{"id":2871,"date":"2015-09-23T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T03:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2015-09-23T03:02:49","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T01:02:49","slug":"turning-a-mirror-into-windows-through-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=2871","title":{"rendered":"TURNING A MIRROR INTO WINDOWS THROUGH EDUCATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eugene\u2019s formal education had been controlled by the events surrounding him. At the age of 6 he started his education at the Royal Bourbon College in Aix until the political events of the revolution interrupted this two years later in 1791. At the age of 9 he was already in exile and sent to the College of Nobles in Turin as a boarder until 1794. Revolutionary events forced the family to flee to Venice in May 1794 in his 12th<\/sup> year. Here he received home-schooling in the Zinelli household. 1798 marked the end of the 16 year-old\u2018s formal education. From now on, he would continue to be an avid reader and educate himself. The pattern set during his early adulthood would continue after the seminary with time set aside each day for reading and study.<\/p>\n

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After I have been busy all the morning in the laborious and often wearisome study of some diabolical subject, I take up my light reading for a moment\u2019s relaxation. And lo and behold I find I have tumbled into an endless, moral-economic dissertation, dry, abstract, sovereignly boring.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Extracts from reading notes, 1802, EO XIV n.2<\/em><\/p>\n

Pielorz gives us an indication of Eugene\u2019s study through reading. \u201cThe time he had left, Eugene dedicated to reading and study. At Aix, he studied French, Italian and Latin literature and history as well. His notes show that he read the entire sixteen volumes of Cours de Litt\u00e9rature<\/u> [Course in Literature] of Laharpe as well as the G\u00e9nie du Christianisme<\/u> [Genius of Christianity]. In this latter work which he finished reading in 1805, Eugene found fault with the weakness of the proofs offered to establish religion’s claim to truth while at the same time praising the author’s intentions in his attempt to present the Catholic faith in its most attractive light for the unbelievers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Entertainment, business affairs, reading, these are the activities of citizen Eugene de Mazenod. Under this aspect there is a remarkable resemblance between the Count of Palermo and the resident of Saint-Laurent. Such, then, was the milieu in which Eugene developed; such were the activities in which he engaged during his young years from 17 to 23.\u201d \u00a0 (<\/em>Pielorz. The Spiritual Life p. 97.)<\/p>\n

\"200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Sydney J. Harris<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[ADDITIONAL NOTE: I put this in as a postscript in case anyone is interested in the fuller picture. It does give us an indication of the range of interests of Eugene. Pielorz writes: \u201cDue to the confused state of Eugene’s notes, it is often difficult to tell what he actually studied in Palermo and what took up his time in Aix. We give below the list of authors as we find them in his notes and correspondence (1799-1805): Greek, Latin and Italian authors: Cicero, Plutarch (extracts from his moral works as translated by Amyot), Phedra (construction and literal translation of the Fables) Tacitus, Sallust, Saint Augustine (Confessions), Dante (Divine Comedy), Petrarch, Tasso (Jerusalem Liberated), Ariosto (Roland in his Madness), Guicciardini, Della Casa (Galateo) French authors: Racine (all the tragedies); Corneille (tragedies); Moli\u00e8re (comedies); Lafontaine (Fables); Bossuet, F\u00e9n\u00e9lon, Massillon, Bourdaloue, Fleury, Montesquieu, Madame de S\u00e9vign\u00e9 (Letters); Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Chateaubriand (Genius of Christianity), Laharpe, Rollin (Ancient History), Crevier (History of the Emperors); Velly (History of France); Daniel (History of France); Lechevalier (Voyages); Young (The Nights); and a number of less famous authors.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eugene\u2019s formal education had been controlled by the events surrounding him. At the age of 6 he started his education at the Royal Bourbon College in Aix until the political events of the revolution interrupted this two years later in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}