“We praise you, O God: we acknowledge you to be the Lord”… My dear friend, my dear brothers, on February 17, 1826, yesterday evening, the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XII …specifically approved the Institute, the Rules and Constitutions of the Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary…
Eugene cautions the Oblates not to speak about this until the Pope’s brief of approval would be officially published. In order for this process to begin, a handwritten copy had to be made of the whole volume.
I think that we must wait for the brief to be sent before we proclaim without restraint about the mercies of the Lord for our dear little Society… Now I begin to hope to be able to leave immediately after Easter, unless the procedure with the brief is drawn out at length.
Letter to Fr Tempier, 18 February 1826, EO VII n. 226
As much as Eugene wanted to get back to Marseilles and rejoice with his Oblates, duty called him to remain in Rome to do some very necessary mundane tasks connected with the approbation. Three years before he had had to abandon Aix and the joy of preaching missions (at which he was very talented and successful) in order to take up the difficult, demanding and unrewarding task of administration for his uncle, Bishop Fortuné. He sacrificed himself for the good of his Congregation and the Church.
He understood and lived the spirit of oblation – an example each of us is called to imitate wherever we find ourselves.
