A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Rochier, (Agnes du)
ROCHIER (AGNES DU), a very pretty Girl, and the only Daughter of a rich Tradesman of Paris.
Her father left her a handsome fortune; but at eighteen years of age she turned recluse, in the parish of St. Oportune, 1403. Those were called recluses, whether maids or widows, who built themselves a little chamber, adjoining to the wall of some church. The ceremony of their seclusion was performed with great pomp: the church was hung with tapestry; the bishop celebrated mass pontifically, preached, and afterwards went himself to seal the door of the little chamber, after having copiously sprinkled it with holy water: there remained nothing but a little window, from whence the pious solitary heard the offices of the church, and received the necessaries of life. Agnes du Rochier died at the age of ninety-eight.
The errors of a well-meaning mind must be looked upon with indulgence; but self-infliction, however heroically borne, can lay no just claim to the praise of that heroic fortitude, which supports with patience great and unavoidable evils—and which it is intended to imitate.