Death of Claude La Colombière

In the month of August (1681) Father La Colombière returned to Paray-le-Monial to undergo treatment for the tuberculosis that was beginning to ravage his body. At this stage he was so weak that he could scarcely speak. However, before the onset of the rigours of winter, he was able to travel to the Visitation monastery to deal with Sister Margaret Mary and others of his spiritual directees. It became obvious very quickly that the climate of Paray did not suit him. There was a plan to send him to the Rhone area, to Lyons or Vienne where the climate was milder. Preparations were made secretly to do this, but when his brother arrived at Paray on 29th January to take him away, Miss Mayneaud de Bisefranc discovered what was afoot. She quickly alerted Margaret Mary who instructed her to tell Claude not to make the journey, if he could do so without failing in obedience. When Claude received this verbal message he asked that Margaret Mary put the message in writing. She immediately sent him a short note: “He told me that He wishes the sacrifice of your life here at Paray”. For this reason, the journey was put off. Claude La Colombière died at Paray at 7 p.m. on 15th February, 1682.

When the news reached the Visitation monastery on the following morning Margaret Mary said immediately: “Pray for him and get everyone else to pray for him”. But at 11 a.m. she declared: “Stop worrying about him. Invoke him; have no fear, he is more powerful than ever to help you”. To Mother M. Greyfie who was amazed that Margaret Mary did not ask her for prayers or mortifications as she usually did when someone died, she replied very gently and with an expression of great joy: “Fr La Colombière has no further need of them. He is now in a position to pray for us, so well placed is he in heaven by the goodness and mercy of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord. Only to satisfy for some negligence in love, the beatific vision was withheld from the instant of his death to the deposition of his body in the tomb”.

In her humility Margaret Mary tried to recover the little note she had sent to Fr Claude in his suffering. But Fr Bourguignet, Superior of the House of the Society of Jesus in Paray, replied that he would sooner give her all the archives of the house than this little prophetic note.

From the Bull of Canonisation of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, 13th May 1920 Translated by Bernard J. McGuckian S.J. 8th May, 2006

For a fuller account of the lives of these two saints:
For an account of the life of St Margaret Mary Alacoque

Prayer of St Margaret Mary

O Blessed Father Claude la Colombiere, I take you for my intercessor before the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.  Obtain for me from his goodness the grace not to resist the designs he has on my soul, and to make me a more perfect imitator of the virtues of his divine heart.

St. Margaret Mary said this prayer often between Fr Claude's death and her own death eight years later.