Venerable Louis-Marie Baudouin

The Venerable had the desire to become a Carthusian, then a Lazarist, but he was held back by his superiors. He was ordained a priest on September 19, 1780, by Mgr de P ressigny, Bishop Mgr de Pressigny Bishop of Saint-Malo who ordained Louis-Marie Baudouin. of Saint-Malo, who later died as Archbishop of Besançon. Appointed vicar to his older brother, who was the parish priest of Luçon, and chaplain of the hospital, he exercised a fruitful ministry, refused the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and took great care to warn the faithful against the schismatic bishop. As the latter was heading to the cathedral, he sent him a note bearing these words: Ad quid venisti? "Why have you come?" and another that completed his thought: Juda, osculo Filium hominis tradis; "Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?". One day, he found the intruder at the bedside of a dying man: "You have no power," he told him courageously, and the terrified wretch withdrew. But the very zeal of the venerable priest marked him for outrages and persecutions. He was seized, spent the night in the guardhouse, and was taken to Fontenay, having the glory of being the first priest of the diocese of Luçon imprisoned for the faith. Released, then captured again, he was affected by the decree that condemned to deportation the priests who remained faithful, under the name of non-juring priests, and he embark ed at Les Sable Sables d'Olonne Place of embarkation for exile and clandestine return. s-d'Olon ne for Espagne Place of mission for Jude Barsabas. Spain. He lived, among other cities, in Valencia and Toledo, and occupied his leisure time with the study of theology and the Holy Fathers.

He then had the sorrow of losing his brother, his companion in exile, that parish priest of Luçon of whom we spoke earlier, an ecclesiastic of high merit, among whose papers were found, after his death, letters of Vicar General of Luçon, a distinction he had always carefully kept secret.

He returned to France in the month of June 1797, with a lace-maker's passport, and hid in pious houses in the town of Les Sables-d 'Olonne; in his Sables d'Olonne Place of embarkation for exile and clandestine return. room he kept the Blessed Sacrament, prayed, read, preached, and he would have been happy in the company of his God, if the pious priest could forget for an instant the souls that were being lost, without him being able to bring them aid. The police searched for him, but they were led astray by dint of skill and presence of mind. The revolutionary storm having calmed, the Venerable Baudouin established himself at La Jonchère, then at Saint-Cyr-en-Talmondais, small parishes from which his zeal radiated over nearly twenty surrounding parishes. His occupations obliged him to hear the confessions of men while walking; his virtue, like that of the greatest Saints, was not sheltered from persecutions; but he triumphed over them through an unalterable gentleness.

In 1801, the inhabitants o f Chavagnes-en-Paille Chavagnes-en-Paillers Principal site of his pastoral ministry and foundations. rs, in the canton of Saint-Fulgent, requested him and obtained him as their parish priest. He was the model of priests charged with governing parishes. He stirred the population through a mission and erected a cross with great solemnity. He avoided the sp ecious schism Petite-Église Schismatic movement opposed to the Concordat of 1801. of the Petite-Église. He gathered the young people, accustomed them to frequenting the sacraments, and loved to make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of little children while pronouncing these words: Et Verbum caro factum est: "And the Word was made flesh." He held the singing of canticles in honor and put an end to dances and evening gatherings; his charity was boundless; he gave the poor both his shirts and his stockings. "The more a priest gives," he would say, "the more he receives." His sermons were short, but they breathed that unction which is the true secret to finding the way to hearts.

He founded t he seminary of Chavagn séminaire de Chavagnes Principal site of his pastoral ministry and foundations. es amidst a thousand difficulties. When beginning the necessary construction and renovations, he had only six francs left and the most blind trust in Providence. Soon relieved of his parish duties, he occupied himself primarily with his dear students. Studies were strengthened there, the students became numerous, and virtues shone with the sweetest brilliance. "On education," Father Baudouin would say, "ordinarily depends salvation, predestination; and education is in the power of the masters." Following an imperial decree, the seminary was moved to L a Rochelle La Rochelle Port city where Montfort carried out an intense apostolate against Calvinism. and the man of God retained the superiorship. He was also appointed, against his will, titular canon and honorary vicar general.

The same dignities were entrusted to him in Lu Luçon Seat of the seminary and the diocese of origin of the venerable. çon, during the re-establishment in 1821 of that diocese, which, it will be remembered, was his home diocese. Soon his infirmities forced him to abandon the direction of the major seminary, and he retired to Chavagnes, where he had, in 1816, re-established an ecclesiastical school, and where the headquarters of his Congregation of religious sisters is located. From time to time, he would take walks in the countryside, in order to rise through the creatures to the contemplation of the Creator. Everything about him breathed gentleness, affability, kindn ess, and humility; he p saint François de Sales A model of gentleness to whom the venerable is compared. ossessed, like Saint Francis de Sales, those little virtues that make great Saints and that make piety lovable by presenting it in its true light. He wrote without affectation, pouring out his heart, so to speak, on paper; he had a certain natural and poignant quality that gives his letters, and sometimes his expressions, which one might say were created, a remarkable stamp of graceful originality. Like the beloved Apostle, he repeated unceasingly: "My little children, love one another." Surrounded by universal veneration, he expired, full of faith and hope, on February 12, 1835. Bishop Soyer, Bishop of Luçon, interpreted the feelings of all when, in the circular addressed to his clergy on this occasion, he exclaimed: "His life was the model of priests; his death was that of the Saints."

Father Baudouin survives on earth through the two works he founded: 1° The Missionarie s known as the Sons of Mary Immaculate, who a Missionnaires dits Enfants de Marie Immaculée Congregation of missionary priests founded by Baudouin. re occupied with evangelizing parishes and directing minor seminaries. They have earned, through their labors and successes, the recent approval of the Holy See. Several priests of this Congregation are missionaries in Dominica (British West Indies).

2° The Congregation of the Ursuline s of Jesus, known as those of Chava Congrégation des Ursulines de Jésus A female religious congregation dedicated to teaching and care. gnes, which he founded in concert with a former nun, Mother Saint-Benoît, who died in 1828 in t Mère Saint-Benoît Co-founder of the Ursulines of Jesus. he odor of sanctity. He gave them as their goal and functions: 1° to regard themselves as the spouses and adorers of the incarnate virtue; 2° to offer themselves to Jesus Christ as victims for the world; 3° to raise youth in a Christian manner for the love of the holy childhood of the Savior; 4° to visit the sick.

He strove to instill in them the spirit of devotion, zeal, and charity that shone within him. In one word, he showed them their model and traced the ideal for every religious woman dedicated to teaching: "Be virgins with a maternal heart like Mary, mother of Jesus."

This Congregation, which still renders immense services to religion and society, counts 996 nuns, 46 educational houses, boarding schools, day schools, and free classes in the dioceses of Luçon, Nantes, Angers, Poitiers, La Rochelle, Angoulême, Tours, and Bourges; 21 parishes of the diocese of Luçon possess establishments of this Congregation. It is also established in Swansea, in Wales (England).

Such was Father Baudouin; his works perpetuate the good he did, and the two dioceses of Luçon and La Rochelle, the two clergy whose most venerable members he formed, agree in regarding him as a new Nehemiah raised up by God, after the ruins wrought by impiety, to rebuild the holy temple and gather the scattered stones of the sanctuary.

The Life of the venerable Father Baudouin was written by one of his children (Luçon, 1856, 2 vol. in-8°). One could not find for religious communities a more interesting and edifying reading.