No. 29 • February 2013 Fr. Louis Brisson Symposium

Founded in 1997 and published biannually by the International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS) of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

To Live with One Heart: Louis Brisson and the Salesian Pentecost Wendy M. Wright

We are with you, my Good Mother, in all things; we live only in one soul and one heart in order to accomplish the wish of our Good Mother Mary de Sales who repeated to me many times that it was essential that the Oblate Sisters be completely daughters of St. Francis de Sales, and that one should find among them what he [de Sales] had Introduction to this issue . . . wished to establish first of all: charity, the most On Saturday, 22 September 2012, Louis Brisson (1817- perfect humility, and constant union with the 1908), founder of the Oblates and the Oblate Sisters of divine will. 1 St. Francis de Sales, was beatified in the splendid Gothic cathedral of Troyes (France). On the three days following the When Fr. Louis Brisson (1817-1908) wrote these words in April beatification, Masses of Thanksgiving were celebrated in the of 1887 to Oblate Sister Claire de Jésus Tapin, he was giving voice village of Plancy (Sunday, 23 September), where Fr. Brisson was both to his own sense of vocation as well as reflecting the wider spirit born and died; at the Troyes Visitation monastery (Monday, of his era, an era during which the spiritual vision of Francis de Sales 24 September), where he was chaplain for over 40 years; and in and Jane de Chantal was in ascendance. This is so much the case the crypt of the Motherhouse of the Oblate Sisters (Tuesday, that the phrase “Salesian Pentecost” has been coined to describe the 25 September), where he is buried. 19th-century popularity of Salesian spirituality among European Also in conjunction with the beatification, the 2 International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS) Catholics. Two centuries earlier, the Doctor of Divine Love, as de 3 sponsored on 24-25 September a symposium on Fr. Brisson’s Sales has been called, and those who shared his spiritual vision ministry and spirituality that took place at the Motherhouse of conceptualized the cosmic drama as a “world of hearts:” human the Oblate Sisters in Troyes. In this special “Blessed Louis hearts, created in the image of the divine heart, aligned together Brisson” commemorative issue of the ICSS Newsletter , we are through the crucified heart of Jesus who invites all to come and learn pleased to offer the four papers presented at the beatification from His gentleness and humility (Matthew 11:28-30). 4 This symposium. (The symposium also included the premiere of the particular Salesian way of framing the Christian life captured the excellent DVD on Fr. Brisson that was prepared specifically for imagination of Fr. Brisson and many of his contemporaries. the occasion of his beatification by the Dutch Salesian Family.) The aim of this essay is to chart the trajectory of this revival of This issue also features photos of the beatification. To all things Salesian nearly two hundred years after the deaths of the accommodate this and the publication of the papers, other Savoyard bishop and the widowed French foundress and to consider customary features of the Newsletter , such as the news items and what was occurring in church and society to give impetus to the bibliography, are postponed until our next issue. revival. Additionally, it will explore the wide network of persons We hope you enjoy this special issue, and find it a useful who spearheaded the revival and suggest some of the ways that Louis resource for this Year of Faith, which marks the 50th Brisson himself was linked to these others fired by the spirit of the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and the Year of Renewal, which is being observed by Salesian Pentecost. the De Sales Oblates as we continue to reflect on the grace of the beatification and the inspiration and example of Blessed The Context for the Pentecost Louis Brisson. More specifically, the De Sales Oblates’ 2012 General Chapter envisions the Year of Renewal as an invitation Why in the 19th century did the Salesian Pentecost catch fire? to “engage energetically in the Church’s call of a new An overly simplified answer is threefold, and involves a mix of evangelization by going out to others in gentle love and with a political, intellectual, cultural, economic, ecclesial, theological, and spirit that enlightens, encourages, enlivens and empowers.” spiritual factors. Europe, especially France, by the end of the 18th century was ripe for revolution. The royalist-nationalist structures 2 ICSS NEWSLETTER that had dominated society, sustained as they were by theories Moralis written by François Genet and known popularly as the affirming the divine right of kings, could no longer hold. The most Morale de Grenoble, spread rigorist ideas that affected the dramatic and early crack in the edifice was born of the sacramental practice of Penance and Holy Communion. Enlightenment, with its faith in reason and critique of the Absolution was frequently delayed or refused, and participation in institutions of monarchy and church. On the political front the the Eucharist was reserved for a few spiritual elite thought to be French Revolution signaled the crumbling of the ancien regime not worthy. 9 The result was the cultivation of a fear-driven Catholic only in France, but also across the continent and beyond. The faith that eschewed “the world” and taught an exaggerated sense Catholic Church, tightly linked as it was to the old order, was of human sinfulness. caught in the crucible that swept much of that established order Gradually, as the new century progressed, there was a turn away. A profound disruption of Catholic culture followed in the away from this mood and a turn toward a religion that stressed wake of the Revolution and its century-long aftermath: those who God’s love. Faith became concerned with the transformation of claimed Roman Catholicism as spiritual homeland found human existence here and now rather than with an otherworldly themselves unmoored and at a critical juncture. These salvation achieved by adherence to stringent observance in this monumental cultural shifts had created the conditions for an one. 10 In sacramental practice this shift was evident in the spread increasingly “secularized” society. 5 In France alone, serial of Eucharistic devotion in the forms of adoration of the republican, imperial and restorationist governments changed Eucharistic Real Presence and a widespread desire for frequent policies with whiplash speed, mostly to the detriment of religious communion. 11 This ecclesial shift ran parallel to the wider practice. A new elite generation tended to be religiously indifferent European cultural turn toward Romanticism, with its affirmation or hostile. The general populace was not well catechized. of human goodness and sympathy for popular culture. This bled Yet in the face of coercion, suppression, intimidation and over into a religious appreciation of popular religiosity with its indifference, enormous Catholic spiritual energy was unleashed. A miracles, apparitions, festive practices, shrines, relics, and popular nucleus of fervent believers emerged bent on living the faith in art. Indeed, the 19th century was to become the great age of creative new ways. Under the galvanizing efforts of this nucleus, religious devotionalism and Marian piety. 12 catechetical instruction increased, clerical training improved, new In was in this context that the Salesian Pentecost ignited. Of congregations were founded to undertake internal and foreign course, Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal and the spirituality missions, and the physical presence of the church was they espoused had not disappeared during the intervening years: reconstructed. The Salesian Pentecost would be part of this but its flourishing in the 19th century was remarkable and new revitalization. creative expressions of that spirit emerged. There were several Europe was changing not only because of political turmoil, intertwined pathways through which Salesian spirituality traveled. but also as a result of serious economic transitions. The Industrial First, the institutional: specifically the Order of the Visitation of Revolution drew workers away from the country into urban Holy Mary that the two saints had co-founded and which was enclaves and in the process unraveled the daily communal life of closely associated with the popular devotion to the Sacred Heart. 13 village culture into which religious practice had long been woven. Second, the Salesian vision was carried through the writings of Younger workers especially were vulnerable in the cities. Far from de Sales, especially the Introduction to the Devout Life but also family and community, many were uneducated and uncatechized. through the Treatise on the Love of God and collections of his Since religious communities had been disbanded by government letters. 14 And third, the Salesian witness had traveled by way of fiat, social needs became pressing and offered opportunities for the reputation of the two founders for holiness: particularly it was believers to apply themselves to the renewal of society through the Bishop de Sales who was deemed a true image of Christ. In exercise of the works of mercy. New female and male apostolic addition he was extolled as a missionary and champion of the congregations were founded to respond to these needs, even as the Catholic cause in the face of the Protestant challenge. 15 Not political milieu in which they emerged often hindered their everyone who was drawn into the welcoming circle of the revival growth. The Salesian spirit, adaptable as it was to many different of the Salesian spirit during the 19th century came to it through lifestyles and ministries undergirded many of these efforts. the same route. But come they did and the times were ripe for such The final spark that lit the fires of the Salesian Pentecost took a spiritual renaissance. place in the core of the church itself. At the close of the 18th century, the spirit that had dominated Catholic life for over a Prelude to the Salesian Pentecost: Alphonsus Liguori hundred years was elitist, strict, and moralistic. Rigorism was the dominant note in sacramental discipline. 6 This rigorism was not When the young nobleman Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) strictly Jansenist in a doctrinal sense (i.e., containing the five entered the seminary in Naples in 1723 intending to study moral propositions of Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen condemned by theology, he was handed the Theologia Moralis of Genet and papal decree), 7 although its spirit is commonly described as having no other frame of reference accepted its precepts. 16 “Jansenistic.” This approach was part of an ecclesial retrieval of an Liguori’s priestly formation had been primarily accomplished as a Augustinianism that was deeply pessimistic of human capability, member of a sodality attached to the Naples Cathedral known as stressed human sinfulness, and advocated a strict moralism the Congregation of the Apostolic Missions. The great spiritual designed to ensure that human laxity would not imperil souls. mentor of this Congregation was St. Francis de Sales, whose works Especially in moral theology, rigorism reigned. 8 At the dawn were assiduously studied. As soon as he began his pastoral ministry of the 19th century the standard seminary textbook, the Theologia among the lazzaroni, Naples unlettered poor, Alphonsus changed ICSS NEWSLETTER 3 his mind about rigorism, a stance that seemed to him to cause his fellow countryman Francis de Sales, the gently persuasive damage to hearts and minds and lead people to despair. Clearly the model for his own preaching and evangelization. optimistic spirit of the Salesian saint, who preached God’s love It was in 1821 in the Savoyard market town of Le Chatelard and invited all to come to Jesus and learn of His gentle, humble that Favre encountered Pierre-Marie Mermier (1790-1862) a heart, had conquered Liguori. somewhat stern yet zealous priest who had been having trouble Alphonsus began to dream about founding a missionary convincing his indifferent parishioners to warm to his evangelizing society dedicated to preaching God’s Word among the most efforts. Hearing of Favre’s success in a nearby town Mermier abandoned. Eventually that group evolved and was given the invited him to preach a mission in his parish. The upshot was that name the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the the two companions made up their minds to dedicate their priestly Redemptorists). Throughout his life, the founder was an avid ministries to the mission apostolate. Mermier too had grown up in writer, his pen turned to both pastoral concerns and to moral the chaos that followed the Revolution. Clandestine masses were theology. He became an ardent promoter of frequent communion celebrated on the Mermier farm, and because of government and his devotional pamphlet Visits to the Blessed Sacrament soon policy the boy’s education in religious-run institutions was enjoyed a wide audience. It seemed to him that the ideas of the interrupted or sporadic. As it became possible, Pierre Marie Enlightenment, which had spread among intellectuals of his day attended the seminary at Chambéry where he prepared for a life of were to be avoided but even more pernicious was the cold, parish ministry. In hindsight, he came to see his appointment as forbidding Jansenistic spirit that leeched Christian piety of pastor at Le Chatelard as an act of Providence, as it was there that warmth and tenderness. he met Favre and his missionary vocation was revealed. The Neapolitan’s early devotion to Francis de Sales never left Eventually Favre became director of the missions in the him, and all of his writings are liberally seeded with quotes, both diocese of Chambéry and Mermier established another missionary direct and paraphrased, from the Savoyard’s works. Even more congregation, which he named the Missionaries of St. Francis de significantly, Liguori’s writings are saturated with the Salesian Sales of Annecy and whose Rule of Life echoed the rule written spirit, and he clearly used de Sales as a spiritual master whose for the sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary. 19 He also responded theological orientation and pastoral perspectives on the Christian to the urgent pastoral needs of his diocese by founding, with life announce a good news to counteract the entrenched Claudine Echernier (1801-1869), the Daughters of the Holy perspectives of the day. This battle, Alphonsus believed, was not Cross, a women’s community dedicated to the education and care merely to be fought in lecture halls among the theological elite of young girls. 20 Mermier’s evangelistic dreams were encouraged by but among the people with the publication of manuals of prayer one of Francis de Sales’s own countrymen, the bishop of Annecy and popular devotion. Thus both his pastoral writings (which Pierre Joseph Rey (1770-1842). 21 Bishop Rey’s last will and gained an immediate following) and Liguori’s moral theology testament of 1839 contained a significant bequest to the new (which did not) were direct critiques of current sacramental missionary community. practice and the severe spirit that animated it. There was a good deal of resistance to the Neapolitan’s ideas and their circulation. I bequeath to the dear missionaries of Nevertheless, eventually they gained favor and were championed St. Francis de Sales the entire property I as the idea of a God of love and mercy gained traction. The study acquired at Les Allinges, including the precious and dissemination of Liguori’s work in the 19th century often chapel in which St. Francis de Sales celebrated went in hand with the revival of enthusiasm for all things often the divine mysteries for the conversion of 17 Salesian. my motherland. Though the main house of this pious Congregation is La Feuillette, however, The Pentecost Catches Fire in Savoy the Missionaries will consider Les Allinges as Typical of the growing 19th-century enthusiasm for a renewal the headquarters where the memory of their of the church through the promotion of the writings and spirit of model and patron will be vivid everywhere and Francis de Sales and Alphonsus Liguori is Joseph-Marie Favre will enkindle fervor in their noble and holy (1791-1838) who was born into a modest, deeply religious family work of the Missions. 22 in Faucigny in Savoy. Like so many of the figures associated with the Salesian Pentecost, the French Revolution impacted Favre The Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales restored the site, and early in his life. His family harbored priests who had fled to the it became a center of pilgrimage focused on the saint. But their mountains for refuge. This galvanized the youth’s sense of vocation primary focus was to be preached missions, and as the demand for and he entered the seminary at Chambéry where, much to his such faith-reviving events grew, so did the small congregation. In dismay, the rigorist spirit dominated. The works of Liguori were 1838, they sought canonical approval for their Rule. The final forbidden seminary reading at this time. Nevertheless, Favre Constitution explicitly claims not only the patronage but also the discovered them and became a disciple, vowing to teach God’s spirit of Francis de Sales as its raison d’etre . welcoming love and encouraging the practice of frequent communion. 18 After ordination, he became a professor at a minor The Patron and special Protector of the seminary and was soon entrusted to organize missions in the Congregation is St Francis de Sales, as the diocese in order to restore the faith. He found in the teachings of faithful imitator of Jesus Christ and of all his 4 ICSS NEWSLETTER

virtues, particularly his love for sinners and his Dreams of Pentecost in Geneva meekness, which he practiced with such As bishop of Geneva, Francis resided in exile in Annecy heroism. With the grace of God and the during his lifetime because his see city was a Protestant stronghold. intercessor of this blessed patron, the It was there, where the Savoyard’s memory was vitally alive, that Missionaries named after him will profess to Swiss born, Jesuit-trained curate Gaspard Mermillod (1824-92) imitate these virtues in a special manner. 23 dreamed of renewing the Catholic faith inspired by de Sales’s missionary exploits. The Swiss priest faced a contested religious The Missionaries would carry the Salesian charism well situation not that different from de Sales’s own time. In 1857, he beyond the mountains of Haut-Savoie. Several of the missionaries was made Vicar General of the bishop of Lausanne for the canton Mermier among them, dreamed of evangelization among non- of Geneva. But the historically Protestant stronghold resisted an Christians. In 1845, Pope Gregory XVI established new vicariates independent Catholic administrator and for years Mermillod’s in the mission field of India and entrusted Vizag to the ministerial agency was thwarted. 31 He eventually was made Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales. 24 It is there that their Cardinal and, when normal relations with the Genevan City apostolate has chiefly flourished over the last two centuries. Council were resumed, the Swiss prelate took up the ecclesial mantle of de Sales. The Pentecost Catches Fire beyond Savoy Despite the complexity of his own pastoral situation, It would, however, be a mistake to see the Missionaries of Mermillod was energetic in his promotion of Salesian spirituality. St. Francis de Sales as an isolated community whose desire to In his eyes, his Savoyard predecessor was the missionary par spread the Salesian charism was primarily motivated by their excellence and champion of Catholic identity, and Mermillod admiration for a local saint. 25 As he had been during his lifetime, spared no effort in his collaborative attempts to promote the saint de Sales was remembered beyond his locality for the spiritual as patron and protector of conversions. Chief among the vision he preached. This was a vision that resonated well with the associations he sponsored was the Catholic Association of Catholic faithful in the wake of the revolutionary events that St. Francis de Sales. With Fr. Emmanuel d’Alzon (1810-80) of rocked their political, ecclesial, and social world. A look at the Nîmes, soon to be the founder of the Augustinians of the ministerial influence of Mermier’s counterpart, Fr. Joseph Favre, Assumption, who already had contacts with the Salesian makes this point. As noted, Favre was an early adopter of Pentecost beginning to play itself out in the Piedmont, 32 Liguorian theology and a devoted disciple of Francis de Sales. He Mermillod and d’Alzon petitioned Rome and, approving of their was not himself the founder of institutions but his success as a apostolic zeal, Pius IX gave his approbation to these two for an spiritual guide was great. 26 In this role he was a seminal figure in initiative to convert “strayed brethren” of the Protestant the inner transformation of the foundress of the Religious of the persuasion. The initiative would flourish and, as will be shown, fan Sacred Heart, Madeleine-Sophie Barat (1779-1865). The two met the flames of the Pentecost throughout Europe. in 1821, possibly during a brief visit she made to Chambéry while he was preaching a mission to one of her fledgling communities in The Piedmontese Salesian Family of Don Bosco the region. But meet they did and her life was forever changed. About the same time as the Salesian initiatives in Savoy were This young woman hailed from Joigny in Burgundy, a Catholic launched, and as Emmanuel d’Alzon was well aware, another region famous for its decidedly Jansenistic leanings. Constantly manifestation of the Salesian Pentecost was coming into being in wary of God’s condemnation, convinced she was unworthy to neighboring Piedmont, a land that had never lost a sense of the partake in the Eucharist, abusive of her body through penance and regional saint’s spirit. Turin had been the capital of the Duchy of overwork, Sophie found herself, nonetheless, chosen to lead a Savoy during Francis’s lifetime, and the saint’s legacy was still teaching congregation of women who would follow a modified much alive there as the 19th century dawned. 33 De Sales, who as Jesuit rule. 27 a diplomat for the court of Duke Charles Emmanuel, had been a When she encountered Favre, with his fervent message of frequent visitor in the capital and in smaller cities of the duchy. God’s love, she was captured. Opening her parched heart to him, After his death Francis’s writings were quickly translated into she drank in the sweet springs of Salesian gentleness. For Italian and biographies that extolled his virtues were popular. In seventeen years until his death, Favre was her primary spiritual Turin, several generations of priests, theologians, ecclesiastical guide. Despite the fact that her congregation had been named for students, and cultured men and women continued to venerate the the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the inner meaning of that potent symbol Savoyard. By the early 19th century, two regional centers had never unfolded in Madeleine-Sophie’s own heart. 28 It was especially promoted his teachings: the seminary of Chieri, where a Favre who began to chip away at the impregnable fortress of confraternity dedicated to Francis kept his memory fresh, and the Sophie’s fear-filled conscience. 29 This was no easy task, for the Pastoral Institute in Turin, known as the Convitto (founded in resistance to the Salesian spirit was strong in the circles in which 1811). she traveled. In fact, Favre’s book, Le Ciel Ouvert , was publically It was at this latter institution that Joseph Cafasso (1811-60) censured in Paris. 30 Still, her director’s words began to take hold served as spiritual director and lecturer in moral theology. Born of and transform the inner world of the foundress and attained a peasant parents in Piedmont, Cafasso had studied for the measure of inner peace. priesthood at the seminary in Turin and then at the Institute of St. Francis where he read the Savoyard’s words. Steeped as he was ICSS NEWSLETTER 5 in the Salesian spirit, he was ardent in his opposition to any hint St. Francis de Sales served as a banner of hope of Jansenistic religion. Cafasso was also known as one of the “social for Don Bosco. . . . The Francis de Sales of saints” of Turin who ministered to the dispossessed, marginalized, militant nineteenth-century Catholics was the and condemned. It was at the Convitto that Cafasso came into saint who had written the Introduction to the contact with the young man who would be one of the most notable Devout Life and proposed holiness to all, more figures in the Salesian Pentecost. than the author of the Treatise on the Love of Like Cafasso, John (Don) Bosco (1815-88) would become God . Above all, he was the apostle of the known as one of the “social saints” of Turin. Also like Cafasso, Chablais, the one who won back to the church John was of Piedmontese peasant stock. An early prophetic dream seventy thousand heretics. Their Francis de revealed to the poor boy something of his future ministry: over a Sales was the man burning with charity, zeal, vision of a crowd of swearing street children a gentleman’s voice and conquering love, the reincarnation of the insisted “you will have to win these friends of yours, not with gentle Christ on earth. For Don Bosco he was blows but with gentleness and love. . . .” 34 Although it was the holy model of the gentleness to be used with difficult for his family, John managed to secure an education and young people and all those who had to be led a vocation to the priesthood emerged. At the minor seminary in back to the church. . . . 38 Chieri he encountered St. Francis de Sales though his membership in a confraternity dedicated to the study of the Bosco may be the most illustrious of Cafasso’s protégés to be Savoyard’s life. When he arrived at the Convitto and placed fired by the Salesian spirit, but he was not the only one. A local himself under the direction of Fr. Cafasso, this early exposure was noblewoman, the Marchioness of Barolo (b.1785), was among the deepened and focused. Bosco would attribute the shape and laity that Cafasso guided and who played a role in Don Bosco’s life success of his future pastoral works to his mentor’ s influence. as well. Motivated by the pressing social needs of the day, the When he was ordained in 1841, he chose Francis de Sales as his Marchioness underwrote several communities: a shelter for patron, and key among the resolutions that he made to carry out reformed prostitutes and runaways, and a hospital for the care of in his ministry was the fourth: “the charity and gentleness of girls. In addition, she was an ardent reformer of the prison systems, St. Francis de Sales are to be my guide.” 35 founded a congregation of religious women, and hoped to establish Don Bosco would go on to refine his vocation with a congregation of priests. Her devotion to Francis de Sales is marginalized youngsters in this spirit, establishing the Festive evident as she chose him as patron of her intended community. Oratory of St. Francis de Sales. The optimistic theological Among devotees in the Piedmont, the revival of the Salesian spirit anthropology that sustained de Sales’s vision of a world of hearts was typically linked to efforts to address social needs. The was also Don Bosco’s. He saw the good in the most hardened of persuasive methods intrinsic to the Savoyard’s approach—one street children and believed that their hearts could be won wins hearts through loving kindness, gentleness, and humility not through kindness and encouragement. The Oratory nurtured boys through force of argument or by instilling fear—were operative in through respectful care, education, advocacy, devotion, and all their apostolates. popular piety yoked together in a spirit of joyful play. Appreciation and encouragement rather than punishment drew the children out Pentecost in the French Capital and improved them. He was to write in his memoirs, De Sales may have been especially alive for those who claimed We began to call [the first Oratory church] after him as their regional holy one but, just as he had in his lifetime, St Francis de Sales . . . because we had put our the Savoyard was warmly welcomed beyond the mountains of own ministry, which called for great calm and Savoy and Piedmont: the gracious saint would once again win the meekness, under the protection of this saint in heart of Paris. Chief among his disciples in the capital was Louis- the hope that he might obtain for us from God Gaston de Ségur (1820-81), a man of noble heritage whose the grace of being able to imitate him in his immediate family was religiously indifferent. A gift from his pious extraordinary meekness and in winning souls. 36 Russian grandmother, a copy of the Introduction to the Devout Life altered de Ségur’s adolescent career trajectory from law to holy Soon it became evident that there was a need for a orders. Trained at the seminary of St.-Sulpice, where he found that community dedicated to this work. A men’s congregation, the the Salesian warmth and optimism he brought with him balanced Salesians of Don Bosco, emerged from necessity along with a the austere abnegation preferred by the Sulpicians, women’s community co-founded by Maria Mazzarello (1837-81) de Ségur began what he hoped would be his life’s work, the and an association of lay Cooperators. These three entities Bosco evangelization of the people of Paris, particularly the poor and considered one family. Each of these groups and their many later marginalized. For a time, he served as an auditor for the Rota in offshoots undertook their work motivated by the gentle Salesian Rome, but increasing blindness took him back to the French spirit. St. Francis de Sales was not the only influence on Don capital where he was made titular Archbishop. 39 Bosco; there were many others. 37 Still, the Salesian heritage was The defense and preservation of the Catholic faith was always key to the way he chose to pursue his ministry. The founder foremost in Ségur’s mind and to this end, despite his infirmity, he appropriated the saint’s teachings as they were applicable in his authored apologetic tracts meant to convert the irreligious and to own context. spread Salesian principles in opposition to the rigid Jansenistic 6 ICSS NEWSLETTER perspectives of the day. Perhaps de Ségur’s most remarkable Paris Commune, Chaumont and Madame de Carré went on to contribution to the Salesian Pentecost was the promotion of the found the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales. The aims of the female Catholic Association of St. Francis de Sales founded under the group were two: personal sanctification and apostolic action on initiative of Emmanuel d’Alzon and Gaspard Mermillod who behalf of the faith. The rule of life the daughters were to follow was appointed de Ségur president of its central governing committee. based on Chaumont’s presentation of Salesian principles. The Parisian spared no effort and relying upon his well-placed Archbishop de Ségur was deemed “grandfather” of the lay society. connections, contacted bishops all over Europe and convinced Chaumont went on to found two other associations inspired by forty dioceses to sponsor the Association. By the time of de Ségur’s Salesian spirituality, a priestly society and a men’s association. death, worldwide membership of the Association was tallied at close to two million. Its goals were the defense of the faith against Flames of the Pentecost in Troyes the Protestant challenge, as well as the reanimation of the faith This broader context illuminates the innovative work amidst a de-Christianized and religiously indifferent society accomplished in the diocese of Troyes by Fr. Louis Brisson and The Catholic Association of St. Francis de Sales was to Marie de Sales Chappuis (1793-1875). 42 The remarkable story of occupy the Parisian for the remainder of his life, but it was not the these figures and their compatriots in the founding of the Oblates only initiative designed to spread the Salesian message that he and the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales is the focus of other nurtured. Among the youths in whom the older man detected a papers presented at this symposium. Here their relationships with priestly vocation and a role in the bourgeoning Catholic revival others throughout Europe involved in the Catholic revival is 40 was Paris-born Henri Chaumont (1838-96). As a young man, highlighted. 43 Suffice it to say that in 1826 Visitandine Marie de Chaumont, too much in the thrall of a fear-filled religiosity, had Sales Chappuis, already fabled as embodying the true Salesian suffered from scruples. His early contacts with the Parisian spirit, was sent as superior to the Visitation monastery in Troyes to archbishop and the practice of frequent communion allowed him counter the Jansenistic spirit that had crept into the community to mature spiritually so that by the time he attended the seminary there. In 1841, the young priest Louis Brisson was assigned as of Issy he was ready to claim his vocation. catechist and confessor at the Visitation boarding school; Although Chaumont knew of Francis de Sales’s reputation, it eventually he became chaplain for the religious themselves, a was not until he arrived at Issy that he read a collection of the position he held for forty-one years. His longtime intimate contact Savoyard’s letters that, he later recounted, were a “revelation.” 41 with the community, and especially with Marie de Sales, the Good The seminarian announced to his spiritual director that he wanted Mother, formed his heart in the gentle, humble way to make a special study of the saint’s writings, a vow he kept of the Salesian spirit. As did the Good Mother, Brisson felt throughout his life. In 1860, Chaumont transferred to the that attentive observance of the Spiritual Directory , written by seminary of St.-Sulpice where he began to conceive of an Francis de Sales for the fledging Visitation, was central to association of laity dedicated to a program of perfection under the formation in the Salesian mode. principles of Francis de Sales. In anticipation, Henri began to For years, the Good Mother had dreamed of the existence of a analyze the Introduction and draw out from that text a summary men’s congregation designed to spread the Savoyard’s charism. It which he titled Spiritual Direction of St. Francis de Sales. was her belief that the youthful Brisson would be that man. Of The practice of summarizing and synthesizing the Savoyard’s course, it would take decades and not a few divine interventions for thought continued as the fledgling priest launched into public that dream to become reality. Meanwhile, Fr. Brisson was occupied ministry. Chaumont soon gained a reputation as a gifted confessor with his scientific studies and was concerned about the plight of and spiritual guide. This was accompanied by a remarkable knack youths, particularly young women flooding into the city for work. for establishing faith-oriented groups: in his years at St.-Marcel When Louis Gaston de Ségur’s plea about the Catholic parish, Henri gathered parishioners into associations for spiritual Association reached the bishop in Troyes, the response in the advancement, catechetical training, and service to the poor. He chancery was enthusiastic. The chaplain of the Visitation began as well to direct a local laywoman, Mademoiselle Lasseau, monastery, Louis Brisson, was made diocesan director, and the using the Introduction to the Devout Life and (unsuccessfully) Good Mother assumed the role of treasurer of the Association. Of attempted to found a female association with her as leader. course, this promotion of the Salesian spirit was dear to both their Back in Paris and stationed at the parish of Ste.-Clotilde, hearts, and they took up the mantle eagerly. There was to be an Chaumont continued to harbor his Salesian dreams. Study of the additional emphasis for the Association in Troyes, however. Theirs Savoyard’s writings yielded several other summary manuals on was a region with few Protestants to convert and where the needs topics such as friendship, spiritual guidance, the Christian of migrant youths were critical. It became another aim of the household, and religious education. It was in the confessional of regional Association to safeguard morals among poor and working Ste.-Clothilde that Chaumont became aware of the presence of class young women 44 Fr. Brisson was moved to establish facilities Madame Caroline Carré de Malberg, (1829-91), a former pupil at that could provide a wholesome place for girls to gather, relax, and the Visitation at Metz and wife of Commandant Paul Carré. Under receive religious instruction. This “youth work” was the germ of his direction, this spiritually mature woman flourished: he what would become the reason for and apostolate of the Oblate encouraged her to follow the rule of life that he had synthesized. Sisters of St. Francis de Sales. Chaumont continued to pursue his plans. Eventually, with Through the Catholic Association and their shared disruptions caused by the chaotic political upheavals during the enthusiasm for Salesian spirituality, Archbishop de Ségur was to ICSS NEWSLETTER 7 have repeated contact with the adherents of the Salesian Sales.” 47 This was followed by a stop in Geneva where Gaspar Pentecost in Troyes. He and Swiss-born Gaspard Mermillod both Mermillod, fueled by his own dreams of spreading the Salesian closely followed the expanding fire burning there. Each from his charism, approved Chaumont’s plan for a lay society “in the spirit own part of the country actively supported Fr. Brisson and for years of St. Francis de Sales without the cloister of the Visitation.” 48 these men who shared a Salesian dream, along with Mother All these comings and goings point to the extraordinary and Chappuis, met face to face whenever travel and responsibilities widespread network of creativity known as the Salesian Pentecost allowed. that sustained and nurtured the work of Louis Brisson and his The visits not only concerned the work of the Association but contemporaries. Whether carried by the Visitation monasteries, by also developing plans for new initiatives. For example, in 1855 de Sales’s literary productions or the works of those, like Liguori, Brisson went on retreat at the Grand Chartreuse and followed this who were influenced by the Savoyard, by the reputations of the with a pilgrimage to Annecy and a meeting with Mermillod in Salesian saints, or by Francis de Sales’s memory as missionary and Geneva (after which Louis reported that “shivers” went up his spine evangelist, the Salesian spirit came to full flower in the 19th when he received the elder man’s blessing). 45 Over the years, the century. Thus, when in 1887 Fr. Brisson wrote to Oblate Sister emerging plans for the Oblate Sisters and the Oblates and the youth Clare de Jésus of living only in one soul and one heart and of work were collaboratively discussed. The year 1859 saw Brisson in perfect humility, charity, and union with the divine will, his words Paris gathering information about hostels for young women. And it were both uniquely his own yet also the currency of his era, an age was there that de Ségur accepted Brisson’s invitation to come to the in which human hearts were once again opened wide to Live annual meeting of the Catholic Association in Troyes. Jesus !, and to do so in new and innovative ways. In 1866, Mermillod, at this point coadjutor bishop of Geneva, was invited to preach for the Association while visiting Troyes to Dr. Wendy M. Wright is Professor of Theology and holds the John preach a retreat for diocesan clergy. 1867 saw Brisson in Geneva C. Kenefick Chair in the Humanities at Creighton University, consulting with Mermillod about the foundation of and Omaha, NE. constitutions for the emerging Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. That same year Mermillod again visited de Ségur in Paris. The following year Mermillod was in Troyes for the 1868 investiture of NOTES the Oblate Sisters, the group that Brisson felt rightly should have 1. Écrits Brisson, 9:80-81, quoted in Father Louis Brisson (1817-1908): A the Genevan bishop named as founder, but the Genevan Documented Biography (Wilmington, DE: Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, disagreed. Thus although the Swiss prelate was invited for the 2008), 77. 2. The term “Salesian Pentecost” was coined by Salesian scholar Henri l’Honoré, sisters’ profession, he demurred. De Ségur was present instead. OSFS, “Ramifications de la famille salésienne” in L’Unidivers Salésien: Saint 1888 marked a reunion of Brisson and Mermillod in Rome. That François de Sales hier et aujourd’hui , ed. Hélène Bordes et Jacques Hennequin same year Mermillod sponsored a Eucharistic congress in the (Paris: Université de Metz, 1994): 459-71. French capital that Brisson attended. 3. Since Pope Pius IX, Francis has been known this way, especially in the papal documents of Pope Paul VI and Blessed John Paul II. Nor was it only the Paris-Geneva contingent that claimed the 4. On the world of hearts, see Wendy M. Wright, “‘That Is What It Is Made For’: attention of Fr. Brisson. In 1881, during a period when he was Image of the Heart in the Spirituality of Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal,” experiencing difficulties with his bishop, Brisson made a trip to in Spiritualities of the Heart: Approaches to Personal Wholeness in Christian Tradition , ed. Annice Callahan, RSCJ (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1990), 143-58. Rome to consult about the congregation of the Oblates. On the 5. The “de-Christianization” of France in the 19th century was not a linear way, he stopped in Turin and met with Don Bosco, whose work on process. Catholic practice ebbed and flowed with the changing political, behalf of marginalized youth was by this time well known. The economic, and social tides. See Ralph Gibson, A Social History of French Catholicism 1789-1914 (London/New York: Routledge, 1989). Frenchman consulted his Piedmontese host about the difficulties 6. Louis Vereecke, “Evolution de la théologie morale du Concile de Trente à s. of founding a community and encountering episcopal opposition, Alphonse de Liguori,” Studia Moralia XXV/21 (1987): 7-25, and “Saint e e realities Bosco knew well. 46 Alphonse de Liguori dans l’histoire de la théologie morale du XVI au XVIII siècle,” in Alphonse de Liguori: Pasteur et Docteur , luminaire de Jean Delumeau If Brisson sought advice from other figures in the Salesian (Paris: Beauchesne, 1987), 95-125. Pentecost, he was similarly consulted by these same others. Henri 7. The Jansenist movement (the name was coined by the Jesuits who were Chaumont, protégée of de Ségur and founder with Caroline de opposed to the approach), originated from the posthumously published work Carré of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, was tightly linked of Cornelius Jansen, who died in 1638. Jean du Vergier, Abbé de Saint-Cyran, Antoine Arnauld, the convent of Port-Royal, Pierre Nicole, Blaise Pascal, and to the Troyes Pentecost. His dream of founding a lay society Jean Racine disseminated the approach. The papal bull Cum occasione , issued emerged at the same time that Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis by Pope Innocent X in 1653, condemned five cardinal doctrines of Jansenism and Fr. Brisson were founding the Oblates Sisters. Chaumont as heresy. Further controversy led to the bull Unigenitus , issued by Pope Clement XI in 1713. learned of their work and found himself inspired to establish, if not 8. Antoine Arnauld’s Frequent Communion written under the inspiration of quite a parallel, another sort of women’s association nurtured by Saint-Cyran fixed for centuries the norms for the practice of the sacrament of Francis de Sales’s vision. Penance characterized by the systematic refusal of absolution in any number of cases and limiting access to the Eucharist to a spiritual elite. The debate In 1868, Chaumont made his first pilgrimage to Annecy, drew between rigorists and “laxists” went on with subsequent popes condemning the up a “rule” based on his reading of the Introduction, then made a extremes on both sides. Under the influence of Bossuet, the French General visit to Troyes, where he was welcomed by Fr. Brisson and sat at Assembly condemned another 127 propositions in 1700, thus assuring the triumph of rigorism in France for a century. the feet of the Good Mother whom he considered an “oracle” and 9. Genet was a theologian with degrees in both civil and canon law, and his “one of Our Lord’s most privileged souls just like St. Francis de Jansenist leanings were evident in the underlying theology of the Morale de 8 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Grenoble , which condemned the moral tradition of probabilism. This approach seminaries, together with a push for better religious education. played itself out pastorally in the penitential practice of deferring or refusing 22. Moget, 25. absolution in order to convert sinners and in severe sexual directives for 23. Ibid., 29. Between 1832 and 1862, the Missionaries preached more than 620 married persons, as all sexual relations were perceived to be intrinsically sinful missions in Savoy. except to the end of procreation. 24. Ibid., 43 ff. 10. Viewed sociologically, the specific forms that this cumulative Catholic 25. In Francis’s own lifetime, he was especially beloved by those who had either spiritual and institutional renewal took can be measured both negatively known him or who shared a region and a history with him. After his death, (declining interest in ideas of election, hell, damnation, purgatory, and those same followers (along with relatives and ecclesial authorities eager to predestination, and less pastoral use of the sacraments of confession and promote his memory) wanted to hold up his particular brand of sanctity for the communion as weapons of moral discipline or punishment) and positively rest of the church to see. On the efforts to canonize Francis, see Wendy M. (new attitudes toward confession and Eucharist as fostering intimacy with God Wright, “’True and Public Knowledge’: The Political, Religious, and Social and faith in God’s forgiveness, the renewal of moral theology fostered by a Context of Jane de Chantal’s Testimony for the Canonization of Francis de more positive theological anthropology, the growth of Marian piety, devotion Sales,” in Human Encounter in the Salesian Tradition: Collected Essays to the saints, miracles, apparitions and prophecies, the spread of Eucharistic Commemorating the 4th Centenary of the Initial Encounter of St. Francis de Sales devotion in renewed forms, and an upsurge in clerical and lay confraternities and St. Jane Frances de Chantal , ed. Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS (Rome: and devotional groups across the class spectrum). See Gibson, 256ff. International Commission for Salesian Studies, 2007), 191-208, and Marie- 11. New forms of Eucharistic devotion were popularized, nocturnal adoration and Patricia Burns, VHM, Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy: Dans l’ombre de la perpetual adoration: see Gibson, 256 ff. In addition, new congregations lumière de la canonisation de François de Sales (Annecy: Académie Salésienne, focusing on the Eucharist emerged. 2000), 71-75. 12. On the interest in miracles, apparitions, and prophecies, see Thomas A. 26. Favre did attempt to found Salesian-inspired communities. For a while he Kselman, Miracles and Prophecies in Nineteenth-Century France (New gathered a group of diocesan clergy to preach with him, as well as spearheaded Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1983). a short-lived women’s congregation. See Moget, 16-17. 13. In 1610, Francis and Jane co-founded the Visitation of Holy Mary, a unique 27. On Madeleine Sophie, see Phil Kilroy, Madeleine Sophie Barat 1779-1865: women’s congregation designed specifically for women of spiritual depth A Life (New York: Paulist Press, 2000). whose circumstances –widowhood, frail health, age, and disability—precluded 28. Linked so tightly to the ecclesial tensions of the day, the Sacred Heart was their entry into existing religious communities. The Visitation was to be a almost solely identified with the Bourbon monarchy and the triumph of primary disseminator of Salesian spirituality into the 19th century. Brisson Ultramontane over Gallicanist factions. The spiritual message of God’s himself, of course, is a prime example of the significance of the Visitation in infinite merciful love had not thus penetrated Barat’s consciousness. See spreading the Salesian spirit. For more on this order’s foundation, see Wendy Kilroy, 164-67. M. Wright, “The Visitation of Holy Mary: The First Years (1610-1618),” in 29. At root was Barat’s faulty image of God as a deity of wrath and judgment, Religious Orders of the Catholic Reformation: In Honor of John C. Olin on His whose demands she could never fulfill. Favre’s letters of direction consistently Seventy-Fifth Birthday, ed. Richard L. DeMolen (New York: Fordham urge her away from her deeply held assumptions about herself and her University Press, 1994), 217-52. relationship with God. 14. The Savoyard’s small manual for the laity, Introduction to the Devout Life, was 30. Some of the impulse toward the embrace of a God of Love was fueled by the immensely popular in his lifetime and remained in print after his death. See conflict between the Papacy and the French church aligned with anti- Viviane Mellinghoff-Bourgerie, “Four Centuries of Editions of the Introduction montantist forces. Those who championed the new spirit were not always to the Devout Life: “ Bibliographical Lessons,” in Encountering the Familiar accepted in French circles. Anew: Francis de Sales’s “Introduction to the Devout Life” at 400 Years, ed. Joseph 31. See Duval. F. Chorpenning, OSFS (Rome: International Commission for Salesian 32. See Emmanuel d’Alzon dans la société et l’église du XIX ime siècle , ed. E. Poulat Studies, 2012): 1-22. Some later adherents, notably Archbishop Louis-Gaston and R. Remond (Paris: Centurion, 1982), and Bernard Le Léannec, “D’Alzon, de Ségur, would discover the Salesian charism directly from this classic text the Assumption, and Don Bosco: Crossroads of Holiness,” Augustinians of the and go on to vigorous promotion of its teachings. Assumption 2010 Bicentennial Newsletter 9 (April 2010), available at: 15. Francis de Sales was remembered, first of all, for the gracious power of his www.assumptio.org. presence, the Savoyard was acknowledged as a true image of Christ, one who 33. On the ubiquitous memory of Francis de Sales in Piedmont, see Arnoldo preached and perfectly modeled the gentle, humble virtues of Jesus’s own Pedrini, SDB, St. Francis de Sales: Don Bosco’s Patron (New Rochelle, NY: Don heart. See St. Francis de Sales: A Testimony by St. Chantal , ed. and trans. Bosco Publications, 1988), esp. 14-20. Elisabeth Stopp (Hyattsville, MD: Institute of Salesian Studies, 1967); Jean 34. Don Bosco, Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales from 1815-1855, trans. Pierre Camus, The Spirit of St. François de Sales, trans. C. F. Kelly (New York: David Lyons, SDB (New Rochelle, NY: Don Bosco Publications, 1989), 18. Harper and Bros., 1952); Elisabeth Stopp, A Man to Heal Differences: Essays 35. Pedrini, 25. and Talks on St. Francis de Sales (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 36. Memoirs of the Oratory , 217. 1997), 139-60. On Francis as true Christ image, see Joseph F. Chorpenning 37. Among those who populated Don Bosco’s saintly pantheon were Alphonsus OSFS “‘[T]he Savior will be seen walking again on earth’: St. Francis de Sales Liguori, Philip Neri, Aloysius Gonzaga, and Vincent de Paul. as the Model for the De Sales Oblates’ Imitation of Christ,” ICSS Newsletter 38. Pietro Stella, Don Bosco: Religious Outlook and Spirituality, trans. John Drury 22 (Aug. 2008): 1-7. (New Rochelle NY: Salesiana Publishers, 1996), 516-17. 16. Alphonsus de Liguori, Selected Writings, ed. Frederick M. Jones, CSSR (New 39. See Marthe de Hedouville, Monseigneur de Ségur, sa vie – son action 1820-188 1 York: Paulist Press, 1999). See especially Jones’s “Introduction” to this volume, (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1957). 9-56. 40. For a full account of Chaumont’s life and ministry, see Mgr. Lavielle, L’Abbé 17. Liguori worked on his great textbook for seminarians, Moral Theology, for Henri Chaumont, fondateur de trois sociétés salésiennes (1838-1896) (Tours: nearly twenty years. It grew out of the need he perceived to elaborate a system Maison Alfred Mame/Paris: Pierre Téqui, 1919). that could steer a middle road between the opposing trends of laxism and 41. Ibid., 55. rigorism that had been debated by theologians for some time. Early on, there 42. See Louis Brisson, Vie de la Vénérée Mère Marie de Sales Chappuis de l’ordre de was vacillation between welcome reception, suspicion of, and open opposition la Visitation Sainte-Marie (Paris: Chez M. l’Aumonier de la Visitation, 1891), to Ligouri’s moral teaching. See R. Gallagher, CSSR, “The Systemization of and Life of the Venerable Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis of the Order of the Alphonsus’ Moral Theology through the Manuals,” Studia Moralia XXV/2 Visitation of Holy Mary (1793-1875) , by the Sisters of the Visitation (Brooklyn, (1987): 247-77. 1924). 18. Adrien Duval, Monsieur Mermier: Founder of Two Religious Congregations 43. It might be noted that of all the male figures we have seen, Louis Brisson is the (Bangalore, India: SFS Publications, 1985), 10-11. one who received his Salesian formation most directly from the Visitation. 19. In fact, the Rule of the Missionaries was essentially the same as that written by 44. On the Catholic Association and details of its work in Troyes, see Father Louis Vincent de Paul for the Lazarists. The latter made extensive use of the Brisson: A Documented Biography, 39-64. Visitation Rule. See Frances Moget MSFS, The Missionaries of St Francis de 45. Dirk Koster, OSFS, Louis Brisson (Noorden: Bert Post, 2007), 84 Sales (Bangalore, India: SFS Publications, 1985), 22. 46. Ibid. 158. 20. Duval, 87-94. 47. Lavielle, 153. 21. In 1822, the diocese of Annecy, suppressed at the Revolution, was 48. Ibid., 151. re-established, with Rey spearheading an ardent program of reform of ICSS NEWSLETTER 9

Notre Bon Père , Our Good Father: Fr. Louis Brisson in the Hearts of His Oblate Sisters

Sr. Anne Elizabeth Eder, OSFS, with the assistance of Sr. Susan Louise Eder, OSFS, and Sr. John Elizabeth Callaghan, OSFS

Truly, it is good for us to be here. How privileged are we, the Fr. Brisson, our Good Father, was a visionary. Oblates of the 21st century, to gather together to celebrate the All fathers, eager to see their children build a life for legacy of our Blessed Father, and to gather here, where this Father themselves, look to their futures. Although they need to provide of ours began his Salesian walk with Christ in His Church. for today, they must always have an eye on all that is to come. Our The scholarly presentation and insights offered by Dr. Wendy Good Father was eager to establish our community solidly so that Wright give us the context to discover who Fr. Louis Brisson is. our Sisters would be able to serve the needs of future generations He is surely a man of his time—the 19th century—who, as a priest, and could lead many souls to God, in places both near and far. was attuned to the richness of his era and the needs of his day. This visionary cared for all equally, the young of the diocese He is one of those rare individuals who sees how the present points as well as the young group of Sisters. The first step in his Oblate to the future and who knows how to see the hand of God in both. walk began by founding works for the care of the young—in our Fr. Brisson was a lot of things to a lot of people—a multifaceted case, young working girls. What father would allow his children person: a faithful son, good friend, eager seminarian, zealous priest, to live on the streets without proper food, shelter, and loving learned scholar, man of science, and the list goes on. Here our aim care? As a priest, he saw the need and responded. In speaking to is to lay before you who Fr. Louis Brisson was and is to his Oblate the newly founded Associates of St. Francis de Sales, Fr. Brisson Sisters and, consequently, who he is to all those who come to know told them: him through our apostolates. If one were to ask this question of Oblate Sisters throughout Among all the works that we can do, there is the history of our Congregation, I believe the answer would be the perhaps none more important for the future same. Quite simply, who is he to us? He is NOTRE BON PÈRE , than this work of establishing social clubs for OUR GOOD FATHER. the young girls of the working class. How many Fr. Brisson was and is our Father, and a father in the fullest are lost due to our faithless and immoral society? sense of the word. As young Oblates, we studied our good Father’s . . . There must be a way to save these young life and listened to the charming stories told by our first Sisters, girls. The only way open to us is establishing an charming stories of cures, candies, and concern. We read his association for them which will be directed by instructions daily, knowing that within them we would discover women who maintain an active and kindly both the heart of a father and the key to becoming a fervent vigilance and who will protect these girls from religious, immersed in the Spiritual Directory. Retreats were spent these influences. 2 meditating on his retreat conferences and allowing ourselves to be formed and directed by him. We knew that notre bon Père would As a visionary, Fr. Brisson sent his sons and daughters out of always lead us where we needed to go and that fidelity to his the diocese. Although the original motive was not due to the instructions was the key to our personal spiritual journey. religious persecutions in the early 20th century, this move was In preparation for this presentation, a few of our Sisters essential to our survival. This Good Father’s heart missed his reflected on this good Father and took a close look through what Sisters dearly although he knew how important it was to spread our we consider to be the most precious resources we have at our Oblate spirit far and wide. We hear these sentiments in his disposal, the testimonies given by our first Mothers and Sisters conversation with Sr. Marie-Esperance de Godin: following Fr. Brisson’s death. Numerous qualities seemed to jump out at us from these pages, and these were echoed by our Sisters Well, see how united I am with you, how I live today. I realize I am preaching to the choir here, but I hope to offer with you. You will go to Ecuador. The Sisters some fresh and refreshing examples of our Abba, our Daddy, our told me to explain a lot of things to you, but I good Father Louis Brisson. have been thinking . . . and then I thought . . . In the words of our early Sisters who worked so diligently to that I will not tell you anything at all. I’d rather compile these precious resources for us we hear the love they had pray to the Savior so that He may tell you for Fr. Brisson and Mother Aviat: “Blessed era in which we enjoyed everything Himself from moment to moment, such a venerable Father and Mother whom God gave us in His and I am very satisfied to have you thus given to love so as to guide us in the way of religious perfection, under the the Savior, so that He may tell you everything. 3 banner of St. Francis de Sales and our Venerable Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis! May these delicious souvenirs of our beloved past As a faithful disciple of St. Francis de Sales and an ardent fill your souls with delights and allow them to produce abundant follower of Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis, Fr. Brisson taught his fruits for eternal life.” 1 daughters to live in the present moment. This fidelity to our 10 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Salesian spirituality did not impede him, however, from reassuring At Saint Bernard, our Father installed a our Sisters of the promise of God’s blessings for years to come: general kitchen which provided food for all the houses, thanks to an ingenious method of My children, I want very much to assure you of transporting the food. There was a veritable the future by affirming that God will protect bread shop that was greatly admired with its you and give you His help. I don’t know how to marvelous bread machine. . . . At Saint John, encourage you too much to have a great our Father organized a factory to make surplices confidence; as for me, I have never felt it so and school uniforms for our students. . . . The completely. If someone came to tell me today laundry was housed at les Tauxelles. One can that God was working miracles for us, I would still see there the hand of our good Father with not be surprised, for I am convinced that He the ingenious methods of running the water and wants to do great things through us, always in providing for the drying…But it was the proportion to our obedience, to our union with Tuileire de Saint-Parres where this venerated Him, to our fidelity to grace. That is why I want Father most loved to go to rest. This model farm so much to have you take the true religious with its cows and pigs, the barnyard and the spirit which consists in seeing God in all and harvested fruits and vegetables provided for all everywhere. 4 our communities and our works. 6

Fr. Brisson, our Good Father, was a provider. After the basic needs were met, the true work began: molding Food, clothing, shelter—all basic needs. Our Good Father souls for Christ. Our archives are full of conferences, chapters, and offered the spiritual and emotional essentials as well: love, spiritual anecdotes written by the first Sisters. Let us allow our guidance, education. His ability to provide for the needs of good Father to speak to us as he spoke to our Sisters preparing for everyone under his care was nothing short of living the Gospel. our annual renewal of Vows in 1875: Sr. Françoise-Augustine Mangonot recalls his great love and care for his “working girls”: For you, my children, Jesus is the faithful friend. Let us spend these three days near Him, present How can I tell of the solicitude of our good in His tabernacle of love. Let us ask Him to tell Father for the young girls of our works? It was so us how we should make our retreat. Let us make touching to see him come each Sunday evening our resolutions with Him. Each morning at to see them once again. He always had a word of Mass, especially if you have the happiness to encouragement for each one as he interested receive Holy Communion, remain near Him himself in their lives, their work, their trials and and promise Him that all the acts of your day their difficulties. He helped them to learn how will be done for His holy love. 7 to live united with the good God, to take God with them wherever they went. He would say to The Tuillerie, a space sacred to our Sisters, is a perfect them: “Nothing is more beautiful than a young example of Fr. Brisson’s ability to provide for everyone’s needs. Christian girl who lives simply and modestly.” 5 The former tile factory was purchased as a farm in order to provide food for all those under his care. It was also a place of physical and His network of centralization was ahead of its time: spiritual rest for the Sisters. It was here that retreats were preached establishing a kitchen for all the meals, inventing ways to deliver and spiritual conferences were held. For those of us who spent our hot meals to all the apostolates in and around Troyes and novitiate year at our Motherhouse, the Tuilerie holds many providing residences. The genius of the scientist can never be memories: climbing trees to pick cherries, gathering other fruits separated from the loving heart of the founder and father. As and vegetables, and a place for an afternoon outing for novices in Sr. Augustine de Sales de Cuverville recounted: need of some fresh air. The Tuilerie is also a place built upon our Good Father’s For relaxation, our Venerated Father would striking confidence in God. When you see paintings or photos of go and surprise his daughters in the midst of Fr. Brisson, he often has an umbrella. Although a necessity in this their work. Almost every day, one of the houses area of France, it also recalls a charming story of faith and trust. would receive a visit, along with his Having fallen into an old pit with no way to escape, our Good encouragement and his advice. He entered into Father promised God that if he did get out he would build a chapel the smallest details and one had to ask how his on the spot. With the help of his ever-present umbrella, he found a intelligence which bordered on genius, which way to higher ground, and he made good on his promise. A lovely moved without effort above the mysteries of the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pity was built on that spot. The natural sciences and into the divine realm, empty well was transformed into the 14th Station of the Cross. could interest himself in such minute questions The wine barrel on display in the museum in our and resolve them with such great competence. Motherhouse is an example of our paternal provider. Wine is an ICSS NEWSLETTER 11 essential food group for our Europeans and Fr. Brisson assured our Sales spoke to Father Brisson about a difficult situation and Sisters that God would provide all they needed. And he did . . . received this reply: just until the time that a young woman entered with the means to procure wine for their meals. God is all-powerful; He could, if He wanted to, Spiritual provisions were always available to our Sisters. The make everything perfect here below. But if we Sisters knew they could find their Father in the garden with an had nothing to suffer, we would be too happy open heart and a listening ear. The allees des sapins next door to our here on earth. We would like it too much and garden holds many secrets from our beginnings and is a testimony would never think of heaven. In everything, we of the confident assurance of our Sisters. must have to suffer and we must do it peacefully, always making the best of things, but quietly. Fr. Brisson, our Good Father, was a spiritual guide and We must make all possible sacrifices to have director. peace. The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, called me a man of peace; my children must always This leads us into another notable trait of our Father: that of resemble me. “While he spoke to me,” Mother spiritual guide and director. As mentioned previously, our Good Madeleine de Sales declared, “I felt my Father provided places and opportunities for encounters with the intelligence and my will surrendering to the Sisters: the Tuilerie and the garden path leading to Our Lady of acceptance of things as they were, without Holy Hope next door. But he did more than provide sacred space; trying to change them, but I resolved to help he offered guidance, support, direction, and correction. matters along by a greater personal fidelity.” 9 The Salesian doctrine highlighted during the Second Vatican Council—the universal call to holiness—was the guiding principle of our paternal Founder. He possessed a sixth sense for the needs of To gauge the veneration in which our Sisters held this Good each Sister and each soul. He knew how to treat individual Sisters Father, we have only to listen to this excerpt from the life of and seemed to understand their capacity for growth and Mother Madeleine de Sales who was heading to Troyes, from development. To quote again Sr. Marie-Esperance de Godin: Perugia, to testify in the diocesan process for Fr. Brisson in 1938. Age, near-blindness, infirmity and the fatigue of managing our In the same way that the sun embraces with the Congregation during the persecution and through the First World same warmth and caressing ray all the fruit, all War which devastated Europe and the painful events that were the plants, every vegetable of the most diverse certain to throw the continent into a second war made her trip to and opposite colors and kind, and gives to each Troyes extremely painful: “‘I can’t go on!,’ she said suddenly and, one just what it needs, in such a way that each really, we thought that she was going to collapse, but recovering one has the right to think that this star rises only herself, she said energetically, ‘For our good Father!,’ and she to brighten and warm it, so the Venerable Fr. continued walking to reach the (train) platform.” 10 Brisson knew the secret of giving to each soul Fr. Brisson knew who he was and what God was asking of him. what it needed. He possessed to the highest As a Founder, he followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit in degree the gift of recognition. He recognized and developing the Oblate spiritual life. He carefully and meticulously accepted that all nations did not have the same introduced our Sisters to the Spiritual Directory and taught them customs, that all characters did not have the how to live by it in the situation in which they found themselves. same inclinations, that all intellects did not Our libraries are filled with instructions and conferences have the same tastes and that all souls did not carefully recorded by our Sisters. He met regularly with the Sisters have the same attractions. He accepted this with for fatherly conferences, which seemed, at times, to have a such an overabundance of goodness and conversational tone. A short excerpt from one of these pliability that each one believed herself the conferences gives a sense of the relationship that this beloved preferred one, and though not the “only loved Father had with his daughters, as he exhorted our Sisters to live in one,” at least one who was the “most fully great charity and mutual love : loved.” 8 We have no bond but the bond of love. . . . That With some he was gentle and persuasive; with others he was word “dilection” is no longer used in modern firm and demanding. The private notebooks of Mother Aviat and French. In the writings of St. Francis de Sales, it the testimonies of Mothers Madeleine and Aimée de Sales give had a particular meaning and expressed the evidence of his straightforward, challenging manner toward some thought of our saint very well. Dilection toward of the Sisters. He recognized their potential for growth in holiness our neighbor is something more than the and he challenged them to stretch themselves to the limit. At first charity all Christians must practice in their glance, his words, as the Sisters recorded them, might seem harsh; words and actions. It consists of an affection of however, the love and reverence with which these same Sisters the heart, a cordiality which is not necessarily recount his advice are moving testimonies of their veneration for natural. It is acquired and will increase in us their good Father. Early in her religious life, Mother Madeleine de through our union with the Savior. 11 12 ICSS NEWSLETTER

This emphasis on dilection was nourished by the devotion of While everyone was expressing their sorrow at our Good Father to the Eucharist. His words to our Professed this event, I examined our Good Father Sisters in 1874 express all that was in his heart: attentively. I was in admiration of his calm attitude. His peaceful features reflected the Holy Communion is the ultimate end of all our serenity of his soul while his pale face told of his exercises. It is like the sun in the midst of the profound emotion. While the anti-clerical press stars. It is the sun of our soul. And just as all the took advantage of this event to ridicule Fr. stars revolve around the sun, so all our exercises, Brisson, he simply stated: “All these people are all our prayers, all our virtues, all our practices, against me, but that does not worry me. The all our meditations, all that we do should other day, I said to our Lord, ‘You allow, O my revolve around Holy Communion. That is the God, that others treat me as You Yourself were thought of St. Francis de Sales. 12 treated.’” 14

Our Good Father surrounded our convents and workrooms When money was needed and there seemed to be no source of with inspiring beauty. His construction of chapels in honor of Our income, Fr. Brisson had recourse to prayer and then listened to the Lady under various titles, such as Our Lady of Pity and Our Lady whispers of grace. Another life lesson for each of us. of Holy Hope, gave the Sisters spiritual refuge and encouragement. And his desire to found the Oblates? Just consider his The choice of Our Lady of Light and the statue chosen to inspiration to go to Annecy for the answer he needed. And represent this title have inspired generations of Oblates to seek St. Jane de Chantal provided the necessary response and the light from our Blessed Mother. In his own words, our Good Father support that he so desperately needed. explains this choice to our Sisters: Our good Father never thought that the strength provided by Christ was for him alone. He challenged the Sisters to open I have a thought which I would like to realize themselves to be formed as pillars for the Congregation, reminding very soon. Each religious order invokes the them that what they were in the beginning was a sign of the future Blessed Mother under a particular title. . . . I strength of our Congregation. would be very happy if we would do so as well, His words of wisdom found in his letters and the recollections invoking our Blessed Mother under a particular of our Sisters are examples of his ability to summon the Sisters to title. And how shall we name her? We will pray greater holiness. In a letter to Mother Aimeé de Sales de Cissey, to her under the title of Our Lady of Light. This he wrote: title reminds me of my first devotion. As a child, I would often say a Hail Mary to learn my I share all your struggles and all your difficulties. lessons. I would say one for French, two for God gave me a very clear and positive feeling, Latin and three for Greek. The Blessed Virgin especially during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. was my light and I would like for us to call her . . . What are you still seeking, my daughter, by this name. So I asked myself what shall be since you have already received everything? the model for our statue. I like the Virgin by Why are you still asking God for something Murillo very much. She is represented going up when He has already given you everything? to heaven with her hair flowing gently; her pose Make peace inside you and around you; have a and her expression are quite beautiful. 13 veneration for each grace; may you always welcome it when it comes, when you see it, as Fr. Brisson, our Good Father, was a pillar of strength. you feel that God asks something of you. 15 Founders have crosses particular to their call, and our Good His call to holiness, though clear and demanding, was always Father was no exception. We can be tempted to think that a paternal. As all good fathers do for their children, he wanted the Founder has a lot to say in the development of a Congregation and Sisters to be their best. He drew often from the words of Christ its founding works. Those who hold or have held positions of found in the Gospels to illustrate his thoughts and found a source authority know that the opposite can be true. But we also know for great holiness in the life and writings of our spiritual Father, St. that grace is not lacking for those open to the Holy Spirit. Francis de Sales. About forty years ago, Mother Jeanne de Sales Our “Pillar of Strength” never wavered, even in the midst of undertook the monumental task of choosing passages from the great challenges. Our Good Father was not discouraged by the writings and conferences of our Good Father for use during tornado that destroyed the partially constructed Motherhouse of morning meditation. Our guide, “In the Wake of the Liturgy,” our Sisters at Rue des Terrasses in August, 1890. Instead, he offers words of advice to live the Gospel each day in the spirit of courageously took up the work again and saw it through to the Bishop of Geneva. These points of meditation give us a completion. glimpse into the way our Father “lived Jesus” each day. The Sister who was with him when the tornado destroyed the construction recounted: (continued on page 17) BEATIFICATION OF FR. L OUIS BRISSON , OSFS 22 S EPTEMBER 2012 TROYES , F RANCE

Figure 1. Unveiling of the image of Blessed Louis Brisson by artist Walt Stan. (Photo: Michael S. Murray, OSFS) On Saturday, 22 September 2012, Louis Brisson (1817- 1908), founder of the Oblates and Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales was beatified. The Solemn Mass of beatification was celebrated in the splendid Gothic cathedral of Troyes, with Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation of the Causes of Saints, as the representative of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, presiding.

The rite of beatification took place after the Penitential Act and before the Gloria. The elements of the rite are: (1) the diocesan bishop (in this case, Bishop Marc Stenger of Troyes) requests that the Venerable Servant of God be inscribed among the Blessed; (2) the postulator of the Cause reads a biographical summary of the life of the Venerable Servant of God (Figure 2); (3) the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints reads the Pope’s apostolic letter by which the Venerable Servant of God is declared “Blessed,” and specifies the date (in this case, October 12) on which a limited cult may be celebrated in memory of the newly Blessed; (4) the acclamation of the faithful; (5) the unveiling of the image of the Blessed (Figure 1) and the veneration of his relics (Figure 4); (6) expression of gratitude by the Figure 3 diocesan bishop to the Holy Father; and (7) the sign of peace is exchanged by the diocesan bishop, the postulator of the Cause, and the Superiors General with the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints (Figures 5a, b).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Sr. Madeleine-Thérèse Dechambre, OSFS, postulator of the Cause, reads a summary biography of the Venerable Servant of God Louis Brisson. (Photo: Michael S. Murray, OSFS)

Figure 3. Relics of Blessed Louis Brisson. (Photo: Michael S. Murray, OSFS)

Figure 4. Cardinal Amato incenses the relics of Blessed Louis Brisson. (Photo: Michael S. Figure 4 Murray, OSFS) Figure 5a

Figure 5. Mother General Françoise- Bernadette Beuzelin, OSFS, of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales (5a) and Sr. Madeleine-Thérèse Dechambre, OSFS, postulator of the Cause (5b), exchange the sign of peace with Cardinal Amato, as Bishop Marc Stenger of Troyes looks on. (Photos: Michael S. Murray, OSFS; Herbert Winklehner, OSFS)

Figure 6. Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, at the altar during the liturgy of the Eucharist at the Solemn Mass of beatification. To the left of Cardinal Amato are Bishop Marc Stenger of Troyes, and Fr. Aldino Kiesel, OSFS, Superior General of the De Sales Oblates. (Photo: Michael S. Murray, OSFS) Figure 5b Figure 7

Figure 7. Carlos Luis Peñaherrera, whose cure is attributed to Fr. Brisson’s intercession. In 1953 in Ecuador, when Carlos was eight years old, his right foot was so badly crushed by the iron wheel of a tractor that medical specialists believed he would never walk again normally. Subsequent to a novena of prayers by the Oblate Sisters, the boy’s wound healed without any physical therapy or orthopedic devices. Carlos later moved to the United States, where he eventually served in the U.S. Air Force. The team of physicians who studied the medical documentation as part of the process of Fr. Brisson’s Cause concluded that the healing could not be attributed to natural causes, or to a specific medical intervention. Following this medical consultation, a panel of theologians from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, studied the entire matter, and on 7 June 2011 unanimously determined that this miraculous healing was obtained through the sole intercession of Fr. Brisson. (Photo: Michael S. Murray, OSFS)

Figure 6 Figure 8. On the three days following the beatification, Masses of Thanksgiving were celebrated in the village of Plancy (Sunday, 23 September), where Fr. Brisson was born and died; at the Troyes Visitation monastery (Monday, 24 September), where he was chaplain for over 40 years; and in the crypt of the Motherhouse of the Oblate Sisters (Tuesday, 25 September), where he is buried. Here is seen the Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Bishop Marc Stenger in the splendid chapel of the Visitation Monastery in Troyes. For this extraordinary occasion, Bishop Stenger wore the set of vestments made by St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641) for St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), and celebrated Mass on the same altar on which Fr. Brisson celebrated Mass for over four decades. (Photo: Herbert Winklehner, OSFS)

Figure 9. Tomb of Blessed Louis Brisson in the crypt of the Motherhouse of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales in Troyes. The inscription reads: “Here rests the Servant of God, Louis Brisson, Founder of the Oblates and the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales (Plancy 1817 – Plancy 1908). Beatified at Troyes, 22 September 2012, during the pontificate of His Holiness Benedict XVI.” (Photo: Herbert Winklehner, OSFS) ICSS NEWSLETTER 17

Fr. Brisson, our Good Father, was the father of a family. Plancy), Fr. Brisson kept in touch with the opening of the Novitiate in Umbria (Perugia) with the interest of a father and Our Good Father exemplified the most tender paternal traits, founder. His letters brought light to those of good will and caring for the souls entrusted to him and showing interest in their stimulated everyone’s courage.” desires and concerns. As a true spiritual father, prayer and It seems fitting to allow ourselves to look at the final illness devotion for souls was the foundation of all our good Father did and death of our Good Father through the eyes of his first daughter and taught to our Sisters: and, we believe that we can say, his most devoted disciple. On 16 January 1908, Mother Aviat was forced to stay in her room due to My children, all this week, we will offer our severe pain. When her faithful secretary, Mother Aimée de Sales, Communions, our sacrifices, our fidelity to our came to check on her she noted the pain and the emotion on her observances, to obtain abundant fruit for the face. We will allow the account to continue as we read it in the life girls’ retreat. . . . The retreat has been an abundant blessing. Everything makes us think of our holy foundress: that God was there bringing about some remarkable things in souls. We should, then, Fearing that she was worse, she then said to her, redouble our good will and fidelity so as to “Ma bonne Mère , is your suffering worse?” “No,” obtain for the girls the grace of perseverance, she replied, “I am not worse but it seems to me and many other graces as well. My children, try that at this moment something unfortunate is to win the confidence of the girls with whom happening to our good Father and this is you concern yourselves so that, by means of the upsetting me!” . . . In the evening of that same affection they have for you, you may lead them day, at 8:00, a telegram addressed to Mother to God. 16 Aviat made them understand everything. It came from Plancy and read: “Father, extremity. 18 A recurring theme that can be found in the talks our Good Come immediately.” Father gave to our Sisters is that, as a family, all of us are responsible for the good of the souls entrusted to our communities, Boarding the train within a few hours, Mother Aviat and her not just those who work most directly with them. In a retreat faithful secretary arrived in Plancy thirty-six hours later and found instruction to our professed Sisters, our Good Father reminded their beloved father waiting for them. Her secretary continues: them: At 6:00 she knelt at the bedside of the Those who do not work at all with children or venerable old man who welcomed her with who do so only indirectly must help those who visible satisfaction. Knowing the profound work directly with these little souls. They must veneration the Foundress had for him, the help them by their piety and their fidelity in Sister who accompanied her suspected the sad their work and the exercise of their religious impression the sight of this good Father on his life. . . . So, my children, you must preserve all bed of suffering caused her. But it was a totally the souls in your care from evil. Ask Jesus in His different feeling that seized the heart of the sacrament of love for gentleness and light. Ask Servant of God who said to her companion Him to help you understand what to do to win “How strange it is; we find our Father so near souls and give them love for Him so that they death, and yet my soul is flooded with peace like may console Him for all those who leave Him so a river.” 19 easily. In this way, we will successfully carry out our life work because we will do what God His paternal love was proven even on his deathbed. His last wants of us. 17 act as Founder was to dictate a letter for the approbation of our Congregation. His signature on this precious document is a final In his conversations with the Sisters, he asked about their testament of his great love for his daughters. Equally moving is an families, particularly if they were carrying a heavy cross. As all account of the actions of Mother Aviat after his death who good fathers, Fr. Brisson would seek out the Sisters. He encouraged decided that the room where her beloved Father spent his last them to open their hearts, sharing the most intimate details of years and final moments on earth be preserved as he had left it. their spiritual lives if they wanted to do so. Objects used by him in his priestly ministry were placed in glass After the expulsion of our Sisters in the early 1900s, the bond cases in the room. Our holy foundress also directed that an object between father and daughters remained strong. Carefully crafted used by our Good Father was given to each community so that our letters, devoid of news that would cause problems with the Sisters would continue to feel close to our founder who dedicated government, allowed the Sisters to receive the love and wisdom of himself with so much love to his daughters. this wise sage. Whenever possible, the Sisters visited their good In those precious days before he died, Mother Aviat asked Father in his family home in Plancy. In the memoirs, our Sisters him to bless our Sisters. It seems fitting to end this account of the wrote of our foundation: “From his far-away place of refuge (in relationship between our Oblate Sisters and our good Father with 18 ICSS NEWSLETTER

these moving words: “Tell our Sisters that I bless them. Oh! Yes, I 8. Sœur Marie-Espérance de Godin, Rapport , 1. give them my great blessing so that God may love them, make 9. Oblate Sisters, La révérende Mère Madeleine de Sales Pupey-Girard, Supérieure them good, holy, happy and so that one day when the time is ripe, Générale des Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, 1862-1939 [Life of Mother Madeleine de Sales Pupey-Girard] (Troyes: Maison Mère des Sœurs 20 He will put them in his paradise.” And so may it be, from now Oblates de Saint François de Sales, 1946), 85. until all eternity. May God be blessed! 10. Life of Mother Madeleine de Sales Pupey-Girard, 206-7. 11. Commentary on the Directory, 22 Nov. 1868, in Louis Brisson, Commentaire Sr. Anne Elizabeth Eder, OSFS , is President of the Board of du Directoire Spirituel de Saint François de Sales, 1897-99 [Commentary on the Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales, 1897-99] (Troyes: Maison Mère Trustees, Mount Aviat Academy, Childs, MD. des Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, 1923). 12. Retreat Instructions to the Professed Sisters, 18 Sept. 1874, in Louis Brisson, NOTES Instructions de retraite données par notre vénéré père Louis Brisson aux sœurs professes, 1874 [Retreat Instructions Given to the Professed Sisters by Our 1. Louis Brisson, Entretiens Familiers aux Sœurs [Informal Presentations given to Venerated Father Louis Brisson, 1874] (Troyes: Maison Mère des Sœurs the Sisters] (Vatican: Imprimerie Polyglotte Vaticane, 1939), xxi. Oblates de Saint François de Sales, n.d.). 2. Mother Aimée de Sales de Cissey, OSFS, Vie du très révérend père Louis 13. Mother Aimée de Sales de Cissey, Life of Fr. Brisson , 163-64. Brisson [Life of the Reverend Father Louis Brisson] (Vatican: Imprimerie 14. Ibid., 101. Polyglotte Vaticane, 1932), 170. 15. Letter to the Oblate Sisters, 27 Sept. 1888, in Louis Brisson, Extraits de lettres 3. Sœur Marie-Espérance de Godin, OSFS, Rapport sur notre vénéré père Louis du père Louis Brisson aux Soeurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, avec Brisson par Soeur Marie-Espérance de Godin [Report on Our Venerated Father quelques autres extraits [Extracts from Fr. Louis Brisson’s Letters to the Oblate Louis Brisson, by Sr. Marie-Espérance de Godin] (Troyes: Maison Mère des Sisters of St. Francis de Sales and Some Other Extracts] (Troyes: Maison Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, n.d.), 14. Mère des Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, 1888). 4. Instructions given at Chapter, Various Subjects, 6 Jan. 1873, in Louis 16. Various Subjects, 25 Aug. 1872, in Brisson, Instructions de chapitre données par Brisson, Instructions de chapitre données par notre vénéré père Louis Brisson sur notre vénéré père Louis Brisson sur divers sujets: 1868 -73, Tome I . divers sujets: 1868-73, Tome I [Instructions at Chapter Given by Our 17. Retreat Instructions to the Professed Sisters, 27 Aug. 1879, in Louis Brisson, Venerated Father Louis Brisson on Various Subjects: 1868-73, Vol. I] Instructions de retraite données par notre vénéré père Louis Brisson aux sœurs (Troyes: Maison Mère des Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, n.d.). professes, 1879, Instructions 5-8. Extraits sur l’éducation Oblate [Retreat Available from Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, 399 Childs Road, Instructions Given to the Professed Sisters by Our Venerated Father Louis Childs, MD, 21916. Brisson, 1879, Instructions 5-8. Extracts on Oblate Education] (Troyes: 5. Yvon Beaudouin, OMI, Positio Super Virtutibus [Documentation for the Maison Mère des Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, n.d.). Decree of Heroicity of Virtues] (Rome: Congregatio de Causis Sanctorum, 18. Mother Aimée de Sales de Cissey, Sainte Léonie Aviat, Mère Françoise de 1998), 123. Sales, Fondatrice des Soeurs Oblates de Saint-François de Sales, 1844-1914. 6. Ibid., 124-25. (Troyes: Éditions Fates, 1991), 246. 7. Sujet Divers, 18 Nov. 1875, in Louis Brisson, Instructions de chapitre données 19. Ibid., 247. par notre vénéré père Louis Brisson sur divers sujets: 1874-76, Tome II 20. Ibid. [Instructions at Chapter Given by Our Venerated Father Louis Brisson on Various Subjects: 1874-76, Vol. II] (Troyes: Maison Mère des Sœurs Oblates de Saint François de Sales, n.d.).

The ICSS NEWSLETTER was founded in 1997 and is published 2013 Salesian Calendar for the De Sales Oblates biannually by the International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS) of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (Joseph F. Thurs., Jan. 10 Feast of St. Léonie Frances de Sales Aviat, Chorpenning, OSFS, Chairman; Valdir Formentini, OSFS; Dirk co-founder of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales Koster, OSFS; Herbert Winklehner, OSFS). Its primary purpose is to disseminate on a global scale information dealing with Salesian Thurs., Jan. 24 Solemnity of St. Francis de Sales, Principal Patron Studies (St. Francis de Sales; St. Jane Frances de Chantal; Bl. Louis of the Congregation Brisson, founder of the De Sales Oblates and the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales; the Visitation of Holy Mary; Lay Institutes and Fri., May 31 Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary other Religious who are members of the Salesian Family). Editor: Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS (Saint Joseph’s University Fri., June 7 Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Press, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131-1395, USA; e-mail: [email protected]). Mon., Aug. 12 Feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Secondary Patron of the Congregation News Editor: Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS. News items for future issues should be sent to Fr. Pocetto via e-mail Sat., Oct. 12 Feast of Blessed Louis Brisson, founder of the ([email protected]), fax (610/282-2059), or by mail Oblates and Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales (De Sales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley, PA 18034-9568, USA). Wed., Oct. 16 Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Proofreader: Charles J. Norman, OSFS Thurs., Nov. 21 Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Design and typesetting: Carol McLaughlin ICSS NEWSLETTER 19

“[C]hoice and formation do not coincide”: 1 Fr. Brisson and the Foundation and Charism of the De Sales Oblates Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS

In the lead up to the beatification of Louis Brisson (1817- Reflection on Fr. Brisson from this perspective allows us to 1908), it became clear that he means different things to different glimpse his humanity in a way that is far from triumphalism and groups. For his native diocese of Troyes, Fr. Brisson is primarily a hagiography. In a seminal essay on Biblical narrative, Erich diocesan priest, who harmonized an intense interior life and a Auerbach, one of the greatest literary critics of the 20th century, ministry of social justice that anticipated Pope Leo XIII’s landmark observes that God’s choice and formation of those who will carry encyclical Rerum novarum (1891). 2 Fr. Brisson’s role as the out His will and plan founder of two religious congregations may be of secondary importance for his native diocese, however, it is primary for the do not coincide, for the [formation] proceeds Oblates and the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales. But there gradually, historically, during the earthly life of are different perspectives even here. [the person] upon whom the choice has fallen. . As Sr. Anne Elizabeth Eder, OSFS, carefully documents in . . [I]t is only during the course of an eventful her paper, Fr. Brisson was, above all, a good father, bon père , to his life that [such persons] are differentiated into Oblate Sisters. The De Sales Oblates have the greatest reverence full individuality; and it is this history of a for Fr. Brisson, while also being aware that he was their reluctant personality founder. Taking a broader approach, Dr. Wendy Wright situates Fr. Brisson in the context of the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost, first chosen and then gradually formed by God that is presented to highlighting the pivotal role that his association with other key us as exemplary. 5 To say this another way, God selects flawed, figures in this movement played in his coming to terms with his fallible, and imperfect human beings to achieve His purpose: divine election to found the De Sales Oblates—a point to which we return below. [W]hen God goes on a recruitment drive, it While this paper was written prior to the beatification, its seems, [He] is not looking for those who can do approach concurs with a key observation made by Bishop Marc the job, whatever the job might be, but for Stenger of Troyes in his homily at the Mass of Thanksgiving those who know they cannot. . . . Those who celebrated in Plancy the day after the beatification: “The heart of know that they cannot, by their own strength, the message of the beatification of Fr. Brisson is not simply that we conquer life’s challenges will necessarily fall hold up the exceptional virtues of this man of God, but that it is back on God’s power, not their own. . . . 6 only in our humanity that one becomes a saint.” 3 Nowhere is Fr. Brisson’s humanity more on display than in the events leading This self-awareness of inadequacy is the first step in the process of to the foundation of the De Sales Oblates. personal formation that ultimately leads to transformation in The narrative of the foundation of the De Sales Oblates has grace. been aptly described as “sacred history.” As Fr. Roger Balducelli, Perhaps this approach allows us as no other does to lay claim OSFS, explains, to Fr. Brisson, who by any reckoning was a reluctant founder. Not only is this method consonant with Biblical theology, but also The expression “sacred history” . . . is a biblical with the thought of the patron of our congregation and the expression, or rather an expression used by architect of the Salesian spiritual tradition in three significant biblical scholars to refer to the literary genre of ways. First, it resonates with St. Francis de Sales’s conviction that narratives we encounter in the Bible, and “those who write lives of the saints do real harm . . . by concealing especially in the first eleven chapters of the faults under the pretext of honoring the saints, . . . afraid that this Book of Genesis. These narratives are a “sacred” will diminish or lessen the esteem due their sanctity. . . . [T]his way history mainly because the God of Israel . . . is they do an injustice to the blessed and to all posterity.” 7 Second, it either the only or the decisive protagonist of the reflects Francis’s bracing vision of salvation history: God, who “is events recounted. This history of the origins of God of the human heart,” 8 “desperately . . . longs for us to love the Congregation as Father Brisson lived and Him.” 9 Not satisfied with declaring His love, “this divine Lover . . understood it is a sacred history in a similar . stands . . . knocking” 10 at the door of the human heart in order to sense. It consists of events that were made to allure and draw us to Him. And, finally, it accords with the happen in space and time by a few human profoundly relational nature of Salesian spirituality in which the beings, but in the service of a design conceived “balm of devotion is distilled from one heart into another.” 11 and willed by God’s mind, and disclosed by Him This paper is divided into three parts. First, we will review the at the right moment to those who were to carry Trinitarian origin of the foundation of the De Sales Oblates. Next, it out. 4 we will turn to Fr. Brisson’s selection and formation to fulfill the 20 ICSS NEWSLETTER divine plan. And, finally, we will conclude by considering the One day, in the novitiate of Fribourg, Sister contemporary challenge posed by Fr. Brisson. Marie de Sales Chappuis [1793-1875] receives enlightenment from God, and already catches God as the Chief Protagonist in the Foundation of the sight of the foundation of the Oblates. God was De Sales Oblates letting her see that this foundation was one of the fruits emerging from the inner life of the On 21 December 1875, Blessed Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) Holy Trinity, and especially of the Father in His granted the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales its first charter and relation to the Word. 16 placed it under the direct and immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See. This is generally accepted as the official date of founding for The Good Mother’s “mystical reverie during her novitiate . . . the De Sales Oblates. But the story begins long before 1875. recalls both Jane de Chantal and Margaret Mary Alacoque” and First of all, it is possible to speak of the “remote origins” of the entailed “a radical transformation of heart.” 17 The Trinitarian De Sales Oblates, as does the documented biography of Fr. Brisson nature of this experience also recalls St. Ignatius of Loyola’s vision prepared for the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints. 12 at La Storta while in route to Rome, when the Father presents Shortly after St. Francis de Sales had co-founded the Order of the Ignatius to the Son as His servant and assures Ignatius, “I will be Visitation of Holy Mary with St. Jane Frances de Chantal in 1610, favorable to you in Rome.” The Good Mother later wrote of her he wished to found a society of priests animated by the Salesian experience: “My heart has been opened wide. There has been spirit to continue his ministry. According to his friend, Jean-Pierre placed in it an inspiration which shows one clearly the wishes of Camus (1584-1652), Francis “planned to form a congregation of the Lord, that He wants to direct my whole being. . . .” 18 priests who were free and without vows,” 13 but was dissuaded from this project when Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) founded in France the Congregation of the Oratory that St. Philip Neri Behold, I am called to be an apostle and to (1515-95) had founded in Rome in 1564. Mother de Chantal, contribute to the work that God will establish however, revisited the idea in a letter of 7 December 1621, writing in order to communicate His graces and to to Francis that a M. Nicelin extend the diffusion of divine charity. The Savior will bring merits not yet employed. The came recently seeking again some information treasure of His charity will be spread over the 19 about whether there was any way that you would earth, and given in its plentitude to the world. want to establish a congregation of men just like ours, and if so, there is a number of good As an apostle of the Salesian spirit, the Good Mother would applicants here and a sufficient amount of devote her life to “the renewal of the Christian and spiritual life, material resources. They would like to observe our the re-imprinting of the Gospel in daily life and in each moment” same Rule and Constitutions and to be religious. 14 by “the spiritual doctrine of St. Francis de Sales, that was to be spread far and wide by priests formed in this spirit.” 20 During his Francis died in 1622 without realizing this project, which was lifetime, Francis de Sales was perceived by his contemporaries as a then taken up and carried out by Fr. Raymond Bonal (1600-53), living image of the Savior, as Mother de Chantal testifies in her a priest of the diocese of Rodez. In 1632, Fr. Bonal founded the deposition at the canonical process for Francis’s canonization: Priests of Holy Mary that had three houses, one of which was the “Several great servants of God said they knew no one who more novitiate. However, the congregation disappeared during the vividly showed them what Our Lord must have been like in His French Revolution. Fr. Brisson and his contemporaries were well dealings with [people], and that the Blessed seemed to them a true aware of this history, as the Archives of the Congregation of image of the Son of God.” 21 The new congregation’s charism was Bishops and Regulars in Rome contains his “Notes to show that to be the spirit of St. Francis de Sales, and the privileged means of the Institute of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales is not a new acquiring this spirit was the Spiritual Directory , whose faithful idea.” 15 practice would enable the Oblates to retrace in themselves the The sacred history of the foundation of the De Sales Oblates image of St. Francis de Sales, who was himself an image of Our commences two centuries later in the aftermath of the devastation Lord. 22 In this way, according to the Good Mother, “Through [the of the French Revolution when Catholicism and consecrated life Oblates], the Savior will return to the world, and people will see are in the process of being re-founded. On several occasions, Him walking again on earth.” 23 For his part, Fr. Brisson exhorts the Fr. Brisson himself narrates the origin of this sacred history. Here first Oblates: “Let’s attach ourselves to the principles and methods is one such account. of St. Francis de Sales which have been taught us; we are the trustees of this doctrine.” 24 Let us go back to our historical origins, to With the exception of her tenure as superior at the second our creation. . . . How does the history of our monastery in Paris, the Good Mother spent most of her religious foundation begin? This foundation dates a long life as superior in Troyes. She was sent there to restore the Salesian way back. In order to find the first thought of it, spirit to the Visitation community, which had been disbanded in the first inspiration, we must go to a little Swiss 1789, was reorganized in 1807, and was deeply affected by village. . . . Jansenist tendencies. Moreover, Fr. Brisson explains, ICSS NEWSLETTER 21

The Good Mother came to Troyes. . . . On for one last sign, to which I could not resist: the arrival, she understood that Troyes was the apparition of Our Lord Himself. place God had chosen for the realization of her Then the Pope, who was listening with work, that in Troyes God had laid the first great attention and great benevolence, came stone, and that there the first effects of the down from his throne and took a seat on a little Blessed Trinity were to be disclosed. . . . This wicker chair alongside us. He took our hands feeling affected her deeply. By this time, she and placed them on his knees, saying, “Why already had, in her communications with God, then did you not obey? Are you not a priest? something more positive in content and with Does not all that contributes to the salvation of greater clarity in it. 25 souls touch you?” “Most Holy Father, if my bishop, or my Soon Fr. Brisson will enter the scene. confessor had spoken to me in this way, I would have yielded, but this was a woman, and I could Fr. Brisson Chosen and Formed not bring myself to capitulate.” 30 In 1841, Fr. Brisson is appointed confessor and teacher at the God’s choice and formation of those who will carry out His boarding school of the Visitation in Troyes. In his own words: will and plan do not coincide. Chosen by God to accomplish the divine mission of founding the De Sales Oblates, Fr. Brisson I was sent to the Visitation of Troyes while underwent a lengthy period of formation until his heart came to the Good Mother was in Paris. One year later, in pulse in union with the Good Mother’s heart and the divine heart. 1842, I paid her a visit there. She said to me: It took a lot of time for the “balm of devotion [to be] distilled from “You have been chosen by God to help me a [the Good Mother’s] heart into [Fr. Brisson’s].” 31 great deal in the task yet to be undertaken. . . .” 26 As this process unfolded, Fr. Brisson was gradually “moved by providential circumstances that provided an opportunity for him We know well what comes next: a veritable tug of war to found the Oblates. Between 1845 and 1868 these between Fr. Brisson and the Good Mother that lasts for more than circumstances, little by little, put more pressure on him and three decades. This part of the story is best told by Fr. Brisson permitted him to see his way more clearly.” 32 Fr. Brisson’s himself. formation occurred within the historical matrix, and in tandem with his relationships with other pivotal figures, of the 19th- I am in a position to say that I . . . hesitated century Salesian Pentecost. These included not only the “Good a long time to believe all she was telling me. . . . Mother” and St. Léonie Frances de Sales Aviat (1844-1914), but But she would go on nonetheless, sure as she also other major figures. There was Louis-Gaston de Ségur (1820- was of God’s promises. . . . 27 81), archbishop of Paris and the great promoter of the Catholic Association of St. Francis de Sales, whose worldwide membership Certainly if I had accomplished my duty better, tallied nearly two million at his death; in 1857, Fr. Brisson was if I had been more docile, I would have been a appointed diocesan director of the Association. Cardinal Gaspar more faithful and complete instrument of the Mermillod (1824-92), coadjutor bishop of Geneva and another Good Mother. I am the first to admit promoter of the Association of St. Francis de Sales, often met with culpability; I beg pardon from God. 28 Fr. Brisson and the Good Mother. En route to Rome in 1881, Fr. Brisson met with St. John (Don) Bosco (1815-88), founder of To make reparation for my fault, I must in the Salesians of Don Bosco. Henri Chaumont (1838-96), who co- conscience assert today in the sight of Almighty founded, with Caroline Carré de Malberg (1829-91), the God that, through [the Good Mother’s] Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, traveled to Troyes to confer with mediation, God intended to entrust us with a Fr. Brisson and the Good Mother, whom he considered an “oracle” mission. 29 and “one of Our Lord’s most privileged souls just like St. Francis de Sales.” 33 I . . . reported [in an audience in 1881] to the Holy Father by what different means the Good Our Challenge in Light of Louis Brisson Mother had sought to obtain my consent. The conversation with the Holy Father lasted a long What is our “take away” from these reflections? Fr. Brisson’s time. . . . struggle and the steps he eventually took to cooperate fully in and I recounted the incident of Fanny de realize the divine mission entrusted to him, through the mediation Champeaux, who came to recite for me one of the Good Mother, invites, indeed challenges, each De Sales morning, in the confessional, three sentences Oblate, on this occasion of our founder’s beatification, to which I had chosen from the Summa of Saint rededicate ourselves to our congregational mission of renewing the Thomas, and the poor child was truly devoid of Christian and spiritual life by living and spreading the spiritual intelligence. . . . The Good Mother asked God doctrine of St. Francis de Sales. There is no better nor more 22 ICSS NEWSLETTER efficacious way for us to honor our founder. As Fr. Brisson insight.” 36 But, as has already been stated several times, call and reminded the first Oblates: formation do not coincide, and the latter may take a lifetime. Over past 400 years, St. Francis de Sales’s attractive, There are, needless to say, other optimistic, and inspired common-sense spiritual doctrine has communities established under the name of St. formed generations of Christians responding to the universal call Francis de Sales, and which stem from his to holiness. More recently, St. Francis de Sales’s Spiritual Directory , doctrine. Others may have the doctrine of St. the distillation of the essence of the Salesian spirit, formed the Francis de Sales—more or less; but it is certain Good Mother, Fr. Brisson, St. Léonie Aviat, and each and every that the Oblates are those who possess that Oblate Sister and De Sales Oblate since the foundation of these doctrine in its integrity. The Visitation congregations. As Louis Brisson once was, we now are: we weigh inherited it. At the Visitation, the Good ourselves down with resistance to the “God of the human heart,” 37 Mother de Sales was, perhaps, the living and who “desperately . . . longs for us to love Him” 38 as He knocks on faithful interpreter of the holy Founder. It is the the door of our hearts through His initiatives, inspirations, and Good Mother who has transmitted to us the action in our lives that may proceed from all too familiar or understanding of this doctrine and of this unexpected sources; we feel conflicted and pulled in different treasure confided to the Visitation. directions; we struggle to re-form and re-shape our hearts so that they might pulse in union with our God and one another; we work St. de Chantal asked St. Francis de Sales to to open ourselves to the divine grace that seeps through the cracks form an institute of priests: “Form priests who of our personal sinfulness and weakness. Through the heavenly will be like you, who will preserve your spirit.” intercession of Blessed Louis Brisson, may we likewise one day be And it is we who—three centuries later—have as he now is. come to acquire this heritage. And we have fortuitously arrived at the time when it was Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, is Chairman of the International most needed. 34 Commission for Salesian Studies and Editorial Director, Saint Joseph’s University Press, Philadelphia, PA. These days Fr. Brisson speaks to the De Sales Oblates the same words that he spoke to our forebears in this community. NOTES 1. Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature , trans. Willard R. Trask (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1953), 17. Our task, then, is all mapped out. . . . 2. See Cecile Richardson, “Le P. Louis Brisson, fondateur des oblats de Saint- Today, the Congregation of the Oblates is François de Sales, béatifié le 22 septembre,” 29/8/2012 at: www.La- you. It will still be you in ten years, in one Croix.com. I am grateful to my confr ère, Fr. Barry Strong, OSFS, for this hundred years, in two hundred years, assuming reference. 3. The complete text of Bishop Stenger’s homily in French may be found on it survives that long. This you must understand the ICSS website, in the section devoted to Fr. Brisson’s beatification: well. The Congregation is a heritage www.franz-von-sales.de. The quote here is taken from the English bequeathed to you; you must pass it on to translation prepared by Fr. Matthew Hillyard, OSFS. others. Make sure it does not deteriorate in your 4. Roger Balducelli, OSFS, “On the Sacred History of the Congregation: Comments on Father Brisson’s Understanding of How the Congregation hands! No one will put together what you will Came into Being,” in The True Understanding of the Congregation According to have dismantled. . . . I believe that at the Last Father Brisson , Texts of Father Brisson chosen and translated by Father Roger Judgment I would prefer to show up weighed Balducelli, OSFS, for use by his confrères (Rome: Generalate, 1989), 137- down with all the sins committed in the world 51, at 138 (hereafter True Understanding ). rather than being guilty of having failed to meet 5. Auerbach, 17-18. 6. Margaret Silf, “An Imperfect Pilgrim,” America , 30 July 2012. this responsibility, of having eluded it through 7. Golden Counsels of St. Francis de Sales , ed. Mary Paula McCarthy, VHM, and my own fault, of having undone the gift God Mary Grace McCormack, VHM, trans. Péronne-Marie Thibert, VHM has given me for the salvation of souls. 35 (Saint Louis: Monastery of the Visitation, 1994), 17. 8. Saint François de Sales, Œuvres , ed. André Ravier and Roger Devos, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), 395 ( Treatise , Book 1, At the same time, Fr. Brisson is an accessible model and chap. 15) (hereafter Œuvres ). inspiration for all the people of God. St. Francis de Sales insisted 9. Œuvres , 431 ( Treatise , Book 2, chap. 8). four centuries before the Second Vatican Council sounded the 10. Ibid., 433 (Treatise , Book 2, chap. 8). “universal call to holiness” in its Dogmatic Constitution on the 11. Ibid., 184 ( Introduction , Part 3, chap. 19). 12. Yvon Beaudoin, OMI, Father Louis Brisson (1817-1908): A Documented Church, Lumen gentium , that each person has a vocation to Biography [English translation and condensed edition of the Positio super holiness that is to be lived out in a particular state of life: single virtutibus (Rome, 1998), submitted to the Vatican Congregation for the life, married and family life, consecrated life, or ordained ministry. Causes of Saints as part of the introduction of the cause for beatification and For this very reason, Pope Paul VI shortly after Vatican II declared: canonization] (Wilmington: Wilmington-Philadelphia Province, Oblates of “No one of the recent Doctors of the Church more than St. Francis de Sales, 2008), 93 (hereafter Documented Biography ). 13. Ibid.; L’esprit du bienheureux François de Sales (Paris, 1639-41), Part III, sec. St. Francis de Sales anticipated the deliberations and decisions of XIV. Francis speaks of this project in a letter of January 1613 to Mother de the Second Vatican Council with such a keen and progressive Chantal: see Œuvres de saint François de Sales , Édition complète, 27 vols. ICSS NEWSLETTER 23

(Annecy: J. Niérat et al., 1892-1964) 15:334. references, see The American Centenary Edition of the Constitutions . . . , 149, 14. Ibid.; Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de Chantal, Correspondance , ed. Marie- note 22. For further information on this topic, see Joseph F. Chorpenning, Patricia Burns, VHM, 6 vols. (Paris: Cerf, 1986-96), 1:654. OSFS, “‘[The] Savior will be seen walking again on earth’: St. Francis de 15. Documented Biography , 93, and 123, note 5. Sales as the Model for the De Sales Oblates’ Imitation of Christ,” ICSS 16. True Understanding , 130-31. Newsletter , No. 22 (Aug. 2008), 1-7, 16. 17. Wendy M. Wright, Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition , Traditions 24. True Understanding , 29. of Christian Spirituality Series (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004), 139. 25. Ibid., 133. 18. The Little Notebook of Fribourg (Le Petit Cahier de Fribourg) , analysis, 26. Ibid. translation, and commentary by Edward Carney, OSFS (Private printing), 38. 27. Ibid. 19. Quoted in True Understanding , 77. 28. Ibid., 87. 20. Documented Biography , 93-94. Also see the important article by Alexander T. 29. Ibid., 134. Pocetto, OSFS, “Mary de Sales Chappuis (1793-1875): Apostle of the 30. Ibid., 123. Salesian Spirit,” Salesianum 71 (2009): 321-40. 31. Œuvres , 184 ( Introduction , Part 3, chap. 19). 21. L’Âme de saint François de Sales révélée par sainte Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal 32. Documented Biography , 94. dans une de ses lettres et dans sa déposition au procès de béatification du serviteur 33. Mgr. Lavielle, L’Abbé Henri Chaumont, fondateur de trois sociétés salesiénnes de Dieu 1627 (Annecy: Monastère de la Visitation, 2010), 92-93 (article (1838-1896) (Tours: Maison Aldred Mame/Paris: Pierre Téqui, 1919), 153. XXXII); English translation here quoted: St. Francis de Sales: A Testimony by 34. True Understanding , 30. St. Chantal , ed. and trans. Elisabeth Stopp (Hyattsville, MD: Institute of 35. Ibid., 134-35. Salesian Studies/London: Faber, 1967), 96. 36. Apostolic letter, Sabaudiae gemma/Gem of Savoy , Apostolic Letter 22. Cf. Constitution 14, in The American Centenary Edition of the Constitutions, Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of St. Francis de Sales, General Statutes, and Spiritual Directory of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales Doctor of the Church, trans. Neil Kilty, OSFS (Hyattsville, MD: Institute of (Wilmington, DE: De Sales Publishing, 1991). Salesian Studies, 1967), 5. 23. Fr. Brisson, quoted in Constitution 16. In numerous chapters and retreats, 37. Œuvres , 395 ( Treatise , Book 1, chap. 15). Fr. Brisson attributes this prediction to the Good Mother. For the particular 38. Ibid., 431 ( Treatise , Book 2, chap. 8).

History of the Cause of Blessed Louis Brisson Sr. Madeleine-Thérèse Dechambre, OSFS

First Steps From 1946 until 1949, the process was resumed and completed under the episcopate of Bishop Le Couédic, and then At the insistent request of Mother Madeleine de Sales Pupey- sent to Rome. The opening of the diocesan inquiry on Fr. Brisson’s Girard, OSFS, and of her Assistant, Mother Aimée de Sales de virtues was validated by decree on 22 March 1950. The Cissey, OSFS, both of whom had been witnesses of the saintly life Summarium (summary or résumé) of the process was signed by the of Fr. Louis Brisson (the former from 1885 until 1908, and the Advocate, Bishop Stella, on 26 June 1953, and the decree latter from 1889 until 1908), Fr. Prosper Dufour, OSFS, Superior concerning his writings by the Cardinal Prefect, Amleto Cardinal General of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales at the time and a Cicognani, on 1 March 1955. Bishop Stella completed the devoted son of Fr. Brisson as well as an eyewitness of his virtues, Informatio , or the synopsis of the virtues, on 29 January 1963. readily agreed and hastened to open his Cause for Beatification. Consequently in 1937, Fr. Domenico Balducelli, OSFS, then Procurator General of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, was Documents against Fr. Brisson presented by the asked to seek the necessary information from the Congregation of Promoter of Justice of Troyes on 14 August 1962: Rites regarding the first steps to be taken for opening the process. A “delayed action” bombshell! In a letter dated 14 August 1962, Fr. François Morlot, the The Ordinary Process of the Diocese of Troyes (1938-49) Promoter of Justice of the Diocese of Troyes, announced that he The process was opened exactly thirty years after Fr. Brisson’s had sent to Rome six volumes of documents dating from 1871 to death on 11 February 1938, in Troyes, under the presiding 1907, especially those which were relative to the “Boursetty affair” authority of Bishop Heintz, the bishop of Troyes. Twenty-eight and to the stormy relations between Bishop Cortet and Fr. Brisson eyewitnesses were to be heard: eleven Oblate Sisters, two from 1878 to 1888. To those six volumes, he added a notebook of Visitandines, nine lay persons, and four diocesan priests—three of eleven pages of his own, entitled: “Succinct Notes on the Heroic whom were from Troyes. Mother Pupey-Girard was the only Sanctity of the Very Reverend Father Louis Brisson .” A veritable witness who had the time to make her deposition in fourteen vitriolic synopsis ( synopsis vitiorum )! Fr. Ivon Beaudoin, OMI, sessions. The process was suspended following the transfer of offers his thoughts on it in a letter of 26 November 1983: Bishop Heintz from Troyes to the Diocese of Metz, and then by World War II. 24 ICSS NEWSLETTER

The title issued from an unhealthy irony. Even (died 1970). The turbulence of the years from 1968 through the if, among the documents sent, the merits and early 1970’s also affected the ideas that the Oblates had with virtues of Fr. Brisson can be seen, Fr. Morlot says regard to a Cause for Beatification. In their General Chapter of absolutely nothing about them; he simply 1973, the younger chapter delegates were not in favor of pursuing enumerates all that can be reproached to the the Cause for the reasons that it would be too costly and that the Servant of God by Bishop Cortet, the Bishop’s idea seemed to them to savor of “triumphalism,” an idea very immediate collaborators, who feared him, and a much in vogue; however, they left the decision of the settlement few auxiliary professors who were not content of the question to the discretion of the then Superior General, with their lot and whom the Bishop had asked Fr. William Ward, OSFS, and his Council. In 1974, Fr. Ward and to write down all that happened at the Collège three other Fathers, one of whom was Fr. Edward Carney, OSFS, St.-Bernard, during moments when passions ran one of the rare Fathers who seriously fought for and worked to high. Fr. Morlot didn’t let a single accusation go achieve the pursuit of the Cause, came to Troyes in order to unnoticed, and that, without asking himself become better informed regarding the Cause. Our Mother Jeanne what objective value the affirmations had, and de Sales Cussac, OSFS, made them understand that should the also without distinguishing between what Oblates abandon the Cause, the fact would cast a shadow upon the Bishop Cortet said, on the one hand, and on the whole Process. She ardently wished that, in their Chapter of 1976, other, what his “informers” had said, for with the Oblates would renew their interest in the Cause and decide to good reason, one can seriously doubt the truth pursue it. On 28 January 1974, Mother Jeanne de Sales and her of their accumulated testimonies, which were so two assistants met once again with Fr. Ward at the Oblate interwoven with insignificant gossip and Generalate on the Via Dandolo in Rome; Fr. Emilio Testa, OSFS, malicious detractions regarding the school, Fr. Agostini, and Bishop Vitale, the advocate of the Cause, were Fr. Brisson, the Oblates, and the Oblate Sisters. also present. During that meeting each one freely expressed his opinions, his hopes and his hesitations, and, finally, both the Supplement to the Ordinary Process (1963-64) Oblates and the Oblate Sisters were in agreement and pledged to work together in pursuing the Cause. Fr. Agostini died in 1983. With the desire to shed some light on the difficulties and He was replaced by a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, objections raised by the documents sent by Fr. Morlot, Fr. Marcel Martin, who died in 1990. Fr. Domenico Balducelli, Postulator of the Cause, wanted the Bishop Vitale completed his responses to the objections, the original Process to be completed. The Promoter of the Faith in Responsio ad animadversiones on 19 March 1980, by drawing Troyes, Fr. E. Moreau, prepared a questionnaire with several abundantly from Fr. Dufour’s deposition. He followed that with precise questions regarding the Cortet-Brisson relationship. A another more complete volume, the Summarium defensioni additum single witness was interrogated, Fr. Dufour, former Superior of 862 printed pages, containing the deposition of Fr. Dufour from General of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and the twenty- the Supplement to the Ordinary Process (pp. 1-161), the oral and second witness dating from the Ordinary Process of 1938-49. (His written depositions made during the Ordinary Process and omitted deposition is published in the Summarium defensioni additum .) This in the first Summarium (pp. 162-310), and, finally, a series of Supplement to the Ordinary Process took place in nine sessions numerous documents, in particular most of the documents which from 8 July 1963 until 13 January 1964, which were duly presented had been sent to Rome by Fr. Morlot in 1962 (pp. 311-862). to the Congregation of Rites and opened by the decree of 24 Fr. Beaudoin signaled the fact that “this massive documentation February 1964. lacks a critical analysis of the documents and a brief historical synthesis which would facilitate its comprehension and its Slow and painstaking development of the Cause consultation. Fortunately, a chronological outline of the relations between Bishop Cortet and the Servant of God can be found on Bishop Stella died in June, 1968. Fr. Domenico Balducelli pages 656-69.” died in 1969. The Promoter General of the Faith in Rome, the Capuchin The Norms of 1983 G. Stano, prepared the Objections to the Cause or the Animadversiones , which were signed on 28 August 1976. These The Positio super Introductione Causae , completed in 1980, were taken from the Summarium signed by the advocate, Bishop J. had, however, not been examined in a meeting of Consulters. Like Stella, on 26 June 1953, and the Informatio also compiled by many other Causes, it was still awaiting that examination, when, Bishop Stella and dated 29 January 1963, and especially from the on 25 January 1983, new legislation, the Apostolic Constitution, “Morlot folder” as it is thus referred to, especially the “ Succinct Divinus perfectionis Magister , of Pope John Paul II was published at Notes . . . .” But, as a result of Bishop Stella’s death in 1968 and that almost the same time as that of the new Code of Canon Law. It of the Postulator in 1969, the Promoter General did not know that abolished all former legislation and provided for a new the Supplement to the Ordinary Process existed. The new organization of the procedures of a Cause, distinguishing between advocate, Bishop Vitale, made him aware of it. a “recent Cause” (the case where the witnesses are still alive) and Fr. Domenico Balducelli was succeeded by Fr. David Agostini, an “ancient Cause” (the case where the testimony comes solely OSFS, who was named Postulator by Fr. William Buckley, OSFS from written depositions, as in the instance of Fr. Brisson). In the ICSS NEWSLETTER 25 latter case, it would, henceforth, be necessary to examine those Final Phase: The Evaluations and the Decrees sources according to the scientific method of criticism. Every Cause begins with a doubt: Did the Servant of God The same year the Internal Constitution of the Congregation for heroically practice the virtues? One seeks the answer by gathering the Cause of Saints , along with a more detailed description of the all the available testimony for and against. Then comes the procedures to be followed according to the step that the Cause had moment to weigh the pros and the cons, to evaluate what has been attained in 1983, was also published. In Article 34, it states: said, and, finally, to take a stand in responding to the initial doubt by a “yes” or a “no,” or in suspending one’s judgment until further In the case where the Positio super Introductione and more ample information is received, and, ultimately, authority Causae had been prepared, but had not yet been declares itself and publishes its judgment by a decree. discussed [as in the case of Fr. Brisson], it shall Every Cause Super Virtutibus is subjected to and proceeds from be examined by a Consulter so as to point out three evaluations: (1) the juridical (the juridical decree possible weaknesses or difficulties where more authorizing the Opening of the Diocesan Inquiry is dated 22 information needs to be supplied and to suggest March 1950, and the Decree of Validation of the Diocesan the research that it would be good to undertake. Inquiry, 6 December 1995) (2) the theological, and (3) the ecclesial (Cardinals and Bishops and in the end the Holy Father). One shall no longer then proceed to the In 1998, one had to wait for the judgment of the Theologians, Introductio Causae (Introduction of the Cause); then that of the Cardinals, then that of the Holy Father. This instead, after having accomplished all the would be according to a very tight schedule and somewhat necessary research, one shall begin the accelerated, but not without difficulty. preparation of the Positio super Virtutibus 25 November 2005: The meeting of the Theologians or (Documentation for the Decree of Heroicity of Congresso peculiare was held. Of the nine Theologians, Virtues) under the direction of a Relater. seven voted in the affirmative, and two for suspension. Fortunately, there was no negative vote! Fr. Testa, with Thus it was decided that the Causes which were already the help of Fr. Roger Balducelli, attempted to respond waiting to be examined would be completed and would be to the difficulties that had been raised by the submitted later for examination by consulters and theologians Theologians. Fr. Beaudoin put their responses into under the title of the Positio super Virtutibus . To that effect, the proper format. Fr. Beaudoin, a Canadian, the archivist of his own Congregation 8 November 2006: The death of Fr. Testa. An urgent nomination (Oblates of Mary Immaculate), and who had also worked for the of a worker of the eleventh hour: an Oblate Sister of Congregation for the Cause of Saints, was offered to us as Relater. St. Francis de Sales as Postulator of the Cause. Sr. A historian to the depths of his being! As of 26 November 1983, Madeleine-Thérèse Dechambre, OSFS, was officially we had already received from him an analysis of the state of the admitted to that office on 10 March 2007, after having Cause, indicating its deficiencies and what needed to be more completed the course of formation for future Postulators. clearly explained. He officially became the Relater of the Cause on She requested that the Cause advance to the next step, 25 May 1984. which was the meeting of the Cardinals and the Bishops In 1990, Fr. Testa was named Postulator for the Causes of our and, to that end, that a “ Ponent ” (an official who presents two Founders (Fr. Brisson and Mother Aviat). In 1995, he the Cause) be named. Bishop Franco Croci was named; requested that Bishop Daucourt, the bishop of Troyes, constitute his role was to present the person of the Servant of God a Historical Commission. The Commission consisted of five to his confrères, which presupposes a serious study of the members: the Bishop; Canon Zirnhelt, the President; Fr. Beaudoin; documentation and of the opinions of the Theologians. Fr. Roger Balducelli, OSFS; and Fr. De Sainte Croix from Le Mans. So as not to be influenced in his presentation, he did not That Commission presented its report on 17 May 1995. Among enter into contact with the Postulator. other things, one can read: “Research was undertaken in 33 Depots 2 October 2007: The session of the Cardinals and Bishops or the of Archives in 6 countries, i.e., in the dioceses where Fr. Brisson “Ordinaria ” took place; the result of the voting was as had made foundations of Oblates and/or of Oblate Sisters. follows: three affirmative votes, three affirmative “ ad However, in the case of persons who were in contact with mentem, ” and two for suspension, which was to be numerous bishops or personalities, such as Fr. Brisson, the research foreseen, given the doubts that the Theologians had is unending; one can always find something new.” expressed. More research and an in-depth study were From 1991 until 1998, Fr. Beaudoin compiled the Biographie required with regard to three points: Fr. Brisson’s ten Documentée (Documented Biography), written according to the years of difficulties with Bishop Cortet, the last twenty norms of the scientific method. He added a new Informatio (or years of his life, and the person of Bishop Cortet. study of Fr. Brisson’s virtues), which was more ample than the It devolved upon the Postulator to provide a response previous one. All of that, assembled into two large volumes, was concerning those points, which would be written up in a then re-entered on the waiting list to be examined by the “supplementum ” that the Ponent would then study. Theologians. Contacts were then established with Bishop Croci after the preceding session. Henceforth, he was convinced of 26 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Fr. Brisson’s virtues, and, using the “ supplmentum ,” he Postulator to prepare the Positio super miro or the folder of wrote up a report which clarified the pending questions. information concerning the miracle. Once again, there were three 29 September 2009: The Second “ Ordinaria ” took place; this levels of evaluation: juridical, medical, and theological. time the vote was affirmative and unanimous. 19 December 2009: Pope Benedict XVI authorized the 7 March 2008: The validity of the Process was recognized by publication of the decree recognizing the Heroicity of decree. Virtues of Fr. Brisson. In the list of the new “Venerables,” 11 February 2011: The six doctors of the Consulta Medica his name appeared right after those of two other great unanimously concluded that a “very rapid, complete, and Servants of God, Pius XII and John Paul II, and just durable cure, the manner of which could not be before that of a son of Don Bosco, Don Giuseppe explained,” had occurred. Quadrio. In short, he remained “among family” at heart! 7 June 2011: The seven Theological Consulters, in turn, With the step of “Venerable” successfully completed, the unanimously affirmed the miraculous nature of the cure following one could finally be envisaged: that of studying a cure attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God, attributed to Fr. Brisson’s intercession, which, if all went well, Louis Brisson. would lead to his Beatification. 13 December 2011: The session of Cardinals and Bishops unanimously accepted the miracle attributed to A Cause concluded in 2012 by the Beatification Fr. Brisson’s intercession. The Ponent was the Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch. The Positio super miro (Information about a miracle) 19 December 2011: Pope Benedict XVI authorized the publication In fact, for more than twenty years, the Informative Process of the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to the concerning the cure of an eight-year-old Ecuadorian boy, Carlos intercession of Fr. Brisson, which led to his beatification Luis Peñaherrera Catani, which occurred in Alausí in 1953, had on 22 September 2012, and gives us the right to honor been waiting to be examined. Its Diocesan Process had taken place and to pray to Fr. Brisson under the title of “Blessed.” in Guayaquil during the period 20-27 July 1981. Sent to Rome, the same year, it had been officially opened in Sr. Madeleine-Thérèse Dechambre, OSFS , is the postulator for 1982. Since then, it remained on the shelf. It, therefore, fell to the Fr. Brisson’s cause.

APPENDIX Chronology of the Steps of the Cause and Composition of the Positio (dossier)

Dates Steps Positio super Contents Pages introductione causae

11 Feb. 1938 Opening of the Process in Troyes Summarium Deposition of one Vol II under the Episcopate of Bishop witness: Mother 12-53 Heintz according to the Code of Madeleine de Sales Canon Law of 1917 Pupey-Girard

Transfer of Bishop Heintz to Metz \ World War II

1945-49 Interrupted Process resumed Summarium Deposition of 11 Vol II under the episcopate of Oblate Sisters, 53-500 Bishop Le Couëdic 2 Visitandines, 9 Lay persons, 2 Oblates 4 Diocesan priests

1963 Informatio Synopsis virtutum Vol. I (Résumé of virtues) 1-86

14 Aug. 1962 “Morlot folder” Cf. SDA Documents relevant to Vol. I (6 volumes of documents - (where they have the conflict between 311- 888 typed pages - copied from been inserted in part) Bishop Cortet and 862 ICSS NEWSLETTER 27

the Episcopal Archives of Troyes Fr. Brisson and to the were sent to Rome by Promotor of Boursetty affair Justice, Fr. François Morlot) + “Succinct Notes on the Heroic Sanctity of the Very Rev. Louis Brisson” (11 pages)

1963-64 Supplementary Process Summarium Sole witness: Vol. I defensioni additum Fr. Prosper Dufour 1-161 (SDA)

1968 “Time of Turbulence”: Pursuit of the Cause was called into question by the ideas in vogue. But our major superiors decided that both the Oblates and the Oblate Sisters would continue it together.

1976 Slow development Animadversiones Vol. II (or Objections of the 1-34 Promoter of the Faith)

1980 Slow progress Responsio ad Vol. II Animadversiones 1-226 (Responses to Objections)

Awaiting examination…

1981 Diocesan Information Process of Guayaquil concerning the cure of Carlos Luis Peñaherrera, an eight-year-old Ecuadorian boy, victim of an accident, when the iron wheel of a tractor being repaired crushed his right foot (an open fracture of the big toe and three more broken toes) whose cure was attributed to Fr. Brisson’s intercession. The folder was sent to the Congregation for the Cause of Saints the same year. It was awaiting examination…

1983 New Legislation: 25 January 1983 the Apostolic Constitution Divinae Perfectionis Magister of Pope John Paul II + Art. 34 of the Internal Constitution of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints Art. 34 of the Internal Constitution of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints (“In the case where the Positio super Introductione Causae had been prepared, but had not yet been (“In the case where the Positio super Introductione Causae had been prepared, but had not yet been discussed discussed [as in the case of Fr. Brisson], it shall be examined by a Consulter so as to point out possible [as in the case of Fr. Brisson], it shall be examined by a Consulter so as to point out possible weaknesses or weaknesses or difficulties where more information needs to be supplied and to suggest the research that it difficulties where more information needs to be supplied and to suggest the research that it would be good to would be good to undertake. One shall no longer then proceed to the Introductio Causae (Introduction undertake. One shall no longer then proceed to the Introductio Causae [Introduction of the Cause]; instead, of the Cause); instead, after having accomplished all the necessary research, one shall begin the preparation after having accomplished all the necessary research, one shall begin the preparation of the Positio super of the Positio super Virtutibus (Documentation for the Decree of Heroicity of Virtues) under the direction Virtutibus [Documentation for the Decree of Heroicity of Virtues] under the direction of a Relater.”) of a Relater.”)

25 May 1984 Official Nomination as Positio Relater of super Fr. Yvon Beaudoin, OMI virtutibus (In a letter of 26 Nov. 1983, he already analyzes the exist- ing material, indicates flaws and needed research)

1990 Nomination of Composition of the Vol. II Fr. Emilio Testa, OSFS, Documented 1-616 as Postulator Biography 28 ICSS NEWSLETTER

1995 Nomination of a + Historical Commission by Bishop Daucourt Informatio Vol. I (New research in 33 (Summary of Virtues) XXI- Depots of Archives) CXXV

Evaluation & Decrees

2005 Meeting of the Theologians

8 Nov. 2006 Death of Fr. Testa

2007 Sr. Madeleine-Thérèse Dechambre, OSFS, appointed as Postulator.

2 Oct. 2007 Ordinaria of the Cardinals and the Bishops (Cause suspended pending research)

“Supplementum”

27 Sept. 2009 Second Ordinaria (affirmative vote)

19 Dec. 2009 Decree of Heroicity of Virtues: “Venerable”

Study of the Cure of Carlos Peñaherrera (Alausí, Ecuador, 1953)

1981 Diocesan Process (see above)

22 Feb. 1982 Decree of Opening in Rome

7 Mar. 2008 Diocesan Process validated Positio super Miro

10 Feb. 2011 Consulta Medica: unanimous

7 June 2011 Theologians: unanimous

13 Dec. 2011 Cardinals & Bishops: unanimous

19 Dec. 2011 Decree recognizing the miracle = BEATIFICATION!

22 Sept. 2012 Beatification in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Troyes by His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and Representative of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

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