A Mother's Heart...
Eugene de Mazenod's Gift to the Oblate Congragation
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A Mother's Heart... Eugene de Mazenod's Gift to the Oblate Congragation
Henriette Kelker
1 March, 1999
Page 2
The French School has shaped the thoughts of many important theologians, artists and philosophers who maintained the principle of holding high the image of God's authority, God's holiness and God's light. From its inception, the French School placed a strong emphasis on the role of visual images, works of art, as means to stimulate devotion. Introduced by popular artists and often based on legends, child images proliferated: the child Jesus with his instruments of passion, the child Jesus in gown, the child Jesus with the globe under his feet (a variation on the earlier image of Jesus with the globe in his hand). The image of the child Jesus became associated with the continuity and success of the French monarchy: "Le Petit Roi de Grace". These images decorated seminaries, served folk piety, and were distributed throughout the country.
The mystical aspects of the French School are recognisable in de Mazenod's spiritual life and the tradition of the Oblate congregation. Allusion to the three parts,
Adoration (I bring jesus before the eyes of my mind), Communion (I bring Jesus into my heart) and Cooperation (Jesus in my hands and on my lips)6, are found repeatedly in de Mazenod's writing to his missionaries. The communion with Christ which de Mazenod found in the Blessed Sacrament extended for him into communion with his faithful around the world. Thus, in a letter to Fr. Lacombe he explained how verbally or by letter he could communicate with his Oblates but in the eucharist he could commune with each one of them in Jesus' love, no matter to which remote land their missionary vocation had taken them.7
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin occupied a major place in the teaching of the French school. Cardinal Bérulle saw the path to Christ realised in Mary through her example of total surrender. Says Hubenig: "In this spiritual understanding, Mary's innermost being is grounded in the life of Jesus within her. The same applies to the disciple."8 Illustrative of the Founder's conformity to this thought is one of his much loved prayers:
O jesus living in Mary, come and live in your servant:
in the spirit of your holiness, in the fullness of your power,
in the reality of your virtues, in the perfection of your ways
in the communion of your mysteries;
have dominion over every adverse power,
in your own Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.9
When de Mazenod entered the Sulpician seminary the French Revolution had had its impact on the structure and practices there. Before 1798 students at the Sulpician seminary were still divided into nobles, commoners, and charity students and classified accordingly after ordination as high or low clergy. Now the new director, M. Emery, called the students by their unadorned last name (no title, no "de"), so Eugene became simply "Mazenod." Emery became a close friend of de Mazenod. Eugene's sense of his aristocratic superiority gradually eroded as he followed a strictly disciplined life. Napoleon's attack on the church became stronger in those days and the Sulpicians, provided strong resistance. Soon a core group of Sulpicians acted throughout Italy and France, spearheaded by M. Emery and closely assisted by de Mazenod.10
Considering the influences of people and places on the young Eugene de Mazenod, one can see the spiritual and intellectual landscape in which he lived and one can speculate how for him the dynamics of authority took shape. It takes one so familiar with the life and sensibilities of the aristocracy to find its Achilles heel and aim for it perfectly: his famous Lenten sermons to the poor, delivered in vernacular Provencal, did not only inspire the Provencals, they left Aix's aristocracy in shock. From Bartolo he learned a regard for Rome, and with the Sulpicians he fought to reinstate the authority of the Holy See, as well as, with the help of the spiritual school of Bérulle, nurtured his deep devotion to the Holy Virgin. Meunier observed that whereas according to Bérulle one can not reach Christ except through Mary, De Mazenod takes this thought one step further in believing that the path is more completely expressed as: "To Jesus through Mary and the Church of Rome."11
The question remains as to why de Mazenod did not think sooner of the patronage of Mary Immaculate for his congregation? Perhaps one can find a partial answer in the fact that he had earlier placed his Sodality for Christian Youth under her protection. He appeared at that time to have chosen a patron which satisfied an emotional and moral need of the boys, an image to which they could look for guidance. When De Mazenod selected a name for the new congregation his thoughts once more went out to a model, an image which had been for himself an inspirational beacon. In a letter to his friend Tempier he wrote:
"Given the unfortunate state of the country there remains nothing but the missions to gather the people back to the faith they have abandoned... We need equally acknowledge this need among our own ... we will live together in one house which I have bought, under one rule which we will adopt, which we will draw from the rules of St. Ignatius, St. Charles por les Oblats, St. Phillippe de Neri, St Vincent de Paul and the blessed Liguori."12
St.Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of the de Mazenod family13, was chosen as patron for the new congregation. Given his preoccupation with the practical aspects of managing the congregation, the choice of role models is understandable and the choice of St. Charles as patron a virtuous one. Why then, once in Rome, did the name of Mary Immaculate appear as the choice par excellence? What, during his presence in Rome, precipitated this change of mind?
Here I will indulge in some speculation. Throughout Europe the unity of the Church was being weakened. The Prussian Government was persecuting the Church, and the Ruthenian Uniates threatened to separate. During the 1810s and 1820s the mistrust and strife for authority between Rome and Paris had escalated. The French church demanded its own rule in France. Revolutionary forces had furthered their own cause by manipulating the imagination of the people. Celebrations of allegorical images of Liberty and Reason were cast in the familiar forms of religious tradition. "Marianne" as a personification of the French Republic - though a derisive at first - was gaining a loyal following.14 It was in this climate of ecclesial politics and secular propaganda that the early missionaries - when permitted - were conducting their missions. In 1826, months before the approval of the name Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Pope Leo XII wrote to the Anti-Concordat party15 of the French nation:
... the outcome from slogans such as you have heard can be nothing else than, by separating you from the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops in communion with him, to separate you from the Catholic Church in its entirety, and consequently you will cease to have her for a Mother. For how could the Church be your Mother, unless your fathers are the shepherds of the Church, that is to say, the Bishops?"
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