convent, but Louise herself refuted this, although she acknowledged it would make her happy, as being a nun was “the happiest state”. In 1783, aged 46, she described herself to the prioress of the Brussels Carmelite convent: “Your servant is very short, [has] a big head, high forehead, black eyebrows, blue-grey-brown eyes, [a] long, hooked nose, [a] cleft chin, [is] fat as a ball and hunchbacked”.
Death
Thérèse of Saint Augustin died on 23 December 1787 in the convent at Saint-Denis after suffering from a stomach complaint. Her last words were, according to a fellow Carmelite nun, “Au paradis ! Vite ! Au grand galop !” (“To paradise! Quickly! With full speed!”) Her nephew Louis XVI commented to Madame Campan that in the “delirium” of dying, Louise must have remembered that she had been born a princess. There was no official court mourning for her.
A little over a year later, the French Revolution deposed her family and ousted the Catholic Church from power in France. In the last days of Madame Élisabeth's imprisonment before her execution, she received a biography written about the late Louise by Abbot Proyart, who had known her.
The buildings of the convent at Saint Denis survived the turmoil and today house the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Denis.
However, in 1793 the revolutionaries who desecrated the tombs of the kings of France at the Basilica of St Denis did the same to the cemetery of the Carmelite convent. Located near the cloister, the remains of the royal family were disinterred and thrown into a mass grave.
It is four years [ago] on the 23rd of this month [December] that my pious aunt, Madame Louise, died in peace, tenderly cared for by her dear Carmelites. How merciful God was to her in calling her to Him on the eve of the disasters and misfortunes which were about to fall on her family and her convent itself [the Revolution]. She lived in peace and she died very happy. It was for that reason, no doubt, that the Court did not go into mourning for her.
Cause of beatification and canonization
The process of Thérèse de Saint-Augustine's beatification took place between 1855 and 1867. Her cause was formally opened on 16 December 1902, granting her the title of Servant of God. The process (required at the time) of non-cult took place in 1885–1886. The process of sanctity was conducted in 1891–1892 and the process of the virtues from 1896 to 1904. The decree validating these processes was published on 28 November 1906.
Clerics resumed steps toward Thérèse's canonization in Rome under new protocols on 13 December 1985. An association was founded in January 1986 to support the cause of her beatification. The decree of the heroic virtues of Thérèse of Saint Augustine was published on 18 December 1997, declaring her venerable. Only lack of an officially recognised miracle attributed to her is lacking for her to be declared “Blessed”.
Quotes
“Accept, oh, my Beloved! Oh, most lovable of Spouses! Accept this heart that burns to be yours. You have so many claims to its possession! Reign alone and reign for ever over my soul and all its faculties, over my will and all its affections, over my body and all its senses […] May my memory be occupied with nothing but the recollection of your good deeds; may my mind make the meditation on your lovely qualities its dearest occupation; may my heart be filled with nothing but the ineffable ardour with which you burn here for me. May my whole body be purified by the approach of your adorable flesh; may it sacrifice itself for your glory, through labour and infirmity, and may its sole endeavours, its most constant aspirations, be to imitate you and to become like you.” (A Conversation with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for the Octave of Corpus Christi; Eucharistic Meditations)
“Anything that does not come from God cannot be good, and scruples do not come from him. Let us cultivate not a broad conscience, but a peaceful one.” (Advice to Novices)
“All my sisters have made greater sacrifices to God than I have, for they sacrificed their freedom to Him, whereas I was a slave at Court; and my chains, though more glittering, were no less chains for that.” (Spiritual Testimonies)
“My daughter, when we have to endure something more trying than usual—whether because of the way of life we have chosen, or because of the changing seasons—let us remember what Jesus Christ suffered for us; let us picture that immense weight of glory in which he wishes us to share, and the comparison of which with the heaviest burden we have to bear in this world is so effective in making it seem insignificant.”(Spiritual Testimonies)