Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

The group of Missionaries in Canada had become victims of criticism and negative judgement within the community and gossip outside. Eugene denounces how this bad example had affected vocations to join the community.

Join together all of you to eradicate this detestable vice which has caused so much trouble amongst you and of which the newcomers have felt the deadly effects by the influence of bad example.

If vocations have not increased, attribute it solely to that. I am surprised that a single one of those who first presented themselves has persevered. I regard that as miraculous, but they will be affected for a long time by the bad air which they have breathed.

It is not only the superior they must respect; they must also have mutual respect for each other and never permit the least unfavourable remark about anyone. Otherwise they come to look down on one another. He who wants to give proof of shrewdness and make himself judge and severely censure his brother is judged in turn with little consideration and so it is by lack of charity that they become despicable one after the other to the great scandal of everyone, both inside and outside.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat, 18 July 1844, EO I n 43

Now that a promising new mission was about to be established in Bytown, Eugene strongly urges that the members of the community work at unity among themselves. It was this bad example of disunity, amplified mainly by Father Baudrand’s verbal indiscretions, that had led to a decrease in the number of vocations. Eugene used strong language in his condemnation of this behavior.

The more there is question of extending the work of God, the more I recommend union, charity and the most perfect regularity. Now should be the time to understand the duties of obedience and to learn to respect authority. Cursed be the murmurers, these susurrones described in the Holy Scriptures. The evil done by these wretches is incalculable. They are truly the villains of hell who work to destroy the work itself of God. If ever a voice were to be raised again to pour forth this venom, let it be stifled under a general cry of reprobation.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat, 18 July 1844, EO I n 43

Eugene had desired that some Oblates be permitted to establish themselves to work in the Diocese of Quebec, but the Archbishop had not been open to the idea. Now there had been a change of heart and he had allowed the Oblates to establish themselves in Bytown (present-day Ottawa).

I rejoice keenly over the turn of events regarding the establishment at Bytown. Perseverance is necessary. It is not possible to have the entire success we desire as soon as we would wish. We must follow the indications of grace and not force anything.

You will readily understand what must have been my joy when you informed me that the diocese of Quebec was being opened to you. You know how much I desired this moment would come.

Divine Providence has heard our prayers and now you are being received under the best auspices. Who would have believed you would be called by the Archbishop himself and that he would welcome you so amiably as well as his coadjutor Bishop! It is so true that the good God disposes hearts according to his good pleasure for you will recall that they represented the Archbishop to you as formidable and difficult to make amenable to what he had not asked himself.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat, 18 July 1844, EO I n 43

Father Baudrand had repented of his wrong behavior – the most serious being that he had openly gossiped to many about the internal difficulties that the Oblate community was experiencing in Montreal. Eugene realized that one of the major consequences of this disunity was the lack of vocations coming forward to join the community.

Is it true that your dioceses of Montreal and Quebec would produce nothing? I know that making known certain miseries which should have been hidden, buried within yourselves, could have turned away some vocations, but now that each will do his duty, it is to be hoped that the good aroma of your virtues will attract some people.

That is the point. We must inspire so much with our regularity, our modesty, our charity that souls who seek perfection may be able to count on meeting with such practices amongst us. I never was able to understand how anyone could lose sight of that fact. It is nevertheless a question of an essential duty which one could not neglect without gravely sinning.

Father Baudrand must now make a new beginning with a changed attitude:

You must now regain your courage and make great strides to get to the point which you should have reached long ago.

Eugene has forgiven him and reminds him of his paternal concern.

Adieu, my very dear son. May God bless all your undertakings and keep you in health. I embrace you affectionately and bless you and commend myself to your prayers.

Letter to Father Jean Baudrand (in Canada), 1 October 1844, EO I n 48

Father Jean Baudrand was 30 years old when he was sent to Canada in 1841 as part of the first group of Oblates. He was a good preacher, but had a hyper-critical spirit.

In a September 20, 1842 entry in his Diary, Bishop de Mazenod expressed his displeasure:“Things would improve in America if Father Baudrand was not fostering this internal division. Father Baudrand is a man of no education, without tact and endowed with very little virtue. He…  uses his knowledge only to grumble, to sow discord, to complain even outside of the community, emphasizing the faults of his confreres according to what his imagination and his ill-natured heart portrays them. He is really doing the devil’s work in Canada and the damage he has done us is incalculable”

In April of 1843, Bishop de Mazenod decided to recall him to France…  In response to the insistence of Bishop Bourget, the Founder left Father Baudrand in Canada, but on August 10, 1843, he wrote the bishop: “You wanted to give Father Baudrand a respite. […] Let’s exercise a bit more patience, then, even if he does not show more sincerity in his obedience. And if he does not break himself of the mania he has of wanting to judge everything and everyone, we will have to deal with it.” Did Bishop Bourget share this letter with Father Baudrand? On May 10 1844, Father Honorat announced that Father Baudrand had made a retreat, asked pardon for his actions and promised to change. In closing, he stated: “I consider this change of heart as being one of the greatest graces that God has granted us since we are in Canada.” (https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/baudrand-jean-fleury/)

When Eugene received this news he responded:

First nothing could console me more than the holy dispositions which you assure me are to be found in Father Baudrand. I had long been praying to Our Lord that He cause to shine a ray of His light on his intelligence so that he would understand how evil was the way he was following  and that He would also touch his heart so that he would repent and repair the scandal of his obstinacy.

I do not yet have before me the proof of his amendment. It would be impossible to believe him converted as long as he does not take the initiative in my regard that his whole duty demands. I am certainly disposed to pardon him but I cannot exempt him from making a sincere act of reparation which should not have taken so long to come.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat, 18 July 1844, EO I n 43

Before our Christmas break. we had seen how Eugene’s lifelong friend, Charles Forbin de Janson, had died.

Eugene had presided at his funeral and wrote in his diary:

This morning, I went to say my last adieux to my old friend Charles, bishop of Nancy…

I offered the Holy Sacrifice in the presence of the coffin which enclosed his body. The Marquis de Janson and his son, alerted about my arrival, came to join with me in this last religious duty which I came to render to their brother and uncle. Fr. Magnam, who was accompanying me celebrated the Holy Mysteries after me. When his Mass was said, I put on the cape and we changed the concluding funeral prayer. After which I withdrew to no longer see again this friend, this school fellow, this confrere, this colleague, except at last in blessed eternity where I hope his prayers will contribute to making me arrive.

Eugene then reflects on the meaning of the heavy crosses in his life:

Before parting, Mr. de Janson implored me to accept the reliquary cross which his brother wore, I accepted it as a souvenir and as a relic, because I did not lack crosses, those of a bishop as others. I already had five of the first. It would not be so easy for me to count the others, they are as numerous as heavy, but the all-good God indeed knows how to lighten their burden. There are only those of the heart whose wounds always remain bloody. They who make me bear them are very cruel.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 16 July 1844, EO XXI

The full impact and importance of the foundation we are celebrating can only be appreciated if we look at the bigger picture. Eugene was convinced that the 6 men coming together in the foundation room were doing so in response to a call from God. But, how sure of this was he?

Exactly 10 years later, Eugene was in Rome seeking the Church’s recognition that the foundation event of 25 January was indeed the will of God. With the papal approbation, the Oblate charism was recognized as having its inspiration in the Holy Spirit:

Rejoice with me and congratulate yourselves, my beloved, for it has pleased the Lord to grant us great favors;

Our Holy Father the Pope, Leo XII, gloriously reigning from the chair of St. Peter, has sanctioned with his apostolic approbation, on March 21 of this current year, our Institute, our Constitutions and our Rules.

See then our little flock, to whom the Father of the family has kindly wished to open wide the field of the holy Church, given a place in the hierarchic order, associated with the venerable Congregations which have spread throughout the Church so many great benefits and enlightened the entire world with so bright a light;

see her, right from her birth, enriched with the same privileges of those illustrious Societies, in the footsteps of which, with all her strength and all her means, she will certainly strive to walk steadily forward.

Letter to all the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1826, EO VII n.232

Papal approbation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, ten years after our foundation

Fr. Fernand Jetté OMI, successor of St. Eugene from 1974 -1986, shows the necessity for a “divine guarantee” regarding our foundation:

It is essential for a religious family to be recognized by the Church, for it is the Church who “constitutes” us, as the Founder put it; it is the Church who gives us our “mission”, who sends us as an apostolic corps to evangelize the world…

For a religious family the issues at stake are substantial; it invites men to leave everything, to give up establishing themselves in this world in order to commit themselves in a radical way and within a group to the following of Christ. In such a project, each one stakes his own life. Who will guarantee the Gospel authenticity of the way that is proposed?

…Before one can offer people a particular way of evangelical life, it is necessary that there be signs from God, discernment and the Church’s official confirmation…. It is the Church therefore that “constitutes” us what we are. She vouches to the faithful for the Gospel authenticity of the life-project we offer them.

F. Jetté, THE OFFICIAL APPROBATION OF OUR NEW CONSTITUTIONS, Letter – Rome 27/06/1982  http://www.omiworld.org/superior-general-writings.asp?v=W&sID=4

Not all approached by Eugene to join him on 25 January 2016 had the same sentiments as Henri Tempier. In this letter to his friend, Forbin Janson, Eugene gives vent to his feelings in a frank, and rather humorous, description of the reactions of some of his future companions.

Despite all this, they did get together and begin, and we are here today because in spite of their human frailties, they did manage to put the founding dream into reality. God certainly does work miracles despite the imperfect vessels we are!

The house was bought a long time ago; the church leased and partly repaired. All is ready on the material side but my men dither, the few that they are.

He on whom I was counting the most is letting himself be deterred by the cackling of the pious hens of his parish. He is convinced there is much good he can do his backyard. He hesitates to leave and I am dismayed by his indecision.

Another who excels constantly in proclaiming the Word of God to the people is only partially attached to our mission, being persuaded that he does enough good by himself on his travels to and fro.

A third, who is too incensed and vexed with the slowness of the others, threatens to take off by himself if they do not promptly make up their minds.

A fourth, who is an angel, and who seems destined to be the joy of a community, cannot obtain permission to leave his vicariate, although he protests that he cannot bear to stay and wants to work only in the mission field, etc.

I myself, overwhelmed with worries and cares, wage war listlessly, supported in the midst of this bother only by the supernatural outlook which inspires me, but which does not prevent me feeling the whole weight of my situation and all the more woefully in that I am helped neither by my taste or inclination which indeed are quite contrary to the kind of life which I am leading. All this God sends my way for my embarking on such a difficult venture.

How can I put up with a priest who pledges himself with words of absolute devotion and then comes to retract them for the reason that his mother, who has lived separately from him for ten years, cannot live without him – he would regard it as homicide were he not to give her the consolation of eating with her – and more twaddle of this sort?

The one who should have rendered us the greatest service went back on his word; he remains in his parish wherein he stirred up such a commotion with his ridiculous farewells and got the people so worked up that they opposed his departure.

Letter to Forbin Janson, 19 December 1815, EO. VI n. 8

The Carmelite convent                                Henri Tempier 

Eventually, the first five responded! Our “founding fathers” are:

Eugene de Mazenod who was 33 years old, and was the one whose vision sparked the new missionary adventure.

The first three of his companions had been seminarians in Aix at the time when Eugene was a part-time spiritual director and confessor there from 1812 onwards:

Auguste Icard was 25-years old, ordained two years before for the Diocese of Aix, and had been assistant priest in the parish of Lambesc, near Aix.

Henri Tempier was 27, and had been a priest for two years, working as assistant priest in Arles.

Sébastien Deblieu was 27, and had had three years of priestly ministry, working as assistant in the parish of St. Jean outside the Walls in Aix, and then for a year as parish priest of Peynier. He came to live in the Carmelite convent a few days after the others.

Emmanuel Maunier was 46, and was a widower who was ordained a priest for 18 years and worked in Marseille. Although he was a founding member and signed the 25 January document, he was only able to move into the community in March.

Pierre Mie was 47, and had been a priest for 18 years, working in various parish situations and also preaching retreats and missions. It appears that he was a part of the Missionaries in their life and activities from the beginning but only definitively went to live in Aix much later.

The older priests, Maunier and Mie, had both experienced being persecuted as priests during the Revolution and, at danger to themselves, had ministered clandestinely to people. Their experiences would have made them very open to Eugene’s understanding of the damage caused to the Church by the Revolution – especially as expressed in the Preface.

The all-important first day of community life for the Missionaries was obviously a story often repeated in all its details over the past 206 years. In his Memoires, Father Tempier, described it as: “This memorable day that I will never forget for as long as I live.”

Here Eugene is writing to the novices and scholastics who were in Billens, Switzerland, to escape the dangers of the anti-religious persecution by the government of Louis Philippe. He narrates the story of the beginning of their religious family, and draws a conclusion linked with the vow of poverty and the call to simplicity.

… I celebrate the anniversary of the day, sixteen years ago, I left my mother’s house to go and set up house at the Mission. Father Tempier had taken possession of it some days before. Our lodging had none of the splendour of the mansion at Billens, and whatever deprivations you may be subject to, ours were greater still. My camp-bed was placed in the small passageway which leads to the library: it was then a large room used as a bedroom for Father Tempier and for one other whose name we no longer mention amongst us. It was also our community room. One lamp was all our lighting and, when it was time for bed, it was placed in the doorway to give light to all three of us.

The Foundation Room today

 The table that adorned our refectory was one plank laid alongside another, on top of two old barrels. We have never enjoyed the blessing of such poverty since the time we took the vow. Without question, it was a foreshadowing of the state of perfection that we now live so imperfectly. I highlight this wholly voluntary deprivation deliberately (it would have been easy to put a stop to it and to have everything that was needed brought from my mother’s house) so as to draw the lesson that God in his goodness was directing us even then, and really without us having yet given it a thought, towards the evangelical counsels which we were to profess later on. It is through experiencing them that we learnt their value.

 I assure you we lost none of our merriment; on the contrary, as this new way of life was in quite striking contrast with that we had just left, we often found ourselves having a hearty laugh over it. I owed this tribute to the memory of our first day of common life. How happy I would be to live it now with you!

 Letter to Jean-Baptiste Mille and the novices and scholastics,
24 January 1831, EO VIII n.383