A General History of the Congregation of the Mission Beginning After the Death of Blessed Vincent De Paul
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DePaul University Via Sapientiae Vincentian Digital Books Vincentian Heritage Collections Spring 5-20-2020 A General History of the Congregation of the Mission Beginning after the Death of Blessed Vincent de Paul Claude-Joseph Lacour C.M. Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks Recommended Citation Lacour, Claude-Joseph C.M., "A General History of the Congregation of the Mission Beginning after the Death of Blessed Vincent de Paul" (2020). Vincentian Digital Books. 44. https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/44 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Vincentian Heritage Collections at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vincentian Digital Books by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A GENERAL HISTORY of the Congregation of the Mission Beginning after the Death of Blessed Vincent de Paul Claude-Joseph Lacour, C.M. ✜ Translated & Annotated by John E. Rybolt, C.M. Originally published as a series over a five year period (1897-1902) in the Annales de la Congrégation de la Mission. Translated, annotated, redesigned, and republished by DePaul University Vincentian Studies Institute, Chicago, Illinois, with permission of the Congregation of the Mission. Edited by Miranda Lukatch, with Nathaniel Michaud. Cover illustration: Portrait of Saint Vincent de Paul, artist unknown, original in Musée de l’Assistance Publique, Paris; Title page: Oval painting prepared for the beatification and canonization of Vincent de Paul, by Antonio Bicchierai, original in Leonine College, Rome. Both courtesy St. Vincent de Paul Image Archive Online. All Rights Reserved © 2020 A General History of the Congregation of the Mission Beginning after the Death of Blessed Vincent de Paul Claude-Joseph Lacour, C.M. ✜ Translated & Annotated by John E. Rybolt, C.M. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Preface GENERALATE OF VINCENT DE PAUL I. State of the Congregation at the death of Father Vincent GENERALATE OF FATHER ALMÉRAS II. The election of Father Alméras, second superior general of the Congregation, 1661 III. Regulations from the assembly of 1661 IV. Various foundations V. The zeal of Father Alméras for ceremonies; his devotion to the Blessed Virgin VI. The successful works of the Congregation, especially of the foreign missions VII. The Madagascar mission VIII. The temporal condition of the houses in the difficult conditions during the late king’s minority IX. Biography of Father Vincent; foundations at Saint- Brieuc, Naples, and Narbonne; Monsieur Jolly X. The assembly of 1668 and its decrees XI. Important documents drawn up by order of the assembly XII. Other documents from the assembly for members of the Congregation XIII. Requests made during the assembly; responses of the general XIV. Illnesses of Father Alméras; the foundation at Lyons XV. Houses in Poland and Italy XVI. New favors from the Holy See XVII. Vain pretensions of those who left the Congregation XVIII. Further concerns of Father Alméras for the ceremonies of the Church XIX. Good results of the ministries GENERALATE OF FATHER JOLLY XX. Death of Father Alméras; Father Jolly his successor XXI. Decrees of the assembly of 1673 XXII. [Missing heading] XXIII. Documents drawn up by order of the assembly of 1673 to counteract the lack of observance of the Rules XXIV. Other documents concerning the proper performance of our ministries XXV. Further documents concerning the good of the members of the Congregation XXVI. Questions presented in the assembly and the answers XXVII. Problems with the Knights of Saint-Lazare; letter from the Holy See XXVIII. New seminary foundations in France XXIX. Other foundations in France XXX. Foreign foundations XXXI. Father Jolly’s firmness XXXII. Father Jolly’s leadership XXXIII. Several successes in the Congregation XXXIV. Results of the missions and seminaries in Italy XXXV. Similar results in the Polish houses XXXVI. Missioners in Algiers and Madagascar XXXVII. Sexennial assembly [1679] XXXVIII. The Congregation’s concern to repel Quietism XXXIX. General assembly, 1685 XL. Father Jolly responds to the questions of the assembly and writes other circular letters XLI. Missioners in London XLII. Father Jolly is embarrassed because of the superior of the Invalides; his attachment to sound doctrine XLIII. The general assembly of 1692; its decrees XLIV. Circular letters after the assembly XLV. Responses of the general to the questions of the assembly XLVI. Vain pretensions of members who left the Congregation, concerning the vows XLVII. Advice from the Sorbonne concerning the vows XLVIII. Father Jolly’s failing health; his death GENERALATE OF FATHER PIERRON XLIX. The general assembly; Father Pierron, general L. Decrees of the assembly of 1697 LI. Circular letter after the assembly of 1697 LII. Care to restrict forbidden books LIII. Murmuring by the Italian Missioners LIV. Government of Father Pierron LV. New foundations in the Congregation LVI. Missioners sent to Algeria and others sent to China LVII. Plans undertaken for the beatification of Father Vincent; favors from the Holy See GENERALATE OF FATHER WATEL LVIII. Illness of Father Pierron; Father Watel succeeds him LIX. Decrees of the assembly of 1703 LX. The gentle governance of Father Watel LXI. New foundations in France and elsewhere LXII. New provinces; the houses of Poland GENERALATE OF FATHER BONNET LXIII. Death of Father Watel; Father Bonnet, general LXIV. Decrees of the assembly of 1711; seminary of renovation LXV. Questions from the assembly and the answers LXVI. Circular letters after the assembly LXVII. The dogmatic letter of Father Bonnet LXVIII. Father Bonnet’s visitations LXIX. Processes for the beatification of Father Vincent LXX. New houses of the Congregation in France LXXI. The houses in Italy LXXII. The province of Poland LXXIII. Missionaries in China LXXIV. The Missioners in Algiers LXXV. Missions in the Mascarene Islands LXXVI. Temporal affairs of the Congregation LXXVII. The sexennial assembly of 1717 LXXVIII. Difficult times of plague, etc. About the Translator Back to Contents INTRODUCTION The Annales de la Congrégation de la Mission (AnnCM) began in 1834 by publishing edifying letters and reports from Missioners about their ministries. Gradually, the editors moved away from concentrating on these texts and introduced accounts of Vincentian history. In the introduction to the first publication of the “General History of the Congregation of the Mission beginning after the death of Blessed Vincent,” by Claude-Joseph Lacour (1672–1731),1 the editor, Alfred Milon, judged that this publication would continue a previous biographical article about René Alméras. In fact, this historical account is the earliest known history of the Congregation. For this reason alone, it deserves a wider knowledge. Its strength lies in Lacour’s use of official Vincentian documents, principally the circular letters of the superiors general, which he quotes at length or at least summarizes. The official publication of the circulars is the Recueil des principales circulaires des supérieurs généraux de la Congrégation de la Mission, 3 vols. (Paris, 1877–1880). These were carefully gathered and published, but the weakness of the Recueil is evident from its title: Collection of the principal circulars. The judgment as to which text was “principal” was made by the editors of that collection. They referred in their footnotes to omitted texts, and the editor of this translation has collected and transcribed those texts. Still, on several occasions, Lacour cites circulars that have not been located nor are referred to in the official Recueil. Many of these are letters sent to the superior general from confreres outside of France. There are approximately forty of these unknown texts, cited either in whole or in part. All told, this new and virtually unknown material enlivens Lacour’s narrative. Milon added several paragraphs to Lacour’s text with material principally from Abelly’s biography of the saint, or concerning the Daughters of Charity.2 At the same time, he suppressed material that he deemed repetitive of texts already printed in 1 “Notes et documents pour servir à l’histoire générale de la Congrégation,” AnnCM 62 (1897): 137–38. The complete publication in the Annales is “Histoire Générale de la Congrégation de la Mission par M. Claude- Joseph Lacour. 1660–1731 [1721],” 62 (1897):138–58, 296–329; 63 (1898):131–61, 312–29, 620–35; 64 (1899):156–76, 411–30, 509–35; 65 (1900): 290–306, 424–42; 66 (1901): 436–48, 570–80; 67 (1902): 148–54, 269–303, 572–604. In addition, the same history was translated into several languages and published in the corresponding years of the Annals in Italian, English, and German, but not Spanish, at least in the same period. 2 AnnCM 63 (1898): 156–60; 64 (1899): 521–33; 65 (1900): 438–41; 66 (1901): 575–77. the Recueil, for example, AnnCM 63 (1898): 320, and offered corrections of certain details, as in AnnCM 65 (1900): 294, 295. A minor concern with these circulars is that they often bear dates in Lacour that differ from those in the Recueil. The explanation seems to be that these old circulars were originally not printed but were transcribed by hand to be sent to the houses and provinces. Their dates are likely those of their transcription, which sometimes vary by several days from the published texts. In this edition, the dates of texts in the Recueil are identified in the footnotes, even though they differ from Lacour’s dating in the main body of his text. Lacour’s weakness stems from the abundance of detail in his sources.3 Even then, however, some elements illustrate Vincentian history in a way that nothing else can accomplish. A reader will be amazed at the careful and often neurotic attention to detail about community life and practice. This gives more nuance to the prevailing sentiment that it was Jean-Baptiste Étienne, superior general from 1843 to 1874, who changed the Congregation of the Mission into a monastic organization.