Madame Victurnien knew that she was a good Catholic and an example of Christian righteousness and purity. She was respected by her congregation; she was a self-satisfied bigot who rather gave her money to the Church than to the poor. "God will never give you more than you can bear," she said. "Claiming so makes God a liar." When she heard about Fantine“s fate, she nodded, proud of her handwork: a sinner sent to everlasting torment of Hell.
So why she was now without job, homeless and fatally sick, laying in the hospital kept by nuns? Why she had the feeling that middle-aged nun, Sister Simplice, did not approve her opinions, speaking about caritas*, the most excellent of virtues, when she told how she hated the sin and immoral people? Why she had to suffer like this? She had always been good person, loved by God!
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AN: Caritas = (lat) charity. Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) called it "the most excellent of the virtues"
