Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

During the day, I was busy preparing the petition to present to the Pope on the day he grants me an audience.

Eugene’s Roman Diary, 8 December 1825, EO XVII

As this document gives a good description of the state of the Oblates in 1825, it is worthwhile to spend some time with it.

Most Holy Father,

 The Abbé de Mazenod, Vicar General of Marseilles, prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, has the honour of informing you that since 1815, after the Sovereign Pontiff Pius VII had manifested his desire that Missions be preached in France to the people who are demoralized by the Revolution, he saw it as a duty to dedicate himself, with several chosen companions, to this holy ministry in the Diocese of Aix en Provence.

 The extraordinary blessings that God deigned to shower on the efforts of their zeal sparked the desire in neighbouring Bishops to procure the same benefits for their flocks. They repeatedly requested the Abbé de Mazenod to have him and his companions evangelize the people of their dioceses. The Abbé de Mazenod considered himself fortunate to be able to second the pastoral concern of these venerable Prelates, and was delighted to be able thus to further knowledge of Jesus Christ and to [assure] the return of a greater number of lost sheep to good principles.

Having set out the reason for the establishment of the Oblates, Eugene continued by establishing why a Rue of Life was necessary:

Now the Missionaries thought quite rightly that, since they were to expand into various dioceses, it was necessary to set common rules which would be like the bond of their new-born Society.

 Petition to His Holiness Pope Leo XII, 8 December 1825, EO XIII n. 48

Preparing the way to present his request for approbation of the OMI Rule to the Pope involved requests to various persons.

Visit to Bishop Caprano, secretary of the Propaganda, to alert him of the favours I must ask and dispose him not to refuse them. This prelate received me very well and promised me his assistance.

Roman Diary 7 December 1825, EO XVII

Some days later Eugene found out that the person responsible for making appointments with the Pope had forgotten all about him:

Before leaving the Vatican, I went up to the apartments of the Pope to learn if Bishop Barberini had asked for an audience for me; he had indeed forgotten. The occasion would have been splendid if I had only wished to see the Pope and kiss his feet; there was no one waiting to go in; I could have had myself presented, but I took care not to because, other than not foreseeing that I might go up to the papal apartments, I had not brought my petition, I did not presume that Cardinal de Gregorio would have seen him since he had promised to speak to him of me. So I preferred to wait, knowing how first impressions influence matters. For the rest, I do my best to leave it to God.

 I have resolved to say holy Mass every day of the octave of the Holy Virgin for the intention of the grace that we seek. I do not neglect on the other hand the human means that must be used. If after that I do not succeed, I will have nothing to reproach myself with.

Eugene’s letter to Henri Tempier in Marseilles, 9 December 1825, EO VII n. 211

During his time as a seminarian in Paris, Napoleon had imprisoned the Pope and had brought all the Cardinals to Paris. As Eugene was fluent in Italian, and the Cardinals did not know French, he served them as an interpreter and did errands for them at great personal risk to himself. Now, some 15 years later, he met several of them in Rome. Some of them made his task easier.

Cardinal De Gregorio treated me with exceptional kindness and cordiality. He recalled having seen me often at Paris during the time of the exile of the Roman prelates. I had actually seen him although he was not one of those to whom I rendered service, as were Cardinals Mattei, Ruffo, Archbishop of Naples, Gabrielli, Brancardoro, Canon Muzzarelli  and others.

Roman Diary 6 December 1825, EO XVII

A few days later he wrote:

The Cardinal Dean, Secretary of State, sent to inform me that he would receive me at nine o’clock. I was there at the Vatican on time and had the honour of offering him my respects. His Eminence received me very kindly with amiable politeness, but he had completely forgotten me and all that I had done for the cardinals at Paris during their exile. I had to remind him that I had often gone to his house, had sometimes even taken meals there, that I had presented him with the Vie de la vénérable Agnes (bound at my expense).

 At that time we were catechists at the Major Catechetical Program of Saint Sulpice. I served him when he came to say Mass at the German chapel. I was designated to find out from him, Cardinal Della Somaglia, the needs of the cardinals at the fatal moment of their disgrace. I recalled to him that he had replied that he would need nothing for two years but had pointed out those who would have need of help.

 So many things have happened since then that a person could easily have forgotten past events. The Cardinal was no less polite; but, on my part, I reflected that it would be very foolish to do good in order to gain a good reputation among men. God alone knows how to reward what we have done for him. So, we must do everything to please him.

Roman Diary 10 December 1825, EO XVII

Eugene describes his joy at finding the tomb of his former Venetian teacher and mentor, Father Bartolo Zinelli.

And have I not found the memory, the bust and even the body interred in the church of this holy priest, of whom you have heard me speak so often, of this great servant of God, Father Bartolo Zinelli, who was my teacher at Venice, who died in the odour of sanctity under this very roof which shelters me? The cause of his beatification would have been launched long ago if the Society of which he was a member had not been dissolved, because of the misconduct of its head, the famous Paccanari, who finished so badly after having made a good beginning.

But my dear teacher, this good friend who could only console himself at my departure, so he wrote me, by going up to the altar to pray for me, he only had virtues, and the Bishop of the place where he preached his last mission wished to proceed to authenticate by act a prophecy which be made in his diocese and which came true.

… It is a consolation for me to breathe the same air, to offer the holy sacrifice on the same altars, to be able to pray at his tomb.

Letter to Fr Hippolyte Courtès in Aix, 6 December 1825, EO VI n 210

All is holy here for him who comes as a true Christian pilgrim. As for me, I only see the apostles, the martyrs, the holy confessors of all ages. There is not a corner of Rome which is not a monument of faith or piety.

The house in which I dwell, for example, where I came by chance, has been the shrine where for twenty-five or thirty years the blessed Cardinal Tommasi practiced so many virtues which have raised him to the rank of the blessed. He has sanctified it by his presence; his room still exists…

It is the same everywhere. Here are found all the saints since Saint Peter down to the blessed Benoit Labre and others still more modern. Here I must cease or be carried away too much. I wish only to tell you once more that I bear within me our whole family in all these holy places that I visit every day.

Letter to Fr Hippolyte Courtès in Aix, 6 December 1825, EO VI n 210

Eugene was constantly amazed and edified by the reminders in Rome of the martyrs. Perhaps his arithmetic is a bit exaggerated when he speaks of their numbers, but his awe is not. He describes how the Christian slaves had to build the Roman edifices, which today are in ruins, while the memory of the martyrs continues.

And what food for devotion is provided at the sight of so many monuments which attest the victory of the martyrs who have drowned idolatry in their blood. Their bodies still exist and their memory, so to say, is still fresh after eighteen and nineteen centuries which have destroyed both their persecutors and their works which seemed established for all eternity; the ruins which are trod underfoot still stagger the imagination, so vast they are in conception and in their details.

The baths, for instance, as vast as a great city, were the work under Diocletian of forty thousand Christians who received as salary martyrdom in frightful torments. These baths were adorned with statues, porticoes, colonnades; there were fountains, shady groves, and even lakes which had been artistically designed within their enclosure. The works of architecture of the best masters, the priceless tableaux, the marbles that are only to be seen here, porphyry, alabaster and even exquisite libraries; nothing was spared.

There no longer exists anything but the site and the broken masonry, while the poor slaves, the vile Christians as they were looked upon by their sacrilegious tyrants, are still the object of veneration of peoples, and their remains are preciously kept in the neighbouring catacombs where one kisses the ground and tears flow.

Letter to Fr Hippolyte Courtès in Aix, 6 December 1825, EO VI n 210

Eugene visited many churches in Rome and each one left him with a sense of wonder and admiration.

I am not resisting the desire to write to you and to date my epistle from the capital of the Christian world. This title is due to this beautiful city of Rome, not only because she is the seat of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, visible head of the Church, but also because she is, as it were, a Compendium of Christianity. It is only here, I believe, that they have understood how a dwelling should be built for God on earth. One has no idea of the magnificence of the churches found at every step. There are as many as five or six in the same place, each more beautiful, more rich, more imposing than the others.

One truly conceives how in heaven one shall never tire of praising God and of loving him while contemplating his infinite perfections, when one feels, at the sight of this beauty, work of feeble creatures, the sentiment of admiration grow without ceasing instead of becoming exhausted, when one would think one has reached one’s limit.

Letter to Fr Hippolyte Courtès in Aix, 6 December 1825, EO VI n 210

Eugene, who always was on the move, started to express his frustration that he had to wait for others to arrange the appointments necessary to begin the process of approbation –and so he took matters in hand.

I have nothing to tell you about our affair because, thanks to the dawdling of the excellent Monseigneur to whom you address my letters, I have not yet seen anyone. Perceiving however that his preoccupations made him always put off to the following day his accompanying me or preceding me to the Cardinals whom I wanted to visit, I presented myself at the door of Cardinal Pacca to announce my impending visit. I have also been to the address of Mgr. Mazio but did not find him in. I assure you that one gets weary at Rome more than at Paris.

Letter to Fr. Tempier, 3 December 1825, EO VI n. 209

Eugene’s dry sense of humor always makes me smile:

On my return, I visited the convent of the Basilian nuns, whose superior is Madam Baudemont. Their religious habit designed, I believe, by the good abbé Sambucy, their founder, seemed to me to be to be as ridiculous as it was ugly.

Eugene’s Roman Diary, 2 December 1825, EO XVII

Eugene’s discoveries in Rome filled him with reverence – he certainly was a pilgrim open to seeing God’s handiwork all around him.

I had the devotion to go and offer the holy sacrifice on the tomb of Saint Bibiana whose feast the Church celebrates today. This church is situated between Saint Mary Major and Holy Cross of Jerusalem in the middle of the fields where we can no longer find any traces of the magnificent palaces which adorned these places in Roman times. It was originally built by Saint Olympia, close to the Licinian palace where Saint Bibiana used to live and where she buried Saint Dafrosa, her mother, and Saint Demetria, her sister, both martyrs.

The saint’s body, and those of her sister and mother, were placed under the main altar in a superb urn of oriental alabaster as large as the altar. At the lower end of the church, one sees the column to which Saint Bibiana was attached and scourged to death… What memories, what respect, what devotion these objects inspire!

Eugene’s Roman Diary, 2 December 1825, EO XVII

Returning to my monastery, I couldn’t resist the impulse of going into the basilica of Saint Mary Major again. I roamed through it for half an hour without dwelling on any particular object precisely. I enjoyed the beauty of this building and, as I was going about, I was greatly edified by the great number of zealous pilgrims crowded around the confessionals where the Dominican Fathers, seated in those spacious confessionals, listened charitably to them, and from time to time, extended the long cane fixed in front of them, like a pavilion standard, to touch the head or shoulders of those who knelt before them for this very purpose.

The entire sight both edified and touched me. I stopped to ponder it for some time. It was noon. All these good people had been fasting till then, since they were going to devoutly receive Holy Communion to gain the jubilee indulgence after they left the tribunal.