In his letter to his father Eugene had told him about his venture of bringing together a group of missionaries:<\/p>\n
\n\u2026 It is a foundation of Missionaries whose duty it will be to cover the countryside and bring people back to the religious sense that they have lost. We will establish ourselves in the former Carmelite monastery and go out from there on our apostolic travels. The newspapers took the initiative of giving an account of it and have totally overlooked me as the leader of this establishment\u2026<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/sup><\/p>\n
Letter to Charles Antoine de Mazenod, 8 November 1815, O.W. XIII n.1<\/em><\/p>\n
President de Mazenod\u2019s reply of 27 February 1816 contains two interesting \u201cprophetic\u201d glimmers. Firstly he refers to the foundation by Alphonsus Liguori of the Redemptorists \u2013 little realising the influence the example this group was going to have on his son\u2019s new foundation, and that Eugene would get him working to translate a biography of Alphonsus into French.\u00a0 The second is his father\u2019s wishful thinking (with tongue in cheek?) about his own son\u2019s beatification \u2013 which was to happen 160 years later!<\/p>\n
\nWe have here a similar group of holy priests who have gathered to give missions in the surrounding area and are doing a lot of good. As well there is an almost similar institution called Missionaries of the Redeemer established all\u2019Uditore. <\/em>They recognize their Founder as Bishop Liguori of St-Agatha in the kingdom of Naples, who died in the odour of sanctity and whose beatification they are presently working on in Rome by the Pope\u2019s command. I flatter myself that sometime in the future some Sovereign Pontiff will give the same orders in favour of Charles Joseph Eugene, but while waiting I would have liked you to send me the newspapers that speak of your Institute and of yourself\u2026\u201d<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
(Original in the M\u00e9janes Library, Aix)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his letter to his father Eugene had told him about his venture of bringing together a group of missionaries: \u2026 It is a foundation of Missionaries whose duty it will be to cover the countryside and bring people back … Continue reading