As the de in his name suggests, St Eugène de Mazenod belonged to the French nobility. He was born to a wealthy family in the Provence city of Aix. His early life, however, was anything but privileged. As a child his family fled to Italy to avoid the death that threatened aristocrats after the French Revolution. They lived poorly and had to move often to avoid French military occupation. His mother divorced his father and returned to Aix to regain her wealth. When eventually Eugène and his father moved to Palermo in Sicily, he found patronage that provided him with an education and a taste for a wealthy life.
In 1801 he returned to Aix where his mother had regained her wealth. He lived a carefree and ambitious life as a young aristocrat, but after the death of the young woman he wished to marry he looked for something more, and began to live seriously. He gave time to attending to the needs of the poor. On Good Friday in 1807, he had a powerful religious experience in which he was overwhelmed by the sinfulness of his own life and by the love of Christ who had suffered so much for him. He decided to become a priest. While a student he helped Pope Pius VII who had been imprisoned by Napoleon, a dangerous thing to do at a time when both noble birth and Catholic faith put him at risk.
This mingling of nobility and fearlessness was evident throughout his later life. He was ordained in 1811 in Aix, avoiding Cardinal Maury with whom the Pope was in dispute. He requested to be on mission to the poor who spoke Provencal to help them live decently and to deepen their understanding of faith. He gathered other priests to join him in this mission, and two years later brought together another group of priests whom he formed into a religious Congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was later approved by the Pope.
In 1832 he became the centre of political and church controversy when in Rome he was ordained bishop to assist his uncle who was a bishop. This conflict added to the pressures that any founder of a Religious Congregation experiences in its early years. The Pope’s appointment of him as bishop was contrary to the rights the French government held in the appointment of bishops. When seen together with his background, his hostility to Napoleon and his defence of the rights of the Holy See, and the positions he had taken on French education, the appointment alienated many people both in church and politics who saw him as the representative of the old order. In 1851 he was made Archbishop of Marseille and enjoyed the favour of Pope Pius IX, to whose sponsorship of the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility he gave support.
He continued to lead the Oblates in their rapid expansion into Canada, Great Britain and elsewhere. The spirit he communicated to the Congregation he founded brought together contemplation and a passion for justice, fidelity within the Church and a concern for reform, a preferential option for the poor and a deep devotion to Mary. His words shortly before his death catch his down to earth piety and practicality: ‘Should I happen to doze off, or if I appear to be getting worse, please wake me up! I want to die knowing that I am dying’.
Image: wiki commons
Charles-Joseph-Eugene de Mazenod
French bishop and founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate
1 August 1782-21 May 1861
Feast day: 21 May