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Eleven days of Pascal's life: 1662, the last fight

2023-03-31T04:13:36.421Z


FIGARO SPECIAL ISSUE (11/11) - Consumed by illness, exhausted by months of suffering, Pascal gives his soul to God.


This article is taken from the

Figaro Hors-Série Blaise Pascal, the heart and the reason.



How long has he been in pain?

He couldn't say.

Blaise has always had fragile health, but for four years now migraines have oppressed him, colic has overwhelmed him.

In August 1660, to Fermat who wanted to see him, Blaise wrote: “

I am so weak that I cannot walk without a stick, nor hold my horse

”.

His daily life is nothing but suffering.

After having known the intoxication of intelligence, the fever of scientific research, worldly consideration, he saw the stripping in his flesh.

His brilliant brain is caught in the vice of headaches, his active temperament is affected by a "

perpetual languor

".

He who had experienced the burning love of his Creator during the "

night of fire

" now descends into the abyss of suffering.

His Prayer to ask God for the proper use of illnesses is the supplication of a thirsty person who wants to see in trial the hand of his Creator preparing him for the great passage.

"

Make me unable to enjoy the world (...) to enjoy only you...

"

Read alsoThe editorial of Le Figaro Hors-série: Blaise Pascal, a man for eternity

To the physical sufferings are added the others.

In the midst of the turmoil against Port-Royal, the Assembly of the Clergy demanded that all the priests and religious of France sign a form condemning as heretics five propositions taken from

Augustinus

by Jansenius.

The debate is lively between the nuns, the Solitaires and the friends of Port-Royal to know whether or not to sign it, beyond their conscience.

Jacqueline Pascal is one of those who want to resist, out of loyalty to the Abbé de Saint-Cyran, first spiritual director of Port-Royal and friend of Jansenius.

By a sad meeting of time and the reversal in which we find ourselves, (…) since the bishops have the courage of daughters, the daughters must have the courage of bishops

“, she laments.

Death in the soul, she ended up signing despite everything.


A few months later, on October 4, 1661, she died at the age of thirty-six.

Blaise is intimately affected by it.

Long ago, however, his will tamed his great sensibility.

She inspires him with these sole words of lamentation: "

God grant us the grace to die just as well!"

(…) Blessed are those who die, provided they die to the Lord!

»

Read alsoEleven days in the life of Pascal: 1639, Jacqueline and the cardinal

When, at the end of the year, Arnauld and Nicole convince certain gentlemen of Port-Royal to sign, Pascal, in the grip of a violent headache, tries to make them change their minds.

At the end of his argument, he loses consciousness.

He has been unable to work for two years now and spends his days going to pray from church to church.

Seized with pity in front of a fifteen-year-old beggar on the way out of Saint-Sulpice, he entrusts her to a priest to find her accommodation, paying for everything with his own money.

After his death, we would find in this good Samaritan a paper from his hand: “

I love poverty, because Jesus Christ loved it.

I love goods, because they give the means to help the poor.

I remain loyal to everyone.

At the end of June 1662, this generous soul will go so far as to give up her home to a poor man and his family, whose son was suffering from smallpox, to be transported to his sister Gilberte, rue des Fossés-Saint-Marcel, his state no longer allowing him to live alone.

Seized by violent colic, he loses it even to sleep.

His health deteriorated, he asked to go to confession, begged for communion to be brought to him.

Doctors do not see an extreme need for it.

You don't feel my pain, replies Blaise, you will be deceived;

there is something very extraordinary about my headache

”.

Since they don't want to grant me this grace, he continues, I would like to make up for it with some good work (…);

and for that I thought of

".

On August 17, 1662, his illness worsened.

Gilberte sent, at night, to fetch the parish priest of Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, who, having visited him often, had marveled at the simplicity of this great genius, humble as a child.

On entering the room, seeing him asleep, the priest said to him aloud: “

Here is Our Lord whom I bring to you;

here is the One you have so longed for.

This wakes Pascal up.

When, in accordance with the liturgy, the priest questions him on the mysteries of the faith before giving him communion, Blaise answers distinctly: “Yes,

sir, I believe all that with all my heart.

He receives the last sacraments and Communion with such fervor that he sheds tears.

When the priest brings the ciborium to him to bless it, he murmurs:

May God never abandon me!

These will be his last words.

Blaise is taken from convulsions and goes into agony.

Twenty-four hours later, on August 19, 1662 at one o'clock in the morning, he recovered his spirit.

Blaise Pascal, heart and reason

, 164 pages, €13.90, available on newsstands and on

Le Figaro Store

.

Cover after the posthumous portrait of Blaise Pascal by François II Quesnel, after 1662 Figaro-Hors-Série

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-03-31

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