DOC. IV: OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE SACRED HEART (1816) 39 38 PARTI: DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE LIFE (1774- 18 18) The Association which we are studying in this document receives the 13. 14. 15. The two Dcsmarct ladies, and MmeLavicJmiiui Poor name of Congregation in the rule; but on the contrary, in the acts it is vaguely Clare Sisters. They were members of the Association until they could called Pious Union, Association, Congregation, and more often, Society. re-establish their Convent of St. Flizabeth, in the house which is today Traditionally the religious of Jesus and Mary have always called it occupied by the institution of the "Carthusians". Association, thus distinguishing it from the religious Congregation which 16. 17. 18. Three Morel young ladies (Place Morel); they wci< \< i \ originated from it. In this introduction we shall do the same. This brief historical explanation is based on the Rule of the Association rich, and gave in their own name and that of their mother. and the Register of the Minutes of the ordinary and extraordinary meetings of 19. Mme du Tillieux. Rue Masson. She seldom wen! to the the same. For greater clarity, we indicate herewith the order in which the meetings. questions are treated in this general introduction: 20. 21. Mme Germain and Mme Adam her relative. A) The Association of the Sacred Heart. B) Organization and activity of the Association. 22. Mme Donat, Rue Neyrct. C) Works ol' charity which it practised. 23. Mme Riondel, today Clos Champevert. D) The part played by the Servant of God in this work. 24. 25. 26. Mme Prudent and her I wo daughters, Maison du panlei fleury, Montee des Carmelites. 27. 28. 29. Mesdames Steyman, (iermain, Dumolard, Maison di Carmelites. A) 30. Mile Eymard, at the Cloister. Tin; ASSOCIATION OF THE SACRED HEART 3 1. 32. Mesdames Laurencin, Janoray. We have omitted, withoui To understand well what the Association of the Sacred Heart with which doubt, some names. we are dealing was, it is necessary to fix the historical moment of its This Association of Ladies provided considerable sums of money appearance in Lyon. for the Providence. The money collected at the meetings of the ladies After the restoration of 1815, the political and religious unrest common to the whole nation was aggravated in Lyon by the situation created by the was at first put into the hands of Mile Thevenet, Superioress ol the exile of the archbishop, Cardinal Fesch and by the semi-schismatic tendency Providence; after Mile Thevenet left, the funds were given to Si. of the "Petite Eglise" de Lyon (cf. C. LATRELLE, La Petite eglise de Lyon, Clotilde who became then, as it were, the Superioress in fact, witllOUl Lyon, 1911). having the title, but who could not act, except with the authority ol the If the political and religious situation was delicate, the moral, intellectual Ladies of the Committee who had charge ol I he administration ol I he and social state of the population was still more precarious. The new generation lacked religious instruction, and, very often, any kind of Providence. instruction. Poverty was very great, especially among the working classes. The needs of the soul could not be satisfied with political measures, nor could DOC. IV these alone, even in the best possible conditions, restore Catholic life. True TESTIMONIES ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION OF TIN, SACKED HEART founded l>v restoration was realized in Lyon, as elsewhere, by zealous bishops, the Servant of God in Lyon, 1816. missionaries, priests, laity, men and women of exemplary life, who carried the love of God and their neighbour in some cases to the point of heroism. The documents which we publish here present the Servant of God in one On the 26th May 1816, the priest Nicolas Augustin de la Croix, in his own of the first works which characterize her activity in an important way and name and that of various ecclesiastics established in the ancient Carthusian which best show her spiritual aspirations up to and after 1816, when she was monastery of Lyon, which had been converted into the parish of St. Bruno, 42 years old. As all these activities revolve around the Pious Union or Society requested from the ecclesiastical authorities permission to institute the Association of the Cross of Jesus, according to the rule of the Congregation of of the Sacred Heart, organized by her in collaboration with Fr. André St. Ambrose, founded by St. Charles Borromeo in Milan. The authorization Coindre, in 1816, we shall briefly explain the history of this Association, 40 PART I: DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE LIFE (1774-18 18) DOC. IV: OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE SACRED HEART (1816) 41 was granted on the 11th June of the same year; and this Association of the apostolic activity in Lyon. The members of the Association came from middle Cross of Jesus, which was called "The Priests of St. Irenaeus, under the class and well-to-do families who desired not only to progress spiritually, but protection of St. Ambrose and St. Charles, together with the Sacred Hearts < >l also to perform an apostolic work, especially in favour of the poor. Jesus and Mary", still exists, better known from the beginning by the name of the "Carthusian" Missionaries (Lyon, Arch. "Carthusian" Miss.). One of its more specific characteristics was the division into four sections: the first was the section for instruction; the second for edification; Two months later, on the 31st July of the same year, in the chapel of retreats of St. Bruno's, Fr. Andre Coindre, one of these missionaries, presided the third for consolation; the fourth for almsgiving. over the reunion of a group of ladies who had brought into being not long The first section occupied itself with preparation for the first before the Association of the Sacred Heart, and had unanimously elected Communion, religious instruction of adults and even of heretics. Besides this Claudine Thevenct as President. Thus the Association of the Sacred Hearl it took charge of acquiring and lending books. The second section was was founded in Lyon. occupied with maintaining fervour among young people, preserving them Thirty years later, when the Association, having become a religious from the perils of bad company and dangerous reading, directing them Congregation, asked for the approval of the Holy See, this first step was note< I towards good works. The third section, called the section for consolation, was in the following terms: "The Congregation of Jesus and Mary originated in dedicated to visiting the sick and imprisoned and also their families, doing all Lyon in the year eighteen hundred and eighteen, at a time when, in all parts of that was possible for their good, and procuring suitable reading matter for France, zealous persons vied with one another to make up, as far as possible them. The fourth section — that of almsgiving — directed its services to the for the situation caused by the disappearance of the old established homes of poor families, distributing special alms either by sending their communities dedicated to tin- education of youth. In the beginning this was children to school, or by helping them according to their needs. only an association of pious ladies who had had the idea of putting tin n personal resources in common, in order to come to the aid of poor young girls At the head of each section there was a president, and its members had to whose virtue would have been in jeopardy while learning or exercising a hold frequent meetings (i.e. every fifteen days) in which they discussed on the mechanical skill in the heart of a densely populated city. Their first efforts one hand the means for advancing in perfection, and on the other hand the having succeeded beyond all expectation, these pious persons, with the way of attaining with greater prudence and efficacy the ends of their own consent of the competent authority, came together in one house to live there section. under a rule, and to dispose themselves to become religious if it pleased God, These presidents of sections had the same duties as the other associates and if He gave them the grace to do so", (cf. Doc. XIX, 4, p. 417, and iIn- and like them, depended in all things on the President General. The Rule, original preserved in the archives of the S. C. of Religious, File L, 13), which indicates in detail in various articles, especially No 2 Section 3, Title 7, the many duties of the President, says nothing of the duties of the presidents of sections. From what can be deduced from the data preserved in the Register, it would seem that these dependent presidents acted in their section as representatives of the President General, to whom they had to give an account of everything, and from whom they received all their orders. In the Register B) some of their names are preserved: Marie Chirat and Clotilde Revel, ORGANISATION AND ACTIVITY OF THE ASSOCIATION presidents successively of the section for instruction; Jeanne Grillat, Julie Genoux and Catherine Laporte, of the section for edification; Francoise The organisation and functioning of this society are explained in detail Poulat, Anne Gaziot and Pauline Marie Jaricot, of the sections for first of all in the Rule of the Association of the Sacred Heart, which, as we consolation and almsgiving. shall indicate in what follows, constitutes one of the basic documents we have at our disposal, but they are also fully confirmed in the Minutes of the The Rule foresees, in the second of its additional articles, the case in Association, which are still preserved.