430 ST. JANE people." Jeanne had little pleasure either as queen of France or as the wife of the man she loved, for he had married her against his inclination, and all her amiahle qualities during twenty years of devotion had so entirely failed to win his regard, that the first and only favour he had to ask of her was his liberty, and the first use he made of his royal power was to sue for a divorce. Alexander YI. was the Pope, and, to incline him to grant the decree, Louis heaped gifts and honours on his son, the infamous Caesar Borgia. The case was to be tried at Tours, and thither the unhappy princess was summoned to answer for herself. For the petitioner, consanguinity and sundry other pleas were set up, but chiefly that he had been married against his will and in fear of his life. Jeanne knew that she must yield. Nevertheless, she mode a dignified defence, which met with universal sympathy. Great autho- rities in law and theology pronounced the marriage void, but the people con- sidered that she was the rightful queen and that the king owed his crown to her. Sundry portents were believed to show the displeasure of Heaven. A dense crowd was assembled in the cathedral where the solemnity was held. Sud- denly a thick darkness came on ; the decree could not be read ; torches were brought. Then the plague appeared at Tours, and the whole court, with all the functionaries, removed to Amboise. The people pointed at those who promoted the divorce and pronounced the decree. " There goes Caiaphas I " they said. '* Look at Herod and Pontius Pilate ; they have given their judgment against the holy lady and ruled that she is no longer Queen of France." Throughout the kingdom, many of the clergy, in spite of threats, protested against the meaHuro. Meanwhile the king spoke of her as his cousin. He said she should have such state and means as became the daughter and sister of kings of France. Ho gave her the duchy of Berri, Ghatillon-sur-Indre, and Pontoise, and as soon as the Pope's dispensation could be procured he married Anne, duchess of Brittany, the widow of the late king. Jeanne took up her residence at Bourges, where she led a seclnded life under tte direction of her friend St. Francis of Paula. There the people, especially tte poor, without waiting for her dietl^ regaided her as a saint. In 1500, two years after her diforoe, she founded the Order of the Nudb d the Annunciation of the Blessed Yirgn Mary, called Annonciades, in honour d the ten virtues of the mother of Goi The superior is called AnciQa^ in tokn of humility. These nans must not be confounded with the Annandai/a CelesteSj who were founded a centozj later. Her order was approved hj Alexander YI., the same Pope who had granted her divorce. She took the veO but would never accept the post of Mother Ancilla. She died Feb. 4, lo^^o; was worshipped at Bourges, land called " Saint ** from the time of her death. She was canonized in 1 738 by Clement XIL AA.SS. Butler. Baillet. Lacroix, Louts XII. ct Anne de Bretagne^ St. Jane (17) of the Cross, Mayo, 1481-1534. Juana Vazqnez was a peasant girl of Cubas in the neighbour- hood of Toledo, sent into the world by the B. V. Maky to restore her convent of Sta. Maria de la Cruz, of the 3rd Order of St. Francis. The child showed great piety and asceticism from her infancy. She was so bent on becoming a nun, that, to escape all opposition, she fled from her home, disguised as a man. When she arrived at the convent, the Y. Mary gave her favour in the eyes of the nuns and they received her as cook. She eventually became superior of the house. She was thirty-eight years in the order, and died at the age of fifty-throe, in 1534, on the day of the Finding of the Cross, May 3. Many miracles are re- corded of her in life and after death. She is one of the many saints said to have been married with a ring to the Infant Saviour. Her body was found in perfect preservation seventy years after her death, and Mass was said in front of her cofi&n in presence of a great concourse of people. She is called *' Saint'* and
- Blessed '* in her own order and about
Cubas, but has never been so pronounqod by the authority of the Church. The Congregation of Rites, in 1664, under
