It would seem that sad presentiments assailed him at this moment, for he said in the deed of gift:  “I declare that my last will is to be buried in this chapel; and if our Lord disposes of my life during this voyage I desire that my body be brought here for burial.  I also desire this chapel to be open to the public.”  Fortunately, he was mistaken, it was not the intention of the Lord to remove him so soon from the affections of his people.  For twenty years more the revered prelate was to spread about him good works and good examples, and Providence reserved for him the happiness of dying in the midst of his flock.

His generosity did not confine itself to this grant.  He could not leave his diocese, which he was not sure of seeing again, without giving a token of remembrance to that school of St. Joachim, which he had founded and which he loved so well; he gave the seminary eight thousand francs for the support of the priest entrusted with the direction of the school at the same time as with the ministry of the parish, and another sum of four thousand francs to build the village church.

A young Canadian priest, M. Guyon, son of a farmer of the Beaupre shore, had the good fortune of accompanying the bishop on the voyage.  It would have been very imprudent to leave the venerable prelate alone, worn out as he was by troublesome fits of vertigo whenever he indulged too long in work; besides, he was attacked by a disease of the heart, whose onslaughts sometimes incapacitated him.

It would be misjudging the foresight of Mgr. de Laval to think that before embarking for the mother country he had not sought out a priest worthy to replace him.  He appealed to two men whose judgment and circumspection he esteemed, M. Dudouyt and Father Le Valois of the Society of Jesus.  He asked them to recommend a true servant of God, virtuous and zealous above all.  Father Le Valois indicated the Abbe Jean Baptiste de la Croix de Saint-Vallier, the king’s almoner, whose zeal for the welfare of souls, whose charity, great piety, modesty and method made him the admiration of all.  The influence which his position and the powerful relations of his family must gain for the Church in Canada were an additional argument in his favour; the superior of St. Sulpice, M. Tronson, who was also consulted, praised highly the talents and the qualities of the young priest.  “My Lord has shown great virtue in his resignation,” writes M. Dudouyt.  “I know no occasion on which he has shown so strongly his love for his Church; for he has done everything that could be desired to procure a person capable of preserving and perfecting the good work which he has begun here.”  If the Abbe de Saint-Vallier had not been a man after God’s own heart, he would not have accepted a duty so honourable but so difficult.  He was not unaware of the difficulties which he would have to surmount, for Mgr. de Laval explained them to him himself with the greatest frankness; and, what was a still greater sacrifice, the king’s almoner was to leave the most brilliant court in the world for a very remote country, still in process of organization.  Nevertheless he accepted, and Laval had the satisfaction of knowing that he was committing his charge into the hands of a worthy successor.