Thursday, April 26, 2012

Madame Elisabeth and the Revolution

Madame Elisabeth of France provides milk for poor children at her estate at Montreuil
From Nobility:
The correspondence is full of pious and exalted thoughts. One might say that the sister of Louis XVI already foresaw the approaching tempests, and was asking Heaven for strength to face them, with alarm. In many of the letters there is a sort of anticipation of her heroic endurance. It is easy to see that this young girl was no ordinary person; that deep in her heart lay hidden treasures of resignation, piety, and courage. Touching reflections, wise counsels, Christian meditations, abound especially in her letters to Madame Marie de Causans….

February 9, 1786, she wrote to Madame Marie de Causans: “Let us turn simply to God. May faith be given us to see that he never abandons his children! If we feel too weak for his service, if we are discouraged, let us not rely on ourselves alone; let us say to him: ‘Thou, O God, seest all my heart; it is wholly Thine. I do not know whether Thou acceptest all the sacrifices which I make and intend; but Thy Son died in atonement for my faults. Look upon Him, O God, and even on the Cross, where our cruelty and sins fastened Him; hear Him who intercedes for us, who consoled the penitent thief. I would imitate him, O God, and recognize Thy sovereign power, and believe that, whatever may befall me, Thou wilt not desert me.” Madame Elisabeth ascended the scaffold; but as she climbed the steps, the God of mercy did not desert her, and death was rather an entrance into glory than a punishment….(Read entire post.)
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1 comment:

lara77 said...

When one thinks of the foreign princes who would have wanted Princess Elizabeth as their wife; yet she stayed close to her brother and sister in law. It is as if God decided she would be the guardian angel for the King and Queen throughout the travail of the revolution. What an amazing woman; such strength of faith and character. I bet in all the many republics that followed the French Monarchy not one ever produced the class or breeding of a Princess Elizabeth. In her was the longevity and breeding that spoke to the world that the Royal Family of France was France. They would never shirk their responsibility to God and people.