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The Bugey Missions

INTRODUCTION.

Here, we touch a fourth significant spiritual experience for Colin: the experience of the mercy of God, and the call of Marists to become “instruments of divine mercy.” Here, as in Cerdon, Colin experienced the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation, and he developed a particularly Marist approach to sinners and those abandoned and on the margins of the faith.

We may also note that this was the apostolate chosen by Colin, and one to which he often referred as a touchstone for all that was basic in Marist life and practice. The Missions in the Bugey area, along with the Missions of Oceania are also cited by the Society’s Mission statement of 1985 as the two key symbols of Marist life and practice.

MISSIONS IN GENERAL: MISSIONS IN THE BUGEY.

Missions in rural areas of France were part of the huge revival during the Restoration times (1815 - 1830). The Society of Missions of France, founded by Fr. Rauzan; the Congregation of the Missions, founded by Vincent de Paul; the Company of Mary, founded by Grignon de Montfort; were dedicated to missions at home. And preaching missions as Francis Regis did was what lay at the heart of Courveille’s dream. This is what he communicated to Déclas and to Colin.

The aim of the mission was to rekindle the faith among the people, to regularise marriages entered into irregularly, etc. But its aim was also to confirm the thinking of the Restoration among the people: to unite throne and altar throughout the country. There is reason to suspect that the Marist approach was subtly different in emphasis.

The Bugey Area.

The area is 1500 - 3000 feet above sea level, and generally under snow from November to March. Conditions in the churches and confessionals would have been awful. The Bugey area also symbolised the more abandoned parts of the country. It had been neglected from 1802-1823. To be sent there was regarded by priests as a punishment or a penance. Several priests were not up to their tasks. For example the priest at St. Jerome in 1803 was described as a juror, a schismatic, an apostate; a stubborn man in whom no one has any confidence” According to Colin, some of the priests had no faith (OM 605:6). One at least seems to have been morally out of kilter. (OM 581) The state of the churches and their furnishings was generally bad; belfries which had been knocked down during the Revolution had not been replaced. Marriages were irregular. Spiritual needs were immense.

MARIST MISSIONS.

On October 29th, 1824, Pierre Colin wrote to Bishop Devie: “Today the Society of Mary begins.” Déclas had joined the Colin brothers, and the missions began. (cf Texts) From 1825 to 1829, Colin, Déclas and Jallon (joined, in 1828, by Humbert) preached missions in this area. Some of the parishes had no priest at the time of the mission: La Balme, Corlier, Poncieux, Châtillon de Corneille, Innimont, Lompnaz.

In general, the Marists preferred to call themselves catechists rather than missionaries. They were very respectful to the parish priests, and they made sure that they gave no offence to the more sensitive and prickly among the people. There was special emphasis on the catechising of the children.

Generally, the mission lasted three to four weeks. On arrival at the place of the mission, the first thing the missioners did was to visit the church; then they visit the Parish Priest, then they heard children’s confessions. The first instruction to the people was a friendly invitation to come to the mission. The sermons in the first week were on the mercy of God, and other subjects calculated to win the confidence of the faithful. Later, they preached on the commandments, and when the bulk of the confessions were over, they preached on sin. It was the goodness of the priest, Colin claimed, not the fear he engendered, which brought people to Christ. So he insisted that there should be no diatribes against those who were failing in their obligations or refusing to come to the mission. “Speak with esteem and respect of those who have not made the mission,” he said. “Excuse them by attributing their absence to the pressure of business or other responsibilities.” (OM 661:2) The motto of the missioners was: “We must win souls by submitting to them.”

They had practical liturgies:
a. A service of the dead, with a procession to the cemetery and a sermon there.
b. A blessing of children, and consecration to the BVM. (OM 583, 587:4)
c. A service of atonement (OM 587:6)
d. Renewal of Baptismal promises. (OM 587:5)
e. Planting of the Cross. (OM 581:19)
f. Missioners’ farewell. (OM 466 a 662)

Stan Hosie writes of this period of time: “When we consider that each mission went on for thirty days without a break, his output was substantial. During the four years, he conducted 27 (sic) full—scale missions, each lasting a month, numbers of smaller retreats, and many special exercises for the Jubilee Year proclaimed by Pope Leo XII at the end of 1825. Most of his travelling was done on foot through the snow and mud of the mountains. His living conditions were primitive. If there was room in the pastor’s house he stayed there. Otherwise he slept and ate in the local inn. Either situation was fraught with uncertainties. The pastor was often an eccentric bachelor and not easy to live with. It was Colin’s policy that the pastor was always right because no mission could succeed unless it was supported and followed up by the zeal of the Parish priest. Even so his patience was often tried, and Colin remembered pastors who went into tantrums over a broken Mass host or a wrong bell. The village inn had its own problems: vermin and poor food and limited accommodation. Sometimes the three priests had to be content with two small beds. On one occasion, the only bedroom belonged to the landlady, and the shy celibates discovered that she planned to share it with them!” (OM 639:2) (Hosie. P.89-90)

COLIN’S REMARKS ON THE MISSIONS.

The Founder looked back on these days of the Bugey as key in the Society’s history. The hardships meant little to Colin. It was more important to him that a man had said, “Wife, give me a rosary. Tonight I cried. Tomorrow I will confess,” or that someone had whispered to him, “Father, I’ve waited 10 years for you to come!” (OM 663:4)

“Never were we so joyous. Never did we laugh with such good heart. I have always been nostalgic for that period. They were good times. When we resign ourselves to our circumstances, there might be some physical hardship to put up with, but it is then that we are happiest.” (OM. doe 639)

“Look at our first confreres, Fathers Déclas, Humbert, and Jallon. They were humble, straightforward and simple souls. See how the good Lord blessed them. Everything in their lives reflected poverty. We ate with peasants, we slept all together. Their preaching was utterly simple, and the people fell at their feet. We were overwhelmed in the confessional.” (Acts of the Chapter of 1870-1872. P.152)

“I especially want there to be in the Society some record of our beginnings, not just so that we shall be talked about.... but so that in the future people will conform to our way of acting and imitate the simplicity that God blessed. Later, when the Society has grown and certain people will be tempted to discard this way of acting, the written records will serve as a rallying point.” (OM II. doc. 581:1)

“No, I know no greater pleasure. No, there is nothing on earth to compare with the happiness of a priest who sees souls loaded down with sins coming to throw themselves tearfully at his feet, with contrition in their hearts, and then getting up drunk, crazy with joy, to the point of meeting their confessor in the street and kissing his feet even in the mud, as happened to me during a mission.” (Jan. 20th, 1849. speaking at table to young priests.)

OUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE BUGEY.

Between 1824 and 1829, the Marists preached 27 missions, of which 3 were retreats. Some of the significant ones were:

La Balme.
This was the first mission, preached with Déclas. Colin and Déclas walked two and a half miles up the hill during which Déclas alarmed and amused Colin by stumbling up the hill with his eyes glued to his breviary. (OM. 819:59)

They offered Mass, gave a morning instruction, visited families, conducted a catechism class for children, and finished off with evening instruction before heading downhill to Cerdon. Colin, in a letter of 1825 to Devie, reports that from the 4th and 5th days, there was a great rush for the confessional.

Déclas was not then, nor was he ever anything but a very bad speaker. “At first I couldn’t bear to listen to him, he made so many mistakes,” said Colin. “But then, I realized something else: despite Declas’ mistakes in French, God blessed the preaching.” (OM 468) At the same time, Colin forbade Déclas to preach in any of the towns, or to say Mass in public, “because he said it in a way that provoked ridicule.” (OM 469) Yet God blessed his work. “No one else is surrounded by so many people.” (OM. 122:2, 131:1-3, 433:2, 469 581:6,22 591:16, 748:11, 819:59)

Izenave.

In the winter of 1825 P. Jallon invited the Colin brothers to preach a mission at Izenave, where he was curé . Jallon was chosen as confessor by Jean Claude Colin, and was well enough known by Colin since he had been Colin’s professor at 8th level.

Corlier.
This was the second mission, preached in 1825. Colin was accompanied by Jallon, who was so shortsighted, he did not realize he was preaching to empty pews. Colin said, “You’re lucky you are so shortsighted. It doesn’t matter to you whether the church is full or empty.” (Hosie P. 88) On the second day there were a few curious souls at the back of the church. Before the first week was over, the church was packed to the doors.

There are stories told of how Colin profited by the deaths of people to take the chance of preaching on the eternal truths, and of how in spite of the indifference of the people to start with, the preachers stuck at their job, and many of the Catholics in the area returned to the faith.

Lacoux.
This was the place of the first mission to be given by the Marists after they had moved from Cerdon to Belley (1825). In the register of the parish there is the first mention of the missioners as a group of “Missionaries of the Society of Mary.” It seems that here at Lacoux, the missioners found conditions reasonable enough from the point of view of religious practice. Probably a Cross was planted here after the mission, because the following year the curé speaks of a procession “made from the church to ‘Calvary”’ (the mission cross).

Chaley.
Déclas speaks of a mission given at Chaley by the first Marists, but this seems to be wrong. Probably it would be more correct to say that it was a series of spiritual exercises given by the Marists while they gave the mission in Lacoux in 1825. The terrain and the distance in height from Lacoux to Chaley gives some good idea of the physical difficulties the Marists experienced in doing this apostolate.

Tenay.
This mission was given by Colin, Déclas and Jallon. It took place in March, 1827, and it was the only mission given in an industrial area. This in fact posed a problem because work was just about to start at the time of the mission. Colin managed to get everyone to the mission. It was regarding this mission that he gave the advice: “You must have patience and kindness; no invective; make sure you excuse the people, acknowledging that they have other urgent business. Encourage those who come: keep at it, little by little all will come.” (OM
661:2)

The last mission given by the Marists was at Ruffieu. It was during this mission that the news of Fr. Pichat’s death reached the Marists, and Colin was recalled by Bishop Devie to take charge of the minor seminary. A new epoch for the Marists was to begin. And it was the end of the career of the first group of missioners.

Châtillon de Corneille.
This church is worth a visit because it has changed little since Colin’s time. (Compare the illustration in OM 2. P.432) The locality was the place of a castle, long since demolished, and the mission took place here in1825-1826. Another incident took place here…. The missioners had to stay in a hotel. But this hotel had only one bed for travellers, and that happened to be in the same room occupied by the proprietor and his wife. In order to give freedom to the missioners at bed time, the proprietor and his wife went out for a time, so that the two missioners could get undressed modestly. As soon as they had gone out, Colin locked the door on them: he was not going to sleep in the same bed as someone else — even another priest. They took both the available beds, and when the proprietor banged on the door to get in, Colin told them to go and look elsewhere in the town for a bed!

On the other hand, Colin took advantage of the death of a recalcitrant sinner who refused to see a priest, both to show broadness of mind by conducting a burial service in the Church, and to use the opportunity to give a blood and thunder sermon on the eternal truths.

The Church here is typically 15th century Romanesque style, low arches, and very much as Colin would have seen it.

St-Jérôme.

This parish was in a bad way at thetime of Colin, with a priest who neither preached nor gave the sacraments. The people from Châtillon followed Colin here when he gave the mission.

Innimont.
Innimont is perched high on the Bugey mountains. At the time of the Colins, it had no inn and the rectory stone shack which had been empty for 25 years. All the furniture had disappeared. The roof had gaping holes; there were no windows and no doors. Colin, Déclas and Jallon began the mission by sweeping out the rubbish from the house. Then they went out begging for their food, with little result. But at the end, the villagers pleaded that the three men stay. Men shook his hand and embraced Colin. A buxom woman threw her arms round Colin and kissed him. Men and women knelt in the very mud and tried to kiss the feet of the missioners. As the three men tried to move off, the mountains rang with the shouts of the people, “Vive les missionaires!”
(OM 662:1-4)

Following the road from Lacoux towards Belley, one passes through the area of Les Hôpitaux, an area which contains another incident in Colin’s life...

He was making a trip to Belley in a coach which turned over in the lake, during the winter. Colin went to the rescue of a girl who had been thrown into the lake, and he saved her. Without his help, she would certainly have drowned, and she was frozen and cold. But having saved her, he could not abandon her. Everyone else in the coach seemed to be thinking only of themselves, and it was night. There was a great interior struggle in the man between his sense of modesty and his sense of gallantry. He suggested that the girl go ahead of him and he help her by pushing her along. But this was not enough: he was forced to take her hand, despite his uneasy feelings, and lead her to the village.

TEXT. JOURNEY 7.

Letter of Pierre Colin to Bishop Devie. Oct. 29, 1824. (OM Doc. 114)

My Lord,
Today the little Society of Mary begins. M. Déclas arrived in Cerdon. I dare beg you, my Lord, to please give the faculties he needs to exercise the holy ministry. I again dare beseech your Grace not to give him the title of pastor of any neighboring parish, at least for a time, for reasons which we feel are very solid and which either one of us will have the honor of submitting orally to your Grace, perhaps within a fortnight, if possible.

Your Grace, my Lord, recommended several times that we keep you informed of all that concerns the Society; hence we make it our duty to tell you that we found out that more and more is being done in Lyon to have the work begin there, that our confreres are being offered several houses, etc. On the other hand, however, we have learned that many of our confreres from Lyon see with pleasure that the work is beginning in the diocese of Belley; and we know that some of them are thinking of asking very shortly the administrator’s permission to join us in Cerdon.

It would seem to us very necessary and very profitable that your Grace have beforehand a talk with the Administrator. If it were not indiscreet of us, we would beg your Grace to please hasten the time of this talk for the success of the Society.

We have received a letter from M. Colleton in which he seems very happy and encourages us much. Before the girls of the Society take the holy habit, we shall have the honor of seeing you.

I have the honor of being, with the most profound respect, of your Grace, my Lord, the very humble and very obedient servant.
Colin, pastor.