LIFE OF BLESSED
MARCELLIN JOSEPH BENEDICT
CHAMPAGNAT
1789 - 1840
MARIST PRIEST
Founder of the Congregation
of the Little Brothers of Mary
by
ONE OF HIS FIRST DISCIPLES
(Brother John-Baptist Furet)
All to the greater glory of God
and in honour of the
august Mary, Mother of Our Lord
Jesus Christ.
BICENTENARY EDITION
1989
GENERAL HOUSE
2 Piazzale Champagnat - Roma
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Apart from some peculiarities in the use of capitals, the present text is a reproduction of the first Life of 1856. The notes are drawn from the research of the last thirty years into Marist origins. They aim at bringing precision to the work of Brother John-Baptist, clarifying it, and changing it when necessary. When the notes refer to Marist publications the reference only is given. (See the list of abbreviations. In the English edition, the French abbreviations have been maintained.) When the notes come from other works the essential points are given. The notes come especially from the work of Brothers Alexander Balko, Anibal Canon, Gabriel Michel, Paul Sester, and Pierre Zind. They were put together by Brother Roland Bourassa, and checked by Father John Coste S.M.
The notes of the Introduction are those of Brother John-Baptist.
Brother Ludovic Burke did the English translation.
Many thanks are due to all who made this re-edition possible.
ABBREVIATIONS
AA Summary of Annals, Brother Avit, F.M.S. 1789-1840.
AAL Archives of the Archdiocese of Lyons.
ADL Archives of the Department of the Loire.
AFD Achievement from the Depths, Br. Stephen Farrell, F.M.S.1986.
AFM Archives of the Marist Brothers, Rome.
ALS Counsels, Teachings, Sayings (of Marcellin Champagnat), 1927.
AN National Archives of Paris.
APM Archives of the Marist Fathers, Rome.
BI Bulletin of the Institute of the Marist Brothers.
BQF Our Models in Religion, 1924.
CMMarist Chronicles (The Founder), Br. Anibal, Luis Vives, Zaragoza, 1979.
CSG Circular Letters of Superior Generals.
FMS Review of the Marist Brothers, Rome.
LPC 1Letters of Father Champagnat, Vol. 1. Br. Paul Sester, F.M.S. 1985.
LPC 2Letters of Father Champagnat, Vol. 2, Index, Brs. Raymond and Sester, 1987.
MCMarcellin Champagnat, Bishop Laveille, Ed. Téqui, Paris, 1921.
MEM Memoirs - personal souvenirs, Br. Sylvester, F.M.S.
NCFThe New Congregations of Teaching Brothers in France, 1800-1830, Pierre Zind, F.M.S., Lyons, 1969.
OMMarist Origins, Vols. 1,2,3,4., J. Coste, S.M. and G. Lessard, S.M. Rome. 1960-1967.
OME Marist Origins, Extracts on the Marist Brothers.
PPCPractice of Christian Perfection, Alphonsus Rodriguez Ed. de Cosson, Paris, 1837.
RLFMarcellin Champagnat and the legal recognition of the Marist Brothers, Vol. 1 - to 1840, Br. Gabriel Michel, F.M.S., 1986.
SA St Augustine, Complete Works, Ed. Louis Vives, Paris, 1878.
SALSt Alphonsus Liguori, Ascetical Works, Ed. Paul Mellier, Paris, 1843.
SFS St Francis de Sales, Complete Works, Ed. Nierat, 1898.
SMCIn the footsteps of Marcellin Champagnat, Vols. 1 and 2, Br.Pierre Zind, F.M.S., (Articles from "Marist Presence", 1970-1987).
VPCLife of Father Champagnat, Ed. 1931.
PREFACE
To write the life of a saint, to reveal his struggles, his triumphs, his virtues, and all that he hasdone for God and neighbour, is to proclaim the glory of Jesus Christ, the divine Redeemer of the world the model and author of all sanctity. Indeed, all the saints who enlighten us, and who by their example dissipate the darkness of sin and ignorance, draw their light from the life of Jesus; the y are filled with ardour by meditation on his virtues; in much the same way, a single torch is used to light a number of lamps, providing themall with light and heat. (Saint Macarius: His teaching).
There is no saint who cannot say with Saint Paul: "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2,20). Re lives in their intellect through faith, by which they begin to share eternal life;he lives in their memory by the recollection of his greatness, his goodness and his benefits, the very thought of which overwhelms them with joy; he lives in their heart by his love; he lives in their virtuous acts and in all the spiritual faculties of their soul; he it is gives them a savour for eternal truths; he makes them attentive to divine inspirations; it is he who draws them by the fragrance of his virtues. Hence, everything by way of grace and gift in the saints, has its source in Jesus and redounds to hisglory.
According to St John Chrysostom: "The saints are like the stars of the sky combining their splendour to proclaim the glory of Jesus. Everything within them breathes his spirit; their every word sounds the praises of his perfections; their actions record the victories of his grace; all their sufferings are sacrifices paying ho mage to his greatness; in a word, their life is a replica of his and excels in his virtues." (NOUET. The Life of Jesus in the Saints).
To write the life of a saint, is to stigmatize vice, to encourage piety and virtue. The life of a saint is seen by Saint Gregory as an instruction on the virtues and how to acquire them; it is a clear mirror, showing us our faults and imperfections with such truth and with such consequent disgust, that the very sight is enough to persuade us to correct them. The life of a saint, vividly presents to us evangelical perfection and all the steps available to us in the quest for it; it is the Gospel in action, and St Francis of Sales asserts that there is no more difference between the written Gospel and the life of a saint, than between a musical score and its performance.
As we read the lives of the saints, we are gently but firmly moved to follow their example; it is as if each of them invites us to follow the same path; as if each virtue that the y reflect says to us in pointing to them, what chastity said to St Augustine at the beginning of his conversion: Why shouldn't you be able to do what these others have done? Was it by their own strength that they overcame the difficulties met on the way to heaven? No, it was by the grace of Jesus Christ that they conquered sin and practised virtue. The same grace is at your disposal, he was told, and using it you are capable of doing all that they did.
It is true that the example of all the saints may be very useful in leading us to perfection. However, St Peter Damian reminds us of the need for the same prudence in the choice of saints, as governs our choice of the virtues most necessary or most appropriate for us. We should choose those saints whose life best fits our profession and our circumstances. Each Institute and each profession, in St Jerome's view, have their leading figures whose example serves as a model to which the others ought to conform. He would want bishops and priests to form themselves on the pattern of the apostles and apostolic men so that they match them not only in honour but in merit. We, who make profession of a solitary life, he suggested, can model ourselves on a Paul, an Anthony, a Julian, an Hilarion or a Macarius. Following the wise adviceof that great Doctor, the Brothers should take as master in the spirituallife and model in the practice of virtue, their pious Founder: nothing can be more useful or profitable to them, than his example.
To raise the saints to the peak of holiness, God sometimes leads them by extraordinary ways, causing us to admire rather than imitate them; at other times, they are led along the common, beaten path but they follow it in an heroic and very perfect fashion which provides us with an object both of admiration and of imitation. By that path, God sanctified our venerated Father; as a result, his life is, in every respect, a model which we can, and ought to, imitate. In the mirror of that life we shall see our faults and the virtues God asks of us; that life is a Rule in action, teaching us on every page what we must do in order to be pious and fervent Religious, zealous for the glory of God; in order to be filled with love for Jesus Christ; in order to be Religious truly devoted to Mary and genuine imitators of the humility, simplicity and modesty of that noble Virgin and of her hidden life. Each of us, while studying and meditating on the virtues depicted for us in that life, should say to himself: "There, is the model which I ought to copy, which I must labour to reproduce; I shall be a perfect Religious, a true Little Brother of Mary, only if I bear a resemblance to that prototype of the perfection of my state."
After the death of Saint Benedict, his most important disciples were raised to ecstasy during prayer. God showed them a broad path, stretching towards the East from the Saint's cell up to heaven. The path was studded with torches which spread a soft, clear light. St Maurice, watching the spectacle with the other Brothers, was intent on it when an angel appeared to him and asked him what he was looking at so attentively. On his admission of ignorance about the nature of the path, the angel explained to St Maurice, that it was the way which led his Father Benedict to heaven; that he must follow the same path, imitating his Father's virtues, if he were to reach heaven; that he should observe exactly the Rule left by Benedict, just as Benedict himself had done.
We Brothers, reading the life and sayings of our pious Founder, ought to apply to ourselves the words of the angel to St Benedict, and say: "There is the path, there is the Rule which our Founder has followed in doing good, in order to gain heaven and to reach that height of perfection which he achieved. If we want to be his true disciples, if we want to continue his work and share his glory in heaven, we must follow in his steps, imitate his virtues, keep the Rule which he has given us and which he himself kept so faithfully; for that Rule is the only one capable of leading us to God and to the haven of salvation; any other route we might take would lead us astray and into the abyss."
The prophet Isaiah, speaking to the faithful Israelites exhorts them to meditate on the actions and the life of Abraham, who was their Father, in order that they might be inspired by the example of that great patriarch, to walk, with a firm step, the path of holiness. Let us make our own, the thought of this prophet; let us fix our eyes constantly on the one whom God has given us as Father and model; let us study his spirit of faith, his outstanding confidence in God, his burning zeal for the salvation of souls, his tender and generous love for Jesus; let us master his filial attitude towards Mary, his profound humility, his mortification, his detachment from creatures, his constancy in the service of God, in order that we may be spurred on to the practice of these same virtues.
Boleslas IV, King of Poland, used to wear a locket with his father's image. Whenever he was to do something important, he would take it in his hands and say as he looked at it: "Father, may I preserve in my person, the honour of your house and the good example you have left me; may no act of mine ever be incompatible with your constant exemplary conduct." Like that virtuous prince, let us undertake nothing without reference to our Father, without recalling his virtues, without moulding our conduct to his example and his spirit; let our every word and action be worthy of him and such as he would be glad to own: in harmony with his words, his teaching and his example.
God has given to the Founder of each Religious Order, abundant graces of state and the spirit of the religious family of which he has made him the leader and the model. It is from the Founder that those gifts flow into the souls of his Religious, vivifying their actions and their virtues. Religious who have not acquired the spirit of their Founder or who have lost it, should be regarded, and should regard themselves, as dead members: they are in the greatest danger of being lost, of abandoning their vocation and returning to the world. Should they happen to remain in Religion, even then they would find it very difficult to preserve grace and save their soul. Like branches that wither and die, although attached to the trunk, these Religious, having lost the spirit of their state through repeated infidelities, forfeit charity for the same reason and are damned for their misuse of the very means which were designed to le ad them to the highest perfection. It is not merely useful for a Religious to acquire the spirit of his state and of his Founder; it is something essential, indispensable for him; one who lacks that spirit, is without grace, virtue, peace or happiness during this life; he is deprived of salvation and bliss in the next.
The chronicles of the Friars Minor, founded by St Francis of Assisi, record the following vision of a Friar of the Order. He beheld a tree of marvellous beauty and size. Its roots were of gold;its fruit was men; and those men were Friars Minor. The tree had as many main branches as there were Provinces of the Order; each branch carried fruit that matched the number of Friars for its Province; in this way he was shown how many there were in the Order and in each Province, their names, age, rank, employment, graces, virtues and defects. High up on the centre branch, he detected the Superior General, John of Parma; on the peaks of the surrounding branches, were the Province Superiors. He also saw Jesus Christ, seated on an elevated throne of dazzling splendour;the divine Saviour summoned St Francis, gave him a cup full of the spirit of life and instructed him to visit the Friars of the Order and give them a drink from the cup, for Satan would attack and strike them: a number would fall and never recover.
Accompanied by two angels, St Francis set about doing this, beginning with John of Parma. He took the cup, drained it, with a holy eagerness, of the spirit of life it held, and at once became as brilliant as the sun. Then the Saint presented it to all the other Friars in turn; but there weren't many who received it with becoming respect and piety and who drank it completely; the small number who did, became immediately resplendent like the sun;the others were either blackened, dark, deformed and repulsive, or partly so, partly shining - depending on whether they had drunk or poured out the spirit of life.
The next instant, a fierce wind blew up and shook the tree with such violence that the Friars fell to the ground. The first to fall were those who had poured out the whole cup; devils seized them and dragged them off to be cruelly tormented in dark dungeons. By contrast, the General of the order, and those who, like him, had drained the cup, were carried by the angels to a resting place of eterna1.life and light. In the end, under the impact of the storm, the tree itself fell and was swept like a toy by the winds. When the storm had abated, there arose a new tree from the root of the one that had just been torn out; it, too, was golden and so were its leaves and fruit;this signified the renewal of the Order and indicated that the Friars who rejected the spirit of their Founder were lost, and replaced by others who proved faithful.
"Not all the children of Israel", says St Paul, "are true Israelites; not all those born of Abraham, are true children of Abraham." It is likewise true that not all Religious are genuine Religious; those who are so only in name, dress, appearance, and who carry out only the exterior duties, are not so at all. Those alone are Religious who possess the spirit of their Founder and imitate his virtues; it is that spirit and those virtues which are the guarantee of his vocation, of his perfection, of his happiness here and hereafter.
May all Little Brothers of Mary thoroughly grasp this important truth and apply themselves assiduously to study the life and the instructions of their holy Founder, to imitate his virtues and acquire his spirit! Those who had the good fortune to live with him have imbibed his spirit at the source from his daily instruction and the personal advice they received; their successors must draw that spirit from the constant meditation on his life, on his favourite sayings and on the Rule of the Institute. It is to put this boon at their disposal, that we have so carefully gathered all the words of our venerated Father; for this reason, we have outlined his teachings, we have described his views on the various virtues and have indicated his aim and motives in drawing up most of the Rules he has bequeathed us.
There is only one thing more to do to ensure that our Brothers can read this life with pleasure and profit, that is, to vouch for the truth of all that it contains, supporting this claim by indicating the sources. The documents on which the story draws have not been chosen at random; fifteen years of laborious research have gone into compiling them. They have been gathered:
1. From those Brothers who lived with Father Champagnat, who witnessed his conduct, were closely involved in his actions, shared his labours and heard his instructions. Those Brothers gave us their written notes; besides, we discussed the content of those notes with each of them. This enabled us to check the accuracy of their record and to gather orally other points and information that our questions brought to mind.