Your Kingdom Come

Emmanuel d’Alzon

founder of the

Augustinians of the Assumption

& Oblates of the Assumption

Emmanuel d’Alzon,

passionate for the Kingdom of God When God sees his people in need, loves, urged him to share them first he calls people to respond. He gives with the Laity, before sharing them them the grace of compassion and with his brother and sister love like His own; and the strength to Assumptionists. Emmanuel d’Alzon respond. He calls them and he sends made them aware of the great causes them.

of God and the people of their time.

In the Church of the XIX century, He urged them to adopt new and Emmanuel d’Alzon, the founder of the daring paths: a mission in the Orient, Augustinians of the Assumption – the journalism, pilgrimages, seminaries for Assumptionists – and the Oblates of the poor, etc.

the Assumption, was one of these men. But before all else, he invited them Sensitive, by nature and by grace, to the in one and the same movement to great changes of his country and the the reign of Jesus Christ in them and world after the French Revolution, he around them” .

suffered wherever God was threatened After the death of their founder, the in man and man was threatened as Assumption seeks to continue his image of God.

work, out of love of Christ and for His passion for the coming of God's the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Kingdom, his passion for Jesus Christ Father Hervé Stéphan, Assumptionist, and for everything that Jesus Christ Superior General 1975-1987

Your Kingdom Come 3

Father Emmanuel d’Alzon

W hat do you know of Father a man of the Church can be defined Emmanuel d’Alzon? If you e geographical y and psychological y, he live in Nîmes or in the

was Vicar General of his diocese for forty area, you may have heard someone years, and he founded two religious mention his name at one time or families: the Augustinians of the another. This man of the XIX century Assumption, normal y

cal ed

(1810-1880), merits more than the Assumptionists (1850), and the Oblates mere mention in a history book and his of the Assumption (1865). He played a congregation, the Augustinians of the significant role in the birth of the Assumption, founded in 1845 in Religious of the Assumption (1839).

Nîmes, more that the traditional stroke Throughout his life, Emmanuel d’Alzon of the pen of Daniel Rops, fol owing the overflowed with activity, initiatives and confrontations that poisoned the projects and never hesitated to lead Dreyfus affair at the end of the XIX

from the front. He found his strength in and beginning of the XX century.

the long hours he spent in prayer.

Besides, by that time Father d’Alzon So let us turn now to the time of his birth had been dead for twenty years.

to gain a better understanding of his life A son of the Cévennes, of southern of and his journey to the Assumption.

origin in appearance as wel as spirit, if 4 Your Kingdom Come

Your Kingdom Come

5

The advantage of a golden youth Emmanuel d’Alzon was born into belonged to a famous bourgeois an aristocratic family, through his family enriched by offices and of father Henri, the Daudé recent nobility whom the Revolution d’Alzon, recent nobility of Viganaise pursued with vengeful hatred. When origin almost ruined by the Emmanuel was born, August 30, Revolution. In the XVII century, the 1810, in the ancestral house at eldest branch decided to leave the Condamine in Vigan, France had severity of the Cevennes for the vast entered the last beautiful days of the sunny plains of the Languedoc. empire before the twilight of the Through his mother (Faventine de disasters of the war with Spain and Montredon), Emmanuel d’Alzon the defeat of Russia.

6 Your Kingdom Come

There were many stories to tel the rents and tenant farmers without the family in the evening about the any worries about tomorrow, and major and minor events that

maintain their place at the heart of embossed more than twenty-five

the beautiful Languedocian society.

years of political upheaval. At Vigan, Viscount Henri d’Alzon, tempted by one remembered the visit of a black demon politics, had himself elected cardinal, Giulio Gabriel i, separated by a hand vote under official scrutiny from the papal court, itself a prisoner on several occasions.

at Fontainebleau, who had benefited from the hospitality of the d’Alzons Opportunities and Duties

and predicted, in a blessing, the It could be deduced from al this that destiny of this family's child.

Emmanuel d’Alzon only experienced

the delights of Capoue during his The château at Lavagnac

childhood. It is true that he had the In 1816, the château at Lavagnac

fortune of access to the cultural riches of (near Montague in the Hérault) the elite and a good education; he purchased in 1790 by the

also benefited from the advantages Faventines, heirs of the Conti of his birth: affluence, relationships, princes, now total y restored, and emancipation from an al provided a home for the d’Alzons consuming manual labour. But this that was less austere than Vigan. In would too easily ignore his close proximity to the Hérault, an concrete environment and the

excel ent region for swimming in responsibilities linked with it as the warm waters of summer. The well as his own conception of a large agricultural area linked to the chivalrous sense of honour and château al owed them to live off Christian responsibility.

Your Kingdom Come 7

When Providence places someone

at the summit of a social elite, it is not for their egoistical benefit to gain an advantageous position, but to teach them, during their life, to come to the assistance of those who need help on their journey.

A united family

One is always a child of one’s family.

This was very true for Emmanuel.

His milieu provided him with a psychological

and emotional

equilibrium. The ties uniting him to his parents and his two sisters, Augustine et Marie, remained very deep and beneficial.

Through his sister, Marie, married to the Count of Puységur, Emmanuel experienced the joys of a prolonged family life continued through their descendents. Three nephews and

nieces provided his frequent visits to Lavagnac with a refreshing air and tone much needed amidst his continual problems and obligations.

8 Your Kingdom Come

Formation among the elite

As the Viscount d’Alzon was to the city and new routine), forced to live in Paris in his role Emmanuel enthusiastical y pursued, as deputy from 1817, it was

an intel ectual and spiritual formation decided that the whole family would given in these col eges, preferring this move there for the school year in open, stimulating, and communal 1823. Thus it was that Emmanuel for milieu to that of tutoring, which was the first time left his much loved Midi.

more«stifling» being strictly familial and This departure was to be the prelude individual. He was inspired by this to a number of voyages in his life. His experience when he later found parents chose for him the best himself in charge of an important scholastic establishments in the school at Nîmes, the Col ege of the capital, the first a public school.

Assumption in 1844. He never According to the terminology of the ceased to advise parents to of er their time (Saint Louis Col ege, on the children the open and social boulevard Saint-Michel), the second, educational milieu of ered by the private - (Stanislas Col ege, in the col eges in their col ective type of district of Notre-Dame des education rather than al the old forms Champs). Public at that epoch did formerly employed by the wealthy.

not signify lay, and private did not mean adherence to any particular The shcolastic system

confession.

e

In the XIX century, education

After a short period of adaptation was still just for the privileged, Your Kingdom Come 9

especial y in secondary education.

institutions and boarding schools of Primary education was improving, al kinds (Fal oux Law,1850).

thanks particularly to the growth of Yet, under the Second Empire, there religious congregations on men and was a growing animosity in secular women and certain forms of society and Universities towards

socialist campaigns. The urban this easy diversion of the State bourgeoisie, although traditional y authorities and the monopoly of a

anti-clerical, never hesitated to fraction of young people outside entrust their sons to these religious the official and public Alma Mater.

institutions “o f the good Fathers” Thus there developed in France a (notably the Jesuits) and their growing angry split between the daughters to the convents, out of

supporters of a liberal education a desire for them to learn “good without State control and the manners” rather than for the partisans of secular society who sciences. The French State was more careful y excluded Congregations concerned with teaching than and the clergy from al areas of education, and encouraged the teaching and scholastic institutions.

communes to open primary

schools (Guizot Law, 1833), and En 1883, the Ferry Law s proclaimed col eges for boys in the cities and the primary education, public, free and large market towns that served as the secular, reversing the process and breeding ground for future public political and ideological consensus functionaries and liberal professions, set up after the Revolution.

while wil ingly abandoning the many This conquering secularism verging regional Church establishments: on sectarianism adopted a mission

minor seminaries, private col eges, to exclude religion from schools 10 Your Kingdom Come

and prohibited members of Congregations from teaching.

Father d’Alzon approached this question not as a spectator but as a militant and committed actor. It was, moreover, one of the passions of his life that he shares with families today, concerned with giving their children the best kind of education and preparation for life through scholastic institutions that never cease to broaden their horizons, methods and programmes. He even had the satisfaction of seeing the lead up to the law for the liberty of higher education (Laboulaye Law, 1875), even if its content was soon to be emptied of significance by the new political regime after 1879. In any event, it is impossible to understand the life and activity of Father d’Alzon, or the early Assumption, if one ignores this educational and scholastic dimension at the heart of their respective existences.

Your Kingdom Come 11

The choice of a career and

the blossoming of a vocation

Like al adolescents, Emmanuel beginning to take root, not so much faced al the questions and

a career, more a proposition than an uncertainties of the young.

integrated life commitment. It did not Which profession should he

divide up life, the person, or the choose to fol ow?

activity but gave them an orientation based on what he cal ed his key idea: Military or Legal Profession?

the role and place of God in his life and in He liked reading but also the army.

society. He fel under the influence of There was a long tradition in the several priests, the most famous of military in his family. His parents whom being Félicité de Lamennais, discouraged their son from taking and his students friends in Paris (d’Esgrigny, this option, possibly superficial, and Gouraud, de La Gournerie) who, al , encouraged him to consider something urged him to wait. However, he in line with the legal profession with a preferred to put his project into leaning towards becoming a magistrate action as soon as possible, but only or entering politics..

after giving himself a two year period for It

was

without

any real

reflection, in solitude and in his family, enthusiasm that Emanuel, in 1828, far from the political and media began his University studies in Law in upheavals of the day (1830-1832).

Paris so he abandoned them in (1830) To become a Priest?

because of current events Already in his heart another cause was The idea of a vocation to the 12 Your Kingdom Come

priesthood for Emmanuel d’Alzon was submitting oneself to its traditional not just a youthful fantasy or emotional supports, to invent new relations ideal, but a ful y weighed up, mature with the social groups that had decision that evaluated the social cost developed since the Revolution and of pursuing this kind of life.

were distant from the Church.

For him, to become a priest meant

In his meditation and solitude at a commitment to actively work to Lavagnac he welcomed in the

transform society with the means, depth of his being the gift of a the concepts and the methods

priestly vocation to which he was

available to the Church at that not

particularly

predisposed,

time.

neither in his tastes, his habits, nor his environment. Yet he knew how

“For him to become a Priest to open himself in great liberty meant a commitment to act

from his environment so as not to

become a

prisoner

of

the

and transform ”

prejudices of his milieu.

At the beginning, Emmanuel was greatly influenced by the ferment

An Intellectual and

of new ideas that emanating from de spiritual retreat

Lamennais, ideas that sought to liberate or sever the traditional He turned the time spent at religious links attached to or at the Lavagnac between 1830 and 1832

service of the monarchists and into a prolonged intellectual and Gal icans.

spiritual retreat, reading the Bible and the great authors of the To serve God

Christian Tradition, in search of God, in search of himself, but also To serve God in society without Your Kingdom Come 13

the overtones, the expectations and be more open to the numerous

the new needs generated by a

questions of society that remained society still recovering from the unanswered, than being a young shock of the Revolution. During man comfortable with the easy this period Emmanuel appears to

certitudes of the dogmatists.

14 Your Kingdom Come

The Gruelling experience of the Major Seminary in Montpellier

After having vacillated for school year in 1833, after having some time, Emmanuel

received minor orders, finally chose to go to the

Emmanuel opted to go to Rome

Major Seminary in Montpellier in

to continue his theological mid-March 1832; the seminary

studies. Afterwards, he had reopened ten years earlier recognised the benefits of his time thanks

to the Napoleonic

at Montpellier: the teaching of Concordat (1802).

Father

Ginoulhiac, a future

It was a rather rude awakening Bishop, the beneficial friendship for this well bred, elegant young

of several teachers not much older man, who had tasted Parisian

than he (Fathers Fabre and

life and was accustomed to the Vernières), the entire company intellectual aerobics in vogue illuminated by seminarians like there than in this rather closed the future Father Soulas, and a environment. What caused him

good training in liturgical piety most suffering

was

his

(sacraments, offices). His friendship with

Lamennais

correspondence with his family

whose liberal ideas were greatly

gives us a perfect outline of the

attacked by the local Bishop, atmosphere, methods and life Fournier de la Contamine and proper to a major seminary at several professors still attached to that time. The theology had not

Gallican ideals. At the end of the yet recovered from the rupture

Your Kingdom Come 15

of the Revolution. Life there, people. Thanks to the help and according to Emmanuel, was support of several priests, he far too cut off from the followed the evolution of

intellectual

ferment

that thought by secretly reading stimulated the most illuminated prohibited newspapers including circles of the intelligentsia at one from Lamennais, L’Avenir, that time, especially the new founded in November 1830, that religious expectations of the had a finger on the pulse.

16 Your Kingdom Come

The happiness of being a priest, suffering for and by the Church In November 1833, Emmanuel set future Cardinal Wiseman, trying not off for Rome, the centre of

to extend himself with too many Catholicism and, at that time liabilities or worldly relationships to Capital of the Papal States. He which his name allowed him. He was lodged at the convent of the always vigilant, he opened his mind Minimes close to Spanish Place and and his faith to the larger realities of for a time followed courses at

the

the universal Church. But the Gregorian. On the advice of some pontificate of Gregory XVI, begun in Cardinals and theologians he knew 1831, was clearly

conservative,

(Micara,

Mazzetti, Olivieri),

initially distrustful then overtly hostile Emmanuel decided to organise his to the distress caused by a liberalism own education in his room, taking that questioned the political status-quo notes from readings he chose. He of an Italian peninsula divided into also spent time discovering the joys seven states.

of the eternal City, its ancient ruins, its

architectural and pictorial

The Menaisienne Test

heritage, and also benefiting from The

Menaisienne

affair

raged

its animated liturgical life. He made clumsily in the Roman Court from friends with the young MacCarthy, 1832 to 1834, in an atmosphere of then an English seminarian and the anti-liberalism. This was a great Your Kingdom Come 17

Source of suffering for Emmanuel

for the Church and his friendship who until then felt great sympathy for Lamennais until the rupture for the priest who was a symbol of consumed the latter. This purifying an evolution consonant with the experience taught him that it was ideals of the day. He discovered wise always to work for Rome, that ecclesiastical Rome was also a never against Rome, but sometimes

centre of religious

political

without Rome.

scheming where the Gospel did not

take first place and where Vatican Ordained a Priest

diplomacy showed questionable

He did not waver from his spiritual disregard towards the powers of the search and had the happiness of world. He learned of the personal

being ordained a priest, in private, evolution of Lamennais who

by Cardinal Odescalchi the day eventually removed himself from

after Christmas in 1834. Firmly his ecclesiastical commitments, resolved to give priority in his life so Emmanuel, moved towards

to the spiritual interests of the the priesthood, his heart divided Church before any political or between his friendly trust for the partisan considerations, he had the man and his moral fidelity to the

joy of an audience with Pope Church.

Gregory XVI before bringing his

first stay in Roman to an end in Fidelity without dependence

May 1835. He returned joyfully At the heart of all these controversies and affectionately to his family and condemnations, he sought to at Lavagnac, happy to benefit maintain

without repudiation,

from the early days of his without dependence, both his love priesthood after more than eighteen months absence.

18 Your Kingdom Come

Your Kingdom Come 19

In the service of the

Diocese of Nîmes

After a meeting with the Bishop another French-comtois, Msgr Cart, de Chaffoy of the Diocese

deliberately made him Vicar General (1835), who unequivocal y

in 1839, despite his young age, his lack dissuaded him from having any

of pastoral experience and a form of apostolate among the

temperament diametrical y opposed Protestants, Father d’Azon rapidly to his. Father d’Alzon refused to stay at moved up the ecclesiastical ladder.

the Episcopal Palace, preferring the Soon a Canon and then honorary freedom of a domicile in town which Vicar General, he quickly mastered his al owed him a certain degree of new position and freed himself total y independence and a rhythm of life for for the animation of local Christian more in keeping with his tastes .

life, with a special interest in the youth, even to the point of attracting unkind judgments. He used his spirit and zeal A desire for Unity

with an unusual freedom and energy, His preoccupation with the

upsetting wel established ecclesiastical Protestants of the Midi saw him routines.

more than once step up and debate

issues, but always with courtesy and VicarGeneral

with the sense of a personal The successor to Bishop de Chaffroy relationship that encouraged a franc 20 Your Kingdom Come

and free discussion of ideas alongl the Assumption that he wanted to with an incontestable apostolic make into a prestigious Catholic col age goodwil .

that was free: the Col ege of the Ecumenism at that time was not Assumption. Being the Director of this active on either side, and, despite establishment increased his entrenched

doctrinal and

relationships with hundreds of parents confessional positions, they knew of pupils who came from the whole how to agree on matters of public

Provence-Languedoc Region, placing life, and human relationships were Fr. d’Alzon in daily contact with young friendly, and, in some cases,

people. The school became his

pleasant (de Larcy, de La Farel e natural habitat until his death and and Girard).

deepened his concept of a Christian education that he never hesitated to assimilate into the work of the Major Projects

Incarnation: to form Jesus Christ in Three activities fil ed Father d’Alzon’s people. Everyone of note but also attention from 1843: the instal ation the lower families in society such as of a Carmel in Nîmes, the privileged craftsmen and the working classes relationship of spiritual direction and in Nîmes could not ignore the

friendship with a young founder in dynamism of this

energetic

Paris, Mother Marie-Eugénie of priest who is now thinking of Jesus, whom he met in 1838

adopting the customs of religious through the intervention of the life; being urged on by the apostolic famous Father Combalot, and taking spirit of the Religious of the charge of a school that was in Assumption, experienced in the decline, that became the home of

work of education and the devotions Your Kingdom Come 21

An evangelical adventure:

the Assumption

From 1845 the Colege of the Religious family, began on Assumption

became

the

Christmas eve, 1845, of humble birthplace of a founder.

origins, hidden away, like the Thanks to the courageous and Nativity at Bethlehem. The devoted lay help of Monnier and impressive Father d’Alzon, with Germer-Durand, both University four friends, Henri Brown, from graduates, Father d’Alzon, despite Lozére, Victor Cardenne, from

the procrastinations of his Bishop, Paris, Étienne Pernet, from Franc-was inspired to create within his Comté, and Hippolyte Saugrain, col ege a spiritual movement under from Normandy went against the

the patronage of Saint Augustine and tides and currents of the day, inspired by other religious orders.

persevering in their religious He combined the devotion of commitment until final y making religious life found in the monastery their first profession at Christmas with the zeal found in modern 1850 and authorized by the apostolic communities popular at reticent Bishop Cart.

that time. An association, in the style of a third order, gathered together lay An International opening

men and women to help with the This very modest foundation gave pastoral work of the young birth to a new family in the church Assumption. This one, a masculine eventual y spread to twenty-seven 22 Your Kingdom Come

countries and to the four corners of metamorphoses. During the lifetime of the planet today. It has over 150

Father d’Alzon as a religious, communities divided among eight between 1845 and 1880, there were

provinces or vice-provinces, in 21 foundations or implantations of which the usual language of which seven were just ephemeral. He communication marry a variety of

had only 73 religious to fulfil these territories and cultures from Africa, works that included col eges, through America to Asia. A real orphanages, parishes, houses of mosaic of international humanity that formation and alumnats (minor seeks to live in a unity with its seminaries), distant missions, the founding spirit that is evangelical and press, preaching and pilgrimages. So characteristic, serving the local this unity of life and spirit was from its Church and local populations, many origins a multilateral fight, carried out in of whom are on road of the name of the Gospel and in response development.

to the cal of the Church at that time.

Although born in Nîmes and French A triple Love

within an academic structure, the The Assumption embodies a vigorous Congregation of the Augustinians of spirit of faith that it developed in the the Assumption

owes to

the faith

of its founder and

form of the love of Christ, the Virgin his first religious, the grace of a spiritual Mary and the Church, under a banner and apostolic beginning that constantly entitled:

strives to move beyond the limited A.R.T., the motto of the Assumption; structures of its birth. This has an expression taken from the prayer continued throughout its history not of Jesus, the Our Father:

without suffering or uncertainty, nor Your Kingdom Come 23

A Rule of Life

The human and spiritual history of an continuing cal s and needs of the exceptional man does not engender in Church and society. Father d’Alzon itself the survival of a social group. To understood this wel in his own time face the passages of time and to inspire when he did not hesitate to sacrifice it with authentic evangelical vigour, the the communities at Rethel (1859) and Assumption must give of itself and Clichy (1860) when he decided to receive food for its religious journey.

withdraw the mission from Australia The first Constitutions drawn up (1875).

between 1855 and 1865 by Father d’Alzon and the General Chapters, A Faithful Creativity

were entirely reformulated in 1923 at the cost of agonizing sacrifices contain Like love, the life spirit of a the formula of this founding spirit up to foundation is to be found in being the present Rule of life, published in faithful to its creativity, as much in 1983! Yet these texts wil never be able terms of its possible continuity as in to completely express the problems unforeseen tragedies: the turmoil of and the risks of thousands of faithful World War I ravaged the Orient, actions experienced and fostered by decolonisation

removed the

the Assumption yesterday, today and Assumption from Tunisia and Algeria, tomorrow for the Adveniat of the the lack of vocations eats away the Kingdom. Religious life could easily be communities in the Northern dul ed in its contact with the everyday hemisphere. The positive choice of difficulties inherent in the routines and cal s and evangelical chal enges by a pitfal s of daily life, if, as it evolved, it Congregation eager to work for did not constantly receive renewed people made in the image of God in and refreshing impulses from the its quest for unity, truth and solidarity, 24 Your Kingdom Come

present us with a vision and an ideal that leaves us in permanent tension. It is true that at the Assumption several

«human territories» have experienced its preferences, its character or its historic dreams: places like Turkey, the Balkans, Russia and even faraway Manchuria, but the Assumption cannot afford to be over nostalgic about its choice of territories yesteryear. Its apostolates led it to work with generous faith and take unforeseen directions into unknown territories like Madagascar in 1953, the Congo in 1929, Latin America in 1890 and Mexico in 1948, al this without prejudice to the virgin territories newly encountered today and tomorrow: East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya), Ecuador (1996), South

Korea (1991) and more recently the Philippines, Togo and Vietnam (2006); al with God's help, and under the patronage of Our Lady of Salvation and with the ardour of missionary pioneers.

Your Kingdom Come 25

Father d’Alzon,

a magnificent figure

But let us return to Father a character that that was joly, free, d’Alzon’s era. This flamboyant

humorous and ironic, and, similarly title, “a magnificent figure” , his authoritative impulsiveness, was bestowed on him by Father although he was never able to André Sève in the spiritual completely free himself from the biography that he wrote for the severity of his highland roots.

centenary of our founder's death in 1980. He did not try to conceal the In difficult Territory

trials and suf erings that life inflicted With a very lively Catholic faith and on him, but he tried to give an drinking a water laced with anti-account of everything

that

Protestantism, he became an Emmanuel was conscience of having

Ultramontanist of the Veuil ot, received: education, fortune, always alert and often aggressive. A relations, without the false easiness southerner in spirit, Father d’Alzon of a bourgeois spirit that, according breathed in the ardour and pugnacious to him, have crippled the best of vivacity of this “w hite” population of characters. On the contrary, Father Southern France and was easily carried d’Alzon learned the art of away by the fevered passions of politics embel ishing what nature gave him and religion. Nîmes was a city sadly like characteristics of the Cévenol.

accustomed to apoplectic passion He knew how to gradual y that made the region a bastion of evangelise the prominent features

Catholic Legitimists (Ultra-Royalists) 26 Your Kingdom Come

interwoven with large pockets of their royalist support or their devotion Protestantism, liberals, and later to

demonstrative

Catholicism:

republicans: as seen in 1789, 1830, processions,

il uminations,

public

1848, 1851 and even in 1870. The

displays of Marian and Eucharistic century was fertile with the birth of worship that was triumphalist and anti-new democracies which often led to Protestant.

confrontations with inter-The difficult periods of political denominational warriors. Christianity turmoil that struck the country in at that time always sought to pave a 1815, 1830 and 1848, shattered the way that fel between the dif icult fragile consensus

established

extremes of the modernists and the between the communities. Despite dissatisfactory traits of the his authoritative tone and his traditionalists. It could not escape the complete ease with principles, Father buf eting caused by these changes. It d’Alzon is one of those who, in was this demanding but intel ectual y practical terms, prepared the people intolerant Catholicism, cal ed for

unavoidable

compromises

Ultramontanism, into which the (especial y in elections). As Vicar founder tried to draw the clergy of his General between 1839 and 1878

diocese. The bourgeoisie general y he mixed with al the local eminent claimed to favour liberalism, supported people

(municipal,

by an active minority from Protestant prefecture,scholars), overlooking circles that saw in the ideals of the partisan differences

when

the

Revolution a bastion against the questions were not t a matter of inequalities of the Ancien Régime. This doctrine. Despite his background tendency contrasted with the masses he was not afraid of al the recent of the working class who did not hide technical innovations (the railroad, Your Kingdom Come

27

sewing machine, the

telephone)

the animation and launching of new that offered new possibilities to works, preaching, links with the people’s lives. Over many years Religious of the Assumption.

despite numerous

responsibilities

Against this backdrop, his life and a multitude of enterprises, his developed into a never ending energy never flagged.

series of journeys constantly taken for new reasons and in response

Serving the Kingdom

to new needs: the struggle for the He refused to let himself be given freedom of teaching, social the mitre or the crosier that his transformation, foreign missions, friends tried to offer him at Mende, journalism. Father d’Alzon Aire-sur-Adour and even at Nîmes.

himself was always being Down to earth, he was not stimulated by the new currents interested in an ecclesiastical career, and needs produced by a

but accepted responsibility for the society that was constantly pastoral supervision of his diocese undergoing transformation. He

and the dynamism of new works sought ways for the ecclesiastical that, had spring to life in Paris and body to most benefit from al

Lyons (the Propagation of the Faith, Conferences of Saint Vincent de this or, when the case arose, to

Paul, the Work of Saint François de protect it.

Sales,

Christian Worker

Movements), he wanted to be embel ished with a Nîmois spirit. His frequent journeys to Paris were motivated by his pastoral concerns: 28 Your Kingdom Come

The Final Decade

of Combat

Pastoral Priorities

Already in 1868, during a Under the influence of various General Chapter, Father

religious, especial y Father Étienne d’Alzon anticipated the

Pernet and the Parisian Religious importance of various changes and (François Picard, Vincent de Paul Bail y, evolution in his apostolic objectives: and Hippolyte Saugrain), it stil seemed to serve the common good of the courageous to him to reorient some of masses rather than to concentrate his pastoral priorities for the masses his efforts only on the elite. Suffering and for people in terms of pilgrimages, from health problems in 1854, he the popular press, minor seminaries and apostolic schools for the poor reassessed his apostolic work in the (which the Assumption cal light of a more interior, even mystical, “alumnats”), conferences and worker reflection attested to in the maturity of movements that flourished after 1871.

his writings (The Directory 1859, He was involved in animating Letters to the Novice Masters 1868, popular movements, giving free Circulars and Meditations after 1870), reign to his younger religious who which added an important dimension had experienced military prisoner to his natural dynamism which might camps after the defeat in 1870. The appear to some only as the work of an excesses of the Paris Commune in activist.

1871 certainly did not moderate his own political preferences for the Your Kingdom Come 29

restoration of the monarchy, but daily newspaper (1883). In Paris, stimulated his desire to respond to Father Pernet, who formed the more social demands that arose Fraternities of lay people connected at this time. This generation of his with the Little Sisters of the disciples, while not abandoning the Assumption (who looked after the

field of education, knew how to be sick at home unpaid), also entered innovative in this sense and assist him the field of social Catholicism.

in this larger impulse.

From Nîmes, Father d’Alzon whose

age was beginning to take its tol , Great Figures

supervised this ferment of ideas and bubbling with ideas

actions that inspired in him strong In Paris, Father Picard mobilised sympathy and criticism, but in which the clergy and interested crowds he recognized the generous vigour of of people in the Association of his own youth and the lively faith of Notre Dame de Salut, founded in

his spirit. He never questioned the 1872 (with campaigns of public strength of the Assumption, which, prayer). Father Vincent de Paul Bail y despite its smal numbers of religious, took the smal bul etin published for launched out on many more fronts than pilgrims in 1873, begun at La Salette, it had members!

and transformed it in 1877 into an The Relief

attractive domestic and amusing A new youth was being formed in the magazine in which the caricatures minor seminary - alumnats whose played an eye-catching role in the upkeep was entrusted to Providence.

political debates at that time. A short Many and generous donors, who

time later (1880) La Croix appeared formed the association of Notre

– this Review very quickly became a Dame des Vocations, financed the 30 Your Kingdom Come

apostolic activities of the Assumption.

where the bourgeois spirit that Without their contribution many of disgusted him triumphed. Prince or these impulses would not have Knight of the Kingdom, he did not been realised. They would have depend on the goods or generosity

been left as paper projects locked of this world except in the manner of away in convent drawers! Father the gospel, which meant subjugating d’Alzon knew this wel , throughout them freely to the worthy aims of his his life he underwent according to convictions and concerns. On his him “the martyrdom of money” in

death bed, he replied to his which he generously used up his doctor, who compared his

domestic heritage on innumerable depleted health to that of a worn-works whose profits would never out capital, that he can now leave be listed on the Stock market after having damaged many others!

Your Kingdom Come 31

Like Augustine, on the banks

and ruins of Hippo

The death of Father d’Alzon is the State and heralded dark days in reminiscent of that of our

scholastic programmes focused on Patriarch from the Occident.

secularism, especial y for the young One knows that Augustine spent al

communities who had no legal

his life in Africa in the setting of the protection or guarantee.

Roman Empire which he admired

The col ege in Nîmes suffered the for its organisation, administration effects of the Ferry decrees that and culture.

expel ed from teaching those who Before the increasing invasions of avoided any form of government

“barbarian” forces including the authority. Father d’Alzon knew his Vandals undermined

the

communities were threatened and structures of this empire and already prepared for their next exile.

affected the development of

Yet it was in great serenity that the Christianity, he died in 430 facing a profound decline in the future.

“Lion of the C évennes” took his leave of this earth, after having taken The Ultimate Test

the time to prepare himself spiritual y More than fourteen centuries later, for eternity and had the sense to Father d’Alzon for his part faced a nominate someone to succeed him

similar experience. In France, the as head of his religious families; anticlerical republican forces, until another great witness of faith and then held back, now fil ed the character, Father François Picard.

32 Your Kingdom Come

His Last Breath

On Sunday 21 November 1880, ability to adapt and renew itself as the feast of Mary's Presentation, time passes and events unfold Father Emmanuel d’Alzon left to his with the freedom to invent new fol owers the strength of a spirit and sometimes unexpected that no tomb could hold down and paths.

no power on this earth could The Church validated the spiritual break.

legacy of Father Emmanuel

Even if history slates men in d’Alzon in December 1991, whatever way they chose, a awarding him the title of religious force born from the Venerable, the first stage in a future Gospel finds the strength and ability beatification hoped and prayed for.

Your Kingdom Come 33

For more information about the

Assumptionists please see

www.assumptionist.org.uk

Information about days on

Assumptionist Spirituality

Lay Ass &

umptionists

see: www.assumptionist.org.uk

Main web site for the Assumptionists

www.assumptio.org/e

Information: Assumption Priory, Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green London, E2 9PB.

Tel: 02089801968

e-mail: assumptionists@freeuk.com 34 Your Kingdom Come

May the Assumption seek before all else the Kingdom of God, and may it receive an increase in brothers, unity, joy and its courage to serve, let us pray to the Lord.

Response: Lord, may your Kingdom Come!

May the Assumption be faithful to the spirit of its founder in its love for Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Church, let us pray to the Lord.

May the Assumption, faithful to the mission of Christ, like him be present to the world and protected from all evil, let us pray to the Lord.

May the Assumption love and serve the Church in the example of Christ who loved her and died for her, let us pray to the Lord.

May the Assumption, with hope and in prayer, welcome that day when the Church the sanctity of Father Emmanuel d’Alzon, let us pray to the Lord.

« Emmanuel d’Alzon founder of the Augustinians of the Assumption and Oblates of the Assumption » is part of the collection « Your Kingdom Come ».

Editorial Committee : Dominique Lang, Noël Le Bousse, Marie-Bernard Kientz, Claude Maréchal, Hervé Stéphan, Benoit Gschwind, Assumptionists.

Translation: Tom O’Brien a.a.a

Texts : Jean-Paul Périer-Muzet, Assumptionist, archivist.

Booklet published in collaboration with Prions en Église. Design: Maguy Figureau, Cathy Croizet.

© Photos : Assumption - © Designs : Pascal Gindre - D.R.