TRULY APOSTOLIC MEN – Studia 3

Studia 3 Oblatio Joseph T. LaBelle TRULY APOSTOLIC MEN Apostolic Life in the Early Ministry of Saint Eugene de Mazenod Missionarii OMI Oblatio Studia / 3 Supplemento a Oblatio, III-2014 / 1. Direction / Editor / Editor: Oblate Studies and Research Office – Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Via Aurelia 290 – 00165 Roma, Italia (C.P. 9061 – 00100 Roma Aurelio) e-mail: [email protected] website: www.omioblatio.org Direttore responsabile: Fabio Ciardi Registrato presso il Tribunale di Roma Finito di stampare nel mese di maggio 2014 dalla Tipografia Città Nuova via Pieve Torina, 55 - 00156 Roma Imagine cover: Saint Eugene de Mazenod, 1822, preserved at the General House, Rome. Oblatio Studia 1. Yvon Beaudoin, Fernand Jetté. Un guide sage dans un temps de crise, 2012, 156 p. English pdf version: http://www.omiworld.org/oblatio/studia. asp?STID=8 3DZHá=DMąF (G From the French Revolution to the New Evan- gelization - Eugene de Mazenod and his charism between XVIII and XXI century / De la Révolution française à la nuovelle évangélisation, 2013, 280 p. 3. Joseph T. LaBelle, Truly Apostolic Men. Apostolic Life in the Early Ministry of Saint Eugene de Mazenod, 2014, 204 p. l 3 l LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DES Dizionario Enciclopedico di Spiritualità, a cura di Er- manno Ancilli e del Pontificio Istituto di Spiritualità del Teresianum. 3 vols. Rome: Città Nuova Editrice, 1990. DOV Dictionary of Oblate Values, under the direction of Fa- bio Ciardi O.M.I. Rome 2000 (in French, Dictionnaire des valeurs Oblates.) Rome: Association for Oblate Studies and Research, 1996. DS Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doc- trine et histoire: Paris, G. Beauchesne et ses fils, 1932- 1995, 18 volumes. EO Écrits Oblats, collection of selected letters and other documents of Eugene de Mazenod, in 22 volumes; cur- rently available in French and English. Ét Obl Écrits Oblates, Oblate journal published from 1942- l 1973, after wich the title was changed to Vie Oblate 5 Life. l Missions Missions de la Congrégation des Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immaculée, Missionary Oblate publication. 1862-1971. NCE New Catholic encyclopedia, prepared by an editorial staff at the Catholic University of America. New York: McGraw-Hill, c1967-c1996. VOL Vie Oblate Life, Oblate publication from 1974 to present, replaced Études Oblates. 1818 Constitutions et Règles de la Société des Missionnaires de Provence, Saint-Laurent-du-Verdon, 1818 (Oblate archives “Manuscrit I”); page citations refer to the text reprinted in Missions 78 (1951), pp. 9-97. 1825 Constitutions et Règles de la Société des Missionnaires dits de Provence, 1824-1825 (Oblate archives “Manus- crit IV”). This is the French text which was translated into Latin and presented for pontifical approval; page citations refer to the text found in M. Lesage and W. Woestman, ed. La Règle de saint Eugène de Mazenod / The Rule of Saint Eugene de Mazenod, (Ottawa: Fac- ulty of Canon Law, Saint Paul University, 1997). Unless stated otherwise, all New Testament citations refer to the New Revised Standard Version from The New Greek English Interlinear New Testament. (R.K. Brown and P.W. Comfort, tr. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1990. Joseph T LaBelle l 6 l Studia 3 INTRODUCTION his book is an adaptation of a 2006 doctoral dissertation which considers the presence of what may be termed a T“tradition of apostolic life” during the early ministry years (1812-1826) of Bishop Eugene de Mazenod (b.1782 - d.1861), founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and subsequent bishop of Marseilles.1 In the fall of 1815, the thirty-three year-old abbé Eugene de Mazenod began to reveal his vision for a new missionary preaching society which would labor in southern France. Oh! Do not doubt that we will become saints in our Congregation, free but united by bonds of the most tender charity, by exact submis- sion to the Rule we will adopt, etc. We would live poorly, apostolically, etc.2 If presently we are not more numerous, it is that we wish to choose men who have the will and the courage to walk in the footsteps of the apostles.3 In what would become the pontifically approved text of the 1826 Ob- late Constitutions and Rules, he wrote about the type of men needed for l the task, “zealous priests... priests not given to their own interests, solidly 4 7 grounded in virtue - in a word, apostolic men...” Little direct mention remains of his concept of living “apostolically” l beyond a few references and implications from the first years of the missionary society. In recent decades, several Oblate writings have addressed de Mazenod’s particular way of living as an “apostolic man.” Various elements of this life have been explored from a primarily modern-day per- spective, such as the centrality of the Eucharist in de Mazenod’s life, his Introduction 1 J. LaBelle, Apostolic Life in the 1812-1826 Thought and Founding Charism of Eugene de Mazenod, O.M.I. (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di Spiritualità, 2006), published in abridged form. 2 De Mazenod to Mgr Hilaire Aubert, before October, 1815, in EO 6.3. 3 De Mazenod to Tempier, October 19, 1815, in EO 6.4. 4 Woestman & Lesage, 1825, 14. daily meditative practice of oraison, etc. But just what did the first Oblates mean when they claimed to follow an apostolic lifestyle as it was per- ceived in early nineteenth century France? What were some of the es- sential elements of such a life? To what degree were they affected by the social and pastoral demands of their time? How did their various spiritual practices serve to reinforce and support their prayer and ministry in the midst of their demanding ministerial and religious life? These are some of the deeper questions which must be addressed when seeking to articulate the apostolic dimension of de Mazenod’s charism for our present day. A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE EARLY APOSTOLIC LIFE TRADITION In order to consider de Mazenod’s appeals to an existing apostolic life tradition, one must dig deeper to find the evolving use of the term through- out the first seventeen centuries of Christian spirituality history. There are several works which explore this in greater detail; for the present study, a very limited summary is offered here.5 The earliest Christian understanding relied principally upon the sy- noptic gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus and “the Twelve.” These hand-picked men were prepared by Jesus to proclaim the Good News to all the world, each one sent into the world as his envoy or repre- sentative (the original meaning of the term “apostle”). Not merely repeaters Joseph T LaBelle of an oral message, these apostles gave personal witness to their belief in l Jesus and the reign of God through their imitation of his life which they 8 had personally appropriated. They learned to live in utter dependence upon l divine providence through lives of detachment from material and other wants, spiritually grounded in a total filial trust in the mysterious divine plan as was Jesus’ own relationship as a trusting Son of his loving Father. The Christian patristic era (second thru fifth centuries) used the descrip- Studia 3 tive “apostolic” to indicate one’s doctrinal orthodoxy and faithfulness to the 5 The original dissertation preceding this book devoted an entire chapter sug- gesting a credible development of the apostolic life tradition. The following additional works were very helpful in this regard: H. Holstein, “The history of the development of the word ‘apostolic.’” Apostolic Life, being the English version of L’apostolat, transl. By Ronald Halstead (London: Aquin Press, 1958); M. Vicaire, The Apostolic Life (Chicago: Priory Press, 1966); L. DeWailley, “Notes sur l’histoire de l’adjectif ‘apos- tolique.’” in Mélanges de science religieuse (November 1948):141-152. teachings of the first apostles. Thus, Ignatius of Antioch in his Martyrdom of Polycarp (16.2) notes that the early martyr had learned from the early apostles and died as “an apostolic and prophetic teacher,” and Tertullian al- ludes to the disciple-students of the first apostles as “apostolic men” (On the Veiling of Virgins, 2.1). Veneration of the first apostles was extended to extol the ascetical prayer life of the early Christian monastics, and also had its impact upon the communal life of prayer and virtue exemplified by the bishop Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and his common-life clergy; this vision regulated such items as common life, dress, prayer, and shared posses- sions, and would later emerge as a great influence upon the understanding of the apostolic life and vocation. The medieval era (sixth to fifteenth centuries) witnessed a growing dispute as to a more precise understanding of the term. The monastic life tradition dominated the discussion and this way of life was proposed as fitting for clergy as well, but its cloistered lifestyle impeded their free- dom for responding to growing pastoral needs. By the twelfth century, however, the Rule of Augustine had reemerged and formed the preferred foundation for clerical life, to be observed in common as “canons regular.” Concern for ecclesiastical and clergy reform also led to an expectation that preachers’ lives should return to the more austere and faith-led example of Jesus and the first apostles, chiefly in their adherence to evangelical poverty and obedience. The tradition of itinerant apostolic preaching im- pressed itself upon the French religious consciousness with the emergence l of such figures as Robert d’Arbrissel (d. 1117) and Bernard de Tiron (d. 9 1117). One result among many communities from the resulting mendicant (“begging”) movement was the thirteenth-century formation of the Order l of Preachers and the promotion of Dominic de Guzman as the exemplar medieval “apostolic man.” Continued desire for Church reform in the early modern era (fifteenth to eighteenth centuries) led to the formation of numerous clerical insti- tutes which addressed the problems of religious ignorance, heterodoxy, Introduction and lack of formal priestly formation.

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