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Les Barbery
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Area around Les Barbery |
Jean-Claude Colin was born on 7th August 1790 at Les Barbery, which is about 2 kms away from St Bonnet-le-Troncy. The house where he was born no longer exists, but a cross was erected in 1936 to mark the site of the house.
The population of Les Barbery in 1804 was 60. From the register of the parish we learn that the marriage between Jacques Colin and Marie Gonnet, Jean-Claude’s parents, took place on 26th
November 1771. Jacques was 24 years old, Marie was not yet fourteen.
“Marie Gonnet was thirty-two years old when she gave birth to Jean-Claude. He was the eighth child she brought into the world. Claudine was the eldest; at fourteen she was chosen to be the godmother (to Jean-Claude); Jean, the twelve year old, was to be the godfather. Hence the name Jean-Claude for the newborn baby. Then came Mariette, ten years old; Sebastian, eight; Jeanne-Marie, six; Pierre, not quite four. A seventh, baptised Anne-Marie, died at birth, two years before Jean-Claude was born. Marie was to give birth to Joseph in 1793, before she died two years later. The household also included the paternal grandfather, seventy seven, a widower for nine years. There is no reason to think that the home in which Jean-Claude was born in 1790 was any different from the ordinary homes of Saint-Bonnet: hardworking parents, children growing up normally.”
- Lessard sm: “7th August 1790, in Saint-Bonnet”, Forum Novum, Dec.1989, p.10)
And so, Jean-Claude was the second youngest in a family of eight surviving children. His parents owned and cultivated a piece of land, and during the winter turned to weaving to supplement their income. We recall how Jean-Claude was orphaned at the age of four, possibly due to the rigours suffered by his parents for having harboured priests who refused to support the Revolutionary Constitution. Both his mother and father died within 20 days of each other. Jean-Claude was put under the care of a paternal uncle, Sebastian, and a housekeeper, Marie Echallier. At 10 years of age, Jean-Claude lived in the town of St Bonnet, where he began schooling under the care of a kindly Soeur Marthe.
The surroundings of Les Barbery would have had a formative influence on Jean-Claude. Above the site of the house is the mountain of Le Crest, where he loved to walk. It is easy to suppose that this countryside helped to develop his deep longing to be “alone with God alone”.
Jean-Claude’s uncle was a bachelor, and the children came to live in his house at St Bonnet. This is the large square house to the right of the church (now the Jean-Claude Colin Museum). Until recently this house served as a presbytery, but in Jean-Claude’s time the presbytery was the house directly opposite the door of the church.
Being a bachelor, Sebastian Colin employed a house-keeper to look after the domestic arrangements. This lady was a deeply religious woman, but one of those who seemed to suffer tensions and become irritable every time she went to Confession. This all seems to have had the effect of creating in Jean-Claude a scrupulosity which gave him much trouble, and a deep longing to hide in the woods and become a hermit. At the same time, in later life this experience was to make him sensitive and merciful to troubled souls.
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