He was a Breton peasant, who had been in Pasteur Lecoat’s service for twenty-nine years. He was seventy-two years of age when he died, on February 2nd of this year, one month before his master. Knowing how ill Pasteur was, he told one of Pasteur’s nieces that he did not want to survive his master. He was very ill for about a month, and suffered at times intense pain.
It was never known when he was converted, but about five years ago he asked if he might “take the communion,” as he wished to remember his Lord in His death. As he could not read himself, for years one of his sons used to read the Bible to him every Sunday afternoon. It is the custom at Tremel for the workmen on Pasteur’s farm, before they go to their work in the morning, to assemble in the chapel for reading the word of God and for prayer, and in the evening when the day’s work is over they close the day in the same manner. Paulic was always most attentive at these daily services.
At times during his last illness he would say, “Do pray for me, for I am too ill to pray for myself.” Mademoiselle Hannah Le Quere, who used to take him his medicine each day, said to him, “Are you not afraid to die?” “No,” he answered, “I have peace with God, and I know my sins are forgiven, but if I had waited until now to be saved it would be too late, for I am too ill.” When his sufferings were very great he would say, “Do pray for me, and ask God to take me.” Another time he said, “If I was beginning life again, I would live very differently from what I have done; I have not served God as I ought.”
His daughter, who came from Paris to see him, was surprised at his happiness.
He was devoted to Pasteur, and every morning when Mademoiselle Hannah visited him he would say, “How is Monsieur Lecoat?”
For some days before his death he was too weak to speak, and when the end came he passed away as quietly as a child going to sleep. When Pasteur was told of his death he said, “Paulic is gone, and I shall not be long after him.” And now the master and the faithful servant are together with Christ.
Blessed fruit of the gospel in Tremel, it is being garnered in heaven, and many another before the throne of God will praise for all eternity the God who gave the beloved Pasteur the joy of sowing seeds of light amid the superstitious darkness of Brittany.
The thousands of Bibles translated by Pasteur into the Breton language, and circulated by his colporteurs, have brought the joy of salvation to hundreds of lives.