The former Carmelite Church in Aix There are many places in Aix linked to St Eugene de Mazenos. But the Oblates hold one particular place most dear to them. It is the church of Mission which is also called the Oblate church. A couple of days ago I wrote that Eugene was looking for a permanent place of his Youth Congregation. Eventually he purchased a falling Carmelite convent. The Carmelite Nuns built it 1701. Unfortunately in 1792 the French Revolution expelled them like all the other religious orders. First the Revolutionaries turned the church attached to the convent into a pagan temple of reason and demolished all the Christian symbols inside the church but soon it was abandoned altogether. Later still it became a circus equipment and a barracks for soldiers. By 1801 it was in a very poor shape and the roof
leaked badly. In the words of Eugene de Mazenod: “the rain fell as freely inside as outside.” In 1855 when Eugene purchased the convent its three wings were occupied by a boarding school for girls and the fourth wing was a turned into apartments. Originally what he could use was the church, the chapel behind the main altar that used to serve the Carmelites for their prayers as they were a contemplative order and the room attached to the church at the top of the stairway. The agreement was that the rest of the building was to be rented by the school for the girls for 7 years. However a few months later the school bankrupted and Eugene had the building for his own purposes. However in 1815 he didn’t know that yet. When he bought the convent the main idea was to have space for his youth movement however there was another “impulse from within” that turned things in a new direction.
leaked badly. In the words of Eugene de Mazenod: “the rain fell as freely inside as outside.” In 1855 when Eugene purchased the convent its three wings were occupied by a boarding school for girls and the fourth wing was a turned into apartments. Originally what he could use was the church, the chapel behind the main altar that used to serve the Carmelites for their prayers as they were a contemplative order and the room attached to the church at the top of the stairway. The agreement was that the rest of the building was to be rented by the school for the girls for 7 years. However a few months later the school bankrupted and Eugene had the building for his own purposes. However in 1815 he didn’t know that yet. When he bought the convent the main idea was to have space for his youth movement however there was another “impulse from within” that turned things in a new direction.
Interior of the former Carmelite Church that is know now as the Church of Mission or the Oblate Church
The chapel where the nuns prayed. The church is behind the wall with the crucifix.
Fr Henry Tempier In October 1815 Eugene writes a letter to a newly ordained priest from another town. His name was Fr Henry Tempier. The letter is an evidence that Eugene was ready to start a group of priest who were to preach the Gospel to the poor of Provence. Let’s read a passage from that letter: “My dear friend, read this letter at the foot of your crucifix with a mind to heed only God and what is demanded in the interests of his glory and of the salvation of souls from a priest like yourself. Stifle the voice of cupidity, love of comfort and convenience; dwell deeply on the plight of our country people, their religious situation, the apostasy that daily spreads wider with dreadfully ravaging effects. Look at the feebleness of the means employed to date to oppose this flood of evil; ask your heart what it fain would do to counter these disasters and then reply to my letter. Well, dear man, what I say to you, without going fully into details, is that you are necessary for the work which the Lord inspires us to undertake.”
Eugene was so excited that he didn’t sign the letter but Fr Tempier had no troubles to realize who wrote it. He agreed straight away. Here I would like to highlight a couple of things that may seem to be astonishing. Fr Tempier is ready to join Eugene after just one letter. He hadn’t met Eugene yet but he is ready to commit his life to something new. We may wonder how it is possible to make such a big decision so quickly at the request of an unknown person. Well, even if Fr Eugene and Fr Henry didn’t know each other yet they had a common friend: JESUS CHRIST. When Eugene wrote to Fr Tempier he asked him to read the letter at the foot of the crucifix. He did so as his own vocation was born at the foot of the cross that Good Friday some years ago. He believed that if Fr Tempier was to agree it could only come from the same source. Today we see that he was right. However in Fr Tempier Eugene got more than a collaborator, Fr Tempier became Eugene’s friend for life. During the first years of his priestly ministry at Aix (1812-1815), Eugene de Mazenod did not have a true friend who was able to lessen his cares and to share his great designs, as he candidly says in one of his letters. His encounter with Father Tempier brought him what he was looking for and even more. Besides sharing plans and giving comfort in troubles, Father Tempier, a man who was calm, pondered and much less emotional than Eugene, tempered the outbursts of Eugene’s character and helped him ‑ at times also replacing him ‑ perseveringly to accomplish all his plans and undertakings.
After the agreement of Fr Henry and another priest Fr Icard, Eugene de Mazenod could take further steps. He wanted a blessing from the Church. Once again he walks to the House of the Archbishops of Aix. At the time there is no Archbishops but there are two priests who are in church of the Aix Diocese. Eugene presents to them his projects and asks them to OK it. After some clarification they approved it. If only had they known what the future held in store! They just thought that it would remain a small group of a few priests. Well it has grown bigger then that today there are 4500 men who follow in the footsteps of the man who came on his own to the House of the Archbishops.
Eugene was so excited that he didn’t sign the letter but Fr Tempier had no troubles to realize who wrote it. He agreed straight away. Here I would like to highlight a couple of things that may seem to be astonishing. Fr Tempier is ready to join Eugene after just one letter. He hadn’t met Eugene yet but he is ready to commit his life to something new. We may wonder how it is possible to make such a big decision so quickly at the request of an unknown person. Well, even if Fr Eugene and Fr Henry didn’t know each other yet they had a common friend: JESUS CHRIST. When Eugene wrote to Fr Tempier he asked him to read the letter at the foot of the crucifix. He did so as his own vocation was born at the foot of the cross that Good Friday some years ago. He believed that if Fr Tempier was to agree it could only come from the same source. Today we see that he was right. However in Fr Tempier Eugene got more than a collaborator, Fr Tempier became Eugene’s friend for life. During the first years of his priestly ministry at Aix (1812-1815), Eugene de Mazenod did not have a true friend who was able to lessen his cares and to share his great designs, as he candidly says in one of his letters. His encounter with Father Tempier brought him what he was looking for and even more. Besides sharing plans and giving comfort in troubles, Father Tempier, a man who was calm, pondered and much less emotional than Eugene, tempered the outbursts of Eugene’s character and helped him ‑ at times also replacing him ‑ perseveringly to accomplish all his plans and undertakings.
After the agreement of Fr Henry and another priest Fr Icard, Eugene de Mazenod could take further steps. He wanted a blessing from the Church. Once again he walks to the House of the Archbishops of Aix. At the time there is no Archbishops but there are two priests who are in church of the Aix Diocese. Eugene presents to them his projects and asks them to OK it. After some clarification they approved it. If only had they known what the future held in store! They just thought that it would remain a small group of a few priests. Well it has grown bigger then that today there are 4500 men who follow in the footsteps of the man who came on his own to the House of the Archbishops.
The former House of Archbishops of Aix. Here Eugene had his project to establish a community of priests, approved by the authorities of Aix Diocese
Eventually on 25 of January 1816 Frs de Mazenod, Tempier and Icard began a small community in the old Carmelite convent. They called themselves the Congregation of the Missionaries of Provence. The little corridor and the room on the top floor where they lived is the cradle of what evolved into Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It sense the beginnings of the Oblates let’s once again read what Eugene de Mazenod wrote about that first moments some years later: ”Tomorrow I celebrate the anniversary of the day, sixteen years ago, I left my mother’s house to go and set up house at the Mission. Father Tempier had taken possession of it some days before. My camp-bed was placed in the small passageway which leads to the library: it was then a large room used as a bedroom for Father Tempier and for one other. It was also our community room. One lamp was all our lighting and, when it was time for bed, it was placed in the doorway to give light to all three of us. The table that adorned our refectory was one plank laid alongside another, on top of two old barrels. I assure you we lost none of our merriment; on the contrary, as this new way of life was in quite striking contrast with that we had just left, we often found ourselves having a hearty laugh over it. I owed this tribute to the memory of our first day of common life.”
Let me take you on now a little walk through the cradle of the Oblate Congregation.
Let me take you on now a little walk through the cradle of the Oblate Congregation.
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