Testimonies of Jeanne Antide dying: on the day Mother Thouret, in Naples Regina Coeli, surrounded by the affection and sorrow of her sisters, passes from this world to God’s world, we hear some of her testimonies:
Sister Febronia Thouret:
Her health no longer allowed her to be among her daughters for the Exercises of the Rule. During the last two months she had to neglect receiving the frequent Communion. On August 15 she took communion with her sisters at the Communichino. Faced with her last illness, stricken with apoplexy, she was very calm, as she was throughout the course of her illness. There was no impatience or sign of agitation, slumbering in a fictitious sleep, she answered questions in a few words. She understood everything, felt everything and quietly took the remedies.
On August 24, still in calm, with a little less consciousness, she received from the Chaplain all the Sacraments of the Church, in articulo mortis. She was surrounded by all the desolate nuns. She listened softly to all the prayers. She quietly rendered her soul to God at 10:10 p.m. the same evening.
Bishop Domenico Narni Mancinelli:
My Daughter in Jesus Christ sister Rosalie,
I cannot delay, nor lose a moment to send you my reply for the purpose of expressing the sorrow, which I am feeling at the sad news. Sister Antida Thouret your aunt, but more than this Mother in God, the strong virgin of the Gospel, the Heroine of religion, the foundress of your Institute, certainly, is no longer in this world, she has left you: she no longer exists for Earth, she exists for Heaven. Her last letter in August seemed very clearly to announce to me her passing, her journey, her triumph.
What meditations can be made on her for the imitation of Christians and religious women? The knowledge of Religion, of the holy Gospel, of dogmas, it may be said, was obtained more by the prodigies of heavenly inspiration than by the studies of theology, of which she had never received even the same principles. How, then, was so much wisdom and science to be found in sister Antide Thouret in the books she composed, in the circulars she had printed, in the advice she gave, in the conduct of affairs at the Courts of Kings? Let France, Switzerland, Italy, the Kingdom of Naples rightly speak of her; speak of her, I say; rather be sorry for her loss!
Message from Jeanne Antide:
Oh! What grace to belong entirely to the King of Heaven and Earth! What consolation during life and, at death, what joyous hope to sing before the Lamb without blemish the canticle that no other mouth can sing! I wish for all this priceless happiness.
O my dear daughters, whatever your position may be, if it does not correspond to your desires, take courage again to make holy use of it: this is what I ask God every day for you and for me. Let creatures say and do; let them succeed; let them shine: all this will pass with them like a cloud of smoke; an eternity, however, of pain or happiness will never pass. Let us leave it to the good God, Almighty One, let us put all things into His divine hands and we shall never be confused. In you alone, my Lord and my God, I have placed all trust and hope for time and eternity; everything else is nothing to me without you.
