THE FOUNDING VISION: OUR FIRST RULE

The first Missionaries of Provence produced a request for authorization that they addressed to the Aix diocesan authorities. We can see this document as the statement of the founding vision of what today we refer to as the larger Mazenodian Family of all those inspired by the spirit and charism of Eugene. This is the vision they decided on:

 The undersigned priests:
 -deeply moved by the deplorable situation of the small towns and villages of Provence that have almost completely lost the faith;
-knowing from experience that the callousness or indifference of these people renders the ordinary help supplied by your concern for their salvation insufficient and even useless;
-convinced that missions are the only means by which these people who have gone astray can be brought out of their degradation;
-desirous, at the same time, of responding to the call which summons them to consecrate themselves to this arduous ministry;
-and wishing to accomplish it in a manner as useful to themselves as it is advantageous for the people whom they propose to evangelize;
-have the honour of requesting from you the authorization to come together at Aix in the old house of the Carmelites which one of them has acquired; and to live there in community under a Rule whose main points they now indicate to you:

Request to the Capitular Vicars of Aix, 25 January 1816, O.W. XIII n.2

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