And He seems to have mocked her.
"He solemnly assured her that after sorrowful trials the seed she had sown should bring forth an abundant harvest of nuns.

He expressly told her that she would rank as the sister of Saint Theresa and Saint Clare; those holy women appeared to ratify these promises by their presence, and when nothing would come of it, nothing would work, when, quite worn out, she burst into tears, the Lord calmly bade her be still and take patience.
"Meanwhile, she was living amid a howling storm of recrimination and threats.

The clergy persecute her, the Archbishop of Lyon, the Cardinal de Richelieu, aims only at hindering the completion of her abbeys on his lands; she cannot even manage her Sisterhood, since we find her wandering in search of a protector or an assistant; they are torn by divisions, and their insubordination is such that at length she is compelled to return in hot haste, and, with many tears, expel the contumacious sisters from the cloister.
"It really seems as though no sooner had she built up a monastic wall than it split and fell; nothing would hold.

In short, the Order of the Incarnate Word was born rickety and died a dwarf.

It lingered in the midst of universal apathy, and survived till 1790, when it was buried.
In 1811 one Abbe Denis revived it at Azerables in la Creuse, and since then it has struggled on for better for worse, scattered through about fifteen houses, one of these at Texas in the New World.
"There is no doubt of it," Durtal concluded; "we are far enough from the strong sap which Saint Theresa and Saint Clare could infuse into the centennial growth of their mighty trees! "To say nothing of the fact that Jeanne de Matel, who has never been canonized like her two sisters, and whose name remains unknown to most Catholics, intended to found an order of men as well as women; she did not succeed, and the attempts since made in our day by the Abbe Combalot to carry her plan into effect have been equally vain! "Now, what is the reason?
Is it because there are too many and various communities in the Church?
Why, new foundations are set on foot and flourish every day! Is it by reason of the poverty of the monasteries?
Nay, for indigence is the great test of success, and experience shows that God only blesses the most destitute convents and abandons the others! Is it, then, the austerity of the rule?
But this was very mild; it was that of Saint Augustine, which yields to every compromise, and at need accepts every shade of practice.