Today I do not have a written text of Eugene, but write about some of the first persons to join him after the initial founding group. Their lives and ministry continued his spirit and actions.
The Register of Entries into the Novitiate (kept in the General Archives, Rome) shows who the first four novices of the Missionaries were. They had all been members of the Youth Congregation.
- Hippolyte Courtès, who after his ordination always remained close to Eugene as a confidant and friend. He was the superior of the Aix community for most of his life and ensured a fidelity to the spirit of Eugene in the community life and its important missionary outreach
- Hilarion Bourrellier was ordained but remained with the Missionaries for only three years. He joined the Diocesan Clergy;
- Jean Baptiste de Bausset remained with the Missionaries for two years, but continued to live here as a student
- Casimir Carles, who did not persevere.
Of the other Youth Congregation members, another ten entered the novitiate of the Missionaries, three of whom persevered as Oblates. [Jacques Marcou, Jean Baptiste Honorat and Léon Saboulin], and a fourth who left the Missionaries to become a diocesan priest and continued to remain in contact with Eugene [Coulin].
Between 1816 and 1823, it was Eugene and Tempier who formed the novices according to their spirit. The members of this batch of novices became a good missionaries and marked the Congregation in some way. Among them I single out four who were destined to become important communicators of Eugene’s spirit and zeal themselves:
- Jean Baptiste Honorat, who led the first group to Canada, and opened the way to an outstanding missionary history in North America;
- Eugène Guigues, the first Bishop of Bytown who ensured fidelity to Eugene’s spirit in the development of the Church in Ottawa, and set the pattern for what an “Oblate diocese” looked like in missionary countries;
- Jacques Jeancard, who left the Oblates after 12 years of oblation but remained “an Oblate at heart” and a close collaborator of Eugene as a diocesan priest. In 1858 he became Eugene’s Auxiliary Bishop in Marseille.
- Hippolyte Guibert was a close confidant and adviser of Eugene and became the first Oblate Cardinal of Paris and builder of the Sanctuary of Sacré Coeur of Montmartre.
Today I feel that I have been urged into looking back a little on parts of my life because these early Oblates have played a part in my life today. Their response to their vocations as religious and as priests set in motion those lines of love, those lines of fire between themselves and God, themselves and others. Those same lines continue down to this present time, to the likes of us who are called to be a part of this Mazenodian Family, not just as religious priests and brothers, or as religious sisters, but also as lay married people with families and as single persons who can direct our lives in different but equally full ways to God. This charism, this way of living and being given to us all by St. Eugene.
There is great pride and joy in being a part of this family and it is good to be reminded of our beginnings, personal and those of our family. Not only the spirit and life of St. Eugene lives on in us, but so too does the spirit and lives of men like of Hippolyte Courtès, Jean Baptiste Honorat and Eugène Guigues and the many who are among us, scattered throughout the world making ordinary lives extraordinary. We are all connected and we need to celebrate each other. It is a wonderful gift to be able to thank God and celebrate those who have come before us, and who we carry with us in our hearts and our lives, as well as those who are a brothers and sisters, some close and some far away. I believe that the goodness and greatness of our brothers and sisters actually lifts us up rather than diminishing us. It is simply a joy to see God living and breathing in us all.
Those first vocations began with religious priests and then brothers and then opened up to include all of us who are called to be a part of this Oblate, this Mazenodian Family. Can there be any greater gift than what God has already given to us? O God we thank you for each other.