THE SAINT
Testimonies
Collection of testimonies by contemporaries of François de Laval
“He gives away everything and lives in poverty. He is not one to make friends in order to get ahead and build his own wealth – this means nothing to him. His home, his life, his furnishings, his servants are all a reflection of how he lives his life in poverty. He has only one gardener, whom he lends to the poor when they are in need of him.”
“His Excellency’s death is a loss for the whole of the colony, which remains in his debt for all the work he undertook to establish the Church, to encourage us all to live in peace with one another, and to instruct young people in literacy and piety, of which he was the living image. “
“No sooner had he stepped off the boat from France than he rushed to the hospital to help the poor. Neither prayer nor any other consideration could prevent him from settling into a corner of their room, helping them make their beds every day and performing all of the most demeaning services for the sick.”
“He was an excellent model and a pastor filled with the spirit of the Apostles and similar in all respects to the holy bishops that we venerate today.”
“I felt at his episcopal ordination that I had consecrated a martyr rather than a bishop.”
“The only thing missing, to ensure our full animation, is the presence of His Excellency the Bishop. His absence has cast a pall over the country and leaves us to languish from an over-long separation from a person so necessary to an emerging Church. He was its soul.”
“A man whose personal qualities are rare and extraordinary. I would say that he lives as a saint and an apostle. He tells everyone the truth and tells it freely. A man of strength such as what was needed here to extirpate the malicious gossip that ran rife and was becoming deeply embedded. In a word, his life is so exemplary that he is admired by the whole country.”
“The virtues of François have made him so commendable that there have been calls from several different places for him to go to do the Lord’s work.”
“Can it be possible that he is dead, this man that it brought us so much joy to see living and whose memory will never die? “
“I cannot overstate the zeal and piety of the Bishop of Petra; he is truly a man of prayer and I have no doubt that he will be very effective in this country. “
“He works tirelessly; he is clearly the most austere of men and the least attached to the things of this world. He gives everything away, and we can say in truth that he embodies the spirit of poverty. “
“One can truly say that he has a heart like God’s heart and that he offers a perfect model for true bishops. “
“His Excellency the Bishop concerned himself with the good of the diocese at all times and had innumerable tasks; he performed them all with great zeal and appeared to be everywhere at once.”
“Rising every day at three in the morning despite the harsh climate, doing the work of a porter in the church every day, lighting the lamps, performing all the duties of a nurse at the Seminary, making beds, lifting, placing and calming the sick, spending several hours each day before the Holy Sacrament, attending divine service with unfailing precision—this is how the first bishop chased away the fatigue caused by his zeal. “
“To obey the voice of God, he left one of the most temperate of climates and the most flourishing of kingdoms, where his virtue was known, to travel to one of the harshest of places, in a country whose inhabitants were known only for their barbarity, where an immense amount of work needed to be accomplished and which offered countless opportunities for suffering. “
“When it came time to buy fabrics and blankets for the poor, donating 100, 200 or 300 écus came to him as easily as giving away a pin. When spending on the poor, his greatness was suffused with joy.”