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The masterpiece of 1645-48, comparable to the Miracle of St Martin commissioned from Le Sueur in 1654 for the Benedictine Eglise de St Martin, Marmontiers, near Tours, was one of his most celebrated works until it disappeared from France at the end of the eighteenth century. It continued to be known through an engraving by Madame Soyer and by a copy which replaced it. That was seized at the Revolution, subsequently taken for the original by Francois Villot (cat. 1855, no.522), and since 1897 placed in the Musée de Quimper. A drawing for the saint is in the Albertina, Vienna.

PROVENANCE painted for a chapel of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois; sold thence to the Comte de Ponchar-train; Pasquier sale, 10 March 1755 (16); De Lalive de Jully sale, 5 March 1770 (38); presumably acquired then or soon after for George Brudenell, 4th earl of Cardigan, created Duke of Montagu; thence by descent.