exertions, so that the least pretentious towns sometimes had institutions that would be the proud boast of their nobler sister cities. The little hamlet of Ruillé-sur-Loir was thus singularly favored. The prestige it derived by being chosen as the place for the establishment of a religious congregation that soon became greatly respected in the Church, is the foundation of its historical importance. As its Community is comparatively little known in the New World, some details are here presented, taken from "Notices Historiques," which were published in 1873 under the auspices of the administrative faculty at the mother house of the Sisters of Providence at Ruillé-sur-Loir, and which it is thought will not prove uninteresting.
When the storm of rebellion broke in its fury in 1790, M. Francois Jacques Dujarié was a seminarian at Angers, where he had recently received the order of deaconate. Obliged to flee, he sought shelter in a weaver's cellar at Chantenay. Finding that he could not remain there in security he purchased his safety by disguising himself as a shepherd and actually engaging in the care of sheep. For some time his measures were successful; but he became suspected again, and flight alone saved him from the iniquitous oath or the scaffold. Later he entered among the municipal guards in whose ranks he was raised to military honors.
A very special providence in regard to the young M. Dujarié manifested itself. Escaping so many dangers often in a manner little short of miraculous, evading the vigilance of Robespièrre's emissaries, and soon after that tyrant's downfall, succeeding in receiving the priestly ordination in secrecy (he was ordained
