Saint Eugène de Mazenod
Fondateur des Oblats de
Marie Immaculée – Évêque de Marseille (+1861)
Né à Aix-en-Provence en 1782, il vit en exil en Italie durant la Révolution française. A son retour, après une période de réflexion, il entre en 1808 au séminaire Saint-Sulpice de Paris. Trois ans après, il est ordonné prêtre et revient à Aix exercer son ministère auprès des pauvres. En 1816, il fonde les Missionnaires de Provence qui deviendront les Oblats de Marie Immaculée. Nommé vicaire général de son oncle, archevêque de Marseille, il lui succède en 1837 et, tout en s'occupant des Oblats, il développe la vie de son diocèse, marqué par les suites de la Révolution et les secousses sociales de l'époque. Il dirige les Oblats vers les missions les plus difficiles comme celles du Grand Nord.
Canonisé le 3 décembre 1995.
Eugène de Mazenod (1782-1861) - Biographie - Photo - site du Vatican
Le souci d'annoncer la Bonne Nouvelle aux pauvres - portrait spirituel sur le site de l'Église catholique en France.
Les Marseillais ont célébré le 150ème anniversaire de la mort de Mgr Eugène de Mazenod (1782-1861). Le fondateur des «Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immaculée» a été canonisé par Jean-Paul II en 1995. Reportages sur les sites du diocèse et de la congrégation.
Les Marseillais ont commémoré le 150e anniversaire de la mort de Mgr de Mazenod à la cathédrale de la Major samedi 21 mai 2011
"Lorsque le Vendredi saint de l'année 1807, alors qu'il est âgé de 25 ans, Eugène de Mazenod se rend à l'office religieux, il ne se doute pas qu'il va vivre le moment le plus décisif de sa vie." Mgr Georges Pontier
"Pour nous, les Oblats, saint Eugène était un homme passionné avec un grand amour pour Jésus-Christ, pour l'Église et pour les pauvres" père Louis Lougen, supérieur général des Oblats de Marie Immaculée.
Ouvrages mentionnés sur le site Internet du diocèse de Marseille:
- Jean Leflon, Eugène de Mazenod, évêque de Marseille, fondateur des missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée, 1782 - 1861, 3 vol.
- Jean Chelini, (sous la direction de), Saint Eugène de Mazenod, Évêque de Marseille, fondateur des Oblats de Marie Immaculée, Actes du Colloque du 18 novembre 1995.
..."Mazenod paya de sa personne, visitant les quartiers de la ville et les villages périphériques, prêchant en provençal, montant dans les étages porter le viatique ou quelque secours"..."Il eut l'art de communiquer avec cette facilité souriante de l'aristocrate qui sait s'adapter à tous les milieux. parlait facilement avec bienveillance, voire avec bonhomie. Il était aussi à l'aise avec les prélats romains qu'avec les poissonnières de Marseille qu'il rencontrait régulièrement. Il écrivait sans cesse à ses proches, à ses fils aux quatre coins du monde, à ses protégés, à ses confrères de l'épiscopat, aux cardinaux, au pape"... (source: Eugène de Mazenod 1837-1861 Histoire du diocèse de Marseille)
En 1816, le Père Eugène de Mazenod fonde à Aix les "Missionnaires de Provence" qui deviendront les "Oblats de Marie Immaculée"; Mgr de Mazenod a été canonisé le 3 décembre 1995. (Diocèse d'Aix et Arles - histoire et géographie)
... En 1816, il fonde les Missionnaires de Provence, spécialistes des prédications en langue provençale. Il vient lui-même prêcher dans le diocèse à Barjols, Brignoles, Pignans, Lorgues, Puget... (Histoire des saints de Provence - diocèse de Fréjus-Toulon)
À Marseille, en 1861, saint Charles-Eugène de Mazenod, évêque. Pour que les
pauvres soient évangélisés, il suscita les Missionnaires Oblats de Marie
Immaculée et, pendant près de vingt-cinq ans, il illustra son Église par ses
vertus, ses œuvres et ses écrits.
Martyrologe romain
"Aimer
le Christ, c'est aimer l'Église"
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1191/Saint-Eugene-de-Mazenod.html
Statue d'Eugène de Mazenod. Chapelle des Oblats. Aix-en-Provence.
Eugène de Mazenod (1782-1861)
Évêque de Marseille,
fondateur de la congrégation des Oblats de Marie Immaculée
CHARLES-JOSEPH-EUGÈNE DE
MAZENOD vit le jour dans un monde en pleine et rapide évolution. Né à
Aix-en-Provence, dans le sud de la France, le premier août 1782, il paraissait assuré
d'une brillante carrière et d'une certaine aisance de par sa famille qui était
de la petite noblesse. Les bouleversements de la révolution française allaient
changer cela pour toujours. Eugène n'avait encore que huit ans quand sa famille
dut fuir la France en abandonnant ses biens derrière elle. La famille
commençait alors un long et pénible exil qui allait durer onze ans.
Les années en Italie
La famille de Mazenod,
partit en exil en Italie, passant d'une cité à une autre. Le père, qui avait
été Président de chambre au Parlement d'Aix, fut contraint de s'adonner au
commerce pour faire vivre sa famille. Il se montra si peu habile en affaire
qu'au bout de quelques années sa famille était proche de la détresse. Eugène
étudia quelque peu au Collège des Nobles à Turin mais l'obligation de partir
pour Venise allait marquer pour lui la fin d'une fréquentation scolaire
normale. Un prêtre, Don Bartolo Zinelli, qui était proche de la famille de
Mazenod, entreprit de travailler à la formation du jeune émigré. Don Bartolo
donna à Eugène une éducation fondamentale imprégnée du sens de Dieu et du désir
d'une vie de piété qui devaient l'accompagner pour toujours malgré les hauts et
les bas de son existence. Un nouveau déplacement, vers Naples cette fois,
engendra une période d'ennui doublée d'un sentiment d'impuissance. La famille
changea de nouveau, et cette fois se rendit à Palerme, où grâce à la bonté du
Duc et de la Duchesse de Cannizzaro, Eugène goûta pour la première fois à la
vie de la noblesse qu'il trouva agréable. Il prit le titre de "Comte de
Mazenod", s'initia aux habitudes de cour et se mit à rêver à un brillant
avenir.
Le retour en France: la
Prêtrise
En 1802, à l'âge de 20
ans, Eugène put retourner dans son pays. Tous ses rêves et ses illusions s'évanouirent
rapidement. Il n'était que le "Citoyen" Mazenod. La France avait
beaucoup changé. Ses parents s'étaient séparés. Sa mère essaya de récupérer le
patrimoine familial. Elle était aussi très préoccupée de marier Eugène à une
plus riche héritière. Il devint pessimiste face à l'avenir qui s'offrait à lui.
Mais son souci spontané des autres, joint à la foi qu'il avait développée à
Venise commencèrent à s'affirmer. Il fut profondément peiné par la situation
désastreuse de l'Église de France qui avait été provoquée, attaquée et décimée
par la révolution. L'appel au sacerdoce commença à se manifester en lui et
Eugène répondit à cet appel. En dépit de l'opposition de sa mère, il entra au
Séminaire Saint-Sulpice à Paris et le 21 décembre 1811 il fut ordonné prêtre à
Amiens.
Les engagements
apostoliques: Oblats de Marie Immaculée
Revenant à
Aix-en-Provence, il ne prit pas la charge d'une paroisse, mais commença à
exercer son ministère en se souciant tout spécialement d'aider spirituellement
les plus pauvres: les prisonniers, les jeunes, les employés, les gens des
campagnes. Souvent, Eugène fut en butte à l'opposition du clergé local. Mais
bientôt il trouva d'autres prêtres également remplis de zèle et prêts à sortir
des sentiers battus. Eugène et ses compagnons prêchèrent en provençal, le
langage courant chez leurs auditeurs et non dans le français des gens
instruits. Ils allaient de village en village enseignant le "petit
peuple" et passant de longues heures au confessionnal. Entre ces "missions
paroissiales", le groupe se retrouvait pour une intense vie communautaire
de prière, d'étude et de fraternité. Ils s'appelaient "Les Missionnaires
de Provence". Pour assurer la continuité de l'œuvre, Eugène entreprit une
démarche audacieuse, celle d'en appeler au Saint-Père et de lui demander que
son groupe soit reconnu comme congrégation de droit pontifical.
Sa foi et sa persévérance
portèrent des fruits et c'est ainsi que le 17 février 1826, le Pape Léon XII
approuvait la nouvelle congrégation sous le nom d'"Oblats de Marie
Immaculée". Eugène fut élu supérieur général et il continua d'inspirer et de
guider ses membres pendant 35 ans encore, jusqu'à sa mort. Le nombre des
oeuvres allait croissant: prédications, confessions, ministère auprès des
jeunes, responsabilité de sanctuaires marials, visites de prisons, directions
de séminaires, charges de paroisses. Dans leur accomplissement, Eugène insista
toujours sur la nécessité d'une profonde formation spirituelle et d'une vie
communautaire intense. Il aimait Jésus Christ avec passion et il était toujours
prêt à assumer un nouvel engagement s'il y voyait une réponse aux besoins de
l'Église. La "gloire de Dieu, le bien de l'Église et la sanctification des
âmes" étaient à la source de son dynamisme intérieur.
Évêque de Marseille
Le diocèse de Marseille
avait été supprimé après le Concordat de 1802. Quand il fut rétabli, c'est le
vieil oncle d'Eugène, le chanoine Fortuné de Mazenod, qui y fut nommé évêque.
Aussitôt, le nouvel évêque appela Eugène comme vicaire général et c'est ainsi
que le chantier immense de la reconstruction du diocèse lui incomba. Après
quelques années, en 1832, Eugène lui-même, fut nommé évêque auxiliaire de son
oncle. Son ordination épiscopale eut lieu à Rome. Ce fut considère comme un
défi au gouvernement français qui prétendait avoir le droit de confirmer de
telles nominations. Il s'en suivit une bataille diplomatique serrée. Eugène en
fut le centre: accusations, incompréhensions, menaces et récriminations. Ce fut
une période douloureuse pour lui, douleur accrue encore par les difficultés
croissantes de sa propre famille religieuse.
Cependant, il garda
fermement le cap et finalement les affaires s'apaisèrent. Cinq ans plus tard,
quand son Oncle se retira, il fut nommé évêque de Marseille.
Un coeur grand comme le
monde
Bien qu'il ait fondé les
Oblats de Marie Immaculée pour apporter d'abord les services de la foi aux
pauvres des campagnes de France, le zèle d'Eugène pour le Royaume de Dieu et
son amour pour l'Église amenèrent les Oblats à la pointe de l'apostolat
missionnaire. Ceux-ci s'installèrent en Suisse, en Angleterre et en Irlande. En
raison de son zèle, Eugène fut regardé comme un "second Saint Paul".
Des évêques missionnaires vinrent lui demander d'envoyer des Oblats dans leur
champ apostolique en expansion. Malgré le petit nombre des membres de son
Institut, Eugène répondit généreusement. Il envoya ses hommes au Canada, aux
Etats-Unis, à Ceylan (Sri Lanka), en Afrique du Sud et au Basutoland (Lesotho).
Missionnaires à sa manière, ils se répandirent en prêchant, baptisant,
apportant à tous leur soutien. Fréquemment, ils s'installèrent dans des terres
ignorées, établirent et dirigèrent de nouveaux diocèses et de multiples façons
ils "osèrent tout, pour faire avancer le Règne de Dieu". Pendant les
années qui suivirent, l'élan missionnaire s'est poursuivi de sorte
qu'aujourd'hui l'esprit d'Eugène de Mazenod est bien vivant dans 68 pays.
Pasteur de son Diocèse
Dans ce bouillonnement
d'activités missionnaires, Eugène se révélait comme l'éminent pasteur du
Diocèse de Marseille. Il assurait la meilleure formation à ses prêtres,
établissait de nouvelles paroisses, construisait une nouvelle cathédrale ainsi
que, dominant la ville, la spectaculaire basilique de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.
II encourageait ses prêtres à devenir des saints, invitait un grand nombre de
communautés religieuses à travailler dans son diocèse et prenait la tête de
l'ensemble des évêques français pour appuyer le Pape dans ses droits. Il devint
une figure reconnue de l'Église de France. En 1856, Napoléon III le nommait
sénateur, et à sa mort il était le doyen des évêques de France.
L'héritage d'un saint
Le 21 mai 1861 Eugène de
Mazenod retournait vers Dieu à l'âge de 79 ans. Ainsi se terminait une vie
riche de réalisations dont plusieurs avaient été portées dans la souffrance.
Pour sa famille religieuse et pour son diocèse, il avait été à la fois point
d'appui et inspiration, pour Dieu et l'Église, il avait été un fils fidèle et
généreux. Au moment de sa mort, il laissa une ultime recommandation:
"Entre vous, pratiquez bien la charité! La charité, la charité et dans le
monde, le zèle pour le salut des âmes". L'Église en le déclarant
"Saint" le 3 décembre 1995, met en valeur ces deux traits de sa vie:
l'amour et le zèle. Sa vie et ses oeuvres demeurent pour tous une ouverture sur
le mystère de Dieu lui-même. Ceci est le plus grand don qu'Eugène de Mazenod,
Oblat de Marie Immaculée, puisse nous offrir.
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19951203_de-mazenod_fr.html
Portrait
de Saint Eugène de Mazenod, Notre dame de Lumières, Goult, Vaucluse, France
DISCOURS DU SAINT-PÈRE
JEAN-PAUL II
AUX PÈLERINS VENUS À ROME
POUR LA CANONISATION
D'EUGÈNE DE MAZENOD
Lundi 4 décembre 1995
Chers Frères dans
l’épiscopat,
Chers amis Oblats de
Marie Immaculée,
Chers Frères et Sœurs,
1. Au lendemain du jour
qui m’a permis d’élever Monseigneur de Mazenod à la gloire des autels, je suis
heureux de vous retrouver et de vous accueillir à nouveau auprès du tombeau de
saint Pierre, pour lequel il avait une si grande vénération.
J’adresse avant tout un
cordial souhait de bienvenue à tous les membres de la famille terrestre de
saint Eugène de Mazenod. La canonisation de votre parent selon la chair, qui
est devenu citoyen des cieux et «concitoyen des saints», rappelle à tous
l’importance de l’éducation chrétienne donnée dans les familles dès l’enfance.
Vous savez que l’on cite souvent le mot du jeune Eugène à l’un de ses oncles
qui voulait le dissuader de devenir prêtre: «Eh quoi, mon oncle, ne serait-ce
pas un grand honneur pour notre famille de finir par un prêtre?». C’est la foi
qui inspire cette remarque, une foi éveillée et mûrie grâce à l’action de
parents profondément chrétiens animés par l’amour du Seigneur et de son Eglise.
Familles chrétiennes,
votre mission est primordiale! Dans la grande tradition illustrée notamment par
saint François de Sales, Eugène écrivait à sa sœur récemment mariée: «Le
mariage est saint, il ne peut donc être obstacle à la sainteté». Dans le
célibat consacré comme dans la vie conjugale, le Seigneur, qui est le seul
saint, donne part à sa sainteté.
2. La famille de saint
Eugène de Mazenod, dès son accession au siège de Marseille, ce fut son diocèse
tout entier. Je salue ici avec plaisir la délégation de pèlerins marseillais
venus sous la conduite de Monseigneur Bernard Panafieu, et notamment les jeunes
du collège de Mazenod. Vous savez avec quel soin l’évêque parcourut son diocèse
et le réorganisa à la suite de la déchristianisation opérée par la Révolution.
Par les visites pastorales, la fondation de paroisses et de séminaires, la
réforme du clergé, la célébration de la liturgie, la prédication aux foules, un
immense amour des pauvres, il ne cessa de faire du peuple qui lui était confié
«une nation sainte, une race choisie, un sacerdoce royal».
Près de 40 années d’un
ministère d’une extrême fécondité: une telle durée n’eût été ni possible ni
pensable sans un profond amour de l’Eglise. Saint Eugène aura aimé l’Eglise que
le Christ a voulu se présenter, «sans tâche, ni ride, ni aucun défaut; il la
voulait sainte et irréprochable». C’est pourquoi il aidait chacun à s’ouvrir à
l’Eglise universelle, à vivre dans l’union avec l’Evêque de Rome, à être
attentif aux besoins spirituels et matériels du monde entier. Jamais, alors que
les difficultés ne lui ont pas été épargnées, il n’a perdu l’espérance.
3. Son œuvre pastorale
est un éloquent témoignage en faveur de la paix entre les fils et les filles de
l’Eglise. Je saisis cette occasion pour saluer tout particulièrement le groupe
des pèlerins venus de Corse, sous la conduite de Monseigneur André Lacrampe. Le
nouveau saint que nous vénérons avait envoyé des Oblats de Marie Immaculée à
Vico et à Ajaccio, pour y tenir le séminaire. Demeurez fidèles à son esprit. Je
vous encourage vivement dans votre démarche de paix et de réconciliation. L’île
de Beauté doit surmonter les divisions qui sont sources de souffrance.
J’invoque de manière pressante l’intercession de saint Eugène sur vous-mêmes et
sur tous les habitants de la Corse.
Soyez fidèles à votre
vocation profonde d’hommes et de femmes hospitaliers, généreux et fiers de leur
foi!
4. And you, dear Oblates
of Mary Immaculate, it is with joy that I meet you again and confirm you in the
mission which you have received from Christ through your Founder. Twenty years
have passed since his beatification, and in the course of those years you have
worked ever more earnestly to know him better yourselves and to make him known
to others. As your Rule bids you, continue to "follow in the footsteps of
Jesus Christ" and, in so doing, "strive to be saints", walking
"courageously along the same paths trodden by so many labourers for the
Gospel".
An immense field for the
apostolate still lies open before you; this is both exhilarating and demanding.
Evangelizing the poor remains the primary missionary concern of the Church. As
I said in my Encyclical "Redemptoris Missio", missionary activity
proper, or the mission ad gentes, "can be characterized as the work of
proclaiming Christ and his Gospel, building up the local Church and promoting
the values of the Kingdom". The holiness of your lives makes you zealous
missionaries for the evangelization of Christians and non-Christians. I know
your fervour well. Continue to give priority to proclaiming Christ, in
faithfulness to your motto: "To evangelize the poor". By your
community life, by faithfulness to your Founder, you will not cease to bear
fruit, as the presence of many Bishops from your Congregation clearly attests.
6. Słowa serdecznego
pozdrowienia kieruję do pielgrzymów, którzy przybyli z Polski i z różnych stron
świata na kanonizację Eugeniusza de Mazenod.
Ten wielki Biskup i
Założyciel Oblatów Maryi Niepokalanej został nam dany przez Kościół jako
przykład heroicznej wiary, nadziei i miłości. Jego apostolstwo polegało na
przemienianiu świata mocą Chrystusowej Ewangelii. Idźmy drogą, którą wyznaczył
nam Święty Eugeniusz – niech miłość do Chrystusa i do Kościoła ciągle w nas
wzrasta i wydaje obfite owoce duchowe.
7. An die Pilger
deutscher Sprache richte ich ebenso einen sehr herzlichen Willkommensgru. Ihr
habt einen besonderen Grund zur Freude, da wir in diesem Jahr den hundertsten
Jahrestag der Gründung der deutschen Oblatenprovinz feiern können. Besonders
auf die Oblaten deutscher Herkunft geht die Gründung neuer Diözesen in Namibia,
in Südafrika und in Lateinamerika zurück. Schreitet auf diesem vom heiligen
Eugen vorgezeichneten Weg weiter voran! Ich bin glücklich, Euch dabei mit
meinen Gedanken zu begleiten und Euch mit meinem Gebet zu unterstützen.
8. Os saludo
cordialmente, queridos peregrinos de lengua española. Muchos habéis venido
desde lejos, y entre vosotros veo a numerosos jóvenes. Ya sabéis que los
jóvenes son valientes misioneros de otros jóvenes. Por esto, Cristo os confía
la misión de difundir la Buena Nueva de su Resurrección, especialmente entre
los movimientos que siguen el espíritu de san Eugenio. ¡Que el Señor suscite
también numerosas y santas vocaciones entre vosotros!
9. Infine, saluto
cordialmente tutti gli altri pellegrini qui presenti. Carissimi, vedete come la
canonizzazione di un santo offra a Roma l’occasione di mostrare l’immagine
della Chiesa universale.
Vi auguro di ritornare
nei vostri Paesi pieni di fede e fiduciosi nell’avvenire della Chiesa una,
santa, cattolica ed apostolica.
Benedetto sia Dio che ci
ha fatto sperimentare in questi giorni, a quale comunione d’amore chiama i
santi e, per loro intercessione, «ogni uomo venuto in questo mondo» (Gv 1, 9)!
Vi affido tutti a Sant’Eugenio de Mazenod, e di cuore imparto a ciascuno una
speciale Benedizione Apostolica.
© Copyright 1995 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Tombe
de Monseigneur de Mazenod, chapelle absidiale axiale de la cathédrale de La
Major,
Saint Eugène de Mazenod (1782-1861)
Le souci d'annoncer la Bonne Nouvelle aux pauvres
Fondateur des oblats de
Marie immaculée avant de devenir évêque de Marseille, cet apôtre de la charité
s'est attaché sa vie durant à aider spirituellement les plus pauvres. L'Église
l'a déclaré « Saint » le 3 décembre 1995.
J'ai fait un rêve... J'ai
rêvé que saint Eugène de Mazenod, mon prédécesseur, avait ressuscité comme
Lazare et me succédait à Marseille ! Oui, il revenait comme pasteur de ce
peuple marseillais auquel il avait déjà donné près de quarante ans de sa vie :
quatorze ans vicaire général de son vieil oncle et vingt-quatre ans évêque, ça
marque un diocèse... et le diocèse vous marque, vous colle à la peau ! Ce
peuple, il le connaissait bien, il lui parlait en provençal, il lui ouvrait
toutes les portes de son évêché, il lui faisait des paroisses (vingt-deux), il
lui bâtissait des églises (trente-quatre), une cathédrale, la basilique de
Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.
Réalise-t-on la charge du
pasteur dans une cité qui a vu doubler sa population (de 150 000 à 300 000
habitants), à une époque où s'entrechoquent anciens et nouveaux régimes,
anciens et nouveaux négoces et où s'affrontent des influences, des mentalités
qui divisent la société marseillaise, y compris le clergé ?
Réalise-t-on la force
d'âme d'un évêque qui mène de front la direction d'un diocèse complexe et le
gouvernement d'une congrégation missionnaire qu'il avait fondée tout jeune et
qui, à sa mort, compte plus de 400 religieux, déjà répandus du Pôle nord à
Ceylan (Sri Lanka), en passant par l'Afrique du Sud ?
Que saint Eugène de
Mazenod réveille en chacun de nous le souci d'annoncer la Bonne Nouvelle aux
pauvres, selon sa devise évangélique. C'est à ce signe que l'on nous
reconnaîtra comme ses disciples... et que nous serons dans la communion des
saints !
Et ceci n'est pas un
rêve...
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray
Archevêque émérite de
Marseille
Saint Eugène de Mazenod
Charles-Joseph-Eugène de
Mazenod naquit le premier août 1782, à Aix-en-Provence ; sa famille qui était
de la petite noblesse[1], paraissait pouvoir lui assurer une brillante carrière
et une certaine aisance, ce que les bouleversements de la révolution française
allaient changer pour toujours. Eugène n'avait encore que huit ans quand sa
famille dut fuir la France en abandonnant ses biens derrière elle. La famille
commençait alors un long et pénible exil qui allait durer onze ans.
La famille de Mazenod
partit en exil en Italie, passant d'une ville à une autre. Le père fut
contraint de s'adonner au commerce pour faire vivre sa famille. Il se montra si
peu habile en affaire qu'au bout de quelques années sa famille était proche de
la détresse. Eugène étudia quelque peu au Collège des Nobles à Turin mais
l'obligation de partir pour Venise allait marquer pour lui la fin d'une
fréquentation scolaire normale. Les frontières italiennes n'étaient plus sûres
devant les troupes françaises conquérantes. Le 2 mai 1794, Eugène prit place
avec toute sa famille et de nombreux émigrés, sur une barque frétée par son
père. En suivant le cours du Pô, puis par les canaux, les rivières, les
lagunes, ils arrivèrent à Venise[2]. Tous les matins, il lui servait la messe
dans l'église paroissiale de Saint-Sylvestre. Il lia ainsi connaissance avec le
curé, l'abbé Milesi, qui devait devenir évêque de Vigevano et mourir patriarche
de Venise. Ce fut son confesseur tous les samedis. Le saint prêtre aimait le
pieux enfant auquel il venait délicatement en aide ; il le fit admettre dans
une famille patriarcale et chrétienne, celle des Zinelli, laquelle comprenait
avec la vénérable mère, Donna Camilla Brigheriti, six enfants, dont un diacre
et un prêtre, don Bartolo Zinelli, qui devait mourir jésuite à Rome, et en
odeur de sainteté. Ce fut le maître et le directeur d'Eugène. Don Bartolo donna
à Eugène une éducation fondamentale imprégnée du sens de Dieu et du désir d'une
vie de piété qui devaient l'accompagner pour toujours malgré les hauts et les
bas de son existence[3].
Deux ans plus tard, il
dut partir pour Naples où il connut une période d'ennui doublée d'un sentiment
d'impuissance. La famille changea de nouveau, et cette fois se rendit à
Palerme, où grâce à la bonté du Duc et de la Duchesse de Cannizzaro, Eugène
goûta pour la première fois à la vie de la noblesse qu’il trouva agréable[4]. Il prit le titre de « Comte de Mazenod », s'initia aux habitudes de cour et se
mit à rêver à un brillant avenir.
En 1802, à l'âge de vingt
ans, Eugène put retourner dans son pays où ses illusions s'évanouirent
rapidement. La France avait beaucoup changé. Ses parents s'étaient séparés. Sa
mère essaya de récupérer le patrimoine familial. Elle était aussi très
préoccupée de marier Eugène à une plus riche héritière. Il devint pessimiste face
à l'avenir qui s'offrait à lui. Mais son souci spontané des autres, joint à la
foi qu'il avait développée à Venise commencèrent à s'affirmer. Il fut
profondément peiné par la situation désastreuse de l'Église de France qui avait
été provoquée, attaquée et décimée par la révolution. L'appel au sacerdoce
commença à se manifester en lui et Eugène répondit à cet appel. En dépit de
l'opposition de sa mère[5], il entra au séminaire Saint-Sulpice à Paris, en
octobre 1808 ; il fut ordonné prêtre à Amiens, par Mgr de Mandolx, le 21
décembre 1811.
Revenant à
Aix-en-Provence, il ne prit pas la charge d'une paroisse, mais commença à
exercer son ministère en se souciant tout spécialement d'aider spirituellement
les plus pauvres : les prisonniers, les jeunes, les employés, les gens des
campagnes. Souvent, Eugène fut en butte à l'opposition du clergé local. Mais
bientôt il trouva d'autres prêtres également remplis de zèle et prêts à sortir
des sentiers battus. Eugène et ses compagnons prêchèrent en provençal, le langage
courant chez leurs auditeurs et non dans le français des gens instruits. Ils
allaient de village en village, enseignant le « petit peuple » et passant de
longues heures au confessionnal. Entre ces « missions paroissiales », le groupe
se retrouvait pour une intense vie communautaire de prière, d'étude et de
fraternité. Ils s'appelaient « Les Missionnaires de Provence. » Pour assurer la
continuité de l'Oeuvre, Eugène entreprit d'en appeler au Pape pour de lui
demander que son groupe fût reconnu comme congrégation de droit pontifical.
Sa foi et sa persévérance
portèrent des fruits et c'est ainsi que le 17 février 1826, le pape Léon XII
approuvait la nouvelle congrégation sous le nom d' « Oblats de Marie Immaculée.
» Eugène fut élu supérieur général et il continua d'inspirer et de guider ses
membres pendant encore trente-cinq ans, jusqu'à sa mort. Le nombre des œuvres
allait croissant : prédications, confessions, ministère auprès des jeunes,
responsabilité de sanctuaires marials, visites de prisons, directions de
séminaires, charges de paroisses. Dans leur accomplissement, Eugène insista
toujours sur la nécessité d’une profonde formation spirituelle et d'une vie
communautaire intense. Il aimait Jésus-Christ avec passion et il était toujours
prêt à assumer un nouvel engagement s'il y voyait une réponse aux besoins de
l'Église. La « gloire de Dieu, le bien de l'Église et la sanctification des
âmes » étaient à la source de son dynamisme intérieur.
Le diocèse de Marseille
avait été supprimé après le Concordat de 1802. Quand il fut rétabli, c'est le
vieil oncle d'Eugène, le chanoine Fortuné de Mazenod (1749-1840), qui y fut
nommé évêque. Aussitôt, le nouvel évêque appela Eugène comme vicaire général et
c'est ainsi que le chantier immense de la reconstruction du diocèse lui
incomba. Après quelques années, en 1832, Eugène lui-même fut nommé évêque
auxiliaire de son oncle. Son ordination épiscopale eut lieu à Rome le 14
octobre 1832. Ce fut considéré comme un défi au gouvernement français qui
prétendait avoir le droit de confirmer de telles nominations. Il s'en suivit
une bataille diplomatique serrée dont Eugène fut le centre : accusations,
incompréhensions, menaces et récriminations. Ce fut une période douloureuse
pour lui, douleur accrue encore par les difficultés croissantes de sa propre
famille religieuse. Cependant, il garda fermement le cap et finalement les
affaires s'apaisèrent. Cinq ans plus tard, quand son oncle se retira, il fut
nommé évêque de Marseille et prit possession le 24 décembre 1837.
Bien qu'il eût fondé les
Oblats de Marie Immaculée pour apporter d'abord les services de la foi aux
pauvres des campagnes de France, le zèle d'Eugène pour le Royaume de Dieu et
son amour pour l'Église amenèrent les Oblats à la pointe de l’apostolat
missionnaire. Ceux-ci s'installèrent en Suisse, en Angleterre et en Irlande. En
raison de son zèle, Eugène fut regardé comme un « second Saint Paul. » Des
évêques missionnaires vinrent lui demander d'envoyer des Oblats dans leur champ
apostolique en expansion. Malgré le petit nombre des membres de son Institut,
Eugène répondit généreusement. Il envoya ses hommes au Canada, aux Etats-Unis,
à Ceylan, en Afrique du Sud et au Basutoland. Missionnaires à sa manière, ils
se répandirent en prêchant, baptisant, apportant à tous leur soutien.
Fréquemment, ils s'installèrent dans des terres ignorées, établirent et
dirigèrent de nouveaux diocèses et de multiples façons ils « osèrent tout pour
faire avancer le Règne de Dieu. » Pendant les années qui suivirent, l'élan
missionnaire s'est poursuivi de sorte qu'aujourd'hui l'esprit d’Eugène de
Mazenod est bien vivant dans soixante-huit pays.
Dans ce bouillonnement
d'activités missionnaires, Eugène se révélait comme l'éminent pasteur du
diocèse de Marseille. Il assurait la meilleure formation à ses prêtres,
établissait de nouvelles paroisses, construisait une nouvelle cathédrale ainsi
que, dominant la ville, la spectaculaire basilique de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.
Il encourageait ses prêtres à devenir des saints, invitait un grand nombre de
communautés religieuses à travailler dans son diocèse et prenait la tête de
l'ensemble des évêques français pour appuyer le Pape dans ses droits. Il devint
une figure reconnue de l'Église de France. En 1856. Napoléon III le nommait
sénateur, et à sa mort il était le doyen des évêques de France.
Le 21 mai 1861, Mgr
Eugène de Mazenod retournait vers Dieu à l'âge de soixante-dix-neuf ans. Ainsi
se terminait une vie riche de réalisations dont plusieurs avaient été portées
dans la souffrance. Pour sa famille religieuse et pour son diocèse, il avait
été à la fois point d'appui et inspiration ; pour Dieu et l'Église, il avait
été un fils fidèle et généreux. Au moment de sa mort il laissa une ultime
recommandation : « Entre vous pratiquez bien la charité. La charité, la charité
et dans le monde, le zèle pour le salut des âmes. » En le canonisant, le 3
décembre 1995, l'Église mit en valeur ces deux traits de sa vie : l'amour et le
zèle. Sa vie et ses œuvres demeurent pour tous une ouverture sur le mystère de
Dieu lui-même.
[1] Famille de souche
lyonnaise établie à Marseille au XVI° siècle. Eugène est le fils de
Charles-Antoine de Mazenod (1745-1820), président de chambre à la Cour des
Comptes du Parlement d'Aix, et de Marie-Rose de Joannis (1760-1851).
[2] « Venise, écrira
Eugène, cette reine des mers, majestueusement assise au centre de ces eaux,
d'où jadis elle rendait tributaire le commerce de toutes les nations. La
République antique vivait encore, mais elle était sur son déclin, et elle
s'éteignit bientôt sous nos yeux. »
[3] « O bienheureux
Zinelli, écrira, près de cinquante ans plus tard, Mgr de Mazenod en revoyant
Venise, que serais-je devenu sans vous ? Quelles actions de grâces ne dois-je
pas à Dieu pour m'avoir ménagé la connaissance et l'affection d'un si saint
personnage ! Passer près de quatre ans, et précisément les années les plus
dangereuses, sous la direction et dans l'intimité d'un saint véritable, qui,
inspiré par la charité la plus affectueuse, non seulement s'était imposé la
tâche de m'instruire dans les belles-lettres, mais qui me façonna à la vertu
autant par ses exemples que par ses préceptes ! J'étais le Benjamin de toute sa
famille ; c'était à qui me témoignerait le plus d'affection. »
« C'est à l'école de ce
saint prêtre que j'ai appris à mépriser les vanités du monde et à goûter les
choses de Dieu. Éloigné de toute dissipation, de tout contact avec les jeunes
gens de mon âge, je ne pensais seulement pas à ce qui fait l'objet de toutes
leurs convoitises. »
[4] Ils me prirent l’un
et l’autre en grande affection, et il paraît qu’ils s’estimèrent heureux de
donner à leurs deux fils qui étaient à peu près de mon âge, un compagnon qui
pût devenir leur ami et leur offrir l’exemple d’une bonne conduite, chose rare,
hélas ! sorte de phénomène dans un pays comme le leur. »
[5] « Quelle est donc la
pensée qui vous agite, ma bonne maman, et comment, après tout ce que nous avons
dit, écoutez-vous encore les mauvaises insinuation que le malin esprit tâche
d’introduire dans votre cœur au sujet de ma vocation à l'état ecclésiastique ?
Eh ! bon Dieu, le Seigneur n'est-il pas le maître de ses créatures et que
sommes-nous pour oser lui résister ? Si jamais vocation a été éprouvée, ç'a
certainement été la mienne. Je vous ai donné tant et de si bonnes raisons, que
je crois tout à fait inutile de revenir là-dessus. Je croyais que vous aviez
fait votre sacrifice, poussée à cela par vos sentiments religieux, mais que
dis-je, sacrifice ? Je vous ai prouvé, comme deux et deux font quatre, que bien
loin de faire le moindre sacrifice votre tendresse gagne prodigieusement par
mon entrée dans l'état ecclésiastique. Je vous conjure de ne point vous faire
de monstres pour avoir le plaisir de les combattre ! Quelle illusion de croire
que je puisse me sanctifier dans un état où Dieu visiblement ne me veut pas !
Une fois pour toutes, voyez donc les choses comme elles sont. Vous ne vous
tirez pas de cette idée que je pourrais tranquillement me sanctifier en étant
laïque. Cela est faux, puisque, je vous le répète, on ne se sanctifie que dans
l’état où Dieu nous veut. »
« Ah ! ma chère maman, si
vous vous pénétriez bien d’une grande vérité : que les âmes rachetées par le
sang de l'Homme-Dieu sont si précieuses que quand même passés, présents et
avenirs emploieraient, pour en sauver une seule, tout ce qu'ils ont de talents,
de moyens et de vie, ce temps serait bien et admirablement employé ; bien loin
de gémir de ce que votre fils se consacre à ce divin ministère, vous ne
cesseriez de bénir Dieu de ce que dans sa miséricorde, il m'a bien voulu
appeler à une si haute faveur par une vocation qui vient si visiblement de lui.
»
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/05/21.php
Monseigneur
de Mazenod, chapelle absidiale axiale de la cathédrale de La
Major, où se trouve son tombeau
Saint Eugène de Mazenod
Eugène de Mazenod naît
en France, à Aix-en-Provence, le 1er août 1782, à la veille de la Révolution
française. Son père, Charles-Antoine, appartenait à la noblesse; sa mère était
très riche. Charles-Antoine entend dire que les révolutionnaires menacent de
tuer les fils des nobles, alors le jeune Eugène, âgé de huit ans, doit s’enfuir
de la France. Son exil durera onze ans. À Turin, il fera sa Première Communion
et sera confirmé. À Venise, il sera influencé par une famille exemplaire, les
Tinallis. Plus tard, saint Eugène écrira : «C’est là, que j’ai découvert ma
vocation à la prêtrise.» Plus tard, en déménageant en Sicile; il passe au grand
luxe et il va frayer avec les aristocrates et les nobles de Palerme.
De retour en France à
l’âge de vingt ans, Eugène, un jeune homme très mondain, n’ambitionne que de
redorer le blason familial entr’autres par un mariage avec une jeune fille
riche. Tout d’abord, il ne peut trouver de jeune femme assez riche; ensuite,
celle qu’il veut épouser meurt de tuberculose.
En 1807 un Vendredi
saint, Eugène âgé de vingt-cinq ans comprend pour la première fois et de façon
irrévocable que le Christ l’aime et est mort sur la croix pour lui. «Mon âme
cherche le Seigneur; il est mon unique bien dont je ressens profondément la
perte.» Ses aspirations d’autrefois reprennent vie.
À l’âge de vingt-six ans,
Eugène entre au séminaire Saint- Sulpice de Paris. Son idéal était clair : «Il
sera le serviteur et le prêtre des pauvres.»
Ordonné en 1811, l’évêque
se demande quoi faire avec ce jeune aristocrate.
«… si personnel et
impétueux» et il est quelque peu soulagé quand l’abbé de Mazenod lui demande de
travailler avec les pauvres et les abandonnés des villes et des banlieues.
Le jeune prêtre plein de
zèle se préoccupe des jeunes. Il fondera une œuvre de jeunesse. Il travaillera
également avec les prisonniers et prêchera aux pauvres.
En 1815, Eugène de
Mazenod voit vite la nécessité de s’adjoindre des collaborateurs qui
partageront son apostolat, qui vivront en communauté avec lui et qui
s’engageront envers Dieu par les vœux de religion. Le 25 janvier 1816, l’abbé
de Mazenod et quatre compagnons s’engagent envers Dieu et consacrent leur vie
pour apporter la Bonne Nouvelle aux pauvres. Ils accompliront cela
principalement par la prédication de retraites dans les paroisses. Le pape Léo
XII approuvera la Société en 1826 sous le nom de Congrégation des Missionnaires
Oblats de la très Sainte et Immaculée Vierge Marie.
En 1837, Eugène de
Mazenod devient évêque de Marseille en France. Il aura une grande influence non
seulement dans ce diocèse, mais dans d’autres régions du monde.
À sa mort en 1861, sa
Congrégation religieuse comptait 417 membres. On trouvait des Oblats en France,
en Grande Bretagne, au Canada, aux États-Unis, en Afrique du Sud et au Sri
Lanka. En 1975, le dimanche des Missions, quand le pape Paul VI a béatifié
Eugène de Mazenod, il y avait 6, 000 Oblats qui travaillaient dans cinq
continents. En 1995, l’Église l’a officiellement reconnu comme un Saint.
Saint Eugène de Mazenod
était un homme de son temps. Il était loyal envers le Pape, et à cause de cela,
il a presque perdu sa citoyenneté française. Plus tard, il est devenu Sénateur
de l’empire français, mais il n’a jamais été Cardinal à cause de la tension
entre l’Empereur et le Saint Siège. Il était déterminé, éloquent, austère,
obstiné, impulsif, généreux, intuitif et sensible. Sur son lit de mort, ses
dernières paroles à ses confrères Oblats à travers le monde furent : «Pratiquez
bien parmi vous la charité… la charité… la charité… et au dehors, le zèle pour
le salut des âmes.»
SOURCE : http://www.omilacombe.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=45&lang=fr
Mgr
Eugène de Mazenod en bas de la basilique N.D. de la Garde à Marseille in Henri
Duclos, Histoire de Royaumont, tome 2e, Paris 1867, planche après la page
598
Saint Eugène de Mazenod (1782
– 1861), Un grand Saint de Provence.
De souche forézienne, les
Mazenod de Provence s’établirent à Marseille aux alentours de 1529 et
s’enrichirent progressivement dans le commerce des drogueries. Le grand-père
d’Eugène, Charles-Alexandre abandonna le négoce, étudia le droit et obtint en
1741 une charge de président à la Cour des Comptes, Aides et Finances de la
Provence. Il vint résider à Aix, tandis que son frère, Charles-André, demeurait
à Marseille comme grand vicaire du diocèse.
La Provence souffrit à
cette époque comme le reste du royaume des divisions qui régnaient entre les
partisans et les adversaires des Jésuites dans le conflit provoqué par la
résistance des Jansénistes à l’autorité papale.
Les Mazenod manifestèrent
une opposition constante à l’esprit d’hostilité des Parlements envers l’Eglise.
Charles-Antoine de
Mazenod, fils aîné de Charles-Alexandre, avocat, jeune président de 26 ans,
entra comme son père à la Cour des Comptes en 1771. Il épousa en 1778
Marie-Rose-Eugénie Joannis, fille d’un riche médecin de la ville qui améliora
la situation financière des Mazenod. Charles-Joseph-Eugène, leur premier
héritier, naquit le 1er Août 1782. L’enfant affirme de bonne heure une volonté
tenace, des réactions spontanées, une bonté de cœur qui ne calcule pas et une
franchise totale. Ces qualités disciplinées et mises au service de l’Eglise
permettent à Eugène de Mazenod d’accomplir une œuvre gigantesque et de faire
face à tous les obstacles.
Monsieur de Mazenod
s’oppose nettement à la Révolution française de 1789, et, devant les menaces,
gagne Nice pour protéger sa famille. C’est le début d’une longue émigration de
11 ans ponctuée d’étapes : Turin, Venise, Naples, Palerme. De retour à Marseille
en 1802, Eugène dépaysé est frappé de désarroi. Il envisage même de retourner à
Palerme. La foi l’aide à trouver sa voie, et il décide en 1808 de se mettre «
au service de l’Eglise » au moment même où les armées napoléoniennes occupent
Rome.
Il entre au séminaire de
Saint-Sulpice à Paris. Le Pape Pie VII ayant été emprisonné à Savone, Eugène de
Mazenod rejoint clandestinement les groupes de résistance à la dictature
impériale. Par une vie pauvre il se libère de ses habitudes aristocratiques. Il
est ordonné prêtre à Amiens en 1812. Il rêve de ranimer la foi des villageois
des campagnes provençales. Au Carême de 1813 il inaugure à la paroisse de la
Madeleine à Aix-en-Provence une série d’entretiens réservés aux domestiques et
aux artisans. Quand l’entière liberté religieuse revient en 1815, il fonde une
société de missionnaires dans un ancien couvent. Les missions débordent à
partir de 1818 – 1819 sur le Var et les Hautes-Alpes. Elles s’adressent surtout
aux localités rurales des campagnes par fidélité à leur devise : « Pauperes
evangelisantur ». Les pauvres sont évangélisés. Le Père de Mazenod a dirigé
personnellement presque toutes ces missions prêchées en provençal qui duraient
un mois environ et s’achevaient par la plantation d’une croix. Il comptait pour
convertir les âmes sur la force de la prière et de la pénitence.
Dans ce renouveau de foi
religieuse, le fondateur des Missions de Provence recherche une authentique
efficacité surnaturelle. En 1818, les Missionnaires s’installent à Notre Dame
du Laus et décident de se consacrer à Dieu par l’oblation perpétuelle. En 1826
le Pape Léon XII reconnaît officiellement l’œuvre du fondateur sous le nom de
Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immaculée. Le Père de Mazenod doit subir des
attaques contre sa personne et ses initiatives de la part d’un clergé aixois
divisé.
Son oncle,
Charles-Fortuné revenu d’exil et nommé évêque de MARSEILLE en 1823 à l’âge de
75 ans exige que son neveu devienne vicaire général. Les intrigues politiques
visant à supprimer le siège épiscopal de Marseille, le vieux prélat obtient du
pape que son neveu obtienne le titre d’évêque titulaire en 1832 à l’insu du
gouvernement français pour sauver le diocèse. En 1837, Eugène de Mazenod
succède à son oncle démissionnaire. Il va être le restaurateur de l’Eglise de
Marseille. Soustrait à la vocation de missionnaire, il va en garder
profondément l’esprit, se dévoue avec un zèle apostolique et intervient partout
où il peut faire du bien.
Il se fixe quatre heures
de réception par jour. Missionnaire itinérant, il donne chaque année la
confirmation dans toutes les paroisses de son diocèse. Il prêche aussi bien en
langue provençale, surtout dans les campagnes, qu’en français.
A Marseille, jusque dans
les dernières années, il se déplace comme un simple curé pour remplir les
devoirs de son ministère. A 77 ans, en plein hiver, il va visiter un malade à
travers une rue de misérables. Il va donner la confirmation à un enfant mourant
qui le réclame au cinquième étage d’une pauvre demeure.
Lors des épidémies fréquentes
de choléra, il visite les hôpitaux et les maisons particulières. Malgré ses
journées bien remplies, accaparé parfois par cinq cérémonies le même dimanche,
il ne détourne pas son attention des grands intérêts de l’Eglise. Il lutte pour
la liberté de l’enseignement. Il était fier de sa cité qu’il aimait et qui
connaissait un prodigieux essor.
S’intéressant à tous ses
progrès, il était toujours présent pour bénir les grandes entreprises : canal
des eaux de la Durance, arrivée de la première locomotive dans la gare Saint
Charles, palais de la Bourse du Commerce.
La population de
Marseille double presque pendant l’épiscopat de Mgr de Mazenod et atteint
260.000 habitants en 1861. Il crée 21 paroisses et construit 34 églises. Il
fait commencer les travaux de deux vastes chantiers : la nouvelle Cathédrale de
la Major et la Basilique de N.D. de la Garde.
Il accomplit un effort
remarquable d’équipement pastoral : 26 institutions charitables, 7 nouvelles
communautés d’hommes, 24 congrégations de femmes.
Par ailleurs, l’esprit de
cet évêque courageux déborde l’horizon de son diocèse. En 1841, Mgr BOURGET,
évêque de Montréal, fait une halte à Marseille. Il a besoin d’aide pour
évangéliser les immenses territoires du Canada. Tous les missionnaires de Mgr de
Mazenod s’offrent immédiatement à partir. Six privilégiés furent choisis. Le
fondateur avait pressenti l’étonnante expansion que prendrait son œuvre. La
porte vers l’Ouest canadien ne tarda pas à s’ouvrir. En 1845, Mgr PROVENCHER,
évêque de Saint Boniface offre aux Oblats un territoire grand comme l’Europe.
Une héroïque « épopée blanche » devait conduire les fils de Mgr de Mazenod à
travers les prairies et l’Athabaska-Mackenzie jusqu’aux esquimaux de la Terre
Stérile. En 1859 le Père Grolier atteint le cercle polaire au fort Good Hope, «
Notre Dame de Bonne Espérance ». Quelques Pères pénètrent aux Etats-Unis et
s’établissent au Texas en 1849.
« Je voudrais pouvoir
fournir des missionnaires au monde entier » ne cessait de répéter Mgr de
Mazenod. Des équipes de missionnaires partent pour l’Orégon sur les côtes du
Pacifique, en Orient, au Natal dans le fin fond de l’Afrique …
L’évêque et le supérieur
général voient progresser d’un même pas ses deux familles, religieuse et
diocésaine. Une de ses plus grandes joies fut la proclamation solennelle le 8
Décembre 1854 par le Pape Pie IX du dogme de l’Immaculée Conception.
La complicité de Napoléon
III pour arracher au Saint-Siège la possession des Etats pontificaux
assombrirent les derniers jours de Mgr de Mazenod qui portait envers le Pape
une dévotion ardente. Il souffrit beaucoup des malheurs de l’Eglise.
Après 38 ans d’épiscopat
Eugène de Mazenod s’éteignit le 21 Mai 1861 à Marseille ayant accompli un
extraordinaire labeur dépensé dans les tâches quotidiennes.
Attachant par sa
générosité et son dévouement permanent, il s’est haussé jusqu’à l’oubli total
de sa personne, par soumission et fidélité à l’Eglise dont il ne voulut être
que le serviteur.
Mgr de Mazenod a été
béatifié par Paul VI le 19 Octobre 1975 et, depuis lors, canonisé le 3 Décembre
1995 par Jean-Paul II.
Il est fêté le 21 Mai.
Saint Eugène de Mazenod,
priez pour nous.
Par Henri PRABIS, agrégé
d’Histoire,
Notre adhérent.
SOURCE : http://www.saintsdeprovence.com/MazenodPrabis.html
Charles-Joseph-Eugène de
MAZENOD
Né le 1er août 1782
à Aix-en-Provence, Eugène de Mazenod est le fils aîné de Charle-Antoine de
Mazenod, un aristocrate ruiné, et de Marie-Rose Joannis, issue d'une riche
famille bourgeoise. L'atmosphère familiale est perturbée par l'inégalité des
deux époux sur le plan financier et par les interventions dans le ménage de la
branche maternelle (tante et grand-mère).
En 1790, la famille
s'exile en Italie. Pendant onze ans, elle vit entre Nice, Turin, Venise, Naples
et Palerme. A Venise, Eugène de Mazenod fait une rencontre déterminante en la
personne du Frère Bartolo Zinelli. La Révolution terminée, sa mère rentre en
France alors que son père reste en Italie jusqu'en 1802. Malgré ses tentatives
de réconciliation, il ne peut empêcher le divorce de ses parents. Ceci lui vaut
de devenir le saint patron des familles en difficulté.
Pendant quelques temps,
il hésite encore entre la vie religieuse et la vie dorée qu'il a par exemple
connu à Palerme. En 1805, il commence à enseigner le catéchisme et à s'occuper
de prisonniers. En 1807, une expérience mystique l'oriente vers le séminaire de
Saint Sulpice (Paris) où il entre en 1808. Il est ordonné en 1811 à Amiens. Il
renonce alors aux avantages que pouvait lui offrir sa naissance, préférant la
charge de simple prêtre à Aix-en-Provence.
En collaboration avec son
oncle, Fortuné de Mazenod, évêque de Marseille, il entreprend de raviver
localement la foi et de redonner une discipline au clergé. Il prêche en
provençal, essayant ainsi d'attirer vers l'Eglise des populations plus pauvres.
Il s'occupe également des prisonniers et des malades, contractant le typhus,
dont il finira par mourir.
Eugène de Mazenod
rassemble autour de lui d'autres hommes d'Eglise pour former les Missionnaires
de Provence. Après l'approbation de Léon XII en 1826 cette formation devient la
congrégation des Oblats de Marie Immaculée. Elle est à l'initiative de la
création de nombreuses paroisses ainsi que de la construction et de la
restauration d'églises.
Après avoir été vicaire
général de Marseille, Eugène de Mazenod est nommé évêque d'Icosie par Grégoire
XVI, en 1832. La nomination, sans autorisation du gouvernement, de cet évêque
légitimiste et ultramontain provoque une crise entre le pouvoir de
Louis-Philippe et les autorités ecclésiastiques. Eugène de Mazenod séjourne à
Tunis le temps que le conflit s'apaise. Ayant prêté serment au roi, il est
finalement nommé évêque de Marseille en 1837, en remplacement de son oncle.
Il continue néanmoins à
s'opposer au gouvernement dans le souci de briser le monopole de l'Etat sur
l'éducation. A cet effet, il publie une Réclamation adressée au roi, à son
Conseil et aux Chambres législatives à propos de la loi sur l'instruction
secondaire. En 1850, il est un partisan convaincu de la loi Falloux. Sur le plan
plus strictement religieux, il plaide pour la reconnaissance du dogme de
l'Immaculée Conception.
En 1851, Eugène de
Mazenod soutient le coup d'Etat de Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. La même année, il
est nommé archevêque de Marseille. En 1856, son soutien au régime lui vaut
d'être nommé sénateur (24 juin 1856) et de recevoir la légion d'honneur. Il
obtient également de Napoléon III la construction d'une nouvelle cathédrale
pour la ville de Marseille. Il plaide aussi pour la protection du pouvoir
temporelle du pape.
Il meurt le 21 mai 1861 à
Marseille. En 1975, il est béatifié par Paul VI. Il est canonisé par Jean-Paul
II en 1995.
Św._Eugeniusz_de_Mazenod.
Obraz znajdujący się w kościele p.w. Przemienienia
Pańskiego w Iławie
Also
known as
Charles Joseph Eugene de
Mazenod
Carlo Eugenio de Mazenod
Profile
Eldest son of
Charles-Antoine De Mazenod and Marie-Rose Joannis. His mother was
of the French middle
class, convent educated,
and wealthy; his father was
an aristocrat, classically educated,
and poor.
Their marriage,
and Eugene’s home life, were plagued by constant family in-fighting, and
interference from his maternal grandmother and
a neurotic maternal aunt. The women never
let his father forget
that they brought the money to the family.
On 13
December 1790,
at age eight, Eugene fled with his family to exile in Italy to
escape the French
Revolution. He spent eleven years in Italy,
living in Nice, Turin, Venice, Naples,
and Palermo.
While he learned Italian and German from
dealing with people day to day, the bulk of his education came
in Venice from Father Bartolo
Zinelli, a local priest.
In Palermo he
was exposed to a wild and worldly life among rich young Italian nobles.
After the Revolution,
his mother returned
to France,
but his father stayed
in Italy,
ostensibly for political reasons. Upon his own return to France in 1802 in
an attempt to reclaim the family lands, Eugene tried to reunite his parents,
but failed, and they were divorced,
an unusual event in the early 19th
century. His often unsupervised youth,
the constant fighting at home, and the eventual break
up of his family led to his patronage of dysfunctional
families and those in them.
For years, Eugene
struggled in himself, drawn on the one hand to the wordly life he knew
from Palermo,
and the beauty of the religious
life he had seen in Venice with Don Bartolo.
In an effort to work it out, Eugene began teaching catechism and
working with prisoners in 1805.
God won at last, assisted by a mystical experience
at the foot of a cross on Good
Friday 1807 when
Eugene was momentarily touched by the full force of the love of God. He
entered the seminary of
Saint Sulpice, Paris in 1808. Ordained on 21
December 1811 at
age 29 at Amiens, France.
Because of his noble
birth, he was immediately offered the position of Vicar General to the bishop of Amiens.
Eugene renounced his family’s wealth, and preferred to become a parish priest in
Aix-en-Provence, working among the poor, preaching missions
and bringing them the church in their native Provencal dialect, not the French used
by the upper classes. He worked among the sick, prisoners,
the poor,
and the overlooked young. Eugune contracted, and nearly died from, typhus while
working in prisons.
Eugene gathered other
workers around him, both clergy and laymen.
They worked from a former Carmelite convent,
and the priests among
them formed the Missionaries of Provence who conducted parish missions
throughout the region. They were successful, and their reputation spread,
bringing requests for them outside the region. Eugene realized the need for
formal organization, and on 17
February 1826 he
received approval from Pope Leo XII to
found a new congregation, the Oblates
of Mary Immaculate founded on his core of missionaries.
Though he would have
preferred to remain a missionary,
Eugene knew that position with the Church hierarchy
would allow him to insure the success of his little congregation. He was
appointed Vicar-General of Marseille in 1823. Titular
bishop of Icosia on 14
October 1832.
Co-adjutor in 1834. Bishop of Marseilles, France on 24
December 1837,
ordained by Pope Gregory
XVI.
He founded 23 parishes,
built or retored 50 churches, cared for aged and
persecuted priests,
restored ecclesiastical discipline, and developed catechetics for young
people. Started work on the cathedral and
shrine of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille. Welcomed 33 congregations of
religious brothers and sisters into the diocese.
More than doubled the number of priests in
his diocese,
and celebrated all ordinations himself.
Eugene realigned parishes and
maneuvered behind the scenes to weaken the government monopoly on education.
He was an outspoken supporter of the papacy,
and fought government intervention into Church matters.
Publicly endorsed the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception, and worked for its promulgation. His printed writings run
to 25 volumes. Made a peer of the French Empire. Archbishop of Marseille in 1851 by Pope Blessed Pius
IX. Helped Saint Emily
de Vialar re-build the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition after
their move to Marseille. Named senator and member of the Legion of Honour by
Napoleon III in 1856.
Proposed as cardinal in 1859.
On 2
December 1841, Bishop de
Mazenod’s first overseas missionaries arrived
in Canada.
By the time of his death in 1861,
there were six Oblate bishops and
over 400 missionaries working
in ten countries. The Oblates continue
their good work to this day with some 5,000 missionaries in
68 countries.
Born
1 August 1782 at
Aix-en-Provence, southern France as Charles
Joseph Eugene de Mazenod
21 May 1861 at
Marseille, France of cancer
on 12
December 1936,
his body was exhumed and found to be intact
part of his heart is
venerated at Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the Oblate-owned Lourdes
Grotto of the Southwest in San Antonio, Texas, USA
19 November 1970 by Pope Paul
VI (decree of heroic
virtues)
19
October 1975 by Pope Paul
VI
3
December 1995 by Pope John
Paul II at Saint Peter’s Square, Rome, Italy
Additional
Information
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Saint
Eugene de Mazenod, Priest, Missionary, Bishop, by Philip Rooney
books
John Paul II’s Book of
Saints, by Matthew Bunson and Margaret Bunson
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
General Administration of the
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Missionary
Association of Mary Immaculate, Anglo-Irish Province
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
Abbé
Christian-Philippe Chanut
fonti
in italiano
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi
nettsteder
i norsk
Readings
I am a priest,
a priest of
Jesus Christ. That says it all. – Saint Eugene
The Oblates [of
Mary Immaculate] are the specialists of difficult missions. – Pope Pius XI
Go to Marseilles. There
is a bishop there
whose Congregation is still small, but the man himself has a heart as big
as Saint Paul‘s,
as big as the world. – contemporary bishop speaking
of Bishop de
Mazenod
Their ambition will be to
encompass in their holy desires the immense breadth of the entire world. – Saint Eugene,
speaking of his missionaries;
at the time, there were ten of them
To love the Church is
to love Jesus Christ, and vice versa. – Saint Eugene
We glorify God in
the masterpiece of his power and love…it is the Son whom we honour in the
person of his Mother. – Saint Eugene
Leave nothing undared for
the Kingdom of God. – Saint Eugene
Learn who you are in the
eyes of God. – Saint Eugene
Practice amongst
yourselves charity, charity, charity…and zeal for the salvation of souls. – Saint Eugene
to Oblate members
as he lay dying
I find my happiness in
pastoral work. It is for this that I am a bishop,
and not to write books,
still less to pay court to the great, or to waste my time among the rich. It is
true…that this is not the way to become a cardinal,
but if one could become a saint,
would it not be better still? – Saint Eugene
If priests could
be formed, afire with zeal for men’s salvation, solidly grounded in virtue – in
a word, apostolic men deeply conscious of the need to reform themselves, who
would labor with all the resources at their command to convert others
– then there would be ample reason to believe that in a short while people who
had gone astray might be brought back to the long neglected duties of religion.
We pledge ourselves to all the works of zeal that priestly charity can inspire…
We must spare no effort to extend the Savior’s Empire and destroy the dominion
of hell. – Saint Eugene
Every religious congregation
in the Church has
a spirit all its own; it is inspired by the Spirit of God to
respond to the needs of the Church to
work for the salvation of souls. By our particular vocation we are involved
with the redemption of humanity… May we, by the sacrifice of our whole being,
so cooperate as not to render His redemption fruitless for ourselves and for
those we are called upon to evangelize. – Saint Eugene
Servants! Farmhands! Peasants! Poor!
Come and learn who you are in the eyes of God. You
poor of Jesus Christ, you afflicted, unfortunate suffering, infirm, diseased:
all you who are burdened with misery, listen to me! You are the children
of God,
brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, co-heirs of His eternal kingdom, His
cherished inheritance. Lift up your minds: you are the children of God. Look
through the tatters that cover you. There is an immortal soul within you made
to the image of God, a soul redeemed at the price of the very blood of Jesus,
more precious in the eyes of God than
all the riches and all the kingdoms of this earth. Know your dignity – you even
share the Divine Nature – Children of God, Children of the Most High! – Saint Eugene
How should men who want
to follow in the footsteps of their divine Master Jesus Christ conduct
themselves if they are to win back the many souls who have thrown off his yoke?
They must strive to be saints.
They must walk courageously along the same paths trodden by so many before them
who handed on splendid examples of virtue they must wholly renounce themselves,
striving solely for the glory of God, the
good of the Church,
and the growth and salvation of souls. The Oblates are
a Missionary Congregation. They are men set apart for the Gospel, men ready to
leave everything to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Their principal service in
the Church is
to proclaim Christ and his kingdom to the most abandoned. They preach the
Gospel among people who have not yet received it. Where the Church is
already established, their commitment is to those groups it touches least. The
mission of the Oblate is
especially to those people whose condition cries out for salvation and for the
hope which only Jesus Christ can fully bring. These are the poor with their
many faces – they have our preference because of their need Our mission is to
proclaim the kingdom of God and
seek it before all else. We fulfill this mission in community; and our
communities are a sign that in Jesus, God is
everything for us. Together we await Christ’s coming in the fullness of his
justice so that God may be all in all. The cross of Jesus Christ is central to
our mission. Like the apostle Paul,
we “preach Christ
and him crucified.”
If we bear in our body the death of Jesus, it is with the hope that the life of
Jesus, too, may be seen in our body. Through the eyes of our crucified Savior,
we see the world which he redeemed with his blood, desiring that those in whom
he continues to suffer will know also the power of his resurrection. Growing in
faith, hope and love, we commit ourselves to be a leaven of the Beatitudes at
the heart of the world. Our mission requires that, in a radical way, we follow
Jesus who was chaste and poor,
and who redeemed mankind by his obedience. That is why, through a gift of the
Father, we choose the way of the evangelical counsels. – extracts from
the Rule of the Oblates
of Mary Immaculate
MLA
Citation
“Saint Eugene de
Mazenod“. CatholicSaints.Info. 29 June 2023. Web. 25 April 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-eugene-de-mazenod/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-eugene-de-mazenod/
St. Eugene de Mazenod
Feastday: May 21
Patron: saint of dysfunctional families
Birth: 1782
Death: 1861
Beatified: October 19, 1975 by Pope Paul VI
Canonized: December 3, 1995 by Pope John Paul II
Eugene de Mazenod was
born on August 1, 1782, at Aix-en-Provence in France. Early in life he
experienced the upheaval of the French Revolution. None the
less, he entered the seminary, and following ordination he returned to labor in
Aix-en-Provence. That area had suffered greatly during the Revolution and was
not really a safe place for a priest. Eugene directed his ministry toward the
poorest of the poor. Others joined his labors, and became the nucleus of a
religious community, the Missionaries of Provence. Later Eugene was named Bishop of
Marseille. There he built churches, founded parishes, cared for his priests,
and developed catechetics for the young. Later he founded the Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
and in 1841 the Oblates sailed for missions in five continents. Pius XI said,
"the Oblates are the specialists of difficult missions." After
a life dedicated
to spreading the Good News,
Eugene died on May 21, 1861. He was beatified by Pope Paul VI in
1975. His feast day is
May 21.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=346
Saint Eugene de Mazenod
In 1815, St. Eugene de
Mazenod founded the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to
evangelize the poorest populations of Provence that were being neglected. He
then sent his missionaries to proclaim the Gospel in America, South Africa and
Asia. Later on, he was appointed Vicar General of Marseilles and, in 1836,
Bishop of this same diocese. Until his death on May 21, 1861, he was at the
service of his people with an extraordinary pastoral charity, nourished by an
intense interior life. In his city, rapidly developing at the time, he created
numerous parishes, built new churches and installed new Religious Institutes. —
Cardinal Bernard Gantin
Saint Christopher
Magallanes was joined in martyrdom by twenty-one diocesan priests and three
devout laymen, all members of the Cristeros movement, who rose up in rebellion
against the anti-Catholic Mexican government during the 1920s. Having erected a
seminary at Totatiche, he secretly spread the Gospel and ministered to the
people. Captured by government authorities, he was heard to shout from his jail
cell: "I am innocent and I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those
responsible for my death, and I ask God that the shedding of my blood serve the
peace of our divided Mexico." This optional memorial is new to the USA
liturgical calendar and will be inscribed on May 21.
St. Eugene de Mazenod
Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod came into a world that was destined to change
very quickly. Born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, 1782,
he seemed assured of position and wealth from his family, who were of the minor
nobility. However, the turmoil of the French Revolution changed all that
forever. When Eugene was just eight years old his family fled France, leaving
their possessions behind, and started a long and increasingly difficult eleven
year exile.
The Years in Italy
The Mazenod family, political refugees, trailed through a succession of cities
in Italy. His father, who had been President of the Court of Accounts, Aids and
Finances in Aix, was forced to try his hand at trade to support his family. He
proved to be a poor businessman, and as the years went on the family came close
to destitution. Eugene studied briefly at the College of Nobles in Turin, but a
move to Venice meant the end to formal schooling. A sympathetic priest, Don
Bartolo Zinelli, living nearby, undertook to educate the young French emigre.
Don Bartolo gave the adolescent Eugene a fundamental education, but with a
lasting sense of God and a regimen of piety which was to stay with him always,
despite the ups and downs of his life. A further move to Naples, because of
financial problems, led to a time of boredom and helplessness. The family moved
again, this time to Palermo where, thanks to the kindness of the Duke and
Duchess of Cannizzaro, Eugene had his first taste of noble living and found it
very much to his liking. He took to himself the title of "Count" de
Mazenod, did all the courtly things, and dreamed of a bright future.
Return to France: the Priesthood
In 1802, at the age of 20, Eugene was able to return to his homeland—and all
his dreams and illusions were quickly shattered. He was just plain "Citizen"
de Mazenod, France was a changed world, his parents had separated, his mother
was fighting to get back the family possessions. She was also intent on
marrying off Eugene to the richest possible heiress. He sank into depression,
seeing little real future for himself. But his natural qualities of concern for
others, together with the faith fostered in Venice began to assert themselves.
He was deeply affected by the disastrous situation of the French Church, which
had been ridiculed, attacked and decimated by the Revolution. A calling to the
priesthood began to manifest itself, and Eugene answered that call. Despite
opposition from his mother, he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris,
and on December 21, 1811, he was ordained a priest in Amiens.
Apostolic endeavours: Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Returning to Aix-en-Provence, he did not take up a normal parish appointment,
but started to exercise his priesthood in the care of the truly spiritually
needy—prisoners, youth, servants, country villagers. Often in the face of
opposition from the local clergy, Eugene pursued his course. Soon he sought out
other equally zealous priests who were prepared to step outside the old, even
outmoded, structures. Eugene and his men preached in Provencal, the language of
the common people, not in "educated" French. From village to village
they went, instructing at the level of the people, spending amazingly long
hours in the confessional. In between these parish missions the group joined in
an intense community life of prayer, study and fellowship. They called
themselves "Missionaries of Provence". However, so that there would
be an assured continuity in the work, Eugene took the bold step of going
directly to the Pope and asking that his group be recognized officially as a Religious
Congregation of pontifical right. His faith and his persistence paid off—and on
February 17d, 1826, Pope Leo XII approved the new Congregation, the
"Oblates of Mary Immaculate". Eugene was elected Superior General,
and continued to inspire and guide his men for 35 years, until his death.
Together with their growing apostolic endeavours—preaching, youth work, care of
shrines, prison chaplaincy, confessors, direction of seminaries,
parishes—Eugene insisted on deep spiritual formation and a close community
life. He was a man who loved Christ with passion and was always ready to take
on any apostolate if he saw it answering the needs of the Church. The
"glory of God, the good of the Church and the sanctification of
souls" were impelling forces for him.
Bishop of Marseilles
The Diocese of Marseilles had been suppressed after the 1802 Concordat, and
when it was re-established, Eugene's aged uncle, Canon Fortune de Mazenod, was
named Bishop. He appointed Eugene Vicar General immediately, and most of the
difficult work of re-building the Diocese fell to him. Within a few years, in
1832, Eugene himself was named auxiliary bishop. His Episcopal ordination took
place in Rome, in defiance of the pretensions of the French Government that it
had the right to sanction all such appointments. This caused a bitter
diplomatic battle, and Eugene was caught in the middle, with accusations,
misunderstandings, threats, and recriminations swirling around him. It was an
especially devastating time for him, further complicated by the growing pains
of his religious family. Though battered, Eugene steered ahead resolutely, and
finally the impasse was broken. Five years later, he was appointed to the See
of Marseilles as its Bishop, when Bishop Fortune retired.
A heart as big as the world
Whilst he had founded the Oblates of Mary Immaculate primarily to serve the
spiritually needy and deprived of the French countryside, Eugene's zeal for the
Kingdom of God and his devotion to the Church moved the Oblates to the
advancing edge of the apostolate. His men ventured into Switzerland, England,
Ireland. Because of his zeal, Eugene had been dubbed "a second Paul,"
and bishops from the missions came to him asking for Oblates for their
expanding mission fields. Eugene responded willingly despite small initial
numbers, and sent his men out to Canada, to the United States, to Ceylon (Sri
Lanka), to South Africa, to Basutoland (Lesotho). As missionaries in his mould,
they fanned out preaching, baptising, caring. They frequently opened up previously
uncharted lands, established and manned many new dioceses, and in a multitude
of ways they "left nothing undared that the Kingdom of Christ might be
advanced." In the years that followed, the Oblate mission thrust
continued, so that today the impulse of Eugene de Mazenod is alive in his men
in 68 different countries.
Pastor of his Diocese
During all this ferment of missionary activity, Eugene was an outstanding
pastor of the Church of Marseilles—ensuring the best seminary training for his
priests, establishing new parishes, building the city's cathedral and the
spectacular Shrine of Notre Dame de la Garde above the city, encouraging his
priests to lives of holiness, introducing many Religious Congregations to work
in the diocese, leading his fellow Bishops in support of the rights of the
Pope. He grew into a towering figure in the French Church. In 1856, Napoleon
III appointed him a Senator, and at his death he was the senior bishop of
France.
Legacy of a Saint
May 21, 1861, saw Eugene de Mazenod returning to his God, at the age of 79, after a life crowded with achievements, many of them born in suffering. For his religious family and for his diocese, he was a founding and life-giving source: for God and for the Church, he was a faithful and generous son. As he lay dying he left his Oblates a final testament, "Among yourselves—charity, charity, charity: in the world—zeal for souls." The Church in declaring him a saint on December 3, 1995, crowns these two pivots of his living—love and zeal. His life and his deeds remain for all a window unto God Himself. And that is the greatest gift that Eugene de Mazenod, Oblate of Mary Immaculate, can offer us.
—Vatican Website
Patronage: against
dysfunctional families
Highlights and Things to
Do:
Learn more about St.
Eugene:
Missionary
Association of Mary Immaculate
St. Eugene founded the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Find out more from The Catholic
Encyclopedia, General
Administration of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and OMI Lacombe
Canada.
Read the Spiritual Testament of Eugene de Mazenod.
Read the English
translation of St.
Eugene's writings.
SOURCE : https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2014-05-21
Armoiries
de Monseigneur de Mazenod dans la basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde
Faith and inspiration:
Encyclopedia of saints for today
By Jean Lee, M.A., D.Min. Member of the Roman Catholic Church
May 19, 2017
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, Bishop & Founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (1782-1861).
Feast Day: 21May.
Born into a noble family
in Aix (Provence), France, Eugene de Mazenod seemed assured of position and
wealth from his family, who were of the minor nobility. However, the turmoil of
the French Revolution changed all that forever. When Eugene was just eight years
old his family fled France, leaving their possessions behind, and started a
long and increasingly difficult eleven year exile.
At the age of 20, Eugene
was able to return to his homeland—and all his dreams and illusions about
living the good life were quickly shattered. France was a changed world, his
parents had separated, and his mother was fighting to get back the family
possessions. Eugene was deeply affected by the disastrous situation of the
French Catholic Church, which had been ridiculed, attacked and decimated by the
Revolution. A calling to the priesthood began to manifest itself, and Eugene
answered that call. He was ordained a priest at the age of 29 during the height
of the Napoleonic Empire.
Eugene began the
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1816, obtaining papal approval for
them 10 years later. He organized missionaries to go to rural parts of
Provence, instructing the people whose religious training had been disrupted
for many years by the French Revolution and its aftermath. Dedicated to rural
preaching and their motto “He has sent me to evangelize the poor,” they soon
moved into running seminaries to improve the quality of the clergy. Their first
foreign mission was in Canada in 1841; soon they were in Africa, Asia,
Australia and Latin America.
In 1832, Eugene was named
bishop and appointed to the See of Marseilles. He was an outstanding
bishop—ensuring the best seminary training for his priests, establishing new
parishes, building the city’s cathedral and the spectacular Shrine of Notre
Dame de la Garde above the city, encouraging his priests to lives of holiness,
introducing many religious congregations to work in the diocese, and leading
his fellow bishops in support of the rights of the Pope. He grew into a
towering figure in the French Church.
All the while, Eugene’s
zeal for the Kingdom of God and his devotion to the Church moved the Oblates to
the advancing edge of the apostolate. He encouraged his Oblate sons, his
diocesan clergy, and laypeople to search out and assist the spiritually,
materially, and educationally poor. He focused his energies on Church renewal
and reform while vigorously defending the Church’s right to spread the Good
News.
Because of his zeal,
Eugene had been dubbed “a second Paul,” and bishops from the missions came to
him asking for Oblates for their expanding mission fields. His congregation of
priests and religious brothers has grown to become one of the largest in the
Church, serving over sixty countries.
Eugene de Mazenod died at
the age of 79. On his dying bed he left his Oblates a final testament, “Among
yourselves—charity, charity, charity—in the world—zeal for souls.”
“We must lead people to
act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians and finally, we
must help them to become saints.”—Eugene de Mazenod, Preface to 1825 OMI Rule
Bibiography:
Bunson, Matthew and
Margaret Bunson. “Encyclopedia of Saints-Second Edition.” Indiana: Our Sunday
Visitor, 2014.
Foley, Leonard, O.F.M.,
and Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. “Saint of the Day-Updated and Expanded.” Cincinnati:
Franciscan Media, 2013.
Lodi, Enzo. “Saints of
the Roman Calendar-Updated and Revised Edition.” New York: Alba House, 2012.
Eugene de Mazenod
To Eugene de Mazenod,
born in Provence, southern France, August 1, 1782, the world offered much.
Through his father he was of the nobility: through his mother he was
comfortably wealthy. But within eight years of his birth his world was to be
turned on its head.
The fury of the French
Revolution made Eugene a political refugee for twelve years. His family fled,
his parents separated, his inheritance disappeared. Long years of exile in
poverty and uncertainty in Venice and Naples alternated with brief spells of
hope and enjoyment of court life in Palermo.
On his return to his
homeland at the age of twenty he sought to find his place in the new France. It
was a time of growing disillusionment, but also of a challenging awakening to
deeper realities. His gaze was drawn more and more away from himself to the pressing
needs of the spiritually and materially needy of the countryside. He grew in
certainty that his place was to be with them. Despite opposition he decided to
become a priest, and was ordained on December the 21st, 1811.
To the young Father de
Mazenod, religion in France presented a sorry sight - enshrined atheism,
entrenched anti-clericalism, parishes without priests, churches without people.
He drew together a small band of like-minded priests inspired by his enthusiasm
to rebuild God's Kingdom, who later came to be known as the Missionary Oblates
of Mary Immaculate.
Beginning in Provence,
they spread throughout Europe and then to all continents. They spared no
effort, brooked no delay, sought no ease in their work for God. Eugene was a
'second Paul' a man 'impassioned with Christ'. Appointed Bishop of Marseilles,
he cared both for his diocese and his religious family, radiating faith and
energy over the long years of his life.
On his death, May 21st,
1861, Eugene de Mazenod bequeathed his men a unique
vision of daring for the Kingdom of God, and a sense of urgency for the
salvation of souls. The Church recognised these perduring graces and declared
him blessed on October the 19th 1975. His cannonization followed in 1995.
The priest from Provence,
through his Oblates, has become a sign for the whole Church - a sign of grace
accepted, of grace wondrously fulfilled, of grace bursting forth unto glory.
Saint Eugene and the Irish Famine
It was 1847; Ireland was
in the throes of a cruel famine. Eugene de Mazenod, bishop of Marsielles and
founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, made an appeal for Irish famine
relief funds to the people of his diocese in a circular dated February the
24th, 1847.
Copies of the following letter to Mgr. John McHale, archbishop of Tuam, were sent to Mgr. Murray, archbishop of Dublin, Mgr. Foran, Bishop of Waterford, Mgr. Egan, Bishop of Kerry and Mr. Michael O'Sullivan, North Presentation Convent, Cork.
Marseilles
April 14th, 1847
Your Grace,
Touched as I could only
be by the ills which afflict Ireland, I thought to myself that the faithful of
my diocese could not remain indifferent thereto and that they owed at least a
token of charity towards their unfortunate brethren. I have made an appeal to their
goodwill in a circular to this effect.
The collection made in
the churches where the mite of the poor mingles with the offering of the rich
has produced a sum of about 20,000 francs of our money.
It is good to be able to
associate myself in some sort with your own charity which mitigates so many
ills and dries so many tears. The grat trials to which your unfortunate country
is subjected make me regret, nonetheless, not being able to contribute in greater
measure to their relief.
Pray accept, with my
expression of my keen sympathy for the Irish, that of the respectful regard
with which I am, etc.
C. J. Eugene,
Bishop of Marseilles
SOURCE : http://homepage.tinet.ie/~oblatesangloirish/founder.htm
Saint Eugene of Mazenod
Eugene of Mazenod was born in Aix-en-Provence in France in 1782, the son of a wealthy aristocratic parents. His father Charles Antoine de Mazenod, a member of the French nobility was the President of the Aix Parliament. His mother Marie-Rose Joannis, a member of the rapidly evolving bourgeois merchants embodied the practical and shrewd realism of this group.
This union of complementary social and cultural values assured young Eugene all the requisites for a successful and comfortable life. This idyllic world was swept away by the French Revolution in 1789. After his father opposed the revolution, the entire family was obliged to flee into exile in Italy. In 1790, a new painful period began for Eugene.
These were years of family instability, material scarcity and danger. The family was forced to flee successively to Turin, Venice, Naples and Palermo.
Eugene's adolescence was impoverished. Deprived of friends of his own age, unable to continue an orderly academic program, he was also separated from his mother who divorced her husband in order to return and reclaim family property in France.
SOURCE : http://www.omiworld.org/content.asp?artID=1
Diocesan
Shrine of Our Lady of Grace (Grace Park East, Our Lady of Grace, Caloocan City
South) Diocesan
Shrine of Our Lady of Grace (Caloocan
City South), Solemn Declaration on December 11, 2007, Statues of Eugène de Mazenod founder of Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate (Vicariate of Our Lady of Grace, List of Roman
Catholic churches in Metro Manila, Roman Catholic Diocese of
Kalookan, in Legislative districts of
Caloocan District 2, Barangays of Caloocan Barangay 91,
Zone 8, District II, in front of Barangays 68 & 71, Zone 7, 12th Avenue
West, District II, 12th Avenue West, Grace Park, 10th, 11th & 12th Avenues,
(Caloocan City South), Caloocan City, Buildings in Caloocan City (along
the List of roads in Metro Manila,
along M. H. Del Pilar Street, 10th Avenue corner Rizal Avenue Extension, Grace
Park, beside 11th Avenue, PLDT, Caloocan City Branch, St.
Eugene De Mazenod Avenue (formerly 11th Avenue) (Grace Park) to Monumento LRT Station).
St. Eugene de Mazenod
(1782-1861)
Born into a noble family in Aix (Provence), Eugene spent part of his childhood in Italy because of the French Revolution. Ordained a priest at Amiens in 1811, he soon organized missionaries to go to rural parts of Provence, instructing the people whose religious training had been disrupted for many years by the French Revolution and its aftermath.
Eugene began the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1816, obtaining papal approval for them 10 years later. From rural preaching, they soon moved into running seminaries to improve the quality of the clergy. Their first foreign mission was in Canada in 1841; soon they were in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America.
In 1851, Eugene followed his uncle as archbishop of Marseilles; Eugene died in that city 10 years later. He had focused his energies on Church renewal and reform while vigorously defending the Church’s right to spread the Good News.
His congregation has grown to become one of the largest in the Church, serving in over 50 countries, especially in northern and western Canada. Many of its members have become missionary bishops.
At Eugene’s canonization in 1998, Pope John Paul II praised his vision, perseverance and conformity to God’s will.
Comment:
Eugene de Mazenod allowed the grace of God to bear rich fruit in his life. That required a certain amount of flexibility as well as courage to face the problems every growing group encounters. We look to saints like Eugene not to borrow their courage and zeal but, with God’s grace, to discover our own, always seeking first God’s kingdom (see Matthew 6:33).
Quote:
“Holiness is the grace of God operating in and through human beings” (Kenneth Woodward, Making Saints).
SOURCE : http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1937
Buste
de Eugène de Mazenord devant la Maison des missionnaires Oblats en Chainrue à
Barvaux.
Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod
Bishop of Marseilles,
and founder of the Congregation of the Oblates
of Mary Immaculate, b. at Aix,
in Provence, 1 August, 1782; d. at Marseilles 21
May, 1861. De Mazenod was the offspring of a noble family of
southern France,
and even in his tender years he showed unmistakable evidence of a pious disposition
and a high and independent spirit. Sharing the fate of
most French noblemen at the time of the Revolution,
he passed some years as an exile in Italy,
after which he studied for the priesthood,
though he was the last representative of his family.
On 21 December, 1811, he was ordained priest at Amiens,
whither he had gone to escape receiving orders at the hands
of Cardinal Maury, who was then governing
the archdiocese of Parisagainst
the wishes of the pope.
After some years of ecclesiastical labours
at Aix,
the young priest,
bewailing the sad fate of religion resulting among the
masses from the French
Revolution, gathered together a little band of missionaries to
preach in the vernacular and to instruct the rural populations of Provence. He
commenced, 25 January, 1816, his Institute which was immediately
prolific of much good among the people, and on 17 February, 1826,
was solemnly approved
by Leo
XII under the name of Congregation of the Oblates
of Mary Immaculate.
After having aided for some time his uncle, the aged Bishop of Marseilles, in the administration of his diocese, Father De Mazenod was called to Rome and, on 14 October, 1832, consecrated titular Bishop of Icosium, which title he had, in the beginning of 1837, to exchange for that of Bioshop of Marseilles. His episcopate was marked by measures tending to the restoration in all its integrity of ecclesiastical discipline. De Mazenod unceasingly strove to uphold the rights of the Holy See, somewhat obscured in France by the pretensions of the Gallican Church. He favoured the moral teachings of Blessed (now Saint) Alphonsus Liguori, whosetheological system he was the first to introduce in France, and whose first life in French he caused to be written by one of his disciples among the Oblates. At the same time he watched with a jealous eye over theeducation of youth, and, in spite of the susceptibilities of the civil power, he never swerved from what he considered the path of justice. In fact, by the apostolic freedom of his public utterances he deserved to be compared to St. Ambrose. He was ever a strong supporter of papal infallibility and a devout advocate of Mary'simmaculate conception, in the solemn definition of which (1854) he took an active part. In spite of his well-known outspokenness, he was made a Peer of the French Empire, and in 1851 Pius IX gave him the pallium.
Meanwhile he continued as Superior General of the religious family he had founded and whose fortunes will be found described in the article on the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Such was the esteem in which he was held at Rome that the pope had marked him out as one of the cardinals he was to create when death claimed him at the ripe age of almost seventy-nine.
Sources
COOKE, Sketches of
the Life of Mgr de Mazenod, Bishop of Marseilles (London and Dublin,
1879); RAMBERT, Vie de Mgr D. J. E. De Mazenod (Tours, 1883);
RICARD, Mgr de Mazenod, évêque de Marseille (Paris, n. d.).
Morice,
Adrian. "Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1911. 21 May 2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10094a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With thanks to Fr. John Hilkert and St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10094a.htm
Sanktuarium
Relikwii Drzewa Krzyża Świętego - portret Św Eugeniusza de Mazenod -
założyciela i generała zakonu Misjonarzy Oblatów Maryi Niepokalanej (OMI).
Photographie : Jolanta Dyr
Catholic
Truth Society – Saint Eugene de Mazenod, Priest, Missionary, Bishop
I – Missionary of
Provence
It was a moment of
decision. A very few hours earlier, on the morning of 21st December, 1811,
Eugene de Mazenod had been ordained a priest, at Amiens. And now the Bishop of
Amiens had offered the newly ordained priest the post of Vicar General of the
diocese. It was an appointment, which carried with it the promise of episcopal
succession.
To Eugene de Mazenod,
then in his twenty-ninth year, the proffered appointment gave the promise of
fruitful years of priestly service at a moment when the Church, so lately
emerged from the darkness and terror of life in France under the Revolution,
faced the problems and uncertainties of existence under the rule of the Emperor
Napoleon. It was, too, an appointment which promised the young Father de
Mazenod a dignity of rank and place in keeping with the centuries old
traditions of his family in the service of France. But to Eugene de Mazenod,
his duty seemed elsewhere, his life’s work of a different kind. He returned to
his native Provence, to the city of Aix.
For just under 300 years,
the family of de Mazenod had put their roots deep in the soil of Provence. As
long since as 1529 a de Mazenod had established himself at Marseilles and had
laid the foundations of a family fortune in the pharmaceutical trade. By the
mid-eighteenth century, a de Mazenod had become one of the leading notabilities
in the legal profession in Marseilles. In 1789, that year in which the storming
of the Bastille had thrown open the flood gates of revolution in France, the
father of the nine-years-old Eugene, Charles Antoine de Mazenod, was Chief
Justice of the High Courts at Aix and, by right of office and of election, one
of the Nobility of Provence and a delegate to the Estates-General, the
Parliament of France.
It was Charles de
Mazenod’s very brilliance as a lawyer, which brought the family’s fortune to
destruction in the storms of violence out of which came Revolution. When, in
1789, King Louis XVI summoned for the first time in 175 years the Nobility and
Clergy and Commons, the three Estates or groups which comprised the French
Parliament, and decreed that the Commons should have as many delegates as the
Nobility and Clergy together, the Provincial Assembly of Provence at once
protested. Hitherto each Estate had had an equal voting strength; any change,
protested the Provençals, would be a violation of the Constitution of Provence
solemnly guaranteed when the province was annexed to the Crown of France under
Louis XI.
To the lawyer de Mazenod
was assigned the task of arguing the Provençal case before the King. He pleaded
his cause with so great a measure of success that he earned the furious enmity
of Mirabeau, that strange man of genius and of violence, about whom gathered
the turbulent forces of revolt in Marseilles and throughout the Midi. No man
could stand against the fury which it was in Mirabeau’s power to unleash by the
flamboyant fevour of his oratory and the sheer magnetism of his personality.
Against Charles de Mazenod, that fury was unleashed in all its terrifying
violence; by a hairsbreadth, the spokesman of the Provençal Assembly escaped
the death which had overtaken four of his colleagues at the hands of Mirabeau’s
followers. He fled into exile. For the child, Eugene de Mazenod, there began
then those years of exile during which — as is so often the way of exiles — he
put down his roots spiritually into the soil of that homeland from which he had
been physically driven. In Nice, in Turin, in Venice, in Palermo, he grew to
young manhood, remembering Provence. In exile, he attained, out of the piety of
adolescence, to a faith and fervor, which were to be the twin keystones of his
spiritual life.
Vocation
He was in his
twenty-first year when, with Napoleon’s election as First Consul for life in
1802, it became possible for him to return to Aix. The city of Aix to which he
came home was a city on which the years of turmoil and revolution had laid a
blighting shadow. Napoleon’s reconstruction-of the country’s civil institutions
had restored the Church, but in Aix, the returned exile found the church in
which he had been baptised a shattered ruin and the parishes of the city
without priests to replace those done to death or banished into exile.
Spiritually, the city was a desert, the faith of its people dead or dying. And
side by side with spiritual poverty went material hunger and destitution, which
appalled the sensitive mind of the young de Mazenod. The Aix he had known and
treasured in memory during his years of exile had been warm and bright with the
ease and elegance of wealthy family life. Now the reality was of a poverty of
soul and body that cried out for aid. To Eugene de Mazenod there seemed here to
his hand a cause more urgent and compelling than the task of restoring the
ruined fortunes of his family. He had found his vocation.
In the October of 1808,
he entered the seminary of Saint Sulpice, in Paris. In the December of 1811, he
was ordained a priest at Amiens. And within the year, he had returned for a second
time to Aix. In the decision to return was the foreshadowing of his life’s
work.
In the pattern of Eugene
de Mazenod’s life story, that deliberate return to the Midi, to the Provence
out of which his family had come, has its illuminating significance. “If grace
would make a saint of him,” said the Abbe Bremond, “it would in the strict
sense of the word make him a Provençal saint.” That southland of France,
sun-warmed, yet with its own rock-ribbed ruggedness, gives its sons a warm
humanity, a quick sensitivity, a vivid imagination, a ready tongue. In the
young priest, returning to a homeland spiritually and materially impoverished,
these qualities of the true Provençal were allied to a tireless drive and
dynamic energy, to a rock-firm purpose, which would carry him forward against
all opposition in any cause to which he had dedicated himself.
The cause which
transmitted the warmth of his Provençal nature into a flame of purpose in those
spring and summer days of 1812 was the cause of the forgotten men of the Midi,
of the workers, artisans, servants, slum-dwellers and beggars of Aix; the cause
of the common people whose common bond was a starvation of soul and body.
Because he was himself a
Provençal, Eugene de Mazenod instinctively sensed one of the greatest stumbling
blocks which lay across the path to spiritual regeneration of the common people
of Aix. This instinctive understanding went back, perhaps, to Lenten days
shortly after he had first returned from exile.
During those Lenten days,
Eugene de Mazenod was one of the congregation which crowded a church in Aix to
hear a famous preacher. Renowned for his oratory, the preacher chose such
themes as the story of the creation, of the deluge, of the plagues of Egypt,
subjects which moved the imagination of his almost wholly aristocratic audience
without unduly stirring its conscience.
The grandeur of the
preacher’s themes was matched by his language. He was an orator in the grand
style. He spoke with an elegance and grace and colour, which charmed his
listeners whose common language was French, whose pride was in their
familiarity with the classic poets and romantic novelists of France. He spoke
in French of outstanding clarity and accent. But to the ordinary people of Aix,
to the little shopkeepers and tradesmen and artisans and labourers and
servants, he did not speak at all; for their native tongue was Provençal, and
of French, they knew no more than a stray word, an occasional mispronounced
phrase.
“Here are people in dire
need of the word of God, and the Gospel is not preached to them in a language
they understand,” the youthful de Mazenod told himself, moved to a full-hearted
indignation by this deprivation of a people whose fate seemed always destined
to be spiritual and material starvation. “One day I shall fill this need.”
His First Sermon
And now the time had come
to redeem that promise. In the Lent of 1813, eager to put his plans to the
test, but as yet unsure of his capabilities, he began a series of Lenten talks
at the church of the Madeleine, in the heart of a working-class parish, to a
congregation of housemaids, washerwomen, domestic servants, porters, unskilled
workers from the kitchens, the stables, the warehouses and the warehouse yards.
His opening words foreshadowed his life’s mission:
“During this holy period
of Lent there will be many talks for the rich. Are there to be none for the
poor? The Gospel must be taught to all men, and in a fashion easily understood.
The poor are precious members of the Christian family and cannot be abandoned.
The poor of Christ, all you whom misery disheartens, my brothers, my dear
brothers, my esteemed brothers, listen to me. You are the children of God, the
brothers of Jesus Christ, the co-heirs of His eternal kingdom…”
So began his first
sermon, spoken in the Mother tongue of those who listened to him — in
Provençal, the language of the congregation, which crowded the vast church in
the six o’clock half-light of that Lenten morning.
And the crowds did not
dwindle or fall away after that first morning of heart-warming discovery by a
people who had found their pastor — as that pastor had found his people. The
poor of Aix had found a pastor who spoke a language they understood, not merely
the rich, vivid language of the tongue, which was their dearest heritage and proudest
badge of individuality — but also a language of the heart which spoke to them
in love and charity and without patronage or condescension.
Mission to the Poor
Success brings its own
problems, and the great problem, which the success of those Lenten lectures of
1813 brought to the young priest, was that of meeting the demands of the many
who were eager to share the joy of those who had crowded to hear him preach
those first sermons.
Ragged, often hungry,
poor in soul and body, they thronged to the Missions he preached. But in a city
and its hinterland where five out of every ten citizens had fallen away from
the Sacraments and had ceased to hear Mass; where children grew to young
manhood and young womanhood without making their First Communion; where so few
priests laboured amongst so many, that thousands had not the opportunity of
even speaking to a priest from one year’s end to the next: the single-handed
work of one preacher was not enough. More was wanted.
To Father Eugene de
Mazenod — a realist whose sense of realism always expressed itself in seeing
not the magnitude of the obstacle but the straightforward methods which would
help to overcome that obstacle — what was needed was plain enough: if more
Missions were to be preached, then he would need more helpers to work with him
in the preaching of them.
When he obtained the
permission of his episcopal superiors to find helpers to assist him in the
preaching of Missions, Eugene de Mazenod had no immediate plan or intention of
founding a new religious society, bound by vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience. He looked first for companions to share in his work; and, out of
that original intention, came the grouping together in community life of those
priests who were to become known as “The Missioners of Provence.”
Father Missioners of
Provence
The Curé of Arles, Father
Tempier, was his first helper and associate; their first community house — an
old Carmelite convent, shabby and gone to seed, within a stone’s throw of the
graceful and elegant town house of the de Mazenods in which Father Eugene had
been born.
Indeed, there is
something almost comically grandiloquent about the use of so dignified a term
as “community house” for the shabby, one-time convent of the Carmelites to
which Father de Mazenod and Father Tempier came to live. Part of the old
building served as a lodging house of the cheaper sort; and the portion
reserved to the use of the two priests was no more than a single large room.
It was a room of such
stark and pitiless poverty that, in some odd way, it somehow conveys in
description less a picture of the bare, austere simplicity of deliberate
asceticism than the unrelieved outline of desperate and utterly comfortless
destitution and want. A smouldering fire in a yawning fireplace belched smoke
back from faulty chimneys until all the room was filled by a sooty fog that
turned brightest day into the perpetual twilight of a fox’s den. For a table
the two priests made do with a plank supported by two barrels; but in later
years, when Eugene de Mazenod recalled that makeshift table, it was to remember
with characteristic cheerfulness that from it they “used to eat with relish the
small share of food that fell to each one.”
As for Father Tempier,
when he recalls that room of their early beginnings, it was to remember with
brisk satisfaction that the two first tenants of the room did not long have it
to themselves. Within a month — in the February of 1816 — they were joined
there by Fathers Mye, Deblieu and Icard. And now, a team of five priests strong,
they were ready to start their apostolic work.
For their first combined
missionary operation, they chose the town of Grans. It was a market town of
some 1,500 inhabitants, and the pattern of its spiritual life — or lack of
spiritual life — was one which the “Missioners of Provence” were to see
repeated again and again throughout the Midi.
Of its fifteen-hundred
people, scarcely a score had fulfilled their Easter duties. So few of the
parishioners ever bothered to cross the threshold of the parish church to pray,
to confess or to assist at Sunday Mass, that episcopal decision to close the
church for lack of use seemed unlikely to be long delayed. The town was a
centre of spiritual paralysis; to revive it, spiritually, was a task to appall
the imagination of any but the most dedicated of men.
Yet it was the very
magnitude of the task, which seems to have spurred Father de Mazenod and his
companions to efforts straining human strength and endurance to the very limits
— and beyond.
Again, as in Aix, the
church was thronged, but not only for sermon and lecture. Almost from the very
first day of the Mission, lines and queues of men and women began to form about
the confessionals. Virtually all the penitents were working people; great numbers
of them worked from dawn to dusk and so would not be free to join the queues
until late evening, when crowds would already have gathered, or in the hour
after the first of the morning Masses when, again, the crowds would be so great
that many would have to leave for work before their turn came.
Here was the kind of
difficulty which Eugene de Mazenod, down through the years, was to deal with in
a fashion so forthright and decisive that once he had acted, people scarcely
remembered that there ever had been a problem to solve.
At three o’clock in the
morning, each one of the confessionals in the church at Grans was occupied by a
confessor. During twenty out of the four and twenty hours that followed,
confessors remained at their posts. There were Masses and sermons and lectures;
there were visitations to the sick; and all through the day, penitents came in
long unending lines. And this pattern was repeated day after day, week after
week, for the full month of that Mission in Grans.
That year of 1816 was a
year of beginnings. Two further Missions were preached that year. In the
half-dozen years that followed, four and twenty Missions were preached.
Missions were preached in Arles and Marseilles and Aix, cities with which
Father de Mazenod and some of his associates had strong connections; but for
the most part, the Missioners of Provence laboured in the rural districts and
in the country towns, areas in which their work was amongst the poor and the
peasants. And everywhere the pattern of work which was established at Grans was
repeated; so, too, was the pattern of reward which showed itself, in varying
degree, in crowded churches and besieged confessionals.
A Life of Hardship
It was a life of
hardship. The hardship was not merely a matter of rough living and poor
lodging, as when, at Rognac during the bitter days of a winter long memorable
for its harshness, the Missioners, Fathers Tempier and Mye, were given, through
either the poverty or the inhospitality of their hosts, only a pile of straw to
sleep upon and fare so frugal that their Superior was moved to alarmed comment.
It was the hardship of ceaseless, unrelenting toil; and even though new
labourers joined the little band, the task of preaching, of confessing, of
visiting, for month-long after month-long spell imposed crushing burdens on the
willing backs of the Missioners of Provence.
In that life of labour —
a life sweetened by the unmistakable signs of a reawakening faith amongst the
people of the Midi — Father de Mazenod played a leader’s part. His was not
merely the leadership of dynamic action, although his sheer activity set a
standard that spurred his colleagues to unremitting effort. He undertook
personally the direction of almost every one of the Missions during those early
fruitful years. His leadership created, too, an inspiring model for those to
whom the preaching of a Mission was a new thing.
The Born Orator
He was a born orator,
whose gift of oratory was fired and forged and tempered in the ardent flame of
his belief that he had found the Divine purpose in his life — the bringing of
the Gospel to the poor.
All his gifts and talents
seemed to be shaping themselves towards that end. When he spoke to a
congregation of Provençal peasantry, he seemed to put himself unhesitatingly
and directly in communication with his listeners, speaking face to face, as it
were, with each individual man and woman, making the message that was for all a
message charged with significance for each single soul.
They came, these people
of the poor, to the churches of the Midi to hear a great preacher. He was a
great preacher, but with a greatness that owed nothing to the fashions and
conventions of the oratory of his time. He did more than speak the dialect that
was their own, he spoke it with the vividness and colour and fire of one to
whom this tongue was, as it was to every one of them, a warm and living tongue.
There was much, too, of
their own quicksilver temperament in the style and manner of a preacher whose
sermons had the light and shade, the swift interplay of mood, of thundering
sternness and sunny persuasiveness that were warp and woof of the Provençal
character.
Sermon after sermon he
preached, never from prepared and remembered texts or from notes, but always
spontaneously, improvising with a fluent and easy grace that allowed no barrier
to stand between him and his listeners. Hearing and watching him, his fellow
workers found a model and learned something, but not all, of the gift that won
men back to God.
The Inner Life
Something but not all;
for the power of preaching sermons and the talent for directing Missions were
no more than the outward signs of the inner life which made Eugene de Mazenod
the “fisher of men” he had become. “It was not upon his natural gifts that
Father de Mazenod relied to convert souls,” says his latest biographer, “but
rather upon the strength of prayer and penance. Though he slept but five hours
a night, he rigorously kept the days of fasting and abstinence even when the
Mission took place in Lent.” He himself showed his full awareness of the gifts
that were truly needed by the preacher and missioner who would bring the Gospel
to men when, at the very outset of their missionary work, he talked with Father
Tempier.
“If it were only a matter
of preaching well or badly the word of God,” he said, “to run about the
countryside without going to the trouble of making ourselves interior men,
really apostolic men, I think it would not be too difficult to replace you.
But, do you believe that I want that rubbish?”
He wanted more, very much
more from his co-workers than willingness, however eager, to follow the routine
and humdrum life of preaching in town after town, very much more than the
uncomplaining acceptance of the grinding labour of pulpit and confessional. In
the words of Father Tempier, he wanted men “ready to follow in the footprints
of the Apostles, to work for the salvation of souls without expecting any other
reward on earth but pain and fatigue.”
Such men he sought, and
many such he found. But a further step forward on his path of purpose was not
made until the autumn of 1818. In the August of that year occurred an event,
which made him reconsider the composition and standing of his group of helpers:
he was offered the gift of a house in the Upper Alps, at Notre Dame de Laus.
All through the early
days of their work together, the group of priests who became known as “The
Missioners of Provence,” returned after each season of work in the Mission
field to the old Carmelite convent, where Fathers de Mazenod and Tempier
relished those frugal meals, eaten from makeshift table of rough planks in a
sulphurous fog of smoke.
Here they rested and
recuperated after the weeks of grinding toil that each Mission entailed. Here
they lived a community life; here they prayed, studied, officiated in the convent
chapel, devoted regular hours to recollection and meditation.
They lived in community
in that one-time community home of the Carmelites; but they themselves were not
a community united by any vows. Unity of ideals, the influence of Father de
Mazenod, who became their Superior by common consent; mutual charity; a simple
agreement; these were the only bonds that bound the Missioners of Provence.
A Community Rule
And now, with the house
of Notre Dame de Laus ready to become a community house, Father de Mazenod and
his helpers prepared for that step which they had long pondered and meditated
and prayed for. The Superior was called upon to formulate a rule, a code of
laws by which the community should live.
So it was done. In the
October of that year, 1818, Father de Mazenod placed before his fellow workers
the Rules and Constitution, which were to transform the group of Mission
workers and preachers into a religious Congregation in the fullest sense. Not
all of the priests who had joined with Father de Mazenod for the primary
purpose of preaching the Gospel to the poor of Provence were convinced of the
wisdom or the desirability of making their simple federation of Missioners a
new religious society, fully and duly constituted and demanding by its rules and
vows a far greater and more definite engagement than had been entailed by the
simple agreement which had hitherto bound the band of preachers. But when, in
the closing days of 1818, the little community met to deliberate and vote upon
the Constitution which would bind the future Missioners of Provence, all but
two of the ten priests and scholastic brothers consecrated themselves to God by
perpetual oblation.
II – Missionary of Mary
Immaculate
Yet another half-dozen
years were to pass before Eugene de Mazenod took the next great step forward in
the progress of the work which had begun so humbly and unostentatiously in that
stark, poverty-marked room in the old house of the Carmelites. Time and again,
he had pondered the possibility of seeking for the new Society, its work and
Rules and Constitution, the solemn approval and approbation of the Holy See. At
first, a prudent realisation of the many difficulties involved in such a formal
application made him put off the final decision. But by the winter of 1825, he
had become convinced that the seal of Papal Approbation must now be sought if
the Society he had founded was to achieve stability and strength. The first
days of November saw him on his way to Rome.
Visit to Rome
Out of the formal journal
of his days in Rome which he later wrote, but even more warmly in the letters
which he sent by almost every post to Father Tempier, comes a vivid picture of
those momentous days in the history of the Society — and an even more vivid
picture of the founder of the Society.
Not many days in Rome
were to pass before he discovered how very right he had been in thinking that
the task of obtaining Papal approbation for the Society would be a lengthy and
difficult one, calling for unlimited patience and pertinacity in enduring the
delays and postponements and refusals that are an inevitable part of the
delicate process of considering pleas and passing judgment on them.
“I called on Cardinal de
Gregorio,” he wrote, “and presented letters from Turin which recommended me to
him in glowing terms; he received me in a most friendly way, invited me to
dinner and was exceedingly courteous. But, he assured me, he does not believe
that the Pope would grant us a formal approbation.”
Here was disappointment
indeed; but neither then nor later was there the least hint of complaint or
regret in Father de Mazenod’s letters. In that very letter, he is content to
state the Cardinal’s adverse opinion; and then he goes briskly and cheerfully
on to detail the steps he is taking to turn temporary defeat into lasting
victory. The Cardinal Vicar is visited, and a promise extracted to have the
case of the Missioners of Provence specially mentioned to the Holy Father.
Friendly relations are established with the Secretary of Propaganda. The Master
of the Chamber has to be reminded to arrange the all-important audience with
the Pope. And in the midst of all this ceaseless activity, Father de Mazenod
summons up sufficient sardonic humour to welcome the rigorous Black Fasts of
Quarter Tense (the demanding fasts formerly observed during ‘Ember Days’) in
Rome, since fasting makes it possible for him to dine on a morsel of fish and
half a lemon, and so avoid allowing his hosts to realise his typically French
opinion of Roman cooking, the Roman use of “the detestable oil which people
from Provence find it absolutely impossible to stomach.”
A Critical Day
For a little while, it
seemed that all his ceaseless and exhausting activities were not bringing
Father de Mazenod closer to his goal. Five days before Christmas, he woke one
morning to realise that this day was the last day of the year for audiences.
Something would have to be done quickly if his visit to Rome were not to be
extended indefinitely. And something was done. Let Father de Mazenod himself
tell us what it was:
“One fine day I made up
my mind. Having borrowed the doyen’s carriage, I arrived at the Vatican, in
full dress. The first person I met — a minor prelate — advised me not to wait;
it would be quite impossible for me to see His Holiness that day; a whole flock
of Cardinals would arrive, and Ministers and goodness knows who else; it would
be better to put off my visit to the beginning of the New Year.
“As he withdrew,
Monsignor Barberini arrived and I explained my position to him and reproached
him for having put me in a difficulty by his forgetfulness. Somewhat
embarrassed by my gentle rebuke, .but admitting its justice, he invited me to
enter the salon. Having the status of both a prelate and a gentleman, I forthwith
went into the room next to the Pope’s office, the room where Cardinals,
Bishops, other prelates and Ministers wait their turn for audience.
“I was in good heart that
day, although I was fasting. Monsignor the Secretary of Briefs was the first to
be called, but I was not dismayed by his huge purple bag. Nor by the satchel,
equally well filled, of Cardinal Pacca, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops
and Regulars. Alas! I thought, some day it may be our turn to be shut up in
that satchel.
“Each of these spent an
hour with the Pope. The Bishop Almoner, who distributes the Pope’s charities,
and the priest who is Master of the Sacred Palace had appointments for that
day, but the interviews were short.
“Who would be called
next? The Father General of the Dominicans — the poor man was ravenously hungry
— would have wagered it would be his turn. But not at all! I was called. You
know how dignified I am? Well, I maintained my dignity till I got to the door,
but I dropped it then, and did not assume it again till I came out.
“The Pope received me in
his small bedroom. He was seated on a couch, and before him was a desk on which
he leaned. On entering, I made the first genuflexion, as is the custom; but
between the door and the place where he sat, there was not room to make a
second one. So, all at once, I was kneeling before him…”
With that vividly
evocative and warm-hearted introduction to the story of his first audience with
Pope Leo XII, Father de Mazenod goes on, in high delight, to tell Father
Tempier how far from the pessimistic forecasts of his advisers, who saw little
hope of the Sovereign Pontiff granting his request, was the kindness and
courtesy which the Pope showed to him in an audience which was extended to last
nearer a full hour than the allotted time of half an hour.
The Pope’s Reaction
He tells of the Pope’s
interest in his account of the founding of the Missioners of Provence and of
their work during the years past. Then, with joy, he tells of the Pope’s
reaction to his request for formal approval of the Rules and Constitution of
the Society. He writes:
“It almost seemed as if
he wanted to apologize for not granting by a stroke of the pen what I knew well
could only be given after lengthy formalities were complete.
“Yes, ‘One knows,’ he
said, addressing me all the time in the third person, ‘one knows the customs of
the Holy See. The procedure today is the same as was followed a hundred years
ago. The Secretary of the Congregation will make a report to me on this matter.
I shall appoint a Cardinal to examine it; he will report to the Congregation;
each Cardinal will give his vote . . .’
“Lest I should forget the
name of the Secretary he had mentioned, he was kind enough to get me a sheet of
paper, and he gave me a pen and dictated;
“Yes, ‘Call on the Archpriest,
tell him one comes from me, and that he is to make his report on Friday’.”
This was success beyond
Father de Mazenod’s most optimistic dreams. But it was only a beginning. The
project had been set in motion, but there was much yet to do before the seal of
Papal approbation would be finally set upon the Rules and Constitution of the
Society.
The winter of 1825 was to
give way to the spring of 1826, Christmas to Lent, Lent to Easter, and
Whitsuntide (Pentecost) to be no more than days away before Father de Mazenod
had completed, single-handed, the tremendous task of piloting the project
through the maze of protocol and legal formality designed to save final
decision from any chance of error.
From Cardinal Major
Penitentiary to Cardinals of Congregation, from Archpriest to Auditor, he went,
discussing, planning, interviewing, preparing voluminous replies to
multitudinous questions. There were days when even the weather of a Roman
Spring seemed to conspire against him, striking down with illness a Cardinal
whose attendance was vital to the investigations ordered by the Pope. There
were days when all progress was held up because some major domo or house
servant could not be bothered to attend to the instructions of this plain
priest from Provence in his shabby soutane and mended boots.
But Father de Mazenod did
not allow himself to be discouraged, disappointed or deflected from his
purpose. He had sources of patience and of strength.
“I spent last night
before the Blessed Sacrament,” he wrote to Father Tempier, “which remains
exposed during the two nights of the Forty Hours devotion.”
Cheerful Poverty
His cheerfulness during
those tiring days was inexhaustible. He could, in his letters, find the humour
to conjure up a wry smile at the poverty, which added to the worries of delay.
“I did not dare approach
Tarlonia for so small a sum as one hundred Roman crowns,” he wrote, “so I drew
it from Monsieur Curani. I shall ask my uncle to settle this.
“I used this money to pay
my debts; I owed two months board and lodgings to the people with whom I stay.
Clothes are my real worry. You should see how I try to make them last. I take
advantage of the dry weather to wear out my old breeches; there are holes in
them, here, there, and everywhere, but my soutane covers all. But, if it
rained, I would have to gather up my soutane, and then my raggedness would be
only too visible. If I hadn’t to appear so frequently before Cardinals, I would
wear my old soutane all the time, for its wrinkles would be hidden by my coat.”
But in the end, all the
pains and penalties and poverty, all the exasperating delays of protocol, all
the incivilities of stewards and servants were gloriously made good to him. On
February 15 th , the Cardinals of Congregation met in the palace of the
Cardinal Prefect to complete their deliberations. That morning, in the Church
of Saint Mary in Campitelli, Father Eugene de Mazenod heard nine successive
Masses. In the early evening came the decision of the Cardinals: the Rules of
the Society had been unanimously approved. Three days later, Father de Mazenod
wrote:
“My dear friend, my dear
brothers: Yesterday evening, the 17th February, 1826, the Sovereign Pontiff,
Leo XII, confirmed the decision of the Congregation of Cardinals, and gave
specific approval to the Institute, the Rules and the Constitution of the
Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary.”
Even after the Papal
approbation of the Society, and the choice by the Pope himself of the name by
which the Society would henceforth be known, Eugene de Mazenod’s work in Rome
was not ended. It was mid-May before all the necessary formalities were
completed — formalities which entailed further rounds of calls and interviews,
long periods in session with secretaries of Committees, periods of actual
transcribing to save the cost of a professional copyist. It was more than half
a year after his departure to Rome before Father de Mazenod was re-united with
his brothers of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
III – Missionary Bishop
“Rome’s unhoped for
approbation was a cause of intense joy for Father de Mazenod,” writes a recent
biographer. “It sanctioned his most cherished and valued project. Through a
series of circumstances, whose meaning he did not even suspect, he had to
abandon the missionary career and enter another field of Apostolate.”
Abandon seems scarcely
the apt word; for Eugene de Mazenod’s close ties with and abiding interest in
the Society which he founded were to last till the end of his days. But in the
six years following the Papal approbation, it is true that a further dimension
was added to his labours; his life’s work was woven in a pattern, which found
its ultimate form in his elevation to the Episcopacy.
The year of that
elevation was 1832. Pope Gregory XVI was on the throne of Saint Peter, and from
him came the summons, which brought the founder of the Oblates of Mary again to
Rome. He was summoned to Rome so that the Holy Father might personally judge
the fitness of the one who had been recommended as a suitable auxiliary Bishop
of Marseilles.
The judgment was
favourable. Nominated Titular Bishop of Icosie in North Africa by Pope Gregory,
Eugene de Mazenod was consecrated in Saint Sylvester’s Church in Rome on
October 14th, 1832.
A Difficult Situation
The manner of Monsignor
de Mazenod’s elevation to the episcopacy was to have repercussions, which
threatened the very existence of the See. The new rulers, who had come into
power in France in 1830, had claimed the right to alter and redraw the
boundaries of the French dioceses. In fact, a Concordat existed between France
and the Holy See by which it was agreed that the candidates for bishoprics in
France would be presented by the State. But there were special considerations attaching
to the appointment of a Bishop to the See of Marseilles.
After the revolution of
1830, the municipal authorities appointed under the new regime claimed that the
Bishop of Marseilles and his clergy had opposed the revolution and favoured the
overthrown government. In retaliation, they called for the suppression of the
See of Marseilles and, indeed, a resolution to this effect was passed by the
local District Council of Marseilles in 1831 and submitted to the central
government in Paris. In these circumstances, it was thought that there was
little likelihood of the French Government looking favourably on the
appointment as auxiliary Bishop of Marseilles of Eugene de Mazenod, a nephew of
Monsignor Fortune de Mazenod, the Bishop so very much out of favour with the
authorities.
So the need for secrecy
arose. The choice of the North African territory of Icosie was made
deliberately so that it could be claimed that Father de Mazenod was not raised
to a French See in flat defiance of the French Government. As a further
precaution, the announcement of the consecration of the new Bishop was not made
known for almost a year.
But none of this saved
the new Bishop from envenomed attack. He was accused of having accepted a
bishopric without the approval of the State. He was charged with being leader
of a political group opposed to the Government. Charges were laid against him
through diplomatic channels at the Vatican. But the Holy Father, having heard
the Bishop’s defence, dismissed all the charges as unfounded. Once again,
Eugene de Mazenod returned from Rome, heart-warmed by the friendship and
confidence of a Pope. Once again, he could remind his brethren of the Society
he had founded that: “The Oblates are the Pope’s men.”
With his elevation to the
episcopate, the life story of Eugene de Mazenod becomes woven in a two-fold
strand. He himself sets down in homely words his conception of a Bishop’s
duties:
“In these days,” he
wrote, “one rarely finds any true idea of what it is to be a bishop according
to the teachings of our Faith and the institutions of our Divine Saviour.
Nowadays, a bishop is shut up in his study, writing out dispensations or
answering letters. If he sometimes makes his appearance in a parish, it is
because he alone can give Confirmation. If it were not for Confirmation he
would hardly be seen among the people; and it might happen that during the
whole course of an episcopal career not a soul had ever given an account of
duty fulfilled or neglected to the representative sent by Jesus Christ to dwell
in the midst of His people.”
A Long Episcopate
During the nine and
twenty years of his episcopate, Monsignor de Mazenod did, indeed, dwell in the
midst of his people of the See of Marseilles. He became their only bishop in
1837. He, who loved the quiet of the study and the library, now gave himself to
the public life of his diocese. He was there in the churches of Marseilles at
all the solemn functions of the Church. In the streets of Marseilles, and
particularly in the poorer streets and alleyways, he became as familiar a sight
in his comings and goings as any priest on the rounds of his parish duties.
High on the fifth floor of some quayside tenement a child is dying, and through
the winter night and the darkened streets, the Bishop comes to baptize the
child. Through lanes of hovels and cabins, the Bishop makes his way to the
bedside of an aged woman who has asked to receive the Last Sacraments from his
hands. At Easter, in a busy parish to which a new pastor has yet to be
appointed, the Bishop comes to undertake the distribution of Communion to the
sick. During the many epidemics of cholera, which swept 19th century
Marseilles, Monsignor de Mazenod was to be found in hospital and fever ward, by
the bedside of the dying. And when those about him implored him to husband his
strength and to leave such active work to other and younger men, he had a ready
answer:
“I find my happiness in
pastoral work. It is for this that I am a bishop, and not to write books, still
less to pay court to the great, or to waste my time amongst the rich. It is
true,” he added with a smile, “that this is not the way to become a Cardinal;
but if one could become a saint, would it not be better still?”
And always Eugene de
Mazenod remembered that early resolve of his that the poor amongst his people
should have the Gospel preached to them in a language they could understand. He
preached in all his pastoral visits to the city churches; at Confirmations he
preached to the children and to their parents and god-parents; he preached each
Monday in his own chapel, and in all churches where he said Mass or presided at
religious functions. And when on visitation throughout the Midi he remembered
that long-ago preacher of shining phrase and Parisian eloquence and preached
his own sermons in Provençal.
The value of a bishop’s
episcopate is not to be measured in figures and statistics, but it is a fact
that illuminates Monsignor de Mazenod’s work for his people that in the years
between 1823 and 1861, the year of his death, no fewer than twenty-two new
parishes rose up in the diocese; twenty-six other churches, including the
Cathedral itself, were reconstructed, enlarged or repaired. And towering over
the waterfront and harbour of Marseilles there began in his episcopate the
building of the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde.
The Foreign Missions
The spirit of Eugene de
Mazenod was not to be confined within the limits of a diocese, devoted to that
diocese though he was. Soon other work was opportunely offered to the man whose
favourite boyhood reading had been the story of the Chinese missions. During
the summer of 1841, there came to Marseilles the Canadian Bishop, Monsignor
Bourget, of Montreal. He had come to Europe to find missionaries to work in the
vast mission fields of North America, amongst the Red Indian tribes in Canadian
territory. By good fortune, Monsignor Bourget’s search brought him to Bishop de
Mazenod. The Canadian Bishop explained his need to the French Bishop.
“Missionaries to work
amongst the Indian population?” Monsignor de Mazenod said. “But the foreign
missions were not in our plans; and besides, I have so few priests whom I could
send as Missionaries . . .”
“And I have so many, both
white and Indian, who are poor and destitute in soul and body; so many crying
out to hear the word of God . . .”
It was the appeal which
Eugene de Mazenod had never been able to resist. Once again, as in those days
amidst the poor of Aix, a quarter of a century before, the call had come to him
from the forgotten men of the world; and once again, he remembered his long-ago
resolution to bring the Gospel to the poor.
That day he put Bishop
Bourget’s request before his Oblates. Of the forty-five members of the
congregation, every one volunteered. But six only were chosen. They embarked at
Le Havre on 22nd October, a contingent of four Fathers and two Brothers. It was
the beginning of long years of fruitful work in the prairies and wildernesses
of Canada.
IV – Missionary to the
World
The work which began in
that October of 1841 with such few numbers, soon began to assume larger
proportions. Four years later, in 1845, the Bishop of Saint Boniface in
Manitoba, Canada, offered the Oblates a territory as large as Europe, in the
North-west of Canada. Without hesitation, Eugene de Mazenod accepted the
enormous task of finding Missionaries for that territory.
Alaska and Canada
“I cannot permit of any
hold up,” he declared and that firm declaration was the signal for the
beginning of the Oblates’ epic work in this new land. Slowly at first, and then
more quickly as new helpers joined their ranks, the Oblates spread across the
prairies, moved onward to the dreary wastes of the Hudson Bay territory,
established themselves amongst the Eskimo. By the August of 1859, Father
Grollier had reached the Arctic circle at Fort Good Hope, and had gone on to
the mouth of the Mackenzie River to become, in the words of Pius IX, one of the
first of the “Martyrs of Cold”. Sioux, Cris, Blackfeet and many other tribes
had come to know the missionaries whom they called the Oblate Black Robes and
the Oblate Bishops whose name amongst the tribes was Great Chiefs of Prayer.
The work done by these sons of de Mazenod is, perhaps, aptly summed up by a
traveller who visited the western territories in the eighteen-nineties, fifty
years after that first band of missionaries had sailed from Le Havre.
“The prairies are left
behind, and the fastnesses of the mountains are entered. The Canadian Pacific
railway cars thunder through the passes twice a day; but ten years ago, they
had been trodden by the feet of no white men with one exception. As the train
winds through the magnificent valley of the Frazer, here and there on mountain
tops, may be seen, black against the sky, a rude cross, which marks an Indian
burying ground. At each stage of the journey, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
the Church Universal is seen justifying its title by its adaptability to the
nature and needs of each varying community. She observes precisely the same
ritual, framed in identical language [Latin], for a little band of Blackfeet
Indians, kneeling in a log hut in the Far West, as she uses for a French
congregation in the Basilica at Quebec, or for the Irish immigrants who worship
in Toronto Cathedral.”
From that success the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Missioners of Provence who became missionaries
of the world, can claim, under God, their full share of credit. And the
Canadian work of the sons of de Mazenod set a pattern for their labours across
the world.
Sri Lanka
The work of the Oblates
in Ceylon began with an appeal from the Coadjutor Bishop in Jaffna to Monsignor
de Mazenod, asking the founder of the Oblates to send missionaries to help in
the work of converting a population of more than one and a half million pagans
and of ministering to the 100,000 Catholics on the island. That appeal was at
once answered. The first Oblates went to Ceylon in 1847. Today there are almost
three hundred Oblates (including a Cardinal) working in Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
“I would like to be able
to supply missionaries for the whole world,” the Bishop of Marseilles cried
constantly, and, so far as it was in his power and the power of his Oblates, he
endeavoured to answer every request for missionaries that came to him.
South Africa
Scarcely had his group of
missionaries sailed for Ceylon when there was yet another request. This time it
came from the Prefect of Propaganda, Cardinal Barnabo, and asked for priests to
work in the mission field of South Africa. “How could we refuse that which came
from the legitimate voice of the Pope?” Eugene de Mazenod wrote in his diary on
receiving that request. And once again, he made decisive answer to the request.
In the autumn of 1851, Monsignor Allard, consecrated in Marseilles, embarked
with three Fathers and a Brother for the port of Natal.
And so the territories,
marked by an Oblate Cross, spread across the map of the world. Before the
Founder died in 1861, his sons were to be found, to quote Father Cooke, “on the
shores of the great Atlantic, amidst the snow-clad pine forests and dismal
prairies of the Hudson Bay territory, near the shores of the Polar Sea, amongst
the vastnesses of the Rocky Mountains, on the coast of the Pacific, on the
plains of Texas, amidst the burning sands of South Africa, on that fairest of
the islands of the Indian Ocean, Ceylon. To all these points in Asia, Africa
and America did de Mazenod live to see his labours of the Oblates of Mary
Immaculate extended.”
England, Ireland,
Scotland
The Oblates went to
preach their missions in the towns and cities of England and Scotland and
Ireland. Typical of their history is the story of their coming to Dublin. In
1857, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, preaching a mission in Dublin, had sought
permission of the Archbishop to commence pastoral work in the Archdiocese. He
was granted permission to work in the district of Inchicore. Here more than a
thousand families of railway workers lived. Those who had not grown careless of
their religious observances heard Mass and confessed and communicated in
neighbouring parishes, for they had no church of their own. To them came the
Oblate missioner.
Australia
In 1845, Bishop Brady of
Perth called on the Oblate Founder and asked for missioners for Western
Australia. Reluctantly he had to refuse. It was to be fifty years before the
Oblates came to Australia, this time at the request of Bishop Gibney of Perth.
They came to Fremantle to care for the local people and to open an Industrial
School for boys. In 1926, they took over the parish of Sorrento, Victoria.
Gradually they spread their pastoral care in parish and mission work throughout
Victoria and the other States. Answering the call of the Bishops for Catholic
Education, they opened three Colleges through Australia and an Oblate Education
Centre in Sydney. To ensure the continuation of their work a House of Studies
was opened in Mulgrave, Victoria.
The Oblates have
contributed much to the care of the Italian Migrant population especially in
Western Australia. Italian speaking or Italian born Oblates have worked among
the local population for many years.
In recent years, the
Oblates have spread to New Zealand and more recently to Indonesia where they
work in Jakarta and Central Java.
Last Days
That story of the
Oblates, of “the Pope’s men” going out to the ends of the earth, brought
comfort to the last hours of the Founder. One day, during his last illness, a
letter came from one of the foreign missions of the Order. Told of the letter,
he asked if it was a letter that called for his guidance on spiritual matters
or on matters of organisation. Told that it was a letter concerned solely with
the routine organisation of the missioners, he said that this, now, was a
matter, which had passed into the hands of others who would carry on the work
he had begun. The work of organising and directing his missionaries in the far
corners of the world was no longer his concern:
“My only business now,”
he said, “is to prepare for a good death.”
Death came to him on the
21st day of May in 1861. As his long, fruitful life of constant prayer and
unceasing effort came to its close, he could look with pride on the
transformation of a handful of dedicated men labouring in the towns and
villages of the Midi into a mighty battalion in the Church’s apostolic army.
His Oblates of Mary Immaculate were being faithful to the chosen motto of their
Founder: “To preach the Gospel to the poor, He has sent me.”
His Work Today
At the death of the
Founder in 1861, his Oblate Congregation numbered just about 500 members.
One hundred years later
the official total of membership shows an impressive muster of almost 7,000
members spread through 44 countries and pursuing the Ministry of the Gospel in
more than 70 differing languages.
The tiny mustard seed
planted in the poverty of Aix in January, 1816, has grown to a large Institute
in the Church of God — an Institute that knows no boundary or frontier and
extends, literally, from Pole to Pole. The legacy of Eugene de Mazenod is large
for his sons have, under Providence, been chosen to “inherit the earth” for
their portion and the Church, for her part, has shown its approval by
proclaiming him, “Blessed” in 1975.
– from the booklet Saint Eugene de Mazenod, Priest, Missionary, Bishop, Founder
of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, by Philip Rooney; published by
the Australian Catholic Truth Society, 1975
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/catholic-truth-society-saint-eugene-de-mazenod-priest-missionary-bishop/
Statue de saint Eugène de Mazenod, Philippines
Statue de saint Eugène de Mazenod, Philippines
San Carlo Eugenio de
Mazenod Vescovo e fondatore
Aix in Provenza, Francia,
1 agosto 1782 - Marsiglia, Francia, 21 maggio 1861
Nato ad Aix in Provenza
il 1° agosto 1782 figlio di una nobile famiglia, Carlo Giuseppe Eugenio Mazenod
trascorre la sua gioventù in Italia, esule della rivoluzione francese. Torna in
patria nel 1802, sei anni più tardi, entra nel Seminario di San Sulpizio a
Parigi e viene ordinato sacerdote ad Amiens nel 1811. Torna ad Aix e qui, nel
1816, fonda la Società dei missionari di Provenza che più tardi si chiameranno
Oblati di Maria Immacolata. Nominato vicario della diocesi di Marsiglia e
poi, nel 1837, vescovo " per ben 37 anni" , attua pienamente il suo
motto: «Mi ha mandato per evangelizzare i poveri». Muore il 21 maggio
1861, lasciando in testamento agli Oblati che lo circondava queste parole:
«Praticate tra voi la carità, la carità, la carità" e a al di fuori lo
zelo per la salvezza delle anime». E' stato beatificato il 19 ottobre 1975 da
Paolo VI e proclamato santo da Giovanni Paolo II nel 1995.
Etimologia: Carlo =
forte, virile, oppure uomo libero, dal tedesco arcaico
Emblema: Bastone
pastorale
Martirologio
Romano: A Marsiglia in Francia, san Carlo Eugenio de Mazenod, vescovo,
che, per portare il Vangelo tra i poveri, istituì i Missionari Oblati di Maria
Immacolata e per circa venticinque anni diede lustro alla sua Chiesa con le
virtù, le opere, la predicazione e gli scritti.
Suo padre era presidente
della Corte dei conti della Provenza e aveva visto con trepidazione il 5 maggio
1789 radunarsi gli stati generali a Parigi, sotto l’influsso delle idee
rivoluzionarie e massoniche. Nel 1790 l’illustre magistrato, Monsieur de
Mazenod, da Aix-en-Provence, si rifugiò con la famiglia a Nizza, allora
appartenente alla repubblica di Genova, per il momento ancora libera dai
rivoluzionari di Francia.
Un ragazzo esule
Portava con sé un bambino
di otto anni, nato il 2 agosto 1782, a Aix, intelligente, di singolare bontà,
di nome Eugenio. Dai suoi genitori, il piccolo aveva imparato a conoscere e
amare Gesù e la sua Chiesa, a pregare come si parla al più grande Amico e unico
Signore. Quando le armate rivoluzionarie dilagheranno anche a Genova, nel regno
di Piemonte e in Italia, per diffondervi, tramite violenze di ogni genere, la
negazione di Gesù Cristo e della sua Chiesa, Eugenio e la sua famiglia si
rifugiarono prima a Torino, poi a Venezia e a Napoli, infine a Palermo.
A Venezia, Eugenio
frequentò le lezioni tenute dai fratelli Zinelli, santi preti, dai quali ebbe
scuola e formazione spirituale così salda che né le difficoltà dell’esilio, né
le idee sovversive del tempo, né gli ambienti in cui si trovò, poterono intaccare
la sua fede.
Anzi, proprio in quel
tempo in cui aveva sentito di migliaia di martiri caduti per amore a Gesù sotto
la ghigliottina o per la persecuzione dei rivoluzionari, era sbocciato in lui
il desiderio di consacrare la vita al suo Signore e Maestro: «Sarò sacerdote
per Lui. Io vivrò per Lui».
In prima linea
Nel 1802 a 20 anni, poté
rientrare in Francia e a Parigi chiese di essere accolto nel Seminario di Saint
Sulpice. Il dibattito era caldissimo sui diritti del Papa Pio VII, conculcati,
e sulle offese atroci fattegli da Napoleone, giunto al potere. Eugenio de
Mazenod, nella difesa del Papa, diventò uno dei più stretti collaboratori di
Mons. Emery, che lo nominò suo agente di collegamento con i Cardinali
romani, esuli a Parigi.
Finalmente il 21 dicembre
1811, poté essere ordinato sacerdote da Mons. Demandolx, Vescovo di Amiens. Nel
1812, rientrò a Aix-en-Proven&SHY;ce, la sua città natale, dove iniziò il
suo apostolato predicando la Quaresima in provenzale nella chiesa della
Maddalena «per i suoi rispettabili fratelli, i poveri». Fu un successo per le
confessioni e le conversioni ottenute.
Subito fondò un’opera per
la formazione cristiana della gioventù e accettò di dedicarsi all’apostolato
nelle carceri. Nel 1815, si impegnò ancora di più nelle missioni parrocchiali
iniziando nell’antico Carmelo di Aix la Società dei Missionari di Provenza, per
l’apostolato della gente più povera delle campagne. Era nato il primo nucleo
degli Oblati di Maria Immacolata.
Padre dei suoi sacerdoti
Nel frattempo era stata
ripristinata la diocesi di Marsiglia, da affidarsi al Canonico Fortunato De
Mazenod, come Arcivescovo, e a suo nipote Mons. Eugenio, come vicario generale.
Correva l’anno 1823 e Mons. Fortunato aveva 73 anni, suo nipote e vicario ne
aveva 41: entrambi, con perfetto accordo, intendevano rivitalizzare la diocesi
che troppo aveva patito durante la rivoluzione e l’impero. Nessuna difficoltà
riuscì a fermarli nel progetto di «preparare un Clero all’altezza dei tempi».
Per 14 anni, Mons.
Eugenio De Mazenod sarà vicario generale, poi toccherà a lui raccogliere nelle
sue mani il governo episcopale di Marsiglia, fino a essere considerato il 2º
fondatore della medesima diocesi.
La città portuale stava
enormemente sviluppandosi e crescendo; aumentavano i traffici e i commerci,
portando nuovi problemi economici e sociali. L’Arcivescovo pensò subito di
rendere i metodi di apostolato più adeguati alla crescita della diocesi per
rispondere con il Vangelo di Gesù, sempre valido e attuale, ai nuovi problemi.
In breve, 22 nuove
parrocchie. Oltre a far erigere il grande Santuario di Nostra Signora della
Guardia e la nuova cattedrale, progettò un grande numero di chiese nuove e
molte altre fece restaurare. Chiamò in diocesi ben 25 Ordini religiosi a
collaborare con i suoi preti diocesani per un apostolato che doveva arrivare a
tutti, anche ai più lontani.
Ai suoi preti, già come
vicario generale, poi come Arcivescovo, si rivolge con la premura di un padre e
un vero maestro di santità, affinché, «a immagine di Cristo», con le dimensioni
del suo Cuore divino che «abbraccia Dio e il mondo nella carità teologale e non
ha pace finché c’è un’anima da salvare».
A ognuno di loro, chiede
regolarità di vita, dedizione a Cristo e al ministero del confessionale, della
predicazione, del catechismo, con l’intento di portare tutti a Gesù Eucaristico
e da Lui al Cielo.
Centro della sua Azione è
l’Eucaristia: «Lì – spiega con frequenza – Gesù è in stato di vittima come
sulla croce. È non solo la vittima, ma anche il Sacerdote che si offre e
si immola per noi, per attirare su di noi tutte le grazie meritate con il Suo
Sacrificio, per allontanare i castighi della giustizia divina che le nostre
infedeltà ci attirano».
L’impulso missionario
Soprattutto la povera
gente del popolo, in primo luogo le note «pescivendole» di Marsiglia, si
affezionano a lui, aristocratico anche nell’aspetto, ma così fedele alla sua
vocazione di Vescovo, di Padre e Maestro della fede. Marsiglia intera lo
venera, già in vita, come un santo.
Ai suoi Oblati, di Maria
Immacolata, perfezionando la loro fondazione, dà come motto l’affermazione di
Gesù: “Dio mi ha mandato a evangelizzare i poveri». L’ora di Dio giunge per
loro quando nel 1841, vengono chiamati in Canada: 4 suoi missionari e 2 coadiutori
laici si imbarcano per quel Paese lontano, subito seguiti da altri. Per la loro
opera, sostenuta dal santo Arcivescovo, il messaggio di Gesù si propaga in
condizioni eroiche dal Fiume Rosso all’Oceano Glaciale, dal Pacifico alla baia
di Hudson.
In 20 anni, gli Oblati
crescono da 60 a 415, davvero benedetti da Dio con l’affluenza di numerose
vocazioni.
Altre missioni seguiranno
negli Stati Uniti, nel Messico, a Ceylon, in Sud-Africa. Vedere espandersi il
Regno di Gesù nella sua diocesi di Marsiglia e in terra di missione, è la gioia
più grande di questo pastore dal cuore ardente come Gesù. Come grazia ultima,
chiede di poter morire in piena lucidità. Offre a Dio il suo estremo
sacrificio, mentre intorno a lui i suoi «figli», cantano dolcemente la «Salve
Regina». È il 21 maggio 1861.
Papa Paolo VI lo
beatificò il 19 ottobre 1975 e Giovanni Paolo II, il 3 dicembre 1995, lo
iscrisse tra i santi: Sant’Eugenio de Mazenod.
Autore: Paolo Risso
In casa sua ci sono
dodici domestici, e lui da piccolo ogni tanto li fa stare immobili e schierati
ad ascoltare i suoi discorsi, che imitano quelli dei predicatori. Ha tre nomi
(Carlo, Giuseppe, Eugenio), secondo l’uso della famiglia, che è nobile per
parte di padre e ricca per la dote proveniente dalla madre. Scoppiata nel 1789
la Rivoluzione francese, i Mazenod fuggono in Italia (Torino, Venezia, Napoli,
Palermo), ma già nel 1795 la madre torna in patria, e chiede il divorzio dal
marito per salvare il patrimonio dalle confische.
Eugenio ricompare ad
Aix-en-Provence solo nel 1802, a vent’anni. Potrebbe avviarsi alla carriera
amministrativa, come suo padre; ma durante il soggiorno veneziano (1794-97), il
sacerdote Bartolo Zinelli lo ha già avviato alla vita di fede. E lui, nel 1808,
entra nel seminario di San Sulpizio a Parigi, ricevendo poi l’ordinazione
sacerdotale ad Amiens nel 1811.
Tornato ad Aix, si dedica
unicamente alla predicazione, con alcuni altri sacerdoti votati alla missione
popolare nelle campagne scristianizzate dalla Rivoluzione (e dai pessimi esempi
di prima). Con essi, nel 1816, egli fonda la Società dei Missionari di
Provenza, che più tardi si chiameranno Oblati di Maria Immacolata, con tutti i
riconoscimenti pontifici, ma sempre scarsi di numero: nel 1841 saranno appena
59. Intanto Eugenio de Mazenod diventa vicario generale della diocesi di
Marsiglia (che è guidata da un suo vecchio zio). Più tardi ne sarà vescovo e,
in 37 anni di ministero nella grande città portuale, si scriverà: "egli
ricostruì l’opera di quindici secoli". Il tutto, in mezzo a frequenti
scontri con i Governi di Parigi – monarchici o repubblicani che fossero – e a
penosi dissensi con sacerdoti che non accettavano la regola della vita in
comune da lui imposta.
Ma gli volevano bene i
semplici fedeli; "e in particolare le famose e tremende pescivendole si
affezionarono a quel prelato aristocratico tanto fedele alla sua vocazione:
l’evangelizzazione del povero" (N. Del Re). Oltre a guidare la diocesi,
Eugenio continua a governare i suoi Oblati, che negli anni Quaranta del secolo
“esplodono”: i 59 del 1841 saranno 415 vent’anni dopo, e continueranno a
crescere, andando a predicare in Canada, Stati Uniti, Messico e poi in Africa e
in Asia.
Da giovane prete aveva
preso il tifo in mezzo ai prigionieri di guerra austriaci, sostituendo il loro
cappellano che di tifo era morto. E pure la morte sua è ancora predicazione.
Egli ha sempre chiesto al Signore la grazia di morire in piena lucidità, e così
avviene: Eugenio de Mazenod si spegne al canto del Salve Regina, in mezzo agli
Oblati, che sulla sua spinta andranno "fino all’estremo limite delle terre
abitate", come dice Paolo VI beatificandolo nel 1975. Nel 1995, Giovanni
Paolo II lo proclama santo.
Autore: Domenico
Agasso
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/Detailed/32900.html
Pierre
Lanith Petit (1831-1901), Portrait photographique de Eugène de Mazenod
(1782-1861), évêque de Marseille.
SOLENNE RITO DI
BEATIFICAZIONE DI QUATTRO SERVI DI DIO
OMELIA DEL SANTO PADRE
PAOLO VI
19 ottobre 1975
Venerabili Fratelli,
Figlie e Figli carissimi,
grande è la vostra e la
nostra gioia per la beatificazione di quattro nuovi eroi, umili e grandi, della
fede: Monsignor Charles-Joseph-Eugène de Mazenod; P. Arnoldo Janssen; P.
Giuseppe Freinademetz; Maria Theresia Ledóchowska!
I
Questa nuova, splendente
tappa dell'Anno Santo avviene intenzionalmente nella Giornata Missionaria
Mondiale. E questa circostanza è sottolineata qui, oggi, in modo particolare,
dalla presenza di numerosi Vescovi missionari, che hanno speso tutta la vita a
servizio della Chiesa, e di 400 catechisti dei Paesi di missione. Tutti li
salutiamo con specialissimo affetto. Oggi la Chiesa è tutta unita in preghiera
e in fervore di generosità per la causa missionaria. È l'occasione annuale in
cui essa, Popolo di Dio in cammino, riflette su la sua fisionomia essenziale e
la sua missione costitutiva. È la parola di Gesù, che così la definisce e così
la vuole: «Come il Padre ha mandato me, anch'io mando voi » (Io. 20-21).
«Andate e ammaestrate tutte le nazioni» (Matth. 28, 19). Il Concilio Vaticano
II ha ribadito, nel Decreto su l'attività missionaria, che «la Chiesa
peregrinante è per sua natura missionaria» (Ad
Gentes, 2); ed ha proseguito tracciando una mirabile ed ampia sintesi
teologica, che inquadra la missione nel piano salvifico del Padre: essa parte
«dall'amore nella sua fonte» (Ibid.), si realizza nell'invio del Figlio
Unigenito, con cui Dio «entra in maniera nuova e definitiva nella storia umana»
(Ibid. 3), e si prolunga nella effusione dello Spirito Santo a Pentecoste, il
quale in tutti i tempi infonde «nel cuore dei fedeli quello spirito
missionario, da cui era stato spinto Gesù stesso» (Ibid. 4). Come inviata da
Cristo, la Chiesa continua nel tempo e nello spazio questo suo fondamentale dovere,
che essa non potrebbe sminuire o alterare senza tradire la propria costitutiva
natura, la propria originaria vocazione.
II
Ecco, Fratelli e Figli,
l'ideale missionario che oggi fa vibrare i nostri cuori; ed è proprio questo
ideale ciò che unifica e rende simili le pur tanto diverse figure dei quattro
nuovi Beati, che in questo giorno la Chiesa propone al culto e all'imitazione
dei suoi figli. Ne ricordiamo brevemente le caratteristiche essenziali nelle
lingue proprie di ognuno di essi.
1) Nous dirons d'abord
aux Fils du Père de Mazenod, aux membres de sa famille, à ses compatriotes
d'Aix-en-Provence, aux diocésains de Marseille, à tous les pèlerins venus pour
le fêter: soyez très fiers, exultez de joie! C'était un passionné de
Jésus-Christ et un inconditionnel de l'Eglise! Aux lendemains de la Révolution
française, la Providence allait en faire un pionnier du renouveau pastoral. Dès
son retour à Aix, après son ordination, l'Abbé de Mazenod est saisi par les
urgences du diocèse: les jeunes, le menu peuple, les marginaux, les populations
rurales. II se veut le prêtre des pauvres et gagne des compagnons à son idéal.
C'est le début d'une petite société: les Missionnaires de Provence qui
deviendront les Oblats de Marie Immaculée. Nommé Vicaire général puis Evêque de
Marseille, Mgr de Mazenod donne sa pleine mesure.
Il bâtit des Eglises,
crée de nouvelles paroisses, veille avec vigueur et tendresse à la vie de ses
prêtres, multiplie les visites pastorales et les prédications percutantes,
souvent en langue provençale, développe l'instruction catéchétique et les
oeuvres de jeunesse, fait appel aux congrégations enseignantes et
hospitalières, défend les droits de l'Eglise et du Siège de Pierre. A partir de
mille huit cent quarante et un, les Oblats de Marie embarquent vers les cinq
continents et vont jusqu'au bout des terres habitées. Notre Prédécesseur Pie XI
dira d'eux: «Les Oblats, voilà les spécialistes des Missions difficiles!». Et
le Père de Mazenod voulait qu'ils soient de parfaits religieux! Ce Pasteur et ce
Fondateur, témoin authentique de l'Esprit Saint - comme l'a si bien dit Mgr
l'Archevêque de Marseille dans son Bulletin diocésain -, lance à tous les
baptisés, à tous les apôtres d'aujourd'hui un rappel capital: laissez-vous
envahir par le feu de la Pentecôte et vous connaîtrez l'enthousiasme
missionnaire!
2) Im neuen deutschen
Seligen P. Arnold Janssen ehrt die Kirche einen unermüdlichen Apostel der
Frohbotschaft Jesu Christi, den Gründer der Steyler Missionare und der Steyler
Missions- und Anbetungsschwestern. Sein tiefgläubiges Leben und Wirken galt vor
allem der getreuen Verwirklichung des Missionsauftrages Christi: «Gehet hin in
alle Welt und predigt das Evangelium allen Geschöpfen» (Marc. 16, 15). Das
große Missionswerk, das der selige Stifter Arnold Janssen fast ohne menschliche
Mittel aufbaute, ist die kostbare Frucht seines persönlichen apostolischen
Einsatzes und seines unerschütterlichen Vertrauens in Gottes Willen und
Vorsehung. Er war ein Mann des unablässigen Gebetes und ein Eiferer des
Gebetsapostolates. In besonderer Weise verehrte er das Heiligste Herz Jesu, das
Göttliche Wort und den Heiligen Geist. Durch die Förderung der
Exerzitienbewegung und die Gründung eines intensiven Presseapostolates leistete
P. Janssen einen bedeutsamen Beitrag zur Erneuerung des religiösen Lebens in
der Heimat. Seine segensreichen Ordensgründungen weiteten schließlich den
Horizont seines fruchtbaren seelsorglichen Wirkens zu den Dimensionen eines weltweiten
Missionsapostolates. Daß seine Seligsprechung jetzt im 100. Gründungsjahr der
Gesellschaft des Göttlichen Wortes zusammen mit der des Dieners Gottes P.
Joseph Freinademetz vollzogen wird, ist eine gnädige Fügung Gottes.
3) Dieser zweite selige
Steyler Glaubenspionier aus Südtirol, dem Gebiet der ladinischen Sprache
südlich der Dolomiten, das damals sowohl staatlich wie kirchlich zu Österreich
und heute zum italienischen Territorium Alto Adige gehört, war der erste
Missionar seiner Ordensgemeinschaft im großen chinesischen Volk, dem unsere
besondere Liebe und Sorge gilt. Er ist den Chinesen ein Chinese geworden, um
sie für Christus zu gewinnen. Das hohe Ideal des christlichen Missionars, das
zur Gründung der Steyler Missionsinstitute geführt hatte, fand somit schon
gleich zu Anfang im seligen P. Joseph Freinademetz eine erste Verwirklichung.
Er ist Vorbild und Fürsprecher aller jener, die in fernen Ländern unter
vielerlei Gefahren, von denen der heilige Paulus im zweiten Korintherbrief
spricht (2 Cor. 11, 22-33), den Glauben verkünden. E salutiamo, in questa
occasione, con cordialissimo affetto, i numerosi pellegrini di
Bolzano-Bressanone, che, con le forti e fedeli popolazioni dell'Alto Adige,
giubilano per l'elevazione agli Altari del loro condiocesano, eroico esempio di
generosità assoluta Verso Dio che chiama.
4) Unter den wegen ihres
missionarischen Wirkens von uns am heutigen Weltmissionssenntag
seliggesprochenen Glaubenszeugen fehlt auch nicht ein leuchtendes Beispiel für
die Mitwirkung der Frau im Missionsauftrag der Kirche. Es ist die ehrwürdige
Dienerin Gottes Maria Theresia Ledóchowska. Sie stammte aus einem
Adelsgeschlecht polnischen Ursprungs, wie es ihr Name anzeigt, jedoch
österreichischer Nationalität in Salzburg; sie ist die Nichte des Kardinals
Ledóchowski, die Schwester des späteren Generaloberen der Gesellschaft Jesu,
des so geschätzten P. Wladimir Ledóchowski, wie auch die Schwester einer
anderen auserlesenen Seele, Ursula, der Gründerin der Schwestern vom Heiligsten
Herzen Jesu in der Todesangst (die hier in Rom in Primavalle gut bekannt sind).
Die neue Selige, Maria Theresia Ledóchowska, vernahm den dringlichen Aufruf von
Kardinal Lavigerie für Afrika und stellte ihre hervorragenden Fähigkeiten
hochherzig in den Dienst der Kirche und des Missionsapostolates. Sie gründete
die Petrus-Claver-Sodalität für die afrikanischen Missionen, die heutigen
«Missionsschwestern vom hl. Petrus Claver», deren Ziel es ist, die apostolische
Tätigkeit der Missionare in Afrika durch Gebet, Almosen, religiöse Schriften
und sonstige erforderliche Hilfen tatkräftig zu unterstützen. Die selige Maria
Theresia Ledochowska förderte den Missionsgedanken insbesondere auch durch
Vorträge, Abhandlungen und die Verbreitung von Zeitschriften, die noch heute
erscheinen. Sie war aus dem Geist des Evangeliums und der christlichen
Nächstenliebe auf vorzügliche Weise eine Pionierin der modernen Forderung nach
Alphabetisation.
III
La ristrettezza del tempo
ci impedisce di soffermarci più a lungo, come pur vorremmo, sullo specifico
messaggio che ciascuna di queste grandi figure propone a noi, uomini del nostro
tempo. Tuttavia non tralasciamo di cogliere un triplice invito, che da tutte e
quattro insieme ci viene, come un unico concerto di voci.
a) Anzitutto l'invito a
sentire e a vedere negli uomini il nostro fratello, che con noi e come noi
vive, ama, spera, piange; ad aiutarlo ad elevarsi, a raggiungere la pienezza
del suo sviluppo umano, sociale, culturale, spirituale. Tutto questo non certo
soltanto per una sia pure legittima simpatia, per un affiatamento, per una,
diciamo così, «compassione» che nasca da motivi soltanto naturali, ma prima e
soprattutto dalla luce della Rivelazione, che ci indica, misteriosamente
presente e nascosto nel volto dei fratelli, specialmente se sofferenti, il
volto stesso di Cristo (Cfr. Matth. 25, 31-46).
b) Ci viene poi l'invito
a cogliere i segni dei tempi per testimoniare e rendere sempre attuale la
presenza della Chiesa nel mondo, in tutti quei modi che ci vengono offerti sia
dalle circostanze del kairòs (redimentes tempus, «profittando del tempo»
- Eph. 5, 16), sia dalle inclinazioni del genio proprio di ciascuno. I
nuovi Beati ci danno infatti l'immagine di persone non certo ripiegate su se
stesse in sterili narcisismi o nella soluzione di problemi o pseudo-problemi
individuali, ma che si sono messe a lavorare sul serio, e sodo, per il Regno di
Dio, dove e come e quando hanno intuito le enormi possibilità di rendersi
utili. Ed essi insegnano a tanti spiriti inquieti o malcontenti o demoralizzati
a spendersi per gli altri con più fatti e forse con meno parole, perché gli
operai della vigna sono attesi a tutte le ore (Cfr. Matth. 20, l-16).
c) In terzo luogo, essi
ci invitano a prendere sempre maggiore coscienza che «nella situazione attuale,
in cui va profilandosi una nuova condizione per l'umanità - usiamo ancora le
parole del Concilio - la Chiesa, che è sale della terra e luce del mondo, è
chiamata in maniera più urgente a salvare e a rinnovare ogni creatura, affinché
tutte le cose siano instaurate in Cristo e gli uomini in Lui costituiscano una
sola famiglia e un solo Popolo di Dio» (Ad Gentes, 1). L'alimento
insostituibile di quest'opera di suprema importanza è: la fede; l'amore; la
preghiera, nel cuore di valorosi Missionari.
¿Qué fuerza misteriosa
impulsó a los nuevos Beatos a seguir el ideal misionero? Una fe sin límites en
Dios, que se traduce en un apasionado amor a Cristo. Fe y amor que se
despliegan en un desbordante deseo de difundir entre los hombres el mensaje de
salvación. Al exaltar hoy gozosos el ejemplo de santidad de los nuevos Beatos,
pidamos también su ayuda e intercesión para cuantos, movidos por estos mismos
ideales, dedican sus vidas a la evangelización del mundo.
Prayer has been, finally,
the secret force of the astonishing fruitfulness of action of these souls.
Prayer has sustained them in difficulties and enabled them to perform works
that surpass human strength. And their example teaches all the apostles-today
and for ever-that the interior life is, and remains, «the soul of every
apostolate». This is the secret and prerequisite of the missionary influence at
all levels of the Church in the world. As these new Beati-so different and yet
so similar-show us the way to follow, may they also obtain God's help for us.
We ask this of them, entrusting our intentions to the first-fruits of their
intercession.
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/homilies/1975/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19751019.html
Pierre
Lanith Petit (1831-1901), Portrait photographique de Eugène de Mazenod
(1782-1861), évêque de Marseille.
OMELIA DI GIOVANNI PAOLO
II
I Domenica di Avvento, 3 dicembre 1995
1. La venuta del Figlio
dell’uomo è il tema dell’Avvento. Inizia, così, il tempo del nuovo Anno
Liturgico. Guardiamo già verso la notte di Betlemme. Pensiamo a quella venuta
del Figlio di Dio che ormai appartiene alla nostra storia, anzi in un modo
mirabile l’ha formata come storia dei singoli individui, delle nazioni e
dell’umanità. Sappiamo, inoltre, con certezza che, dopo quella venuta,
abbiamo per sempre davanti a noi una seconda venuta del Figlio
dell’uomo, di Cristo. Viviamo nel secondo Avvento, nell’Avvento della storia
del mondo, della storia della Chiesa, e nella Celebrazione eucaristica
ripetiamo ogni giorno la nostra fiduciosa attesa della sua venuta.
Il Beato Eugenio de
Mazenod, che la Chiesa oggi proclama santo, fu un uomo dell’Avvento, uomo della
Venuta. Egli non soltanto guardò verso quella Venuta, ma, come Vescovo e
Fondatore della Congregazione degli Oblati di Maria Immacolata, dedicò tutta la
sua vita a prepararla. La sua attesa raggiunse l’intensità dell’eroismo, fu
caratterizzata cioè da un grado eroico di fede, di speranza e di carità
apostolica. Eugenio de Mazenod fu uno di quegli apostoli, che prepararono i
tempi moderni, i tempi nostri.
2. Il Decreto Ad
Gentes del Concilio Vaticano II tratta anche di questa attività, di
cui fu colma la vita e la vocazione episcopale del Fondatore degli Oblati.
Fu inviato come Vescovo
nella città di Marsiglia, a quella Chiesa delle coste meridionali della
Francia. Contemporaneamente però egli aveva la consapevolezza che la missione
di ogni Vescovo, in unione con la Sede di Pietro, ha carattere universale.
La certezza che il Vescovo è mandato nel mondo, come gli Apostoli, si fonda
sulle parole del Cristo: “Andate in tutto il mondo e predicate il Vangelo ad
ogni creatura” (Mc 16, 15). De Mazenod fu consapevole che il mandato
di ogni Vescovo e di ogni Chiesa locale è in se stesso missionario e fece
in modo che anche l’antichissima Chiesa di Marsiglia, i cui inizi risalgono al
periodo subapostolico, potesse adempiere in maniera esemplare la sua vocazione
missionaria, sotto la guida del suo Pastore.
In questo consistette
l’impegno di sant’Eugenio, in ordine alla seconda venuta di Cristo, che tutti
attendiamo con viva speranza. Si può dire che la sua canonizzazione, oggi,
nella prima Domenica di Avvento, ci aiuta a comprendere meglio il significato
della stagione dell’Anno Liturgico che oggi inizia.
3. Nella Liturgia di
questa prima Domenica di Avvento comincia a parlare il profeta Isaia. Ne
ascolteremo la parola ispirata durante tutto questo tempo. “Visione di Isaia,
figlio di Amoz, riguardo a Giuda e a Gerusalemme. Alla fine dei giorni, il
monte del tempio del Signore sarà elevato sulla cima dei monti e sarà più alto
dei colli; ad esso affluiranno tutte le genti. Verranno molti popoli e diranno:
“Venite, saliamo sul monte del Signore, al tempio del Dio di Giacobbe, perché
ci indichi le sue vie e possiamo camminare per i suoi sentieri”. Poiché da Sion
uscirà la legge e da Gerusalemme la parola del Signore” (Is 2, 1-3).
Nella luce dello Spirito
Santo, il Profeta ha una visione universalistica e molto acuta della
salvezza. Gerusalemme, la città collocata in mezzo a Israele, Popolo della
elezione divina, ha davanti a sé un grande futuro. Quando il Profeta dice che
“uscirà... da Gerusalemme la parola del Signore”, già molti secoli prima della
venuta di Cristo annunzia l’ampiezza dell’opera messianica.
Lo sguardo di Isaia arricchisce
la nostra consapevolezza dell’Avvento. Colui che deve venire, che deve
rivelarsi “sino alla fine” proprio in mezzo alla santa città di Gerusalemme,
mediante la parola del suo Vangelo, e specialmente mediante la sua croce e la
sua risurrezione, sarà inviato a tutte le nazioni del mondo, all’intera
umanità. Egli sarà l’Unto di Dio, il Redentore dell’uomo. La sua visita
durerà poco, ma la missione da Lui trasmessa agli Apostoli e alla Chiesa durerà
fino alla fine dei secoli. Egli sarà mediatore tra Dio e gli uomini, ed a gran
voce esorterà le nazioni alla pace, invitando tutti a “forgiare le loro spade
in vomeri, le loro lance in falci” (cf. Is 2, 4). Proprio così inizia
l’esortazione di Isaia, rivolta alle genti di tutta la terra, perché dirigano
gli occhi e i passi verso Gerusalemme.
A questa esortazione fa
eco il Salmo responsoriale, canto dei pellegrini verso la Città
Santa. “Quale gioia quando mi dissero: “Andremo alla casa del Signore”. E ora i
nostri piedi si fermano alle tue porte, Gerusalemme. Là salgono insieme le
tribù, le tribù del Signore” (Sal 122, 1. 4). E ancora: “Domandate pace
per Gerusalemme: sia pace a coloro che ti amano, sia pace sulle tue mura,
sicurezza nei tuoi baluardi” (Sal 122, 6-7).
4. C’est précisément dans
cette perspective offerte par la liturgie du premier dimanche de l’Avent que
s’inscrit la canonisation du fondateur de la Congrégation des Oblats de Marie
Immaculée. Eugène de Mazenod avait, en effet, senti de manière très profonde
l’universalité de la mission de l’Église. Il savait que le Christ voulait
unir à sa personne le genre humain tout entier. C’est pourquoi il porta toute
sa vie une attention particulière à l’évangélisation des pauvres, où qu’ils se
trouvent.
Née en Provence, dans sa
région d’origine, la Congrégation ne tarda pas à essaimer “jusqu’aux extrémités
de la terre”. Par une prédication fondée sur la méditation de la parole
de Dieu, elle mettait en pratique les exhortations de saint Paul: “Comment
croire sans avoir entendu la parole du Seigneur? Comment entendre sa parole si
personne ne l’a proclamée?”. Annoncer le Christ, c’était, pour Eugène de
Mazenod, devenir en plénitude l’homme apostolique dont toute époque a
besoin avec la ferveur spirituelle et le zèle missionnaire qui le configurent
peu à peu au Christ ressuscité.
5. Par un patient travail
sur lui–même, il sut discipliner un caractère difficile et gouverner son
diocèse avec une sagesse éclairée et une ferme bonté. Monseigneur de Mazenod
amenait les fidèles à accueillir le Christ dans une foi toujours plus généreuse
pour vivre pleinement leur vocation d’enfants de Dieu. Toute son action fut
animée par une conviction qu’il exprimait en ces termes: “Aimer l’Église, c’est
aimer Jésus Christ et réciproquement”.
Frères et Sœurs, Eugène
de Mazenod nous invite à le suivre pour nous présenter tous ensemble au
Sauveur qui vient, à l’Enfant de Bethléem, au Fils de Dieu fait homme.
Ecco le parole del Papa
in una nostra traduzione italiana.
4. Proprio in questa
prospettiva presentata dalla liturgia della prima domenica d’Avvento si iscrive
la canonizzazione della fondazione della Congregazione degli Oblati di Maria
Immacolata. L’universalità della missione della Chiesa fu, infatti, profondamente
avvertita da Eugenio de Mazenod. Egli sapeva che Cristo desiderava unire alla
sua persona tutto il genere umano e per questo motivo in tutto il corso della
sua vita rivolse particolare attenzione all’evangelizzazione dei poveri,
ovunque fossero.
Nata in Provenza, regione
d’origine del suo Fondatore, la Congregazione non tardò a diffondersi “fino
agli estremi confini della terra” (At 1, 8), per mettere in pratica,
mediante una predicazione fondata sulla meditazione della parola di Dio, le
esortazioni di San Paolo: “Come potranno credere, senza aver sentito la parola
del Signore? E come potranno sentire la sua parola, se nessuno l’annuncia?”
(cf. Rm 10, 14). Annunciare Cristo significò per Eugenio de Mazenod
diventare in pieno l’uomo apostolico di cui ogni epoca ha bisogno, dotato di
quel fervore e di quello zelo missionario che a poco a poco lo configurano al
Cristo risorto.
5. Attraverso un paziente
lavoro su se stesso, egli seppe disciplinare un carattere difficile e dirigere
la sua diocesi con illuminata saggezza e ferma bontà. Monsignor de Mazenod
guidava i fedeli ad accogliere Cristo con fede sempre più generosa, perché
vivessero pienamente la loro vocazione di figli di Dio. Ad animare ogni sua
azione fu il convincimento, da lui così espresso, che: “Amare la Chiesa
significa amare Cristo e viceversa”.
Fratelli e sorelle,
Eugenio de Mazenod ci invita a seguirlo perché possiamo presentarci tutti
insieme al Salvatore che viene, al Bambino di Betlemme, al Figlio di Dio fatto
uomo.
6. Il messaggio dell’Avvento
è unito alla venuta del Figlio dell’uomo che sempre più si approssima. A questa
consapevolezza corrisponde l’esortazione alla vigilanza. Nel Vangelo di
san Matteo Gesù dice a chi lo ascolta: “Vegliate, dunque, perché non sapete in
quale giorno il Signore vostro verrà... Perciò anche voi state pronti, perché
nell’ora che non immaginate, il Figlio dell’uomo verrà” (Mt 24, 42. 44). A
questa esortazione, ripetuta più volte nel Vangelo, corrisponde in modo
eccellente il passo dalla Lettera di san Paolo ai Romani. L’Apostolo ci scrive
in qual modo potremo essere “consapevoli del momento” (cf. Rm 13,
11). L’attesa, volta verso il futuro, ci viene sempre presentata come
un “momento” già vicino e presente. Nell’opera della salvezza nulla può essere
lasciato per il dopo. Ogni “ora” è importante! L’Apostolo scrive che
“la nostra salvezza è più vicina ora di quando diventammo credenti” (Rm 13,
11) e paragona questo momento presente all’alba, al momento culminante del
passaggio tra la notte e il giorno.
San Paolo trasferisce sul
terreno dello spirito il fenomeno che accompagna il risveglio della luce
diurna. “La notte è avanzata, – egli scrive – il giorno è vicino. Gettiamo via
perciò le opere delle tenebre e indos- siamo le armi della luce” (Rm 13,
12). Dopo aver chiamato per nome le opere delle tenebre, l’Apostolo indica a
che cosa alludano “le armi della luce”: “Indossiamo le armi della luce”,
cioè “rivestitevi... del Signore Gesù Cristo” (Rm 13, 14). Egli diventi la
norma della vostra vita e del vostro agire, così che in Lui possiate diventare
una nuova creazione. Così rinnovati, potrete rinnovare il mondo in Cristo, in
virtù della missione, innestata in voi già dal Sacramento del Battesimo.
Oggi la Chiesa rende
grazie a Dio per sant’Eugenio de Mazenod, apostolo del suo tempo, il quale,
rivestitosi del Signore Gesù Cristo, spese la sua vita nel servizio al Vangelo
di Dio. Rendiamo grazie a Dio per la grande trasformazione compiutasi
mediante l’opera di questo Vescovo. Il suo influsso non si limita all’epoca in
cui egli visse, ma continua ad agire anche sul nostro tempo. Infatti il bene
compiuto in virtù dello Spirito Santo non perisce, ma dura in ogni “ora” della
storia.
Ne siano rese grazie a Dio!
© Copyright 1995 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pomnik
św. Eugeniusza de Mazenod w Lublińcu
Lunedì, 4 dicembre 1995
Cari Fratelli nell’Episcopato,
Cari amici Oblati di Maria Immacolata,
Cari Fratelli e Sorelle,
1. All’indomani del
giorno in cui ho potuto elevare Monsignor de Mazenod alla gloria degli altari,
è per me una gioia ritrovarvi e nuovamente accogliervi presso la tomba di San
Pietro, per il quale egli nutriva grandissima venerazione.
Desidero innanzitutto
rivolgere un cordiale saluto di benvenuto a tutti i membri della famiglia
terrena di Sant’Eugenio de Mazenod. La canonizzazione del vostro congiunto
nella carne, ora divenuto cittadino dei cieli e “concittadino dei Santi” (Ef 2,
19), ricorda a tutti l’importanza dell’educazione cristiana impartirla nelle
famiglie sin dall’infanzia. Come è noto, vengono spesso citate le parole
rivolte dal giovane Eugenio a uno zio che intendeva dissuaderlo dal diventare
sacerdote: “E perché mai, zio? Non sarebbe un grande onore per il nostro nome
estinguersi con un sacerdote?”. Fu la fede a ispirare questa frase, una fede
destata e maturata grazie all’opera di genitori profondamente cristiani,
animati dall’amore per Cristo e la sua Chiesa.
Famiglie cristiane, la
vostra missione è fondamentale! Nella grande tradizione cui diede, in
particolare, vanto San Francesco di Sales, Eugenio scriveva a sua sorella da
poco sposa: “Il matrimonio è santo, non può quindi essere di ostacolo alla
santità” (4.XII.1808, Scritti spirituali, XIV 92). Nel celibato consacrato
come nel matrimonio, il Signore, il solo santo (cf. Is 6, 3), rende
partecipi della sua santità.
2. Dal giorno della sua
ascesa al seggio episcopale di Marsiglia, per Monsignor de Mazenod la sua
famiglia fu tutta la sua diocesi. Desidero qui con piacere salutare la
delegazione di pellegrini marsigliesi giunti sotto la guida di Monsignor
Bernard Panafieu, e in particolare i giovani del Collegio de Mazenod. È a voi nota
la cura con cui il Vescovo percorse e riorganizzò la sua diocesi subito dopo la
scristianizzazione operata dalla Rivoluzione. Attraverso le visite pastorali,
la fondazione di parrocchie e seminari, la riforma del clero, la celebrazione
della liturgia, la predicazione alle folle e un immenso amore per i poveri,
egli non smise mai di fare del popolo a lui affidato “una stirpe eletta, un
sacerdozio regale, una nazione santa” (1 Pt 2, 9).
Quasi quaranta anni di un
ministero estremamente fecondo: una tale durata non sarebbe stata né possibile
né immaginabile senza un profondo amore per la Chiesa. Sant’Eugenio doveva
amare la Chiesa che Cristo voleva si presentasse “senza macchia, né ruga, né
alcun difetto; la voleva santa e immacolata” (cf. Ef 5, 27). Per questo
motivo aiutava tutti ad aprirsi alla Chiesa universale, a vivere in unione con
il Vescovo di Roma, a essere solleciti verso i bisogni spirituali e materiali
del mondo intero. Mai, nelle difficoltà che non gli furono risparmiate, perse
la speranza.
3. La sua attività
pastorale è una chiara testimonianza a favore della pace tra i figli e le
figlie della Chiesa. Desidero cogliere questa occasione per salutare in modo
del tutto particolare i pellegrini giunti dalla Corsica e guidati da Monsignor
André Lacrampe. Il nuovo Santo che veneriamo aveva mandato degli Oblati di
Maria Immacolata a Vico e ad Aiaccio per reggervi il seminario. Restate fedeli
al suo spirito. Vi esorto vivamente nel vostro cammino di pace e
riconciliazione. L’isola della Bellezza deve superare le divisioni, fonte di
sofferenza. Invoco con sollecitudine l’intercessione di Sant’Eugenio per voi e
per tutti gli abitanti della Corsica. Siate fedeli alla vostra profonda
vocazione di uomini e donne ospitali, generosi e fieri della loro fede!
4. E voi, cari Oblati di
Maria Immacolata, è per me una gioia ancora una volta incontrarvi e confermarvi
nella missione ricevuta da Cristo per il tramite del vostro Fondatore. Sono
trascorsi venti anni dalla sua beatificazione e nel corso di questi anni avete lavorato
con ancora maggiore dedizione per conoscerlo meglio voi e farlo conoscere agli
altri. Così come la vostra Regola vi esorta, continuate a “seguire le orme di
Gesù Cristo” e, nel far ciò, a “cercare di essere santi”, camminando
“coraggiosamente lungo le vie percorse da così tanti operai del Vangelo”.
Dinanzi a voi si apre un
campo ancora vasto di apostolato: cosa stimolante e, al tempo stesso,
impegnativa. L’evangelizzazione dei poveri continua a essere la principale
preoccupazione della Chiesa. Come ho avuto modo di dire nella mia lettera
enciclica Redemptoris
Missio, l’attività missionaria vera e propria, ovvero la missione ad
gentes, “si caratterizza come l’opera di annunzio del Cristo e del suo Vangelo,
di edificazione della Chiesa locale, di promozione dei valori del Regno” (Redemptoris
Missio, 34). La santità delle vostre vite vi rende zelanti missionari per
l’evangelizzazione dei cristiani e dei non cristiani. Mi è ben noto il vostro
entusiasmo. Continuate a dare priorità all’annunzio di Cristo, fedeli al vostro
motto: “evangelizzare i poveri”. Grazie alla vostra vita comunitaria, alla
fedeltà al vostro Fondatore, non cesserete mai di produrre frutti, come la
presenza di molti Vescovi della vostra Congregazione chiaramente attesta.
5. Oltre alle persone
consacrate anche i laici devono molto al nuovo Santo. Cari fedeli laici, voi
che operate nelle attività apostoliche promosse dagli Oblati, vi rendete ben
conto di tale collaborazione finalizzata a rendere sempre più incisivo lo
sforzo missionario della Chiesa. Sant’Eugenio mirava a far sì che, in Cristo,
ognuno potesse diventare un uomo completo, un cristiano autentico, un santo
credibile. Quest’impegno sia pure il vostro. So che con animo generoso, molti
tra di voi sostengono attivamente la missione degli Oblati grazie
all’Associazione missionaria di Maria Immacolata. Attraverso la preghiera e la
larghezza dei loro doni, essi apportano un significativo contributo all’opera
evangelizzatrice intrapresa da Sant’Eugenio oltre un secolo fa. Continuate,
carissimi Fratelli e Sorelle a ispirarvi sempre più alla spiritualità e al suo
zelo missionario.
6. Desidero rivolgere un
cordiale saluto di benvenuto ai pellegrini giunti dalla Polonia e da varie
parti del mondo per la canonizzazione di Eugenio de Mazenod.
Questo grande Vescovo e
Fondatore degli Oblati di Maria Immacolata ci è stato dato, attraverso la
Chiesa, come esempio di eroica fede, di speranza e di amore. Il suo apostolato
consisteva nel trasformare il mondo con la forza del santo Vangelo di Cristo.
Seguiamo la strada che ci ha indicato Sant’Eugenio e possa l’amore per Cristo e
per la Chiesa continuare a crescere in noi e a produrre frutti dello spirito.
7. Anche ai pellegrini
tedeschi rivolgo un benvenuto di cuore. Avete una ragione particolare per
gioire, perché quest’anno potete festeggiare il centenario della Fondazione
della Provincia tedesca degli Oblati. La fondazione di nuove diocesi in
Namibia, Sudafrica e America Latina è dovuta in particolar modo agli Oblati di
origine tedesca. Proseguite su questa via tracciata da Sant’Eugenio. Sono
felice di esservi vicino in questo con il pensiero e di sostenervi con la mia
preghiera.
8. Vi saluto
cordialmente, cari pellegrini di lingua spagnola. Siete venuti numerosi da
lontano e tra voi vedo molti giovani. Sapete già che i giovani sono coraggiosi
missionari di altri giovani. Per questo Cristo vi affida la missione di
diffondere la Buona Novella della sua Risurrezione, specialmente fra i movimenti
che seguono lo spirito di Sant’Eugenio.
Che il Signore susciti
anche molte e sante vocazioni fra di voi!
9. Infine, saluto
cordialmente tutti gli altri pellegrini qui presenti. Carissimi, vedete come la
canonizzazione di un santo offra a Roma l’occasione di mostrare l’immagine
della Chiesa universale.
Vi auguro di ritornare nei vostri Paesi pieni di fede e fiduciosi nell’avvenire
della Chiesa una, santa, cattolica ed apostolica.
Benedetto sia Dio che ci ha fatto sperimentare in questi giorni, a quale comunione
d’amore chiama i santi e, per loro intercessione, “ogni uomo venuto in questo
mondo” (Gv 1, 9)! Vi affido tutti a Sant’Eugenio de Mazenod, e di cuore
imparto a ciascuno una speciale Benedizione Apostolica.
© Copyright 1995 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Eugènio de Mazenod (1782-1861)
Vescovo di Marsiglia, fondatore della Congregazione dei Missionari Oblati di Maria Immacolata
CARLO GIUSEPPE EUGENIO DE
MAZENOD fece la sua entrata in un mondo destinato a cambiare molto rapidamente.
Nato a Aix in Provenza, nel sud della Francia il 1° agosto 1782 sembrava che
avesse ereditato sia rango che ricchezza dalla sua famiglia, entrata non da
molto tempo nella nobiltà di toga. Lo scompiglio della rivoluzione francese
venne a rovesciare tutto ciò per sempre. All'età di otto anni Eugenio fu
costretto a fuggire dalla Francia con la sua famiglia, abbandonando tutte le
proprietà e cominciando così un periodo di undici anni di esilio sempre più
penoso.
Gli anni in Italia
La famiglia de Mazenod,
rifugiati politici, si trascinò attraverso una serie di città in Italia. Il
padre, che in patria era Presidente della Corte dei Conti, fu costretto a
cimentarsi nel commercio per mantenere la sua famiglia. Ben presto però si
accorse di non aver la stoffa del commerciante e col passar degli anni la
famiglia giunse alle soglie della miseria. Dopo Nizza, Eugenio studiò per poco
tempo nel Collegio dei Nobili a Torino e quindi lo spostamento a Venezia
significò per lui la fine dell'istruzione scolastica regolare. Nella città
della laguna si imbatté in un bravo prete, vicino di casa, Don Bartolo Zinelli,
che si fece maestro del giovane emigrato. Don Bartolo diede all'adolescente
Eugenio un'istruzione fondamentale accompagnata da un profondo senso di Dio e
da un regime di pietà che conservò per tutta la vita, nonostante gli alti e
bassi di un certo periodo.
Un ulteriore spostamento
a Napoli, per motivi finanziari lo fece piombare nella noia e nel
disorientamento. Ma la peregrinazione non era ancora terminata. Fu Palermo ad
accogliere i rifugiati e qui Eugenio intraprese un periodo di tranquillità
grazie soprattutto al Duca e alla Duchessa di Cannizzaro. La frequentazione di
questa famiglia nobile e della vita di corte lo indusse ad assumere il titolo
di Conte facendogli assaporare un futuro brillante.
Ritorno in Francia: il
Sacerdozio
Nel 1802, all'età di 20
anni, Eugenio poté tornare nella sua patria. Questo contatto fece svanire i
suoi sogni come d'incanto. Si accorse di essere un semplice cittadino. La
Francia era totalmente cambiata; i suoi genitori si separarono; sua madre stava
lottando per riavere le sue proprietà e allo stesso tempo si affannava a
procurargli in moglie una ricca ereditiera. Cadde in una triste depressione,
con un futuro incerto. Fu in questo periodo che si risvegliarono in lui il
senso di altruismo insieme ai sentimenti di fede provati a Venezia. Guardandosi
attorno osservò la situazione disastrosa della Chiesa in Francia, umiliata e
decimata dalla rivoluzione. Sentì la chiamata al sacerdozio e la prese in
considerazione. Nonostante l'opposizione della madre entrò nel seminario di S.
Sulpizio a Parigi e il 21 dicembre 1811 fu ordinato prete ad Amiens.
Immersione
nell'apostolato: Oblati di Maria Immacolata
Ritornato ad Aix non si
rinchiuse in una parrocchia, ma mise il suo sacerdozio al servizio dei più
abbandonati: detenuti, giovani, servi contadini. Il clero locale gli fece una
dura opposizione, ma egli continuò la sua strada. Dopo qualche anno cercò dei
collaboratori, ugualmente motivati, che lasciarono le vecchie strutture per
unirsi a lui. Eugenio e i suoi compagni predicavano in provenzale, la lingua
del popolino, non nel francese ufficiale. Di villaggio in villaggio
rievangelizzavano la gente passando anche lunghe ore in confessionale. Tra una
missione e l'altra il gruppo viveva un'intensa vita di comunità dedita alla
preghiera e allo studio. Si chiamarono " Missionari di Provenza ".
Per assicurare più continuità al suo lavoro, Eugenio pensò di andare a Roma e
domandare al Papa che il suo gruppo fosse riconosciuto come Istituto di diritto
Pontificio.
La sua fede e costanza
furono premiate. Il 17 febbraio 1826 il Papa Leone XII approvò la Congregazione
col nome di " Oblati di Maria Immacolata ". Eugenio fu eletto
Superiore Generale e continuò ad ispirare e guidare i suoi uomini per 35 anni
fino alla sua morte. Di pari passo con il lavoro apostolico, predicazioni,
gioventù, santuari, cappellani di carceri, confessori, direzione di seminari,
parrocchie, Eugenio inculcò una profonda formazione spirituale e una autentica
vita di comunità. Fu uno che amò Cristo con passione e fu sempre pronto a
rispondere alle necessità della Chiesa in varie forme di apostolato. La "
gloria di Dio, il bene della chiesa e la santificazione della anime "
erano in cima ai suoi pensieri.
Vescovo di Marsiglia
La diocesi di Marsiglia
era stata soppressa dopo il Concordato del 1802 e quando fu ristabilita, il
vecchio zio di Eugenio, Canonico Fortunato de Mazenod, ne divenne vescovo. Egli
nominò Eugenio suo Vicario Generale e così la maggior parte del lavoro nella
ricostruzione della diocesi cadde sulle sue spalle. Dopo pochi anni, nel 1832,
Eugenio venne nominato vescovo ausiliare.
L'ordinazione episcopale
ebbe luogo a Roma, non badando alle pretese del governo francese che si
arrogava diritti di approvazione su tali nomine. Ne venne fuori un'amara
battaglia diplomatica. Eugenio si trovò nel mezzo della bufera frastornato da
accuse, malintesi, minacce e recriminazioni.
Fu per lui un tempo di
dure prove, accresciute anche dalle difficoltà della sua famiglia religiosa.
Anche se scosso, Eugenio
seguì il suo corso con determinazione e finalmente riapparve la calma. Cinque
anni più tardi, dopo le dimissioni dello zio, fu nominato vescovo di Marsiglia.
Un cuore grande come il
mondo
Anche se Eugenio aveva
fondato gli Oblati di Maria Immacolata principalmente per la povera gente di
campagna, il suo zelo per il Regno di Dio e il suo attaccamento alla Chiesa
spinsero gli Oblati verso nuove frontiere. I suoi uomini si avventurarono in
Svizzera, Inghilterra, Irlanda. A causa del suo zelo Eugenio fu soprannominato
" un secondo Paolo " e i vescovi missionari andavano da lui per
domandargli Oblati per i loro vasti campi di missione. Eugenio rispose a cuore
aperto nonostante il loro piccolo numero e mandò i suoi uomini nel Canada,
Stati Uniti, Ceylon (attuale Sri Lanka) Sud Africa, Basutoland (attuale
Lesotho). I missionari, della stessa sua tempra, si aprirono a ventaglio
predicando, battezzando, curando. Spesso scoprirono nuove terre, fondarono
nuove diocesi e, in una parola " non lasciarono nulla di intentato per
l'avanzamento del Regno di Cristo ". Negli anni che seguirono, la spinta
della missione oblata continuò e anche oggi l'impulso di Eugenio de Mazenod è
vivo nei suoi uomini in 68 paesi diversi.
Pastore della sua diocesi
Durante questo fermento
di attività missionaria, Eugenio era allo stesso tempo un pastore di primo
piano nella Chiesa di Marsiglia, dando alla diocesi le strutture necessarie:
seminario modello, nuove parrocchie, cattedrale, santuario di Nostra Signora
della Guardia, santità dei sacerdoti, presenza di altre Congregazioni
Religiose, difesa dei diritti del Papa. Era diventato una figura di spicco
nella Chiesa di Francia. Nel 1856 Napoleone III lo nominò senatore e alla sua
morte era il decano dei vescovi di Francia.
Eredità di un santo
Il 21 maggio 1861 Eugenio
ritornò al suo Dio, all'età di 79 anni, dopo una vita colma di opere, molte di
esse nate nella sofferenza. Per la sua famiglia religiosa e la diocesi fu una
sorgente di vita; per Dio e per la Chiesa fu un figlio fedele e generoso. Sul
letto di morte lasciò agli Oblati il suo testamento: " Tra di voi la
carità, la carità, la carità; e al di fuori lo zelo per le anime ". La
Chiesa, dichiarandolo santo il 3 dicembre 1995, incorona questi due cardini
della sua vita: amore e zelo. E questo è il più grande dono che Eugenio de
Mazenod, Oblato di Maria Immacolata, può offrirci.<
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19951203_de-mazenod_it.html
Charles Joseph Eugène de
Mazenod
(1782-1861)
Beatificazione:
- 19 ottobre 1975
- Papa Paolo VI
Canonizzazione:
- 03 dicembre 1995
- Papa Giovanni
Paolo II
- Basilica Vaticana
Ricorrenza:
- 21 maggio
Vescovo di Marsiglia,
che, per portare il Vangelo tra i poveri, istituì la Congregazione dei
Missionari Oblati di Maria Immacolata e per circa venticinque anni diede lustro
alla sua Chiesa con le virtù, le opere, la predicazione e gli scritti;
a causa del suo zelo fu soprannominato "un secondo Paolo" e i
vescovi missionari andavano da lui per domandargli Oblati per i loro vasti campi
di missione
"Tra di voi la
carità, la carità, la carità; e al di fuori lo zelo per le anime"
Charles Joseph Eugène de
Mazenod fece la sua entrata in un mondo destinato a cambiare molto
rapidamente. Nato a Aix in Provenza, nel sud della Francia il 1° agosto 1782
sembrava che avesse ereditato sia rango che ricchezza dalla sua famiglia,
entrata non da molto tempo nella nobiltà di toga. Lo scompiglio della
rivoluzione francese venne a rovesciare tutto ciò per sempre. All'età di otto
anni fu costretto a fuggire dalla Francia con la sua famiglia, abbandonando
tutte le proprietà e cominciando così un periodo di undici anni di esilio sempre
più penoso.
La famiglia de Mazenod,
rifugiati politici, si trascinò attraverso una serie di città in Italia. Il
padre, che in patria era Presidente della Corte dei Conti, fu costretto a
cimentarsi nel commercio per mantenere la sua famiglia. Ben presto però si
accorse di non aver la stoffa del commerciante e col passar degli anni la
famiglia giunse alle soglie della miseria. Dopo Nizza, Eugène studiò per
poco tempo nel Collegio dei Nobili a Torino e quindi lo spostamento a Venezia
significò per lui la fine dell'istruzione scolastica regolare. Nella città
della laguna si imbatté in un bravo prete, vicino di casa, Don Bartolo Zinelli,
che si fece maestro del giovane emigrato. Don Bartolo diede all'adolescente
Eugène un'istruzione fondamentale accompagnata da un profondo senso di Dio
e da un regime di pietà che conservò per tutta la vita, nonostante gli alti e
bassi di un certo periodo.
Un ulteriore spostamento
a Napoli, per motivi finanziari lo fece piombare nella noia e nel
disorientamento. Ma la peregrinazione non era ancora terminata. Fu Palermo ad
accogliere i rifugiati e qui Eugène intraprese un periodo di tranquillità
grazie soprattutto al Duca e alla Duchessa di Cannizzaro. La frequentazione di
questa famiglia nobile e della vita di corte lo indusse ad assumere il titolo
di Conte facendogli assaporare un futuro brillante.
Nel 1802, all'età di 20
anni, Eugène poté tornare nella sua patria. Questo contatto fece svanire i
suoi sogni come d'incanto. Si accorse di essere un semplice cittadino. La
Francia era totalmente cambiata; i suoi genitori si separarono; sua madre stava
lottando per riavere le sue proprietà e allo stesso tempo si affannava a
procurargli in moglie una ricca ereditiera. Cadde in una triste depressione,
con un futuro incerto. Fu in questo periodo che si risvegliarono in lui il
senso di altruismo insieme ai sentimenti di fede provati a Venezia. Guardandosi
attorno osservò la situazione disastrosa della Chiesa in Francia, umiliata e
decimata dalla rivoluzione. Sentì la chiamata al sacerdozio e la prese in
considerazione. Nonostante l'opposizione della madre entrò nel seminario di S.
Sulpizio a Parigi e il 21 dicembre 1811 fu ordinato prete ad Amiens.
Ritornato ad Aix non si
rinchiuse in una parrocchia, ma mise il suo sacerdozio al servizio dei più
abbandonati: detenuti, giovani, servi contadini. Il clero locale gli fece una
dura opposizione, ma egli continuò la sua strada. Dopo qualche anno cercò dei
collaboratori, ugualmente motivati, che lasciarono le vecchie strutture per
unirsi a lui. Eugène e i suoi compagni predicavano in provenzale, la
lingua del popolino, non nel francese ufficiale. Di villaggio in villaggio
rievangelizzavano la gente passando anche lunghe ore in confessionale. Tra una
missione e l'altra il gruppo viveva un'intensa vita di comunità dedita alla
preghiera e allo studio. Si chiamarono " Missionari di Provenza ".
Per assicurare più continuità al suo lavoro, pensò di andare a Roma e domandare
al Papa che il suo gruppo fosse riconosciuto come Istituto di diritto Pontificio.
La sua fede e costanza
furono premiate. Il 17 febbraio 1826 il Papa Leone XII approvò la Congregazione
col nome di " Oblati di Maria Immacolata ". Fu eletto Superiore
Generale e continuò ad ispirare e guidare i suoi uomini per 35 anni fino alla
sua morte. Di pari passo con il lavoro apostolico, predicazioni, gioventù,
santuari, cappellani di carceri, confessori, direzione di seminari, parrocchie,
inculcò una profonda formazione spirituale e una autentica vita di comunità. Fu
uno che amò Cristo con passione e fu sempre pronto a rispondere alle necessità
della Chiesa in varie forme di apostolato. La " gloria di Dio, il bene
della chiesa e la santificazione della anime " erano in cima ai suoi
pensieri.
La diocesi di Marsiglia
era stata soppressa dopo il Concordato del 1802 e quando fu ristabilita, il
vecchio zio di Eugène , Canonico Fortunato de Mazenod, ne divenne vescovo.
Egli nominò Eugène suo Vicario Generale e così la maggior parte del lavoro
nella ricostruzione della diocesi cadde sulle sue spalle. Dopo pochi anni, nel
1832, Eugène venne nominato vescovo ausiliare.
L'ordinazione episcopale ebbe luogo a Roma, non badando alle pretese del governo francese che si arrogava diritti di approvazione su tali nomine. Ne venne fuori un'amara battaglia diplomatica. Eugène si trovò nel mezzo della bufera frastornato da accuse, malintesi, minacce e recriminazioni.
Fu per lui un tempo di
dure prove, accresciute anche dalle difficoltà della sua famiglia religiosa.
Anche se scosso, seguì il suo corso con determinazione e finalmente riapparve
la calma. Cinque anni più tardi, dopo le dimissioni dello zio, fu nominato
vescovo di Marsiglia.
Anche se aveva fondato
gli Oblati di Maria Immacolata principalmente per la povera gente di campagna,
il suo zelo per il Regno di Dio e il suo attaccamento alla Chiesa spinsero gli
Oblati verso nuove frontiere. I suoi uomini si avventurarono in Svizzera,
Inghilterra, Irlanda. A causa del suo zelo fu soprannominato "un secondo
Paolo" e i vescovi missionari andavano da lui per domandargli Oblati per i
loro vasti campi di missione. Eugène rispose a cuore aperto nonostante il
loro piccolo numero e mandò i suoi uomini nel Canada, Stati Uniti, Ceylon
(attuale Sri Lanka) Sud Africa, Basutoland (attuale Lesotho). I missionari,
della stessa sua tempra, si aprirono a ventaglio predicando, battezzando,
curando. Spesso scoprirono nuove terre, fondarono nuove diocesi e, in una
parola "non lasciarono nulla di intentato per l'avanzamento del Regno di
Cristo". Negli anni che seguirono, la spinta della missione oblata
continuò e anche oggi l'impulso di Eugène de Mazenod è vivo nei suoi
uomini in 68 paesi diversi.
Durante questo fermento
di attività missionaria, Eugène era allo stesso tempo un pastore di primo
piano nella Chiesa di Marsiglia, dando alla diocesi le strutture necessarie:
seminario modello, nuove parrocchie, cattedrale, santuario di Nostra Signora
della Guardia, santità dei sacerdoti, presenza di altre Congregazioni
Religiose, difesa dei diritti del Papa. Era diventato una figura di spicco
nella Chiesa di Francia. Nel 1856 Napoleone III lo nominò senatore e alla sua
morte era il decano dei vescovi di Francia.
Il 21 maggio 1861
Eugène ritornò al suo Dio, all'età di 79 anni, dopo una vita colma di
opere, molte di esse nate nella sofferenza. Per la sua famiglia religiosa e la
diocesi fu una sorgente di vita; per Dio e per la Chiesa fu un figlio fedele e
generoso. Sul letto di morte lasciò agli Oblati il suo testamento: "Tra di
voi la carità, la carità, la carità; e al di fuori lo zelo per le anime".
La Chiesa, dichiarandolo santo il 3 dicembre 1995, incorona questi due cardini
della sua vita: amore e zelo.
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/charles-joseph-eugene-de-mazenod.html
Statue
de Monseigneur de Mazenod à l'entrée de la crypte de la basilique
Notre-Dame de la Garde à Marseille
Den hellige Eugenius de
Mazenod (1782-1861)
Minnedag:
21. mai
Den hellige Eugenius (fr:
Eugène) ble født som Karl Josef Eugenius de Mazenod (fr: Charles-Joseph-Eugène)
den 1. august 1782 i Aix-en-Provençe i departementet Bouches-du-Rhône i
regionen Provençe-Alpes-Côte d'Azur i Sør-Frankrike. Han ble døpt dagen etter i
Église de la Madeleine. Han var den andre av tre barn av Charles-Antoine de
Mazenod, som da var en av presidentene for revisjonsretten i Provençe, og hans
hustru Marie-Rose Eugénie Joannis. Faren var adelig og fattig, mens moren kom fra
en rik middelklassefamilie. Barnas barndomsår var lykkelige, selv om mormoren
og en nevrotisk tante aldri lot faren glemme at det var de som hadde brakt
pengene til familien. I Eugenius’ hus var det tolv tjenere, og som barn fikk
han dem noen ganger til å stå stille og lytte til hans foredrag, som
etterlignet predikantenes.
Eugenius påbegynte sin
skolegang på Collège Bourbon, men i 1789 brøt Den franske revolusjon ut, hvor
den senere revolusjonshelten grev Mirabeau hisset pøbelen opp mot adelen. Da
noen adelige ble hengt av mobben i Aix den 14. desember 1790, flyktet president
Mazenod til Nizza (Nice) i Italia. Like etter fulgte hans hustru ham i 1791 i
landflyktighet til Italia med sin familie, blant dem den niårige Eugenius.
Familien hadde en svært hard tid som flyktninger. Faren var tvunget til å
forsøke seg som forretningsmann, men der var han en fiasko, og etter hvert
nærmet familien seg virkelig fattigdom.
For å sikre sønnen en
utdannelse, brakte faren Eugenius i september 1791 til adelskollegiet i Torino
i regionen Piemonte i Nord-Italia, som ble drevet av patre fra ordenen
barnabittene. Der lærte Eugenius seg tysk og italiensk. I Torino mottok han sin
første kommunion og ble fermet (konfirmert). Men der skulle han få være i bare
tre år, for den franske revolusjonshæren trengte også inn i Nord-Italia. Med
nød og neppe kom familien de Mazenod seg ned elven Po til Venezia, og der bodde
de fra 1794 til 1797. Da var det slutt på den formelle skolegangen, men
Eugenius fikk en utdannelse fra den lokale presten Bartolo Zinelli. Han tok seg
spesielt av Eugenius og ga ham tilgang til det velutstyrte familiebiblioteket,
hvor unge Eugenius tilbrakte mange timer hver dag. Don Bartolo hadde en stor
innflytelse på Eugenius’ menneskelige, akademiske og åndelige utvikling.
Nok en gang jagde den
franske hæren emigrantene fra Venezia, og flukten for Eugenius, hans far og to
onkler gikk videre til Napoli. Samtidig begynte pengene å ta slutt, for ikke
noe av det faren prøvde seg på, var noen suksess. Denne perioden var preget av
kjedsomhet og hjelpeløshet. Etter mindre enn et år i Napoli flyttet familien
til Palermo på Sicilia. Der ble den syttenårige flyktningen Eugenius invitert
inn i husholdet til hertugfamilien Cannizzaro som en kamerat for deres to
sønner, og den høyt utdannede og dypt religiøse hertuginne Larderia ble som en
andre mor for ham. Men samtidig ble han utsatt for det ville og verdslige livet
blant rike italienske adelige ungdommer. Han kalte seg nå «grev» de Mazenod og
likte dette livet svært godt.
Etter elleve år i eksil
vendte den tyveårige Eugenius i oktober 1802 tilbake til Frankrike. Moren dro
også til Frankrike hvor hun krevde skilsmisse for å redde arven fra beslag,
mens faren ble igjen i Italia av politiske grunner. Eugenius ble først
fengselsadministrator, og i et forsøk på å kreve familiens eiendommer tilbake,
prøvde han å føre foreldrene sammen igjen. Men dette mislyktes og de ble skilt,
noe som var uvanlig på begynnelsen av 1800-tallet. Eugenius var slektens siste
mannlige avkom, og hans mor ønsket at hennes eneste sønn skulle gifte seg så
fort som mulig og så rikt som mulig. Eugenius var også innstilt på å gjenskape
familiens formue ved å gifte seg til velstand, men først fant han ikke noen
kvinne som var rik nok, og da han endelig fant en passende kandidat, døde denne
kvinnen!
Eugenius gjennomgikk i
flere år en indre kamp, på den ene siden trukket mot det verdslige livet han
kjente fra Palermo, og på den andre side mot skjønnheten i det religiøse liv
han hadde sett i Venezia hos Don Bartolo. I et forsøk på å komme til klarhet
begynte han i 1805 å gi katekismeundervisning og arbeide blant
fengselsinnsatte. Langfredag 1807 hadde han en mystisk opplevelse under
tilbedelsen av korset, og den 12. oktober 1808 trådte han inn i Séminaire
Saint-Sulpice i Paris. Det hadde vært stengt under revolusjonen, men var
nå åpnet igjen og ble fremragende ledet av den modige bekjenneren Emery. Den
21. desember 1811 ble Eugenius presteviet av biskop Demandolx i domkirken i
Amiens, hvor han hadde dratt for å slippe å bli presteviet av kardinal
Jean-Sifrein Maury (1746-1817), som da styrte erkebispedømmet Paris mot pavens
uttrykkelige ønske.
Til sin mor skrev
Eugenius: «Dette er hva Gud ønsker av meg, at jeg på en særlig måte vier meg
til hans tjeneste for å gjenopplive troens glød, som er sluknet ut hos de
fattige». I et år var han rektor for seminaret Saint-Sulpice. Til tross for den
personlige risikoen forpliktet han seg til å tjene og hjelpe pave Pius VII
(1800-23), som da var Napoleons fange i Fontainebleau, og dette kostet ham
nesten hans franske statsborgerskap. Deretter begynte han i oktober 1812 sin
prestegjerning i sin fødeby Aix for å arbeide for fanger og fattige i området.
Ofte møtte han motstand fra det regulære presteskapet, men han ignorerte den og
fortsatte sin kurs. Han og hans ledsagere prekte på provençalsk, ikke på
«velutdannet» fransk.
Kontakt med forarmete
ungdommer og krigsfanger inspirerte ham til å vie seg til arbeidet blant glemte
mennesker. Han avslo en prestisjefylt stilling i bispedømmet til fordel for å
nå ut til de fattige. Allerede etter kort tid som prest ble Eugenius klar over
at det var et stort behov for en pastoral fornyelse etter revolusjonen.
Overveldet av alle kravene i denne tjenesten forsto han snart at han måtte
samle en gruppe prester for å arbeide sammen med ham.
I 1816 samlet han i et
gammelt karmelittisk nonnekloster nær sitt barndomshjem i Aix en gruppe prester
i Provençe som også var innstilt på denne oppgaven. Datoen for grunnleggelsen
regnes som 2. januar 1816, og opprinnelig het kongregasjonen «Det provençalske
Misjonsselskapet». Eugenius ble kongregasjonens første leder. Som motto for
kongregasjonen valgte han bibelordet: «Han har sendt meg med gledesbud til de
fattige» (Luk 4,18), og som en konsekvens av det har kongregasjonen alltid lagt
vekt på å arbeide blant samfunnets marginale grupper. Oblatene fortsatte å være
sekularprester i bispedømmene, på samme måte som oblatene av St Karl Borromeus
som kardinal Manning senere grunnla i England.
Eugenius reiste til Roma
i slutten av oktober 1825, og etter lange forhandlinger i de romerske
kongregasjonene fikk kongregasjonen den 17. februar 1826 pavelig approbasjon av
pave Leo XII (1823-29). Samtidig endret den navn til «Oblatfedrenes og
-brødrenes kongregasjon», la Congrégation des Missionaires oblats de
Marie-Immaculée, «Misjonærer viet til tjeneste for Gud under den uplettede
Marias beskyttelse» (Congregatio Oblatorum Missionariorum Beatae Mariae
Virginis Immaculatae – OMI). Men de fortsatte å være begrenset i antall,
og i 1841 var de bare 59.
Bispedømmet Marseille var
nedlagt etter konkordatet mellom Den hellige Stol og Napoleon i 1802. Men det
ble gjenopprettet i 1823, og Eugenius’ aldrende onkel, kannik Fortunatus de
Mazenod (d. 1840), ble utnevnt til biskop av Marseille. Han utnevnte sin nevø
til sin generalvikar, og det meste av det vanskelige arbeidet med å bringe
bispedømmet Marseille i orden igjen, falt på ham. Den 1. oktober 1832 ble han
utnevnt til hjelpebiskop i Marseille og titularbiskop av Icosium av pave Gregor
XVI (1831-46) i strid med den franske regjeringens pretensjoner om at de hadde
rett til å sanksjonere alle slike utnevnelser. Dette forårsaket en bitter
diplomatisk strid. Han ble bispeviet i Roma den 14. oktober av Carlo Odescalchi
(1785-1841), kardinalprest av Santi XII Apostoli og jesuitt det siste året av
sitt liv, assistert av erkebiskop Chiarissimo Falconieri Mellini av Ravenna og
erkebiskop Luigi Frezza, titularerkebiskop av Kalkedon. Mazenods bispemotto
var Pauperes evangelizantur.
Hovedproblemet i det nyopprettede
bispedømmet Marseille (erkebispedømme fra 1948) var den katastrofale
prestemangelen, og halvparten av prestene var i tillegg over seksti år gamle.
Presteseminaret måtte opprettes på nytt. Befolkningen i Marseille var i stadig
vekst, fra 150 000 til 300 000. Det manglet kirker og sogn, og det
fantes ingen mannsklostre lenger, og de elleve kvinneklostrene hadde ennå få
medlemmer. I tillegg kom store politiske vanskeligheter etter julirevolusjonen
i 1830.
Men det lyktes biskop
Mazenod å få en slutt på prestemangelen, hente ulike manns- og kvinneordener
til bispedømmet, opprette tyve sogn, utvikle nye sjelesorgmetoder samt
forsterke og fordype det religiøse liv. Han bygde også valfartsbasilikaen
Notre-Dame de la Garde i neo-bysantinsk stil på en frittliggende høyde overfor
havnebyen Marseille. Der var det allerede i 1214 reist et kapell til Marias ære
av en prest fra klosteret Saint-Victor. Raskt utviklet det seg en valfart dit.
Under revolusjonen var valfartene forbudt under trussel om dødsstraff, og det
gamle nådebildet ble ødelagt. I 1807 ble kulten gjenopprettet i kapellet. Den
gamle skikken ble gjenopprettet da hjemvendte skip kom inn i havnen i
Marseille, fyrte av et kanonskudd mens matrosene knelte på dekk og sang Salve
Regina. Basilikaen ble innviet tre år etter Eugenius’ død.
Eugenius var en mann av
sin tid, og som så mange lojale katolikker var han tilhenger av at paven skulle
beholde sin verdslige makt, men hans Ultramontanisme («På den andre
siden av fjellene», det vil si i Roma) var av et moderat slag. Han ble en leder
i forsvaret av pavedømmet mot de sivile myndighetene og gallikanistene. Han ble
æret så høyt i Roma at han sto på listen over dem som skulle bli kardinaler da
han døde.
Ved saligkåringen i Roma
den 19. oktober 1975 karakteriserte pave Paul VI Eugenius de Mazenod som en
lidenskapelig disippel av Jesus Kristus og en ubetinget forsvarer for Kirken og
dens rettigheter. Den 15. desember 1994 undertegnet den hellige pave Johannes Paul II (1978-2005)
dekretet fra Helligkåringskongregasjonen som godkjente et nytt mirakel på hans
forbønn. Han ble helligkåret den 3. desember 1995 av paven i Peterskirken i
Roma som den første franske biskop siden 1588. Hans minnedag er dødsdagen 21.
mai.
Kongregasjonen begynte
snart å vokse, og de 59 i 1841 var blitt til 415 ved grunnleggerens død tyve år
senere. Allerede i 1841 var de nye misjonærer dratt ut til alle fem
verdensdeler, helt til jordens fjerneste områder «for å forkynne det glade
budskap for de fattige» (Luk 7,22). Ved Eugenius’ personlige innsats blomstret
kongregasjonen i Europa, USA, Canada, Sør-Afrika og Sri Lanka. Pave Pius XI
(1922-39) kalte dem spesialister i vanskelige misjonsoppgaver, for i tillegg
til løftene om lydighet, sølibat og fattigdom avlegger de et spesielt løfte om
utholdenhet. Opprinnelig opererte de ut fra institusjoner som seminarer, men
senere, særlig i Nord-Amerika, tok de seg også av menigheter. I USA utviklet
provinsen som var grunnlagt på midten av 1800-tallet seg til fire regionale
provinser og en femte for fransktalende innvandrere. Ved hans saligkåring var
det 6 000 oblater som arbeidet på fem kontinenter. Oblatfedrene gjør i dag
tjeneste i over førti land, blant disse Danmark, Færøyene, Grønland, Sverige og
Norge, spesielt i Østfold.
Se en side med
bilder: http://www.santiebeati.it/immagini/?mode=album&album=32900&dispsize=Original
Kilder: Attwater
(dk), Attwater/Cumming, Butler (V), Delaney, Bunson, Schauber/Schindler,
Holböck (4), Index99, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN, Infocatho, Heiligenlexikon,
Bautz, santiebeati.it, en.wikipedia.org, vatican.va, world.std.com, omiusa.org,
omilacombe.ca, Katolsk Orientering 18/1995 - Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden
Opprettet: 23. juni 2003
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/emazenod
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate : https://www.omiworld.org/
25th Anniversary of the
Canonization of St. Eugene de Mazenod : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGtHTrE24yw&ab_channel=U.S.ProvinceOblateCommunicationsOffice
Voir aussi : http://www.eugenedemazenod.net/fra/
