Thomas A. Nelson - Anne: The Life of Venerable Anne de Guigné (1911-1922)

Anne

The Life of Venerable
Anne De Guign
1911-1922

A Benedictine Nun of
Stanbrook Abbey

First published in 1932 by Burns, Oates & Washbourne, Ltd, London. Retypeset and republished in 1997 by TAN Books with permission of Stanbrook Abbey.

Grateful acknowledgments to the Freundeskreis Maria Goretti e.V., Munich, for use of the pictures on pages 22 and 28 and Afterword material.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 97-60765

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
1997

ANNE

I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.

Matthew 11:25

Venerable Anne de Guign 1911-1922

Obedience is the sanctity of children.

Motto of Annes

First Communion retreat

(See page 18)

Anne never stopped to think whether a thing was pleasant or not if she knew it was the will of God, either for some reason of duty or necessity, or for the good of others. Her will ruled all her actions so that there was perfect order in her life....

Mother St. Raymond,

Annes teacher

(See page 80)

DECLARATION OF OBEDIENCE

I n obedience to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and other Sovereign Pontiffs, we declare that we in no way intend to prejudge Holy Mother Church in the matter of Saints, sanctity, miracles and so forth. Final authority in such matters rests with the See of Rome, to whose judgment we willingly submit.

The Publishers

CONTENTS

PREFACE

To the 1932 Edition

T HIS is the life of Anne de Guign, a little girl who died only ten years ago. A short and uneventful life as the world views things, but full of very great events in the eyes of God, who seems to wish that we should know how important she is in the world above, for He allows her to spend her Heaven doing good upon earth.

The facts are taken from the French book Anne de Guign by Rev. Fr. Etienne Lajeunie, O.P., supplemented by the original depositions written by the childs mother and by her governess, Mlle. B. The Countess de Guign has corrected various details while reading the manuscript of this book and most kindly supplied the photographs.

Considerable use has also been made of the depositions of the late Mother St. Raymond, a nun of the Auxiliatrice convent at Cannes, who taught the catechism class which Anne attended each year when the family went south for the winter.

The diocesan or informative Process, preparatory to Annes Beatification, commenced some months ago, when the Bishop of Annecy, Msgr. du Bois de la Villerabel, received official authorization from the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The Bishop is himself President of the Tribunal, with Msgr. Hertzog as Postulator of the Cause in Rome, and Canon J. Mugnier, professor at the Grand Seminaire in Annecy, as Vice-Postulator.

The document from Rome was dated Christmas Day, 1931. It seems as if the Christ Child wished to show that He has taken His little friend by the hand, so that she may pass safely through the courts of Rome, where nursery Saints are rare.

It should be mentioned, however, that an occasional use of the word Saint is not intended to anticipate in any way the future judgement of the Church. This applies also to the account of various favors attributed to Annes intercession. All that is here written is a plain statement of facts which the Church will judge in Gods own time.

See also the Afterword, p. 117.

ANNE

There will be saints among the children.

Pope St. Pius X

Chapter 1

FINDING THE WAY

I T was the 30th of July, 1915; the second year of the war.

For one four-year-old girl, this was the Day of the Lord, great and exceedingly bitter.

Is it possible to speak of a great and bitter day in the life of a child of four? It is certainly not usual, but this book is about a child who was not usual.

On that July morning Anne awoke to see her mother standing by the bed, and her mothers eyes were red from a night of tears. Three times in this one year of war the childs father had returned woundednow, Daddy is dead. And the sword went down into the little ones soul even unto the division of the spirit. This is the absolute truth. It was a dividing point. Behind lay an ordinary childhood, full of promise but stained by many faults. After it came the maturity of holiness.

There are several ways of climbing the mountain of sanctity. Annes way was to attempt the face of the cliff. She went straight up, for her time was short. God called her to come up the quickest way, and she came.

* * *

Who was this child? Her family called her Nenette, but she had a good supply of other names besides. Jeanne, Marie, Josephine, Anne, all these had been lavished on the eldest daughter of Jacques, Count de Guign and his wife, Antoinette de Charette.

Annes birth on April 25, 1911, was followed a year later by that of the son and heir, Jacques or Jojo; and then came two little sisters, Madeleine and Marie Antoinette, whose long names soon became shortened to Leleine and Marinette.

Their home was the stately Chateau de la Cour overlooking the Lake of Annecy. We have as fine a chateau as anyone, Anne once remarked in a moment of weakness. Certainly it was a home worth loving and a little girl might perhaps be forgiven for boasting of it. That part of Savoy is lovely beyond description, and the chateau stands on a height with all the beauty of the lake spread out below.

This was Annes home and here she lived all her life except for a few months each winter when the family went to their house in Cannes.

Some Saints biographers gravely assure us that they showed every sign of sanctity from earliest infancy! Anne can hardly be said to have done that. In many ways she was a dear child, very loving, intelligent and perfectly frank, but also a most tempestuous little person with an iron will when there was question of getting her own way. She may in fact be said to have shown every sign of naughtiness from earliest infancy!

A doctor can testify that there were no signs of precocious sanctity to be seen in the very troublesome baby he had to deal with. The child was sufficiently ill to cause anxiety and it was imperative to examine her. But Anne did not like the doctor, or perhaps his instruments frightened her. In any case she immediately became a miniature windmill with her arms and legs very busy all at once, and when the doctor tried to hold them: Take your hat and go! came the furious command from the crib. The little lady could hardly speak plainly yet, but she knew how to make herself understood. Such scenes were not at all unusual.

There is a photograph taken when she was about three years old which gives a good idea of her character at this time. Eyes, mouth and chin, all are very hard. There is frankness in the little face and courage, great courage, and the power of great love; but self-will is clearly written there. It is the face of one who will follow none but herself.