Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/32

20 that inspired them with a feeling of reverence. Her future sanctity seemed foreshown in the expression that settled upon her features, a peculiarity that distinguished her throughout life, as we learn from the testimony of one of her daughters in religion, who wrote of her after their first meeting: "Apart from her singular and most benign expression, she can scarcely be called beautiful; but there is an indefinable charm in her countenance that causes one to think it is the reflection of baptismal grace and holiness."

The deep and tender piety of Monsieur and Madame Guérin inspired them to consecrate their first-born to the Blessed Virgin, thus to place the innocence of their daughter in a very special manner under the protection of the august Mother of God, conceived without sin. One of the child's earliest recollections was that of being called the Blessed Virgin's petite fille, an appellation she deemed an exceptional honor; and nothing appealed to her infantine sense of wrong so efficaciously as the thought of displeasing God's holy Mother and thereby losing this dear Mother's love and favor. This tenderness increased with her years. It found expression in her choice of prayers and canticles, also in the erection of simple shrines before our blessed Lady's pictures where she took devotional delight in placing the flowers she had gathered from fen and hillside. Her devotion to the Blessed Virgin would seem alone to forecast her future sanctity, since the doctors of the Church tell us that devotion to the Mother of God is a mark of predestination. There seemed to be no other sign in our little girl, for she grew up like most children, often incurring