1892 - 26 November - 2006
114th Anniversary of the death of Cardinal LavigerieLavigerie, Flashes
- Recollection - 25-11-2006
by Ivan Page (Archivist of the Society)
How many of the obituaries published in the Petit Echo begin by declaring that the deceased was born into a deeply Christian family? The same cannot be said of our Founder, whose father was a freemason, and who first learned the elements of religion, not from his mother, but from two women, family servants.
There was only one secondary college in Bayonne and it was there that young Charles was sent, there too that the chaplain, the Abbé Franchistéguy, prepared the boy for his first Communion and, probably, planted in his mind the seeds of his vocation to the priesthood. At the age of 15 he asked to go to the junior seminary of the diocese, a request that must have surprised his father, who reluctantly agreed, but who did not like paying the boarding school fees.
In any case, the family was not from Bayonne, they would be moving on as his father's civil service career progressed. A couple of the local priests knew the situation; they also knew the Abbé Dupanloup, superior of the junior seminary, St-Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris. Paris was short of priests; Dupanloup was ever willing to recruit bright lads from the provinces - and was likely to be able to secure a scholarship for Charles. This did indeed happen, and so the freemason's son met in Dupanloup a man who was to become one of the leaders of the French church and who, as Bp of Orléans would be active in arguing at the Vatican Council that the declaration of papal infallibility was 'inopportune'. In other words, some of the earliest influences on Lavigerie were opposed to fanaticism in matters of religion.
He was ordained priest in June 1849 by Abp Sibour of Paris. He earned the degrees of Litt.D. in 1850 and D.Th. in 1853. Even before ordination he had begun lecturing at the Ecole des Carmes (forerunner of the Institut Catholique) and, from 1854, he was teaching Church History at the Sorbonne. His thesis on the Christian school, which flourished for almost four centuries at Edessa, and whose most famous graduate was St Ephrem, deacon, poet, Doctor of the Church, appeared in 1850. The complementary thesis was a study of the early Christian writer Hegesippus. In 1860 Lavigerie published the course he had given at the Sorbonne in 1856-57 under the title Exposé des erreurs doctrinales du Jansénisme. His studies, then, had given him a deep understanding of the beginnings of Christianity in Syria and Persia - and of one of the principal heresies to trouble the Church from the 17th century onwards.
Lavigerie was not content to remain a university professor. In 1856 he became director of the Oeuvre des Ecoles d'Orient and, the following year, made his first journey to the Middle East to assess the needs and distribute aid to the Christian communities, victims of communal strife. Up to that time he had known the region only from books. Now he saw for himself the disastrous effects of ignorance and prejudice. He noticed too the lamentable state of the clergy of the ancient Oriental Churches. And he met a political exile, the noble Emir Abd el Kader who was already using his influence to protect the terrified Christians.
I hasten forward. Late in 1861 Lavigerie was named to the quasi-diplomatic post of Auditor of the Rota. The ecclesiastical world in those days was small; it was not difficult to arrange an audience with the Pope; he got to know Pius IX quite well, and was appreciated by him. Within 18 months he was named Bp of Nancy, and received the fullness of the priesthood at St-Louis des Français right here in Rome. Now we come to a strange incident: one of the best-known of the early bishops of Gaul was St Martin of Tours, born in distant Pannonia (Hungary), sometime soldier, and missionary. Lavigerie had begun to study what was known of the saintly bishop's life. At this time the Abp of Tours launched an appeal for funds to restore the ancient basilica of that city. Not only did Lavigerie contribute, but he also issued a pastoral letter showing his admiration for the missionary bishop of Gaul. On November 11th 1866, the saint's feast day, he and some other bishops were at Tours for the blessing of the first part of the work.
He had a vivid dream, which he never forgot, in which he was transported to an unknown land, inhabited by swarthy or black people who spoke a barbarous language … it happened that, just four days later, Mgr Pavy, Bp of Algiers, died. Marshall MacMahon, governor of the colony did not hesitate to offer the see, which had just become an archbishopric, to Lavigerie. This is part of his reply: Jamais je n'aurais songé, de moi-même, à quitter un diocèse que j'aime profondément et où j'ai commencé des œuvres nombreuses; et, si Votre Excellence me proposait un siège plus considérable que celui de Nancy, ma réponse serait certainement négative. Mais je n'ai accepté l'épiscopat que comme une œuvre de dévouement et de sacrifice. Vous me proposez une mission pénible, laborieuse, un siège épiscopal de tous points inférieur au mien, et qui entraîne avec l'exil, l'abandon de tout ce qui m'est cher; vous pensez que j'y puis faire plus de bien qu'un autre. Un évêque catholique, Monsieur le Maréchal, ne peut répondre qu'une seule chose à une semblable proposition: j'accepte le douloureux sacrifice qui m'est offert.
Bishops are expected to express sentiments of humility when offered a new appointment. I don't think Lavigerie was play-acting. He had already refused Marseille; I've read somewhere that he'd have been a candidate for Lyon. The historian of the early Church was offered a see where Christianity had once flourished and then had disappeared. The former director of the Oeuvre des Ecoles d'Orient was invited into a region which - paradoxically - was classed as part of the Orient. The man who had met and respected Abd el Kader had the opportunity to serve in the Emir's homeland. The admirer of St Martin of Tours could himself become a missionary bishop. He certainly did not think of himself as chief chaplain to the colonists, though this may well have been what the government had in mind.
Before taking possession of his diocese he wrote an eloquent pastoral to its inhabitants: Je viens à vous à une heure solennelle pour l'Afrique chrétienne, à l'heure où la hiérarchie catholique ressuscite enfin dans sa plénitude sur ce sol abreuvé du sang des martyrs. L'Eglise et la France se sont unies pour relever les gloires du passé, et elles m'envoient vers vous, comme le messager de la vérité, de la charité et de la paix … Qu'elle était grande cette Eglise africaine, avec ses sept cents évêques, ses temples innombrables, ses monastères, ses docteurs! Son sol fumait du sang des martyrs; ses conciles, où la sagesse et la mâle fermeté de ses évêques étaient l'exemple du monde chrétien, devenaient la règle de la sainte discipline; l'Eglise entière se glorifiaient de recevoir l'exposition et l'intelligence de ses dogmes de la bouche des Cyprien et des Augustin; ses vierges surpassaient en courage, devant les bourreaux, les hommes les plus intrépides …
And he concluded with some words to the swarthy people who spoke an unfamiliar tongue: Je vous bénis enfin, vous anciens habitants de l'Algérie, que tant de préjugés séparent de nous et qui maudissez peut-être nos victoires … je réclame le privilège de vous aimer comme mes fils, alors même que vous ne me reconnaîtriez pas pour Père. They don't write like that any more!
It was during his first year in Algeria that he had to confront a severe famine, which cost thousands of lives and left hundreds of children orphans. In these circumstances he founded our Society in 1868, and the White Sisters the following year. It is in his instructions to his missionaries that we find many clues to his own spiritual life. He informed them: Les instructions que je vous adresse, d'ordinaire, je les prépare devant Dieu, dans le calme de la réflexion et de l'étude.
One theme to which he returned repeatedly was prayer. He was dealing with young men, full of enthusiasm, ready to give themselves generously to the salvation of souls, but likely to be caught up in a multitude of activities - like ourselves. Already at Nancy he had decided not to ordain any seminarian who did not undertake to spend at least 20 minutes a day in private prayer, quite apart from the recitation of the breviary and Mass. Much later in his life he told the youngsters at the junior seminary at Saint-Eugène: Il faut être fou de Jésus-Christ, comme je le suis moi-même. Concerning the need to persevere in prayer, he wrote: Je sais par expérience combien l'homme est impuissant, lorsqu'il n'est pas soutenu par la grâce de Dieu, et je sais aussi qu'il faut faire violence au cœur de Notre Seigneur, par la pénitence et la prière, pour obtenir de Lui les grâces de l'apostolat.
To the missionaries in Uganda, he wrote in 1880: Vous voilà sur le champ de bataille … c'est maintenant qu'il vous faut une plus grande fidélité à vos exercices de piété … Je vous crie de nouveau de la colline de Notre-Dame d'Afrique: Vous êtes en danger de vous perdre si vous ne faites passer, en tête de toutes vos préoccupations, les moyens pratiques d'entretenir et d'augmenter en vous la vie spirituelle.
Lavigerie believed in the communion of saints, and in the value of praying for each other. Shortly after his arrival in Algiers he began negotiations to found a Carmel, which he saw as a kind of spiritual power-house for the whole diocese.
When he sent the first community of missionaries to St Anne's in Jerusalem, he stressed that: L'œuvre de la prière est la plus grande de celles que nous devons y accomplir … Sans doute, l'action est indispensable au missionnaire, et il ne lui est pas loisible de donner autant de temps à l'oraison, que le font les membres des ordres pénitents ou contemplatifs. Mais du moins il faut, tandis que les uns - et la plupart - combattent dans la plaine, que d'autres lèvent sans cesse sur la montagne de mains suppliantes.
And he considered the Society blessed to have the charge of that shrine in the Holy Land where the Blessed Virgin had been immaculately conceived and had spent the first years of her life. His devotion to Our Lady was strong. You remember that it was he who completed the building of Notre-Dame d'Afrique. He went many times to Notre-Dame de la Garde at Marseille; he made pilgrimages to Fourvières and to Lourdes; and of course he placed the whole of his two missionary congregations under her protection. He was faithful to the recitation of the Rosary.
There were other saints whose aid he invoked regularly: St Joseph, the saints of Africa, St Francis Xavier, St Vincent de Paul, St Francis of Assisi, and his personal patron, that other great bishop, St Charles Borromeo.
But I've said nothing about his devotion to the Eucharist! When he arrived in Nancy he found that Perpetual Adoration was already established in the diocese: he gave it every encouragement. He introduced the devotion into his diocese of Algiers; and did the same in Tunisia when he received the see of Carthage. It was there that he published in February 1886 his 86-page Lettre pastorale …sur l'histoire du dogme et du culte de la Sainte Eucharistie dans l'ancienne Eglise d'Afrique, et mandement pour l'établissement de l'Adoration perpétuelle dans le diocèse de Carthage.
He surveys the Eucharistic teaching of Augustine, Optatus, Fulgentius of Ruspe, and Cyprian. He relates the satisfaction of Christian slaves in the Barbary States when they were able to receive the sacraments and worship the Lord present on the altar of some chapel. At times the chaplains were able to carry the Blessed Sacrament in procession inside the slave barracks. Now that Perpetual Adoration was established in the dioceses of Algiers, Oran and Constantine, he was anxious to extend it also to Carthage. He had selected the chapel of the F.M.M. for the devotion throughout the year, but - in addition - he ordered that every church and chapel in the diocese should adore on Sundays, according to a schedule fixed by the Archbishop. (Let me observe in passing that, as recently as ten years ago, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and benediction featured regularly in the spiritual exercises in this house.)
At the retreat of 1876, Lavigerie made some observations about apostolic zeal: La vertu propre du missionnaire, c'est le zèle. Le zèle, c'est la perfection de la charité. Aimons-nous Dieu ardemment, aimons-nous sa gloire? Désirons-nous que tous l'aiment et le servent? C'est le sentiment de Notre-Seigneur: 'Ego veni ut vitam habeant et abundantius habeant. Ignem veni mittere in terram et quid volo nisi ut accendatur?' C'est là le missionnaire. Un missionnaire sans zèle est un monstre. A man in his position could not say such things to his subordinates if he did not live them, for people are ever-ready to criticise hypocrisy.
Nobody has ever suggested that the Cardinal was wanting in zeal! In 1885 he wrote a letter to the missionaries making the annual retreat in which he challenged them with these words: Voyez si, peu à peu, vous n'avez pas perdu de vue le but que vous poursuiviez à l'origine, alors que vous ne pensiez qu'à procurer la gloire de Dieu, à arracher des ténèbres de l'infidélité tant de millions de pauvres âmes? Cette seule pensée vous transportait alors tellement que vous croyiez presque sa réalisation facile. Et vos rêves n'allaient à rien moins qu'à reproduire les miracles d'un saint François Xavier ou d'un Pierre Claver. Vos conversations étaient pleines de ces désirs; ils animaient vos prières. Mais ensuite vos regards se sont insensiblement détournés de ce but divin et se sont reportés sur la terre. Les nécessités matérielles d'une part, peut-être, hélas! Les conversations de quelques confrères, les mécomptes, les tristesses qui vous sont venues de ces pauvres infidèles auxquels vous veniez si généreusement vous consacrer, tout cela a agi peu à peu sur votre imagination et finalement sur votre volonté elle-même.
Lavigerie was tremendously loyal to the Popes he knew and whom he would not have hesitated to call the "Vicars of Christ" on earth. He had of course participated in the 1st Vatican Council. Shortly afterwards, he wrote: Notre petite Société a pour première règle de se conformer en tout aux doctrines, à la direction et aux moindres désirs du Saint-Siège. Then in 1885, when he was on the point of sending some men to open the first procurement office here in Rome, he wrote: Plus on se rapproche du Saint-Siège Apostolique, plus on reçoit ses inspirations, plus aussi on doit sentir augmenter en soi la vérité et la vie. I suspect that few of us, living here in the Eternal City, have quite that feeling … and yet if we were to analyse our emotions last year when we witnessed - we participated in - the end of one pontificate and the beginning of another, I think most of us would recognize that we were glad to have been here and - more than that - that we were filled with admiration and pride at the way the Church managed those events. I suggest that our faith was indeed strengthened thanks to our presence here at that time.
Lavigerie's loyalty was to be tested by Leo XIII's request that he find a way to signal to the Catholics of France, to those loyal and generous bien-pensants, that the Church was not viscerally opposed to the French Republic. His opportunity came when he pronounced the famous "Toast of Algiers" on Thursday November 12th 1890.
In the Archives we have two manuscripts of that speech, each in the hand of a different secretary, and each - including the one from which he spoke - with further corrections by the Cardinal. That is to say that right up to the last minute he was making little changes to the text. He knew that much depended on it and that it would arouse much hostility, especially among those good Catholics who, up till then, had been his most generous benefactors. Next day he declared: Je suis tué; je sais bien que je m'en vais. Mais ce que j'ai fait, je n'ai pas lieu de m'en repentir devant Dieu ni devant les hommes. Je suis convaincu que plus tard tout le monde m'approuvera, mais cela m'importe peu. J'ai fait la volonté d'en haut en accomplissant celle de Léon XIII.
I am not attempting to relate the whole of the Cardinal's life. My aim today is to point out some of his qualities on which we might reflect and perhaps draw some inspiration. Perhaps we most often think of him as severe and authoritarian, but to do so is to fail to appreciate the man. When I was editing the recollections of Père Jamet for our History Series, I was surprised and touched by his anecdote about a Dutch seminarian named Hubert Kreijns who was suffering from tuberculosis. Jamet had come from Boxtel for the consecration of the cathedral at Carthage in 1890. Naturally he went to call on the young Dutchman in the infirmary. Great was his surprise to find the Cardinal there visiting the sick man. A few days later, before leaving, Jamet went to take leave of the Cardinal, who told him to go and pick some roses in his garden and take them to Brother Kreijns - "I take him a bunch every day but I've got visitors today and won't have time, so I'd like you to do it." Perraudin gives more details of his kindness to the young man. [in Entretiens sur la vie intérieure du Cardinal Lavigerie, pp 77-78] This bears out what the canonist Pierre Michel wrote of him: S'il avait été père auparavant, il était surtout mère dans ces derniers temps de sa vie et il en avait toutes les tendresses.
Lavigerie could be most agreeable in society. In 1862 he wrote from Rome to his good friend Bourret (later Bp of Rodez and Cardinal) - "for your eyes only" - je suis accepté, très bien vu, et même très aimé du Saint-Père. Le pape est bon au delà de toute expression; mais il est maladif et il a besoin d'être distrait. Toutes les fois que je vais le voir, je fais double provision de bonne humeur, et nous sommes les meilleurs amis du monde.
He had a pleasant wit. On one occasion in Algiers he invited his diocesans: Priez un peu pour votre Pasteur; il en aurait bien besoin le pauvre homme! En retour, Dieu vous accorderez la grâce de le supporter avec patience durant le peu de temps qui lui reste à vivre.
Perraudin relates that he received an anticlerical visitor one day who, faithful to his lay principles, began by calling him 'Archbishop' then slipped into 'Monsignor' and finally 'Your Grace' whereupon Lavigerie warned him: "Be careful: you'll finish up asking for my blessing!" In another letter to the Bp of Rodez in January 1883 - again "for your eyes only" - Lavigerie wrote: Le seul Conclave auquel je pense assister est celui que je tiendrai dans quelque coin du Purgatoire avec les Cardinaux défunts. He added: Notre cher et vénérable ami de Bordeaux sera du nombre, et il aura près de lui son coadjuteur, car ce sera certainement un des supplices de son purgatoire. (This is a reference to Cardinal Donnet of Bordeaux, who had died the previous month in extreme old age. Ten years before, he had received a coadjutor, whom presumably he did not want, in the person of François-Alexandre Roullet de la Bouillerie. The archbishop died in his sixties, some months before the cardinal.)
Finally, a familiar and memorable quotation, which occurs in Lavigerie's dedication of his Oeuvres Choisies to his missionaries, composed in March 1884: Les Patriarches ont aimé jusqu'aux pierres de Sion, symbole pour eux de tant d'espérances. A leur exemple, j'ai tout aimé dans notre Afrique: son passé, son avenir, ses montagnes, son ciel pur, son soleil, les grandes lignes de ses déserts, les flots d'azur qui la baignent.
Ivan Page, M.Afr. Archivist
