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Emmanuel D'alzon Founder of the Augustinians of the Assumption And Emmanuel d’Alzon founder of the Augustinians of the Assumption &Oblates of the Assumption Assumptionists are religious who live an apostolic communities. Faithful to our founder Father Emmanuel d’Alzon, we propose before all else to work, out of love of Jesus Christ, for the coming of the Kingdom of God in us and around us. When God sees his people in need, loves, urged him to share them first he calls individuals to respond. He with the Laity, before sharing them gives them the grace of compassion with his brother and sister and love like His own; and the Assumptionists. Emmanuel d’Alzon strength to respond. He calls them made them aware of the great and he sends them forth. causes of God and the people of In the Church of the XIX century, their time. He urged them to adopt Emmanuel d’Alzon, the founder of the new and daring paths: a mission in Augustinians of the Assumption – the the Orient, journalism, pilgrimages, Assumptionists – and the Oblates of seminaries for the poor, etc. the Assumption, was one of these But before all else, he invited them in men. Sensitive, by nature and by grace, one and the same movement to to the great changes in his country and the world after the French Revolution, . he suffered wherever God was After the death of their founder, the threatened in anyone and anyone was Assumption seeks to continue his threatened as image of God. work, out of love of Christ and for His passion for the coming of God's the coming of the Kingdom of God. Kingdom, his passion for Jesus Christ Father Hervé Stéphan, Assumptionist, and for everything that Jesus Christ Superior General 1975-1987 Your Kingdom Come hat do you know of Father a man of the Church can be defined W e Emmanuel d’Alzon? If you live geographically and psychologically, he in Nîmes or in that area, you was Vicar General of his diocese for may have heard someone mention his forty years, and he founded two name at one time or another. This man religious families: the Augustinians of of the XIX century (1810-1880), the Assumption, called Assumptionists merits more than the mere mention in (1850), and the Oblates of the a history book and his congregation, Assumption (1865). He played a the Augustinians of the Assumption, significant role in the birth of the founded in 1845 in Nîmes, more than Religious of the Assumption (1839). the traditional stroke of the pen of Throughout his life, Emmanuel d’Alzon Daniel Rops, following the overflowed with activity, initiatives and confrontations that poisoned the projects and never hesitated to lead Dreyfus affair at the end of the XIX from the front. He found his strength and beginning of the XX century. in the long hours he spent in prayer. Besides, by that time Father d’Alzon had been dead for twenty years. So let us turn now to the time of his A son of the Cévennes, of southern birth to gain a better understanding of origin in appearance as well as spirit, if his life and journey to the Assumption. Your Kingdom Come Your Kingdom Come Emmanuel d’Alzon was born into D’Alzon belonged to a famous an aristocratic family, through his bourgeois family enriched by father Henri, the Daudé d’Alzon, offices and of recent nobility recent nobility of Viganaise origin al- whom the Revolution pursued most ruined by the Revolution. In the with vengeful hatred. When XVII century, the eldest branch decided Emmanuel was born, August 30, 1810, in the ancestral house at to leave the harshness of the Cevennes Condamine in Vigan, France had for the vast sunny plains of the Langue- entered the last beautiful days of doc. Through his mother (Faventine the empire before the twilight of de Montredon), Emmanuel d’Alzon the disasters of the war with Spain Your Kingdom Come and the defeat of Russia. There were live off the rents and tenant farmers many stories to tell the family in the without any worries about evening about the major and minor tomorrow, and maintain their place events that embossed more than at the heart of the beautiful twenty-five years of political upheaval. Languedocian society. Viscount Henri At Vigan, one remembered the visit of d’Alzon, tempted by demon politics, a black cardinal, Giulio Gabrielli, sepa- had himself elected by a hand vote rated from the papal court, itself a pris- under official scrutiny on several occasions. oner at Fontainebleau, who had benefited from the hospitality of the Opportunities and Duties d’Alzons and predicted, in a blessing, It could be deduced from all this that the destiny of this family's child. Emmanuel d’Alzon only experienced the delights of Capoue The château at Lavagnac during his childhood. It is true that he had the fortune of access to the cultural In 1816, the château at Lavagnac riches of the elite and a good (near Montague in the Hérault) education; he also benefited from purchased in 1790 by the Faventines, the advantages of his birth: affluence, heirs of the Conti princes, now totally relationships, and emancipation from restored, provided a home for the an all consuming manual labour. But d’Alzons that was less austere than this would too easily ignore his Vigan. In close proximity to the concrete environment and the Hérault, an excellent region for responsibilities linked with it as swimming in the warm waters of well as his own conception of a summer. The large agricultural area chivalrous sense of honour and linked to the château allowed them to Christian responsibility. Your Kingdom Come When Providence places someone at the summit of a social elite, it is not for their egoistical benefit to gain an advantageous position, but to teach them, during their life, to come to the assistance of those who need help on their journey. A united family One is always a child of one’s family. This was very true for Emmanuel. His milieu provided him with a psychological and emotional equilibrium. The ties uniting him to his parents and his two sisters, Augustine et Marie, remained very deep and beneficial. Through his sister, Marie, married to the Count of Puységur, Emmanuel experienced the joys of a prolonged family life continued through their descendents. Three nephews and nieces provided his frequent visits to Lavagnac with a refreshing air and ambiance much needed amidst his continual problems and obligations. Your Kingdom Come A s the Viscount d’Alzon adaptation to the city and new was forced to live in Paris routine), Emmanuel enthusiastically in his role as deputy from pursued, an intellectual and spiritual 1817, it was decided that the whole formation given in these colleges, family would move there for the preferring this open, stimulating, and school year in 1823. Thus it was communal milieu to that of tutoring, that Emmanuel for the first time which was more«stifling» being strictly left his much loved Midi. This familial and individual. He was inspired departure was to be the prelude to by this experience when he later a number of voyages in his life. His found himself in charge of an parents chose for him the best important school at Nîmes, the scholastic establishments in the College of the Assumption in 1844. capital, the first a public school. He never ceased to advise parents to According to the terminology of offer their children the open and the time (Saint Louis College, on social educational milieu offered by the boulevard Saint-Michel), the the colleges in their collective type of second, private -(Stanislas College, education rather than all the old forms in the district of Notre-Dame des formerly employed by the wealthy. Champs). Public at that epoch did not signify lay, and private did not mean adherence to any particular In the XIX century, education was confession. After a short period of still just for the privileged, Your Kingdom Come 9 especially in secondary education. institutions and boarding schools of all Primary education was improving, kinds (Falloux Law,1850). thanks particularly to the growth of Yet, under the Second Empire, there was religious congregations of men and a growing animosity in secular society women and certain forms of socialist and Universities towards this easy campaigns. The urban bourgeoisie, diversion of the State authorities and although traditionally anti-clerical, the monopoly of a fraction of young never hesitated to entrust their sons people outside the official and public to these religious institutions Alma Mater. Thus there developed in (notably the Jesuits) France a growing angry split between and their daughters to the the supporters of a liberal education convents, out of a desire for them without State control and the partisans to learn rather of secular society who carefully than for the sciences. The French excluded Congregations and the clergy State was more concerned with from all areas of teaching and scholastic teaching than education, and institutions. encouraged the communes to open primary schools (Guizot Law, En 1883, the proclaimed 1833), and colleges for boys in the primary education, public, free and cities and the large market towns that secular, reversing the process and served as the breeding ground for political and ideological consensus set future public functionaries and up after the Revolution. This liberal professions, while willingly conquering secularism verging on abandoning the many regional sectarianism adopted a mission to Church establishments: minor exclude religion from schools and Your Kingdom Come prohibited members of Congregations from teaching. Father d’Alzon approached this question not as a spectator but as a militant and committed actor.
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