I COULD NOT HOLD BACK MY TEARS, SO TOUCHED WAS MY HEART BY THIS GOODNESS. IT IS SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY AND WE CAN ONLY BE DUMBFOUNDED BEFORE GOD AT THIS PROTECTION

Having shared the good news with the Oblates, Eugene continued to reflect joyfully, a joy which we recall ourselves on this bicentenary year:

Have you understood, dear friend, and may all of our dear Brothers grasp, the worth of this word uttered by the mouth of the Head of the Church of Jesus Christ! After I had submitted to his judgement the fundamental points of our Rules, after he had reflected two days on all my words, contrary to the conclusions of the one who made the report on this affair, it is then that he said: “No, I like this Institute, I wish to approve its Rules.” Favourable as doctor and judge, he wishes also to be a father: “Choose the mildest of the Cardinals of the Congregation … !” I could not hold back my tears, so touched was my heart by this goodness. It is something extraordinary and we can only be dumbfounded before God at this protection so little deserved considering my part in it) that all of you, my dear children, who serve the good God with right good will, have brought about for my consolation and the happiness of the whole Society.

On leaving the house of the Archpriest Adinolfi, I said a heartfelt “Te Deum laudamus” and entered the church where lies the body of Saint Joseph Calasanz, there to thank our Lord and pray him to finish his work.

Letter to Henri Tempier in Marseilles, 22 December 1825, EO VII n. 213