Bienheureuse
Anne-Marie Javouhey
Fondatrice de la congrégation
Saint-Joseph de Cluny (+1851)
En pleine Révolution française,
Anne-Marie Javouhey se consacre à Dieu lors d'une messe clandestine. Elle donne
l'instruction aux enfants pauvres en leur ouvrant des classes dans les villages
environnants. Elle catéchise. Après avoir cherché sa voie auprès de plusieurs
maisons religieuses, elle fonde la Congrégation des Sœurs de Saint Joseph de
Cluny. Devant le succès de cette maison ouverte par les sœurs à Paris, le
ministre de la Marine et des Colonies leur demande de tenter l'aventure
Outre-mer. Elles embarquent pour l'île de la Réunion en 1817. Il en est de même
en Guyane, où le gouvernement lui confie la préparation de 500 esclaves à la
liberté. En France, elle fonde un petit séminaire d'où sortiront les premiers
prêtres indigènes du Sénégal. La croissance de la Congrégation est rapide.
Femme forte, entreprenante et réfléchie, Anne-Marie Javouhey sait tout
accueillir et y discerner l'essentiel. Elle ne se contente pas de soulager la
misère; elle travaille aussi à instaurer un ordre social plus conforme à
l'Évangile. A sa mort, 1200 religieuses se trouvent sur les 5 continents.
À Paris, en 1851, la bienheureuse Anne-Marie Javouhey, vierge, qui fonda la Congrégation des Sœurs de Saint-Joseph de Cluny pour le soin des malades et la formation chrétienne des jeunes filles, et la répandit dans les terres de mission.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE :
https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1512/Bienheureuse-Anne-Marie-Javouhey.html
Statue d'Anne-Marie Javouhey, Église paroissiale de
la Nativité de la Vierge, Chamblanc, Côte d'Or, Bourgogne
Bse Anne-Marie Javouhey
Vierge et fondatrice de la Congrégation :
« Sœurs de Saint-Joseph de Cluny »
(1779-1851)
Anne-Marie Javouhey naît à Jallanges (en
Bourgogne, France). Dès 15 ans, elle se mit à soigner les malades et à
instruire les enfants de son village. Pendant la Révolution, elle aidait les
prêtres réfractaires en leur donnant des caches.
À 19 ans, elle veut être
religieuse, mais ses essais restant infructueux, elle décida de créer une école
à Châlons-sur-Saône avec ses trois sœurs. Dans le même temps, elle fonde une
congrégation qu'elle nommera « Sœurs de Saint-Joseph de Cluny ».
Elle établira plusieurs
fondations en France mais s'intéressera très vite aux missions et orientera sa
congrégation dans ce sens, en faisant ainsi le premier ordre de femmes
missionnaires. Elle enverra ses religieuses au Sénégal, en Guyane, dans les
Antilles... Là, ses sœurs créeront des écoles et enseigneront aux esclaves,
l'agriculture, l'économie, etc. les préparant déjà à leur liberté.
Elle meurt à Paris le 15 juillet
1851 et est béatifiée par le vénérable Pie XII en 1950.
SOURCE : https://levangileauquotidien.org/FR/display-saint/ca55e7e8-36b5-485f-a5d8-29a2029fb028
Histoire
d’Anne-Marie Javouhey
10 novembre
2018
Anne-Marie
Javouhey, née le 10 novembre 1779
dans un village de Bourgogne, entend l’appel de Dieu à annoncer dans les cinq
continents son amour pour tous, sans distinction de culture, de religion, de
condition sociale. Voici les dates importantes de sa vie.
Enfance et vocation
Née en 1779 dans un foyer riche de foi, la
fille aînée de la famille Javouhey passe une enfance heureuse dans le village
de Chamblanc, en Bourgogne.
Bientôt, la Révolution française veut détruire la religion
catholique. La jeune Anne catéchise les enfants, guide dans la nuit les prêtres
pourchassés. Dans le petit oratoire du jardin familial, elle passe de longs
moments en prière ; un appel se fait pressant en elle. Dans la nuit du 11
novembre 1798, en présence
d’un prêtre proscrit, de sa famille et d’amis sûrs, elle consacre sa vie à Dieu
pour toujours.
Sœurs de la Charité, puis à la Trappe de la
Valsainte
Tous
les couvents ont été emportés par la tourmente révolutionnaire. Anne Javouhey
se met en quête, d’abord à Besançon où Jeanne-Antide Thouret cherche à faire
renaître des Sœurs de la Charité, puis à la Trappe de la Valsainte, en Suisse,
où elle retrouve Dom de Lestrange. Elle découvre que sa mission n’est pas là et
reprend sa route tâtonnante : catéchisme, accueil d’orphelines, petites
écoles gratuites…
Echecs successifs dans la pauvreté, la misère parfois.
Fondation des soeurs Saint Joseph de Cluny
Le
pape Pie VII s’arrête à Chalon-sur-Saône après avoir sacré empereur Napoléon,
en 1804. Anne et ses trois sœurs vont le rencontrer, il les encourage. D’autres
jeunes filles se joignent à elles. Anne va trouver l’évêque d’Autun qui lui
demande de rédiger une règle de vie puis de solliciter des Statuts pour la société naissante ;
ceux-ci sont approuvés par
l’empereur le 12 décembre 1806.
Le 12 mai 1807,
neuf jeunes filles émettent leurs vœux de religion devant l’évêque d’Autun,
dans l’église Saint-Pierre de Chalon.
« Nous
voilà religieuses ! » écrit Sœur Anne-Marie qui
peut désormais donner libre cours à son dynamisme. Elle obtient la jouissance
du grand Séminaire d’Autun, devenu bien national, y accueille des fillettes
qu’elle éduque et forme au travail manuel. Les blessés de la guerre d’Espagne
affluent,
les sœurs se
transforment en infirmières à leur chevet. Au bout de trois ans il faut
chercher une autre maison ; Balthazar Javouhey achète pour ses filles
l’ancien couvent des Récollets à Cluny. Le
nom de Cluny, lié à celui des Sœurs de Saint Joseph, va bientôt être connu dans
les cinq continents.
L'essor missionnaire
L’appel
de Dieu, peu à peu dévoilé, entraînera les sœurs de Cluny bien loin des plaines
de Chamblanc. Le départ à l’île
Bourbon, terre lointaine et inconnue, exprime la réponse d’Anne-Marie à cet
appel et sa volonté de répondre aux besoins de son temps, quelles
que soient les difficultés. Avant
sa mort, les cinq continents auront vu arriver ses sœurs pour éduquer, soigner,
évangéliser pauvres et riches, enfants et adultes, noirs et blancs, tous
« fils du Père commun ».
En Guyane
" Faire tomber les chaînes injustes, rendre la liberté aux
opprimés. » Isaïe 58
A
Mana, un village est construit, des terres sont défrichées et mises en culture,
des esclaves en fuite sont accueillis, les malades de la lèpre sont installés
dans un lieu verdoyant, des libérations se préparent … Soutenue par la
certitude de faire « l’œuvre de Dieu », malgré oppositions et
critiques, Anne-Marie Javouhey réussit à rendre des centaines d’esclaves
capables de vivre libres, dans le calme.
Bienheureuse
Ardente et intrépide, prompte à aimer et à pardonner, d’une
bonté qui ne connaît ni limites ni entraves, Anne-Marie Javouhey vit une
intense union à Dieu qui se fortifie dans les épreuves et la lance dans le
service inconditionnel des enfants, des malades du corps et de l’esprit, des
gens méprisés, de tous les pauvres qui croisent son chemin.
Ses intuitions
prophétiques, son sens pédagogique, ses initiatives audacieuses, sa puissance
créatrice ont leur source dans sa confiance inébranlable en Dieu et la
certitude de son appel. Chez elle, l’action de grâces jaillit en toute
circonstance. Elle meurt le 15 juillet 1851 à Paris et, le 15 octobre 1950, le pape
Pie XII la proclame bienheureuse.
Dates-clés
1779
10 novembre, naissance d’Anne-Marie Javouhey dans un village
de Bourgogne, en France
1798
11 novembre, elle se consacre à Dieu au cours d’une messe clandestine
1807
Fondation de la congrégation à Chalon-sur-Saône
1812
Acquisition de la maison de Cluny ; la congrégation prend le nom de Saint
Joseph de Cluny
1817
Départ de Sœurs pour l’île Bourbon (La Réunion) et, plus tard, pour le Sénégal,
les Antilles françaises et anglaises, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, l’Inde,
l’Océanie, Madagascar …
1822
La fondatrice part pour deux ans en Afrique : Sénégal, Gambie, Sierra
Leone
1828
Elle va en Guyane, à Mana, jusqu’en 1833
1835
Deuxième séjour de Mère Javouhey en Guyane où le gouvernement lui confie la
préparation de centaines d’esclaves à leur libération
1840
19 septembre : à Paris ordination des trois premiers prêtres sénégalais
formés par les soins de Mère Javouhey
1843
En août retour en France de Mère Javouhey après la libération de tous les
esclaves à Mana
1849
Acquisition de la maison qui deviendra la Maison-Mère, au Faubourg Saint
Jacques, à Paris
1851
15 juillet : mort d’Anne-Marie Javouhey à Paris. Elle laisse plus de 1000
Sœurs réparties en 140 communautés dans les cinq parties du monde.
1950
A Rome, béatification d’Anne-Marie Javouhey par le Pape Pie XII.
2004
Lancée en 2004 dans le cadre de "l’Année internationale de commémoration
de la lutte contre l’esclavage et de son abolition", Chamblanc, Seurre et
Jallanges (les villes de l’enfance de Anne-Marie Javouhey) sont inscrits dans
le projet international de "la Route des abolitions" de l’Unesco.
2011
Les descendants des 185 esclaves libérés par Anne-Marie Javouhey en 1838,
viennent sur les traces de leur « ché Mé » pour planter la forêt de
la mémoire en trois lieux ; Jallanges son village natal, Seurre où elle fut
baptisée et Chamblanc son village d’enfance
SOURCE : https://sj-cluny.org/Histoire-d-Anne-Marie-Javouhey
Anne Marie
Javouhey et le village expérimental de Mana
Anne-Marie Javouhey voit le jour
le 11 novembre 1779, dans le petit village de Jallanges en Côte d'Or, dans le
foyer de Balthazar Javouhey, laboureur aisé et bon chrétien , qui très vite
s'installe à Chamblanc dans le village voisin où elle grandit.
C'est la révolution qui, amenant persécutions
religieuses, schisme et déchristianisation, va marquer la jeune adolescente et
orienter sa vocation. Instruisant les enfants pauvres, elle n'hésite pas,
malgré la terreur et contre la volonté de son père à se consacrer à Dieu.
Déjà s'affirme un caractère que ni les
pressions, familiales d'abord, ni les évènements ne pourront arrêter, ni même
infléchir.
Après avoir été , l'année
précédente, bénie par le Pape Pie VII à Châlon sur Saône, elle prononce ses
voeux, ainsi que ses trois soeurs, et fonde en 1805, sous le nom de Saint
Joseph, une nouvelle congrégation, autorisée officiellement en 1806 par
l'Empereur Napoléon Ier. En 1812, la congrégation s'installe à Cluny et prend
le nom de saint Joseph de Cluny.
Ayant pour but
l'éducation, sa congrégation se voit reconnue et est très vite
appelée, par le Ministre des Colonies à des missions en Outre-Mer. Elle
devient dès lors le premier ordre de femmes missionnaires.
Ainsi, 1817, voit le premier départ de
religieuses à l'île Bourbon, puis en 1819 pour le Sénégal, la Gmbie et la
Sierra Leone. Suivent la Guadeloupe et la Guyane en 1822 puis la Martinique en
1823. Après un premier séjour au Sénégal de 1822 à 1824, elle ouvre à Bailleul
dans l'Oise, le premier séminaire africain de France, d'où sortiront les
premiers prêtres noirs sénégalais en 1840.
En 1828, elle part pour la
Guyane, avec 36 soeurs et 50 émigrants pour la fondation d'une colonie agricole
de Mana, d'où elle rentrera en 1833, après un semi échec.
En 1835, elle retourne en Guyane et recueille
du gouvernement plus de 500 esclaves nègres qu'elle christianise et
initie aux techniques diverses des métiers. Ne concevant la liberté qu'à
travers l'éducation et la capacité à s'assumer, elle démontre que les noirs,
malgré les conditions de l'esclavage, n'en sont pas moins des hommes, et
peuvent accèder à la civilisation et vivrent de leurs capacités à l'égal
des autres. En 1838, elle fait libérer 185 premiers esclaves noirs.
Femme de caractère et d'action, elle se
heurtera inéluctablement à des oppositions de sa hiérarchie et du système
colonial. Face à l'évêque d'Autun, qui veut lui reprendre sa congrégation
et la diriger, elle tiendra bon, malgré des pressions et la calomnie, puis avec
divers soutiens, l'emportera. Ilot de liberté dans un système esclavagiste,
l'expérience de Mana, recevra d'autres appuis avant qu'en 1848, la IIème
république ne généralise dédinitivement l'abolition de l'esclavage.
Revenue en France en 1843, Anne-Marie Javouhey,
fidèle à l'Evangile, ne cessera de poursuivre son oeuvre pour combattre la
misère et développer l'éducation,
En 1950, le Pape Pie XII, proclamera Anne-Marie-Javouhey Bienheureuse et l'année suivante son corps sera ramené à Senlis où elle avait souhaité reposer.
Aujourd'hui, deux siècles après, les Soeurs de Saint Joseph
de Cluny sont plus de 3000 sur 5 continents.
SOURCE : http://www.abolitions.org/index.php?IdPage=1246026190
Blessed Anne Mary Javouhey
Profile
Daughter of a
wealthy farmer, she grew up during
the French Revolution, and saw her family
risk everything by hiding priests. Pious girl who wanted to
devote herself to teaching children and helping
the poor. In 1800 she had a vision
in Besançon where she was surrounded by a group of black children, but did not understand
it at the time.
In 1807, she and eight friends
at Cabillon started the group that would become the Congregation of
Saint Joseph of Cluny, which was formally founded in 1812 when the group
purchased an old friary at Cluny to act of
mother-house. The group was dedicated to teaching, and soon became famous
for its innovative techniques. Anne established houses in Europe, Africa, and South America.
In 1834 the French government sent
her to French Guiana where she was to teach 600 Guianan slaves who were about to
receive their freedom. She spent nine years there teaching, fulfilling her vision. In 1843 she returned to
her homeland to work on establishing houses in other countries.
Born
- 10 November 1779 at Jallanges, France
- 21 May 1937 by Pope Pius XI (decree of heroic virtues)
SOURCE :
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-anne-mary-javouhey/
Venerable Anne-Marie Javouhey
Foundress
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, born at Chamblanc, Diocese of Dijon, 11 November, 1779; died 15 July,
1851.
In 1819 the scope of the
new congregation, which had been founded for the alleviation of the miseries
consequent on the Revolution, was extended to embrace foreign
mission work, and in 1822 Mother Javouhey herself established a house of the
sisters at Goree, in West Africa. After two years in Senegal and vicinity, she
passed to the British colony of St. Mary's, Gambia, devoting herself without
stint to the victims of a pestilence then raging. On her return to Senegal she
received the co-operation of the French Government in her first project for
evangelizing negroes, by which a certain number were to
be educated in Europe and sent back as missionaries
to their people. The meagre results, due chiefly to the number of deaths caused
by the difficulty of acclimatization, showed the plan to be impracticable, and it
was abandoned. French Guiana, however, was to be the scene of Mother Javouhey's
most important missionary work. The French Government, after unsuccessful
attempts at colonizing the rich interior of this country, appealed to the
foundress of the Sisters of the St. Joseph, who were already established there.
Having submitted her plans for approval and received full authority, Mother
Javouhey set out for Guiana in 1828, with 36 sisters and 50 emigrants, and soon
had organized a self-supporting colony, in which all the useful arts were
practised. In 1835, two years after her return to France, again at the request of the
Government, she once more went to Guiana to take charge of 520 African negroes, formerly in government service at
Cayenne, whom the authorities wished reclaimed for civilization and Christianity before being granted their
freedom. Harassed as she was by opposition, and even calumny, her success with the negro colony, due largely to her
personal influence with the colonists, was so great that when emancipation was
granted there were no such scenes of disorder as marked similar occasions in
other colonies. The majority of the blacks had become Christians and had learned the ways of
civilization and the value of manual labour.
Long before this Mother
Javouhey had established a leper colony on the banks of the
Accarouary. Even the Indians came within the sphere of her influence; whole
tribes were instructed in the Faith and asked for baptism. On her return to France, in 1843, Mother Javouhey found
fresh trials awaiting her, including, ecclesiastical opposition. Nevertheless she
continued to direct the establishment of new mission houses of her order in all
parts of the world, in addition to over thirty foundations in the various dioceses of France. When the news of the death of
"the mother of the blacks" reached French Guiana, there was general
grief, and most of the inhabitants of her colonies went into mourning as for a
personal bereavement. The cause of Mother Javouhey's beatification was introduced 11 February,
1908.
Rudge, F.M. "Venerable
Anne-Marie Javouhey." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 15 Jul. 2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08326a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was
transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas. Dedicated to Blessed Sr. Alphonsa.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil
Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New
York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is
webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to
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Saints of the Day – Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey
Article
(also known as Nanette)
Born at Jallanges,
Burgundy, France, on November 10, 1779; died Paris, France, July 15, 1851;
beatified in 1950. Anne Marie was the fifth of ten children of a wealthy
farmer, Balthazar Javouhey, and his wife, Claudine. She grew up during the
terror of the French Revolution. She received her First Communion about a week
before the Constituent Assembly in Paris that moved to confiscate all Church
property and required that clergy swear an oath of allegiance to the secular
state. Practicing priests who refused to take the oath were considered to be
criminals; those who took it, including four of 135 bishops and about half the
priests, were excommunicated. Throughout her teen years she became accustomed
to hiding and caring for persecuted priests. She would keep watch as they said
Mass.
At an early age, she
decided that she wanted to devote her life to the poor and the education of
children. When the persecution had ended, she took the veil. At a convent in
Besançon in 1800, she had a vision of Negro children, which was to influence
her later life. After failing to adjust to life in several convents, she and
eight companions founded the Institute of Saint Joseph of Cluny at Cabillon in
1805.
They were clothed by the
bishop of Autun in 1807. Seven years later (1812), they purchased a friary and
moved the congregation to Cluny. The Sisters of Saint Joseph gained renown for
their successful teaching methods. Fired with apostolic zeal, she sent her nuns
to work in far distant regions. She heroically labored for several years
(1828-1832) in French Guyana. In 1834, she was again sent their, this time by
the French government to educate 600 Guyanan slaves who were to be emancipated.
She finally left French Guyana in 1843 and spent her remaining years
establishing new house in Tahiti, Madagascar, and elsewhere (Benedictines,
Delaney).
MLA Citation
- Katherine I
Rabenstein. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info. 4 July 2020.
Web. 15 July 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-blessed-anne-marie-javouhey/>
SOURCE :
https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-blessed-anne-marie-javouhey/
The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century –
Venerable Anne Marie Javouhey
Article
A French officer of high
rank once boasted that he had embraced the greatest man in France, Napoleon,
and kissed the hand of the greatest woman in France, Mother Javouhey. Whence,
as the legend goes, Napoleon once said in a pleasant mood: “I know of only two
good heads in France – my own and Mother Javouhey’s. If she were a man I would
make her a general and give her chief command of one of my armies.” It is only
a legend, but it is evidence of the high opinion universally had of the ability
of the Venerable Anne Marie Javouhey, foundress of the Sisters of Saint Joseph
of Cluny. At the French court, with princes of the Church, and with statesmen,
she possessed great influence. Felicite de Lamennais even after his apostasy
paid her the tribute of his admiration. Mother Javouhey owed her fame in the
eyes of the world to her remarkable skill in organization and the admirable
success of her Congregation at home and in the French colonies. When she was
superior-general she once journeyed to the Gold Coast and twice to Guiana to
organize and develop the mission work of her Sisters. In Guiana she established
a settlement for emancipated slaves after the model of the Reductions of
Paraguay. Her influence in the colony was so great that the envious called her
the “white queen” of Guiana.
To this exterior
activity corresponded a still greater vigor in the work of her own
sanctification from an earnest conviction that she must exert all her powers in
promoting the cause of God.
Anne Marie Javouhey was
a month older than Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat, and like her was born in
Burgundy in the year 1779. Her birthplace was the village of Jallanges. The
dreadful days of the Revolution presented her the first opportunity for the
exercise of her dauntless zeal, when she showed heroic courage by giving
shelter to priests and making possible the celebration of the Holy Mysteries.
She gathered the children of the village about her and went among the people
while they were at work to instruct them in their religion. She was everywhere
welcomed and eagerly listened to. On 11 November 1798, during Holy Mass, which
was said at the altar in the house, she made a vow in the presence of the whole
family to devote herself entirely to God. Twice she tried her vocation in a
Religious Order, but each time when the occasion for taking the habit arrived
her whole spirit rose against it and she felt herself obliged to leave. An
interior voice told her that she was herself to found a Congregation. Assisted
by her three sisters she opened a sort of oratory for poor children. She had
considerable trouble in overcoming the objections of her father. The parish
priest of Chalons-sur-Saone heard of her effective work and in 1805 called her
into his parish to superintend a school. This enabled her to make rapid
progress in the organization of her Congregation. In 181 2 she acquired an old
convent of the Recollects at Cluny, which she transformed into a mother-house.
Thus Cluny once more became the center of a Congregation destined to become
eminent in promoting the interests of the Church. Mother Javouhey knew how to
inspire her daughters with courage and enthusiasm in their difficult vocation.
There was no dearth of novices and of applications for new residences,
especially since in 1817 she had included the foreign missions within the
sphere of her activity. At her death, on 15 July 1851, the Congregation
numbered fully fourteen hundred members and to-day, in spite of the persecution
in France, there are quite four thousand distributed throughout every nation on
earth.
It would be a mistake to
think that in this splendid exterior success the Venerable Mother was not
obliged to travel over the way of the cross. If hers had not been a truly
valiant character and she had not possessed an imperturbable confidence in God,
there were times innumerable when she would have given up her efforts. The
heaviest trials were those which came from the ecclesiastical authorities. In
Guiana she was forbidden the Sacraments for nearly two years; the archbishop of
Paris placed her chapel under interdict; and with other bishops who wished
arbitrarily to change the constitutions of her Congregation she was obliged to
combat strenuously. But never, as the decree introducing the process of her
beatification declares, “did she forget in these bitter trials the duty of
charity or the respect due to authority, a clear indication of her virtue and
sanctity.” So great and yet so humble and modest a soul as Mother Javouhey’s we
seldom meet with in history.
MLA Citation
- Father Constantine Kempf,
SJ. “Venerable Anne Marie Javouhey”. The
Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century: Saintly Men and Women of
Our Own Times, 1916. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 March 2018. Web. 15 July
2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/the-holiness-of-the-church-in-the-nineteenth-century-venerable-anne-marie-javouhey/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-holiness-of-the-church-in-the-nineteenth-century-venerable-anne-marie-javouhey/
The Adventurous Nun: The Story of Anne-Marie Javouhey, by
Michael Richardson
Not many of us, in our
youth, have played cat and mouse with an unjust police force. Few of us have
hidden priests who are hunted because of their unswerving fidelity to their
Religion. Not many teenagers have taught Christian Doctrine at a time when this
was forbidden by law, but, to these charges, Anne-Marie could plead guilty. Who
was Anne-Marie?
Blessed Anne-Marie, born
on 10 November, 1779, at Jallanges, was the fifth of ten children. Her father,
Balthasar, was a well-to-do farmer; her mother, Claudine, a very holy woman. As
a teenager, vivacious Anne-Marie, or Nanette as she was called, loved dress and
dancing and young men’s company. There was a touch of dare-devil in her, which
readily came to the surface, especially during the Revolution, when she
frequently risked life and limb. She was devoted to Saint Bernard and Saint
Martin. She arranged an oratory in her home and a small chapel dedicated to
Saint Anne in her garden. More important, she founded the Sisters of Saint
Joseph of Cluny, was beatified by the Church, and, in the words of Pope Pius
XI, was “the first woman missionary”.
Vigilant Nanette
Our story opens during
the French Revolution in Chamblanc, where her family lived. Nanette used to
teach Catechism because the nuns were either in exile or in hiding. On one
occasion her father, disapproving of his daughter’s daring enterprise, sneaked
up on the unsuspecting class to demonstrate how easily she might be caught, but
his daughter had devised a method of vigilance. Suddenly she was teaching
Arithmetic. Angry at being outwitted, he forbade her to carry on this practice
in the barn. She never disobeyed the order. Instead, the orchard, the garden,
the fields and the road became the classroom, and her prayers became more
devout.
The fury of the
Revolution grew, and Father Ballanche, a hunted priest, found refuge in the
Javouhey home. Seventeen-year-old Nanette passed those spy-filled days accompanying
her father, who talked business while she moved among the people, arranging
rendezvous in old barns, where they might hear night-time sermons, confess
their sins, and attend a dawn Mass. Since she was a great organizer, she used
to send her brother, Etienne, and Jean Petitjean, the young man who hoped to
marry her, on mysterious trips in the Javouhey cart. Under piles of potatoes
and hay, Father Ballanche used to lie, while souls, hungry for spiritual
guidance, awaited him in some lonely place. She taught the younger Javouhey
children to spy, just as today the Communists train children to spy on their
parents and friends. The difference was that the Javouhey children spied to
preserve life, and if any faithful priests were in the area, Nanette was bound
to know.
A Dash of Danger
One night, the scream of
“Open the door in the name of the Republic!” horrified the Javouhey household.
There was no time to bundle Father Ballanche into the attic. Nanette took the
initiative: “Into the cupboard quickly.”
The fugitive slipped in,
swinging the door behind him, but the latch did not catch. Meanwhile Nanette
opened the front door, and four men entered, demanding the priest. Confidently,
the deputy announced that he would have to arrest Balthasar, who, shocked at his
sudden helplessness, heard his daughter chuckle at the whole idea. Her father
could not produce a priest out of thin air. So she invited them to search the
house – which was exactly what they intended.
As the search was
beginning, the unlatched door creaked open. Of all people, it was the deputy
who caught it, and he was about to peer into the cupboard, when Nanette
suggested that her father ought to bring out the wine: “Later we can help them
search for the priest.” One wonders what old Balthasar was thinking as his
daughter asked him to share his wine with the men who had come to arrest him.
He must have been paralysed at the sight of her taking the deputy’s coat and
putting it in the cupboard. This time she shut the door firmly.
At long last, the deputy
was satisfied by the Javouhey’s behaviour. They were too calm to be hiding a
priest. A search would be useless. So, to end the momentous occasion, brother
Pierre returned the deputy’s coat, but left the cupboard door wide open. We are
told that the deputy stared at the cupboard. So did the Javouheys. He left with
his escort and without his prisoner.
Today, priests are still
being hunted. There are more than one thousand million people crushed, captured
behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains. Pray for them and the Church of Silence;
for those in concentration camps and prisons; for the unknown nuns, brothers
and priests who labour to the end. It is we who are the silent church. [Thank
God the Iron Curtain has fallen, but the Bamboo Curtain over China, North Korea,
Vietnam, Laos and Cuba is still in place. There are many other places where
religious freedom is not possible, especially in fanatical Moslem and Hindu
regions of the world.]
Spouse of Christ
One day, shortly after
the priest-hunt, the daring girl revealed her true colours. “Father, I want to
be a nun,” she admitted to Father Ballanche. The priest encouraged her, but
wondered what the future held for a nun at a time when all the convents were
closed. Her father, of course, had other plans for his Nanette and told her so.
That any girl should become a nun was one question but that this girl should be
his daughter was quite another. Yet, to his rebuff Nanette had an answer. She
began a barrage of letters to her father. “My dear father, not all your refusals
discourage me. I think you would tear my heart out, to make me stop wanting to
lead the religious life,” and again “I have promised God to devote myself
altogether to the service of the sick and the education of little girls.”
So finally, very early
in the morning of 11th November, 1798, a small group of people gathered
secretly in an upstairs room. They knew that the girl, dressed as a bride, had
just completed a private retreat, and now they witnessed her taking of vows.
Her three sisters envied her, promising that they too, would be as “happy as
you are now”. Her fellow villagers were pleased, but thought that none of the
usual convents they had known before the Revolution would suit this vivacious
young Mademoiselle.
The Test
Nanette was happy, but
the events of the next few years were unexciting to relate and cruel to bear.
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte directed a coup d’état, and the religious crept out
of exile. After another struggle with her father, Nanette entered the Convent
of the Daughters of Charity, but there she went badly. Her mission to God was
clear, but the kind of mission was not. She preferred to be apart from the
other members; she lost her appetite. She could neither sleep, nor read. She
lost weight, she was losing her vocation, but on she prayed.
One night while kneeling
in distress at her bedside, she asked: “Lord, what would You have me do? Make
Your will known to me.” She promised obedience to God, even if it meant having
to live her whole life in the dark coal-hole, which was near her room and
terrified her. A voice answered her pleading: “You will accomplish great things
for me.” A few nights later, disturbed from sleep, she was horrified to see her
room crowded with coloured children of races she did not know, and in the
middle stood a nun in a strange habit. “These are the children God has given
you. He wishes you to form a new Congregation to care for them. I am Teresa (of
Avila). I will be your protectress,” spoke the strange nun.
This vision occurred in
1800. We twentieth century folk must see visions too. There were once 3,000
street urchins who roamed the alleyways, living on theft and vice. Mario
Borelli had a vision. He became Don Mario who lived with them and won their
hearts so as to win their souls. [Read Morris West’s Children of the Sun: The
Slum Dwellers of Naples (1957) (US title: Children of the Shadows: The True
Story of the Street Urchins of Naples), for a fuller account of this modern
hero.] Visions are not always so clear as Anne-Marie reported: “I seemed to see
– was it a dream? Was it just my imagination? I don’t know – a multitude of
children; poor, sick, weeping, commending themselves to me and reaching out
their arms to me. What especially struck me was a multitude of blacks, men,
women and children, calling me ‘Dear Mother’, and they were so unhappy that
they left for ever afterwards the most vivid impression on me.”
Failure
Next time Balthasar
visited the convent, he found his 20 year old daughter dressed to return home.
The villagers had been right after all. Balthasar thought that now his daughter
would listen to him, but he was disappointed. Instead, she opened schools and
orphanages, and although funds were always insufficient to supply enough food
and furniture, Nanette managed to keep these places open, at least for a time.
Of course, enduring poverty was far from pleasant for Nanette. At one school
she had to sleep on the floor and the conditions were so bad, that horrified
curates returned prospective pupils to their homes. And each project that she started
failed, and each failure depressed her. The life to which God was calling her
would brook no depression, so she entered the Trappistine Convent called “The
Monastery of the Holy Will of God”. This title was to become the motto of her
own Congregation, one day.
Already she had
experience in the direct apostolate with the Daughters of Charity, and by the
end of the Trappistine novitiate, she had the solid spiritual formation,
necessary for her own peculiar vocation. So she left the Trappistines. The day of
her own Congregation was at hand.
Strengthened by the
Trappistine training, Nanette took on more and more work in schools and
orphanages. Her sisters joined her and with financial help from their father,
they began to succeed. Soon, other devoted women helped them and they became
known as the Sisters of Saint Joseph. So, on 12th May, 1807, nine young ladies,
including Balthasar’s four daughters took vows. Nanette retained her baptismal
names, Anne-Marie, while her sisters became Marie-Therese, Marie-Joseph, and
Rosalie. They chose their motto: “The holy will of God.” The Mother Foundress
was 28 years old, and the world awaited her works.
I Have Come to Serve
Restoration of souls,
and sometimes of buildings, became the job of Mother Superior as the Congregation
grew. After renovating the disused diocesan seminary in Chalon, the nuns lived
there for almost three years, when Spanish prisoners of war were sent there.
The nuns cared for what became a prison-hospital, where all types of infectious
diseases spread. Reverend Mother herself caught typhus but she recovered.
Finally, there was no room for the nuns. They migrated to Rue des Rats and then
later (1812) to the historically famous monastery at Cluny, where, in 910,
[Saint] Berno founded the original Benedictine Abbey. This Convent at Cluny
became the Mother House of the Sisters of Saint Joseph until 1849. Hence their
title “of Cluny” was complete. About this time, a minor eruption occurred when
Anne-Marie’s nuns used the Lancastrian system of education, in which older
pupils acted as monitors and taught groups of 10 what the teacher had taught
them. Here was an excellent way to educate large numbers of poor children, for
whom the number of books and teachers was inadequate. The system was
criticized, however, because it was foreign (English) and was supposed to lead
to indifferentism. Despite the adverse criticism of the nuns, the administrator
of the Paris diocese; confident in the Congregation’s ability, had a
Governmental school placed in their care. So successful was the system in the
school that Anne-Marie and her Congregation received unexpected acclaim, and
she became an authority overnight.
Anne-Marie also took on
many diverse tasks. She opened up workshops and a small hostel for people of
modest fortune, a home for war widows and a girls’ orphanage. Even the
foundation of a preparatory seminary is attributed to her.
Senegal
Meanwhile, the
Congregation was spreading outwards. France looked to its colonies and the
Congregation looked to the colonists. So Senegal (West Africa), a very
primitive and unpleasant place, was the first mission to be chosen. Its two
settlements, Goree Island and Saint Louis were surrounded by silent bush, where
unpredictable natives wandered. So poorly equipped was the hospital, that there
were no blankets, beds, eating utensils or mosquito nets. No one even prepared
meals. It was simply a place where wretched Africans went to die. In the end,
Sister Rosalie had to abandon her plans for schools, and concentrate all her
efforts on improving the hospital. Indeed, the Colony was in such a deplorable
state, that Anne-Marie could not resist the temptation. “The climate of Senegal
is very unhealthy, I must go there myself.” she said.
Ship smells and sailors’
shouts farewelled her at the port. She heard the harsh rasp of block and tackle
and she saw men hurrying to their different tasks, before the ship set sail.
Men barked orders. Men struggled under the weight of heavy stores. Men swung
from ropes and climbed ladders, while the officers surveyed the whole scene.
Sailors talked, argued and swore as passengers streamed aboard. Anne-Marie’s
blue habit was part of that colourful chaos, in which nameless people pushed
and shoved their way to some unknown destiny. On board, she felt the ships
floor beneath her feet rise and fall on the gentle swell. There was not long to
go.
Anne-Marie Sought Souls
Then came the time which
thrills sailors and landsmen alike, for who could not love the sight of
billowing canvas, caught by a sea breeze, or the rolling of a ship as it lunges
and slumps across ocean waves? That day, men and women, with their hearts set
on the future, cut themselves off from the rest of the world. Some sought fame.
Some sought fortune. Anne-Marie sought souls.
At Senegal, some months
later, Anne-Marie was overjoyed at meeting her sister Rosalie again, and she
admitted that she had often cried since her departure from France, but she had
also laughed, though not so much. “I have taken a certain amount on myself; our
good Master has added a little of his own – but things have settled down.”
Typical of Anne-Marie,
she moved up the Senegal River through 50 miles of jungle to Dagana, a
trading-centre, where few whites had been, and founded a Mission Centre there.
She had great hopes in native missionaries and yearned for a native clergy, but
the poor example of the whites contradicted her holy life. After treating her
for a tropical disease, one doctor wrote: “I have seen her at work; she is a
saint. I am too old to see her in the calendar; but you will.”
At the request of the
British Governor, she visited Gambia, a British Colony which was used mainly as
a dumping ground for hundreds of slaves taken from Moorish vessels. Anne-Marie
refused to proceed until their degrading situation was improved. Finally, she
left one Sister at Gambia in charge of these improvements, while at the
insistence of the British Governor, she moved on to Sierra Leone, together with
a girl, Florence, whom Sister Rosalie had freed from slavery.
Freetown
Freetown, Sierra Leone,
was no haven, with only one doctor (who was often called away from the town)
and a very filthy dilapidated hospital. Untrained as she was, Anne-Marie spent
those days caring for wounds, setting broken bones and dispensing medicines.
The nights went in weaving mats for beds and improvising rags for blankets.
Corruption had spread its evil tentacles here too, since the British had first
dumped 400 slaves from Moorish vessels and imported 30 prostitutes from London
to increase the population. The mulatto elite took control, and slavery broke
out, among those who had once been slaves. Work was despised. Theft became a
way of life. Despite this, the Mother Superior could only say: “Oh, how can I
thank God for having brought me here! I feel so happy in being able to do so
much good, and soothe so much suffering. If I had only six Sisters with me,
what an amount of good could be accomplished!” About the slaves she wrote: “If
only I had enough money to buy them all and set them free. I will never rest
until this slave traffic is ended and they have all gained their freedom.”
Yellow Fever
Three months slipped by,
when a sudden wave of yellow fever swept through the Colony, changing the
hospital into a morgue. The Governor conscripted workers to cart away the dead.
The doctor arrived to help her, and despite the grave risk of contagion, she
fought the battle against disease for two months, until it struck her down.
Then, somehow, through the constant care of Florence, that native girl, and
against the doctor’s predictions, the nun recovered. By then, the battle
against yellow fever had ended.
One month later, still
so weak from the fever that she had to be carried on board, she retracted her
steps and found, to her horror, that she had left a trail of desolation in her
path. The nun who had remained at Gambia was dead, while the Mother Superior of
Goree Island had proved incapable. One nun had rejected her vows and deserted;
a second had died unattended. With the urgent message for more nuns and better
training sent ahead of her, she returned after two years in Africa to more
strife in France. The Congregation needed her steadying influence.
The Nuns’ Mutiny
Back in France,
Anne-Marie found herself with a mutiny on her hands. The trouble had sprung up
in the French Colony of Bourbon, the island of Reunion, in the Indian Ocean,
where an unfortunate nun had taken upon herself the position of superior.
Because sailing-ships took five months to reach the island, the nun had ample
opportunity to convince nuns, priests and officials of her position as
superior, before the newly appointed nun arrived. The usurper was so stoutly
defended, that after a year’s fruitless waiting, the real superior returned to
France. At last, fully aware of the situation at the Colony, Anne-Marie sent
her own sister Rosalie to take control.
Sister Rosalie herself
met with great opposition, including an attempt to disband the Congregation.
Ironically, the usurper, who intercepted the mail addressed to Rosalie, as she
had done with Rosalie’s predecessor, received the beautiful letter from
Anne-Marie: “Do not let yourself be taken in by sadness; you will be capable of
nothing when you are downhearted. God will judge; we must work.”
But neither the opening
of another’s mail, nor the influence of governor or priest could hold back the
wrath of the mother-country. After some time, Rosalie’s position was confirmed
through both government and ecclesiastical channels. The storm clouds had blown
over.
Holy Hurry
Expansion was the theme
of the day and the Cluny nuns spread from Africa, westwards over into the
Caribbean and South America, and to the East, heroic work was being done at
Pondicherry, in India. Almost simultaneously, the Church approved of the
Congregation’s new rules as the Congregation’s members swelled to 500 scattered
throughout 18 houses in France and the Colonies.
In France, a new mission
was taking shape – nursing the mentally sick. The asylum of Saint Yon at Rouen,
was to become the shelter of 1,350 patients, nursed by 170 Sisters. At Alencon,
80 lunatics, of whom 15 were extremely violent, together with 50 other misfits
who were indiscriminately caged with the lunatics, moved Anne-Marie to action.
Overcoming her repulsion at their screams, their nakedness and their
unpredictable behaviour, she, with 17 nuns and her brother, pacified a jungle
of savage human beings. The “Angels in blue” had won another victory.
About this time, despite
her own depressing work, Anne-Marie wrote to her niece, Sister Clothilde, who
was trying to patch up another’s failure: “Come, my dear; pluck up heart; shake
off your enemy indolence which tells you fairy-tales; don’t listen to the pride
which lurks beneath the (humble) violet; pride that is so afraid of failure,
that people may laugh at it. Pay no attention to ‘What will people say?’ none
whatsoever.”
The Colonial Nun
One of the French
Colonies, Guiana was too hot, too wet, too rugged, too disease-ridden for
anything else but a penal institute on Devil’s Island. It was occupied by
officials, merchants, speculators, paroled or escaped convicts and the usual
group of nonentities who drift towards places where the conscientious arm of justice
only reaches with difficulty.
Colonizing had not been
successful in this area. In 1823, the Government had set up a colony of 164
trades-men and farmers along the banks of the Mana River, some 80 miles from
the capital, Cayenne. Five years later, the number had dwindled to one family,
reduced to the poorest conditions. Realizing its inability to cope with
colonization, the French Government turned to Anne-Marie. The result was that
86 laymen and 36 nuns sailed on two ships for Cayenne in 1828. Anne-Marie was
to direct the Colony as the Government desired, but she intended far more. She
knew of the Indian tribes in the area, the hundreds of slaves imported from
Africa, and the wretched lepers nearby. She had hopes of bringing teen-age
orphans, the sad remains of the Napoleonic wars, from France, so that they
could settle down to a new life, once the Colony was on its feet. This
extraordinary nun, however, did not live in a whirl of dreams. “I am taking you
to Purgatory,” she warned her helpers.
Once at New Angouleme
(Anne-Marie’s new Colony) the farmers and tradesmen all obeyed the nun and
lived a community life, rising for 4 o’clock Mass and stopping work at 10
o’clock because of the oppressive heat; the Angelus and dinner were at noon.
Schooling was for European children, and for Indians and Africans if they so
desired. Particular times were set aside for community and individual works.
For Sisters, Colonists and natives the time-table was the same. All worked for
the betterment of the Colony and all were responsible to one person – a 50 year
old woman, a nun, and, many believe, a Saint.
The Colony advanced so
well, that Anne-Marie was able to leave, for a short time, to inspect two other
Mission Stations on the Caribbean (Guadeloupe and Martinique) but when she
returned, she found that 10 settlers had left. Brother Pierre had inclined to
be dictatorial. Also, the old antipathy which dogs human nature, arose in the
baby Colony. The whites objected to their children being taught in the school
beside black children. Anne-Marie was firm: “I am here, remember, more as a
missionary of God, than a missionary of France.” The African children remained.
The Lepers
We frequently read of
lepers in the Bible, but the biblical terror has been so often repeated in our
readings that it has become rather remote from our own lives. Damien, the
leper-priest, [now canonized,] described leprosy more vividly: “Discoloured patches
appear on the skin, especially on the cheeks, and the parts affected lose their
feeling. After a time, this discoloration covers the entire body; then, ulcers
begin to open, chiefly at the extremities. The flesh is eaten away, and gives
out a fetid odour; even the breath of the leper becomes so foul, that the air
around is poisoned with it. . . . Sometimes, I feel no repugnance, when I hear
the confessions of those near their end, whose wounds are full of maggots.”
Yet, even Damien admitted: “The smell of their filth, mixed with the exhalation
of their sores, was simply disgusting, unbearable to the newcomer. Many times,
in their huts, I have been obliged to run outside to breathe fresh air.”
In our own times, one of
Anne-Marie’s followers describes a frightening scene, soon after she arrived to
work among the lepers at Ducos, New Caledonia: “The cook himself, is a patient
and has not enough of his fingers left to stir his miserable pots. His face is
completely destroyed and he has no lips. He cannot prevent his saliva from
falling into the dishes. Because of his leprosy, he cannot feel the heat and so
there are many burns on his poor feet and arms.”
Deplorable Condition
It was for people like
these, with grotesque and vile-smelling bodies, that Anne-Marie brought her
nuns across the seas. The lepers’ condition was particularly deplorable as when
she arrived, very few had managed to build grass huts, and so the strong, salty
winds bit into their sores. Food was scarce and fresh water rare. It is little
wonder that suicide was their only escape from a wretched, lawless life, where
all kinds of immorality were practised.
One can imagine
Anne-Marie’s joy when she was able to liberate the hundred lepers from their
desolate prison. It was a goal which had taken three years to achieve – three
years of brick-making, of floating the bricks by raft down the Mana River and
back up the Acarouany to the proposed site; of mending clothes; of donating
great stores of food supplies to tide the lepers over the unsettled period,
before their own vegetable gardens could produce. Certainly, the colonists made
great sacrifices for the lepers, thanks to the encouraging and ever-sacrificing
Anne-Marie.
In Troubles and Distress
At the main Colony,
success was not conspicuous. Letters from those settlers who had deserted began
arriving, and within a year, only two families remained. So in 1833, Anne-Marie
left the New Angouleme Colony and its failure. “From the looks of things, you
would not think that I had done anything at all.” Five years’ work seemed lost.
If she left failure at
the Colony, she turned towards trouble in France. The Bishop of the diocese
where the Congregation was founded had taken it upon himself to become its
Superior-General, and he was perfectly satisfied to use any means he could, to
gain his end. Apparently, French bishops, at that time, believed that a bishop
had such a right, when the Mother House of a Congregation was in his own
diocese. Who was the Bishop of Autun? To the faithful he must have been a sad sight.
Born a marquis, commissioned in the French army at 20, he became a priest after
two years’ study, and four years after his seminary training, became Bishop of
Autun. He had important friends, and the Church was to suffer as a consequence.
Indeed, the struggle was to rage for 18 years between the bishop and the
foundress. The story of this trouble makes sad reading and becomes far too
involved for such a short biography. Suffice to say, Anne-Marie suffered much
during this period at the hands of this man. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, still
persecuting the prophets!
Meanwhile, much
agitation was occurring over the issue of slavery.
A Second Try
At last the conscience
of the world was feeling chafed. In 1831 a Bill freeing slaves was passed.
Immediate liberation was impossible, as this would place a financial strain on
the various of the French Colonies’ budgets, especially in the Caribbean area,
so a seven-year probation period was decided upon, during which the slaves were
to prove themselves suitable members of society or be returned to slavery. Back
in French Guiana, 500 slaves walked off the plantations and headed to Cayenne,
the capital, where they were put on the Government pay-roll and sub-leased back
to their old plantations. They needed to learn how to use freedom. In 1835 the
Government sought what they had been looking for, Anne-Marie – a person who
could teach the slaves. Very soon they agreed that a colony should be set up,
not on the New Angouleme site, but on the Mana plateau, which was cooler, less
muggy, and closer to the leprosarium on the Acarouany. As there were only three
years left before the probation expired, the Government suggested that two more
years should be added. Everything was supplied – even priests and a doctor.
Anne-Marie had complete charge; such was the confidence Government officials
had in the 56 year old Cluny foundress. As King Louis Philippe exclaimed:
“Madame Javouhey is a great man.”
En route for Mana, she
inspected the religious houses at Senegal, and remembering that most of the 500
probationers were men, she gathered 60 African women and brought them to
Cayenne – a matter which our own Australian Government neglected when they
began extensive migration for young European males. Naturally, the French
Governor was aghast. Five hundred unruly problems were enough, without
increasing their numbers. Even the captain distrusted the slaves and was afraid
to take them on his ship. Yet by the end of 1836, 520 Africans were safely
installed in the Colony.
Mana
Life at Mana was much
the same as it had been at New Angouleme. A town took shape, complete with
houses in well-planned streets, a chapel, a clinic, a convent for the nuns, and
a dormitory for the unmarried women. Naturally, the social life had its rules
and regulations, as any hostel must.
Settling the town was
not Anne-Marie’s only task. Large areas of land had to be cleared and divided
into suitable blocks for the slaves soon to be freed. They dug irrigation
channels and planted bananas and manioc (a plant with a tuberous root, similar
to a parsnip), so that when the farms were finally occupied they would already
be producing crops and would have a four months’ rice supply. The Colony added
to the competition of the plantation owners by providing small monetary rewards
for successful harvesting of crops, while slaves, still to be freed, fled to
its protection. On one occasion, while Anne-Marie was visiting the leprosarium,
the owner seized his slaves, seeking refuge at the Colony, and burnt one of
them alive. When Anne-Marie returned to the Colony, there was no vessel to take
her to Cayenne, so she completed a forced jungle march of 50 miles, by a route
now known as the Javouhey road. Yet all was in vain. As the Governor pointed
out, how does a court proceed when a black man is on trial before a white
judge, white jury and white witnesses? Such jungle justice is not strange to
our civilized times either. In 1964, some men were tried for the lynch-murder
of three civil rights workers in America. On examining the bodies of the victims,
a pathologist stated: “I have never seen bones so severely shattered, except in
tremendously high-speed accidents, such as aeroplane crashes.” Negro leaders
doubted if any of the accused would be convicted for this atrocity, because of
the all-white jury. They were right. The murderers were acquitted and became
heroes. More and more twentieth-century Anne-Marie Javouheys must step forward
[as must twenty-first-century versions too].[Historical footnote: In 1966
eighteen individuals were tried for the ‘Mississippi civil rights workers
murders’ case (sometimes known as the ‘Mississippi Burning’ case). Seven were
convicted, and after appeals served between 3 and 6 years as their sentence. In
2005 one other (regarded by many as the true ring leader) was sentenced for 20
years on 3 counts of manslaughter.]
Disaster Averted
If civil rights
defenders are called “n—— lovers” today, they were called negrophiles in her
day. Anne-Marie was accused of being one such person, and for a variety
reasons, plantation owners, bishops and priests united in an attempt to remove
her, yet, strangely enough, each attempt was blocked by the arrival of some
Government personage. Although still unaware of the unison and collaboration of
her enemies, she was moved by the Holy Spirit to make a drastic change. She
ordered Sister Rosalie to return from Senegal to France as Superior-General.
This unorthodox move actually saved the Congregation from disaster.
The scandalous behaviour
of her enemies makes poor reading in this story of love, so I have avoided it.
Nevertheless, the following will serve to demonstrate the hatred her enemies
bore her. One night, before leaving the leprosarium, a native warned her that
one of the rowers of the boat in which she would return, was paid by the colonists
to upset it and thus drown her, as she had not learnt to swim. Despite the
warning, the lone white woman sat for four hours, head bowed in prayer, as
always on this trip, and nothing extraordinary happened that time when they
rowed from the leprosarium to Mana. The would-be murderer had faltered because
of her fearlessness.
Slave of the Slaves
Then came the joyful
day, 21st May, 1838, when, after Mass, 185 slaves were emancipated. As one of
them admitted: “We are free now, but we will never be free from the debt we owe
you. We can only repay you with this promise: you will never be ashamed of us.”
We are told that on receiving their charters of freedom, the freed men
immediately handed them to Anne-Marie, the one person they could trust, but to
their simple minds, the proof of their freedom was not the parchment, but the
right to wear boots. The comical expressions accompanying the effort to fit
into the boots which Reverend Mother had provided, added to the joy of the
occasion. “If you could only see this population, whose aspect was so
formidable and uninviting just two years ago,” she wrote to Rosalie. “It is
today so changed, so edifying and, for the most part, so virtuous that I cannot
but see how truly it is the work of God.”
In 1841, Mana was truly
prospering. Four hundred slaves had been emancipated. Anne-Marie’s irrigation
channels had saved and produced the only bumper crops in Guiana during a severe
drought, and, surprisingly enough, a convict at Devil’s Island whom she had met
on her trip to the lepers, had now been liberated, and was supervising the rum
distillery. The Mana community paid for a long shed, in which were four big
vats, and a little railway joining the distillery with the canefields. About
200 other liberated slaves moved into Mana, which, without a single policeman,
was quiet and law-abiding. Everyone was literate, and children received full
education. It was to the nun who organized this idyllic settlement, that Bishop
Guillier, aided in his beliefs by the sickening behaviour of his fellow
colonists and the unreliable reports of Anne-Marie’s chaplains and the grasping
Bishop of Autun, announced that this “white Queen” and servant of the devil
must put aside her religious habit or suffer excommunication. No Communion! No
Confession! Anne-Marie was excommunicated.
In Disgrace
For two years
Anne-Marie, who had crossed the world and suffered so many times for God,
remained in disgrace, a scandal to all. We are told that this holy nun used to
take long walks in the scrub, long lonely walks, while she conversed with the
Master. “When I think of what has happened to me here, and I realize the
weaknesses behind it all, I have to laugh – and sometimes I have to cry,” she
admitted. We are told that natives unexpectedly disturbed her in tears, yet a
peaceful serenity remained with her always. She was no doleful creature; she
had a smile for everyone. Under it all, the devil had managed to bring her very
low. He never broke her. “I am always happy, even amid worries and
contradictions. Sad I may be at times, but my heart is always buoyant. May my
example be a guide to you always. Bear all for the love of God and thus you
will find consolation and peace of soul.”
The years were fleeing
into the past. The Government would not finance another such colony nor more
schools for the black children, and so Anne-Marie’s stay at Mana ended. It was
a sad farewell; a ship in the river surrounded by an ocean of bobbing canoes,
in which the people, she had raised from slaves to free men, saluted her. They
followed her ship down to the river-mouth. They could never forget her.
Now and At the Hour
Over 60 years old, she
returned to France, where a bishop, appalled at her excommunication, freed her
from the punishment, and the whole world recognized her greatness. The Queen
visited her twice. Bishops, priests and laymen honoured her, and her
Congregation grew and spread. She had over one thousand followers, but a few
powerful enemies. The Bishop of Autun (France) still combining with Bishop
Guillier (Guiana), realizing that his chances of controlling the Congregation
were dwindling, set about to destroy it. One of his priests warned the 80
postulants and novices at Cluny that it was sinful to obey the orders of any of
the Superiors – namely those who were loyal to Anne-Marie. All but seven of
these young nuns stood by their Foundress. Next, the Bishop of Autun secretly
scattered reports to all the bishops in whose dioceses the Congregation had
houses. Bishop Guillier’s unfounded charges against Anne-Marie were of course
included; only after a long time was Anne-Marie informed of the plot to defame
her, and then she refuted the charges. The bishop continued his manoeuvres.
The Revolution of 1848
clutched France in another death-grasp, but Anne-Marie moved safely through the
fighting. She organized the Sisters into a kind of ambulance-brigade which
cared for the wounded. Two of the Cluny houses were offered for the children of
the fathers who had fallen in the riots. The atrocities eventually ceased, but
in their wake came a plague of cholera, and the old nun, almost 70, replaced
nursing Sisters who had themselves been infected. At length the plague ended.
“O my God, I thank you for the sorrows and crosses you have sent me. How good
You are.”
The Ageing Heroine
During these last few
years, when she was almost always sick, the elderly heroine drove herself
harder and harder. There was still so much to be done: “If I don’t work, what
would I do with myself?” People came: to her for advice; she was so united to
God, that to speak with Anne-Marie “was like speaking to God”. “Let us love
truth, straightforwardness. The truth may hurt sometimes, but never does harm.”
Often during the bitter winter months of 1850-51, Mother General was heard to
say: “My task is finished; the work I was called to do is done.” Yes, it was
done. Yet she longed to do more. She had planned to go to Rome to finalize
matters for her Congregation, but as she grew feeble, she realized: “I have
another journey before me, which I must make alone.” So it was that on 15th
July, 1851, the Mother General of 1,200 followers and Foundress of the Sisters
of Saint Joseph of Cluny, Anne-Marie Javouhey died. She was 71 years old.
It is easy to write of
the glorious days which followed – the miracles performed through her
intercession, the papal declaration of 1908 acclaiming Anne-Marie Venerable,
the formal day of Beatification, 15th October, 1950, but the fame and glories
of “the woman God loved” seem far away and unrelated to us who have the battle
to fight, promises to keep, souls to save and God to be glorified.
It is unnecessary to
enumerate her virtues. Possibly her total forgiveness of the bishop, who for 18
years, worked to topple her labours, speaks for itself. Only half-an-hour
before her death, she said to Sister Rosalie: “We ought to think of His
Lordship as one of our benefactors. God made use of him to try us, when, as a
rule, we were hearing round us nothing but praise.” In the month between his
death and hers, she prayed for the repose of the soul of “that good bishop”.
Such was her complete forgiveness.
The Modern Anne-Marie
If Anne-Marie was a
light in yesterday’s darkness, where are today’s lights? Just look at the
present darkness. War is just round the corner, and the last major one (World
War Two) involved mass slaughters of soldiers and civilians. At the same time
millions of Jews were butchered, simply because they were Jews. If the world
suffered through Nazism then, we have Communism now; Communism, which cages men
by a Berlin Wall, nests of concentration camps, a vigilant spy system and armed
guards. Behind the ‘Bamboo Curtain’ the situation is as bad as in the worst
days of Stalin. Communists infiltrate into religion and set man against man and
religion against religion. Ironically, the thoughtful who point out the
trickery of this ideology are despised and known as fanatics, as fools and as
dramatists. And Catholic Italy, France and South America are falling prey to
this sinister disease. Have we no fear for the world in which nearly half the
people are starving? We build more siloes to house unmarketed food and some
greedy business men would prefer to dump produce into the sea rather than risk
a drop in the market-price – or feed the starving. Have you no fear for the
world?
Racially speaking,
atheism is victorious. The down-trodden Negro in America and England, or the
abandoned Chinese in Hong Kong bears witness to this. And all about us, people
on the street, in the paper, over the wireless and television, and on the
screen flaunt a way of life which is both seductive and degrading, while we sit
back, supposedly innocent, self-satisfied, and I fear, tainted. These are
challenging times! We, Catholics, are the light of the world, where is our
light? People are spiritually dead, we give them no truth. People are starving,
we give them no food. People are ignorant, we give them no knowledge. People
are hated, we give them no love.
What is Your Vision?
What is your vision,
kind reader? Is it to be an Anne-Marie Javouhey in your own right? A light in
the darkness? In Australia we need more Anne-Maries to staff the family
cottages for orphans, the hospitals where our sick lie, and the schools where
our children await the truth. The various Catholic Action Groups all grind to a
halt, if certain people with the mind of Anne-Marie Javouhey do not come forth.
And what of your family, young mother and wife; what of your fellow-students,
Catholic pupil; what of your fiancé, young lady; what of that afternoon-tea
circle, old lady; what of the people about you, Catholic of the 1960’s, [and
you, too, Catholics of the twenty-first century,] if you don’t spark off their
imaginations, so that they seek good? Spur yourself to live for others and whip
others into action for the world. What challenging times!
Spur yourself to live
for others and whip others into action for the world in which 66 per cent of
the people are the under-privileged and so many of them are non-christians as
well. Perhaps you have a vision of coloured people as Anne-Marie once did? Then
go to them. You can, you know, as a Lay Missionary! Whatever your skill, can
you give a few years of your life? Spread the Good News of Christ everywhere.
It is too good, too full of hope and certainty to be left unknown. Spread this
Message as Anne-Marie did among the Africans. Become another Anne-Marie with
the nurses, teachers, carpenters, plumbers, farmers, mechanics, pilots,
doctors, dentists, orderlies and builders who are, even now, blasting their way
to future glory. In her time, Anne-Marie accomplished her mission, but the
times have rolled on. Now the coloured people look to us. What challenging
times!
If only we realized that
while we ponder about our lives, the destiny of souls is hanging in the
balance; the whole of Eternity is poised; the lives of people yet unheard of
are waiting, and the children yet unborn are depending on us while we hesitate
on the brink. Why suffer an inferiority complex when the world is waiting for
us, needing us? The gates have swung open; the green light is flashing; time
for action has come.
Is It You?
I am also writing to
someone else. Is it to you, young woman, between the age of 16 and 30? An
ardent love, an overwhelming desire to be a religious is not a requisite for a
religious. Simply a desire, the will to do something worthwhile with your life,
to accomplish something which will leave an unforgettable mark on the world, or
a desire to bring God, goodness and happiness to an unhappy world is all that
is needed. Feelings do not count. Your act of the will does. Simply say: “Yes,
Lord.” “Yes,” to the various works of Anne-Marie Javouhey which have spread
into our times. Her followers battle for Christ in classrooms and mission villages;
in hospital wards and leprosaria; in orphanages and mental homes and in caring
for retired ladies. These “angels in blue habits”, these Sisters of Saint
Joseph of Cluny, go wherever they are needed and they are needed everywhere.
With 118 convents in Europe, 26 in Asia, 92 in Africa, 63 in America and 16 in
Oceania, the spirit of Blessed Anne-Marie has reached Australian shores, where
there are only three houses. Two of these are convents with a seminary.
“Go and Make Ready For
Us, He Said, To Eat” – Luke 22:8.
The Sister’s life in a
seminary is to co-operate closely in the training of tomorrow’s priests.
Perhaps her life may not have the attractions of other vocations, but it has
what all other’s lack: an intimate connection with the priesthood. It is
nothing less than carrying out what Mary, our Mother, did for the first Priest.
For the Sister cooks, sews, nurses, sets the students’ tables and prays for the
priests of the twentieth and [twenty-first] century, as truly as Mary did for
Christ, in the first century. Mary was never in the public eye, but she was
always nearby, when she was needed. So too, the Sister’s most important work is
not what men may see or weigh or measure, but her Masses, prayers and
sacrifices which she offers for the future priests.
Then, when Ordination
day comes, she shares in a mother’s joy, for she has somehow replaced the
seminarian’s natural mother, and she has shared in Mary’s spiritual motherhood.
The Sister knows that these young men, whom she has helped, even by her own
shining example, are, at Ordination, priests forever, and they will always
remember her in every Mass for the rest of their days.
The seminary Sister also
knows that today’s chores are not only caring for the future Christs out in the
dining-room, but, united with the sufferings of the crucified Saviour, are
giving strength to Mother Rose who labours in an Indian hospital despite 180
m.p.h. winds and floods; courage to Sister Othilde, who, for 30 years, has
heroically nursed the lepers of New Caledonia; consolation to the young
Vietnamese soldier who lies mortally wounded in a rice-field; faith to the
doubting convert; hope to the weary negro; love to the parent and child;
patience to the priest and perseverance to the seminarian. Be sure that
wherever good is done on earth, where an unbelieving soul humbly submits, where
a loving parent joyfully accepts his own child’s handicap, where a sick person
rolls in agony but trusts in the Holy Will of God, where you, reader, have
success when you did not expect it, be sure that this grace, from God, was not
inspired by your own good works, but by the offered seconds, minutes, hours and
days of nuns like those in a seminary. Truly their convent is a powerhouse – no
wonder, within the seminary, it is a peace within a peace. No wonder the gaiety
of these nuns exposes the falsehoods of the grim, morose caricatures of convent
life, which ignorant men love to portray in films and books.
There is accomplishment
in the nun’s day and she knows it. Perhaps you, young lady, are destined to be
another Mary, a Sister Marie-Therese or Assumpta, or even a Mother Camillus or
a Mother Joseph. If so, I congratulate you on your destiny. And I suggest that
all people, who live unspectacular lives, can accomplish extraordinary wonders if
they, like the Sisters, offer the grace of every trivial act for some lofty
motive. Passing through the doorway, racing for the train and glancing at a
watch are all actions which can be coated with graces. So perform them with a
will. One day you will be surprised when you are rewarded for the good that you
have done. Lucky you!
Certainly very many
people, religious and lay folk, are fighting a good fight, as all Catholics
must. We are all conscripted to rout Satan on the dusty basketball court, in
the sunlit church, before the inky typewriter, in the smoking compartment, down
the lonely alleyway, within the convent walls. All of us are comrades in the
war of all wars. We should do well, then, if we were to remember the words of
General Javouhey, as she was once called in a riot-torn Paris street: “Come, my
dear. Pluck up heart. Shake off your enemy indolence which tells you
fairy-tales. Don’t listen to the pride which lurks beneath the (humble) violet;
pride is so afraid of failure and the people may laugh at it. Pay no attention
to ‘What will people say?’ none whatsoever;” and: “Never, never lose heart.
Remember that Heaven is the prize and eternity is unending.”
– from the
pamphlet The Adventurous Nun: The Story of
Anne-Marie Javouhey, By Michael Richardson, Australian Catholic
Truth Society #1467, 1965
SOURCE :
https://catholicsaints.info/the-adventurous-nun-the-story-of-anne-marie-javouhey-by-michael-richardson/
Beata Anna Maria Javouhey Fondatrice
Jallongers (Francia), 10 novembre
1779 - Parigi, 15 luglio 1851
Fondò
a Parigi la Congregazione Cluniacense delle Suore di San Giuseppe, dedicate
alla cura degli infermi e alla formazione cristiana della gioventù femminile.
Martirologio
Romano: A Parigi in Francia, beata Anna Maria Javouhey, vergine, che fondò
la Congregazione Cluniacense delle Suore di San Giuseppe per la cura dei malati
e la formazione cristiana della gioventù femminile, diffondendola nelle terre
di missione.
Quinta di dieci figli,
Anna Maria Javouhey nacque il 10 novembre 1779 a Jallongers vicino Seurre in
Francia. A sette anni “Nanette” seguì la famiglia trasferitasi a Chamblanc; nel
1789 fece la Prima Comunione e poté vedere gli sconvolgimenti sociali e la
crisi religiosa scaturita in quegli anni, dalla Rivoluzione Francese e con
l’imposizione della Costituzione civile del clero, con alcuni ecclesiastici che
aderirono e altri no.
Ed è proprio uno di questi, l’abate Ballanche, che col suo apostolato
semiclandestino, diventa il suo consigliere e guida; Anna a partire dall’11
novembre 1798, prende ad interessarsi dell’educazione dei fanciulli e con molta
premura degli ammalati poveri.
Desiderosa di consacrarsi completamente a Dio, ricerca un Ordine religioso che
possa soddisfare la sua vocazione; entra per primo nel noviziato delle Sorelle
della Carità, fondate da s. Giovanna Antida Thouret, nel settembre-novembre
1800 a Besançon; poi nel 1803 va in Svizzera ed entra nella Trappa diretta da
Agostino de Lastrange.
Ma nel giugno 1804 ritorna a Chamblanc per unirsi a tre sorelle anch’esse
desiderose di consacrarsi a Dio; il 14 aprile 1805 giorno di Pasqua, le quattro
sorelle fanno benedire ed approvare i loro progetti dal papa Pio VII che era di
passaggio a Chalon-sur-Saône, di ritorno da Parigi, dove il 2 dicembre 1804
aveva consacrato Napoleone imperatore.
Così preso coraggio, aprono a Chalon nel 1806, una scuola denominata
“Associazione S. Giuseppe”, intanto il 12 dicembre 1806 Napoleone firma
l’autorizzazione della piccola Comunità, così nel maggio 1807, le quattro
sorelle Javouhey e altre cinque suore, pronunciano i voti nella chiesa di S.
Pietro, eleggendo Anna come superiora, la quale aggiunse al suo nome quello di
Maria e adotta come abito quello blu delle vignaiole di Borgogna.
Dopo essere stata alloggiata per cinque anni nel vecchio monastero di Autun,
l’Associazione S. Giuseppe, si sposta nel giugno 1812 a Cluny nell’ex convento
dei Recolletti, vicino alla celebre abbazia di S. Pietro. Da questo luogo la
Fondazione, prenderà il nome di Congregazione delle “Suore di S. Giuseppe di
Cluny”.
Da lì madre Javouhey intraprenderà altre iniziative di diffusione della
Comunità, così il 10 gennaio 1817 le prime quattro suore sbarcano nell’isola
Bourbon; re Luigi XVIII intanto conferma l’esistenza della sua Congregazione e
le abilita all’insegnamento e all’assistenza ospedaliera.
Dopo aver fondato vari istituti in Francia, madre Anna Maria s’imbarca a
Rochefort il 1° febbraio 1823 per raggiungere il Senegal dove fonderà quattro
comunità; ritornata in Francia nel 1824, l’operosa superiora si dedica alla
redazione degli Statuti dell’Associazione, che saranno approvati nelle varie
sedi negli anni 1825, 1827 e 1829.
A lei si rivolse il ministro della Marina Chabrol, per offrirle di ricostituire
nella Guyana Francese, l’antica fondazione della “Nouvelle-Angoulême” e madre
Javouhey accetta, così il 28 giugno 1828 lascia Brest e sbarca a Cayenna il 10
agosto. Trascorse in quel clima tropicale, cinque anni di sacrifici per
ricostituire il centro ed il villaggio di La Massa a 200 km da Cayenna.
Nel 1883 ritorna a Cluny per risolvere delle controversie sorte con il vescovo
di Autun sulla giurisdizione della Fondazione; il 26 dicembre 1835 torna in
Guyana e là con circa 500 schiavi demaniali liberati, si occupa nuovamente di
La Massa, che è divenuto un centro di educazione dei negri, per farli usufruire
al meglio della loro libertà e del loro lavoro.
Nel 1843 lascia i suoi amati negri per ritornare in Francia, per trattare i
numerosi problemi spirituali, suscitati dalla sua opera; aprì un secondo
noviziato a Parigi, che diverrà l’attuale Casa Madre.
Il suo lavoro continuò fino all’esaurimento delle sue forze, finché madre Anna
Maria morì a Parigi il 15 luglio 1851e seppellita a Senlis, nella grande
cappella della Congregazione. Fu una donna eccezionale, basti pensare che per
una donna era una cosa fuor del comune in quei tempi, percorrere 45.000 km
attraverso i mari e con i velieri di allora; in anticipo sui tempi, la madre
Javouhey lavorò con tutte le sue forze alla promozione umana e cristiana della
razza nera, subito capì la necessità di un clero locale, così fece preparare al
sacerdozio i primi tre preti senegalesi, ordinati a Parigi nel 1840 e una
giovane ex schiava delle Antille, divenne suora della Congregazione e visse e
morì nell’isola di S. Lucia nei Carabi.
Ebbe l’intuizione profetica delle Chiese locali, segni visibili
dell’universalità della Chiesa; fin dal 1817 mandò le sue figlie in ogni parte
del mondo, nonostante le vicende spesso non favorevoli della Storia.
Papa Pio XI le conferì il titolo di “prima donna missionaria” per il suo
impegno nell’evangelizzazione delle terre lontane.
Donna dall’intelligenza sorprendentemente pratica, dalla volontà di ferro,
dalla forte personalità, è bene descritta da una frase del re di Francia, Luigi
Filippo (1835): “La signora Javouhey, ma è un grand’uomo”.
Come ogni fondatore, madre Javouhey ha lasciato alle Suore di S. Giuseppe di
Cluny, uno “spirito” ossia il modo di amare Dio e un “progetto particolare”
ossia il modo di servire la Chiesa e il mondo; questi due elementi
costituiscono il patrimonio di famiglia.
La causa per la sua beatificazione fu introdotta a Roma il 13 febbraio 1908; è
stata beatificata il 15 ottobre 1950 in San Pietro da papa Pio XII.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
