RAISE THE SIGN OF SALVATION, THE CROSS OF THE SAVIOUR JESUS

“Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love. If I do not love a person I am not moved to help him by proofs that he is in need; if I do love him, I wait for no proof of a special need to urge me to help him.” (Roland Allen)

Father Pierre Aubert had been in Canada for two years. in 1846 the Superior General appointed him superior and founder of the first Oblate mission in the west in Saint-Boniface.

I have only a few moments, my dear, my very dear Father Aubert, to write to you and yet I would wish to converse with you for a whole day. …

 Oh yes, my very dear friend, I love you also as a son and I consider you as an apostle, as the representative of our whole family, the vanguard of the army which must drive the demon from his last entrenchments and raise the sign of salvation, the Cross of the Saviour Jesus, in those regions where the true God never was known.

You are increasingly present to my mind and well to the fore in my heart. How would you think I could forget you whom I have chosen out of so many others for this great mission. I feel your needs, they weigh upon me also.

Letter to Father Pierre Aubert in St Boniface, Canada, 21 February 1846, EO I n 61

Gaston Carriere gives us more details:

“Father Aubert was then appointed parish priest of St. Boniface Cathedral and Vicar General, positions he would hold for five years. He immediately began studying the Ojibwa language… Father Aubert left the West in 1850 and, until 1857, resided at the bishop’s house in Bytown (Ottawa), where he was Vicar General from 1851 to 1856, Superior of the bishop’s house from 1854 to 1857 and Chaplain of the Grey Nuns of the Cross (today the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa) from 1855 to 1857. It was in this last capacity that he worked on the constitution of the community. Appointed Superior of the House of St. Peter the Apostle of Montreal in 1857, Father Aubert acted as the theologian of the Most Reverend Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, at the Third Provincial Council, held in Quebec City in 1863…. He became ill and returned to France in 1865 where he became superior of the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Lumières. Elected assistant to the Superior General two years later, he remained in Paris until his death. As an assistant, Father Aubert was a prudent advisor and intermediary between the Superior General and the Canadian authorities. No major decisions were made without consulting him. He was particularly interested in the works of the Oblates in Canada… In 1870, Father Aubert accompanied Bishop Guigues to the Vatican Council as a theologian.” (Gaston Carriere: https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/aubert-joseph-pierre-blaise/)