The De Sales Oblates: a Retrieval and Contemporizing of St

No. 35 • March 2019 Founded in 1997 and published biannually by the International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS) of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales The De Sales Oblates: A Retrieval and Contemporizing of St. Francis de Sales in 19th-century France This article forms a special issue of the ICSS Newsletter. It presents a comprehensive historical study and analysis of Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis and Bl. Louis Brisson’s foundational vision for the De Sales Oblates, in the ecclesial-pastoral context of 19th-century French Catholicism, as a retrieval (ressourcement) and contemporizing (aggiornamento) of St. Francis de Sales. The impetus for undertaking this research was twofold. The first was the revision of the De Sales Oblate Constitutions, and the other, preparation of a volume on the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost for Paulist Press’s “Classics of Western Spirituality” series that is a collaborative project by Dr. Wendy M. Wright, Fr. Joseph Boenzi, SDB, and Fr. Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, who is responsible for the Oblate and Fransalian sections of the volume. An “executive summary” of this research was presented at the 20th General Chapter of the De Sales Oblates, held in Annecy (France) during July 2018, with the provision that the fully developed text, with supporting documentation, would subse- quently be published in the ICSS Newsletter. Does history matter? The response to this question by Figure 1. Mural of Salesian Saints and Founders (detail). Troyes (France), Mother- Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS (1817-1908), founder of the Oblates house of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales. (From left to right: St. Francis and Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, is a resounding de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal [standing], Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS, “Yes!” Speaking to the first generation of De Sales Oblates, Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, VHM, and St. Léonie Frances de Sales Aviat, OSFS [kneeling]). (Photo: courtesy Herbert Winklehner, OSFS) Brisson insists that it is imperative that they constantly return to “our origin [and] our creation” because “history, more than resources,”4 as a permanent feature of the Church’s life. It is anything else, has an immense advantage: it more precisely not happenstance that the Council’s clearest endorsement of identifies our aim and the means to attain it.”1 ressourcement is found in its Decree on the Up-to-Date Renewal This return ad fontes, “to the sources,” became widely of Religious Life (Perfectae caritatis [28 October 1965]): known in the 20th century as ressourcement [French for, literally, return to the sources], which has been “behind every appropriate renewal of religious life comprises both 2 reform movement in Western Christianity.” This is certainly a constant return to the sources of the whole of the true of the early modern Catholic reform, which was the Christian life and to the original inspiration of the context in which the Salesian spiritual charism was born. institutes [that is, “the spirit and aims of (the) founder”] Closer to our own time, ressourcement paved the way for the and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our Second Vatican Council (1962-65), while also becoming one time (n. 2). of its hallmarks.3 For its part, Vatican II identifiesressourcement , which the Here Vatican II links ressourcement to another major theme Council understands as a movement from “a less profound to of the Council, aggiornamento, Italian for updating or a more profound tradition; a discovery of the most profound contemporizing. 2 ICSS NEWSLETTER In view of its impeccable ecclesial and Brissonian pedigree, ressourcement, together with aggiornamento, is an “[H]istory, more than anything else, has apt paradigm and invaluable resource for understanding an immense advantage: it more precisely and appreciating what Brisson describes as the “mystery” of identifies our aim and the means to the congregation’s foundation.5 In fact, the founding of the attain it.” — Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS Oblates is a retrieval (ressourcement) and contemporizing (aggiornamento) of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) in the ecclesial-pastoral context of 19th-century French Cathol- own particular quality and uniqueness” (ibid.). icism, which was in critical need of a renewal that the Another way of describing this process, found in Oblate Salesian tradition was uniquely suited to provide (Figure 1). literature, is as “two distinct but interrelated renewals.” The “First Renewal” is the “constant return to the sources What Does “Return to the Sources” Mean of the […] primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their for Consecrated Life? adaptation to the changed conditions of our time” (Perfectae caritatis, n. 2). The “Second Renewal” is each individual Before turning to the “mystery” of the founding of the member’s “vital and very personal ownership of the Institute’s Oblates, it is helpful to consider briefly how Vatican II’s life and mission as they are articulated in the documents call for “a constant return” to the founder’s vision and its stemming from the First Renewal (Perfectae caritatis, n. 4). adaptation to modern times has been conceptualized as a This individual ownership is what constitutes the Second manner of proceeding. This process is usually seen as having Renewal.”7 two constitutive and interconnected components. No matter how this process is conceptualized, Vatican II The first is “the painstaking work of historical research.”6 regards it as a project that is (1) ever in progress and (2) ever The founder’s “life, the gradual unfolding of experiences, delving deeper into the sources. These qualities are in the which led him to recognize his call, his expression of his own foreground of the painstaking historical research into the vision of following Jesus and of serving [others], are just as founder’s vision, as well as of the challenge to appropriate and patient of historical research and documentation as is the life communicate insights recovered by this historical research in of any other historical figure” (Futrell, 65). a way that keeps the founder’s charism credible, vibrant, and alive today. The investigation into the historical documents concerning the founder must be a continuing research The Narrative of the Origin and Creation of many themes and an ongoing dialogue among the researchers, according to the remoteness and complexity of the Oblates of the evidence. […] Each [interpretation] must stand The narrative of the foundation of the De Sales Oblates on its own merits and each must be questioned in tends to be dominated by the episode of Brisson, the reluctant the dialogue of research, always in reference to the founder, who steadfastly resists the entreaties of Mother Mary historical documents through which we approach the de Sales Chappuis, VHM (1793-1875)—often referred to in founder. […] [E]ach effort at research can be questioned the Salesian tradition as the “Good Mother” (Figure 2)— by new research that enters into dialogue with it. This until the Lord appears to him, thus revealing that “he was no dialogue provides the evaluation of the research, at the longer the master in his own house, that he must surrender.”8 same time as it opens up new fields for further research This is sometimes coupled with a tendency to view Brisson (ibid., 66, note 2). in an ahistorical manner, whether it be in isolation from the broader Salesian spiritual tradition, the international The second component flows from the first: phenomenon of the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost, and/or the concrete ecclesial-pastoral context in which his life and The purpose of this [historical research] is to be able to articulate, in the language of our own times, the ministry unfold. authentic vision of the founder, in order to recognize While individual episodes in the narrative of Salesian 9 the spiritual continuity of the charism originating in spirituality may lend themselves to being plotted as a novel, him with this same charism as it is lived today: across this narrative as a whole has more in common with salvation 10 the radical discontinuity of its historical and cultural history than any other genre. God is the chief protagonist expressions (ibid., 65). in both, and they share the common trait of being simultane- ously definitive and open-ended, i.e., still unfolding. Brisson’s If the charism is to have “a continuity of life originating from movement from resistance to surrender to the mission of the founder,” it must remain “truly alive in living persons” founding the Oblates, entrusted to him by God through (ibid., 69). A religious community must allow itself to be Mother Chappuis’s mediation, has been characterized as the shaped by “its great personalities, its saints,” if it is to have “its “sacred history of the Congregation.”11 But even more than ICSS NEWSLETTER 3 she already caught a glimpse of the foundation of the Oblates. God enabled her to see that this foundation was one of the fruits of the inner life of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, and especially of the Father in relation to the Word. These were sublime things.13 In what later became known as the Le petit Cahier de Fribourg [Notebook of Fribourg] (written c. 1823-26), the Visitandine novice recorded, under obedience, “the communications that she received from the divine persons, particularly what God still intends to give to the world.”14 Sr. Mary de Sales reflects: Behold, I am being called to be an apostle and to contribute to the work that God will establish in order to communicate His graces and to diffuse His divine charity ever more. The Savior will bring forth merits not yet employed. The treasure of His charity will be lavished on the earth and given in all its fullness to the world.15 Mother Chappuis’s statement that she is “called to be an apostle” is of great importance.

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