Jean-Baptiste Rauzan

In the midst of this, the Revolution broke out, which abruptly interrupted his work and cast him into exile. Abbé Rauzan left for England, disguised as a soldier, escaping only with great difficulty, through a special protection of God, from the searches and bullets of the soldiers of the Republic. Upon arriving in London, he devoted all his care to the salvation of his compatriots and accepted conferences with Protestant ministers. His stay there was of short duration: after a year he went to Liège, where he became associated with Abbé Augé, and soon after to Antwerp, where he displayed his oratorical talents. It was in this city that he delivered an admirable discourse on Providence, after which the Bishop of Antwerp, who was present, had him called: "You have spoken admirably of Providence," he said; "I wish to be your Providence." Abbé Rauzan thus became the guest and friend of the bishop. Despite this, his stay in Antwerp was not long, for he soon had to flee before the republican armies, and after being for a short time in Münster and Düsseldorf, he finally settled in Berlin, where he entered as a chaplain for a countess. The virtues of Abbé Rauzan did not take long to make an impression in the capital: first his selflessness, which was made all the more meritorious by the precarious situation of the exile and which was manifested in his constant refusal of sums of money that were offered to him; then his devotion to his unfortunate compatriots; and above all his tireless zeal for saving souls. He had the consolation of bringing back to God the countess, his benefactress, and he was particularly happy to thus acknowledge the generous hospitality that this lady had offered him, and which he never wished to exchange for more brilliant proposals.

The talents, as true as they were modest, of Abbé Rauzan did not take long to be appreciated, both in his relations with the most educated people and in the Christian pulpit, where he was often called. In Berlin, as in Bordeaux, he directed his solicitude toward young people: and among them he had the happiness of bringing to God an elite soul, Fr. Magalon, who was then a page to the King of Prussia, and who was later the founder of the Order of Saint John of God.

However, France was beginning to recover a calm long unknown: Abbé Rauzan, like all the exiles, hastened to return to his homeland and came to Paris with the intention of continuing there the work of the sanctification of souls. He remained there for a very short time; after a few sermons that drew public attention to him, his humility was alarmed, and, whether to shelter himself or to respond to the call of Mgr d'Aviau, his new archbishop, he returned to his diocese, where he received upon his arrival the greatest marks of confidence and distinction: Mgr d'Aviau chose him as honorary vicar general and entrusted him with the visitation of a part of the diocese in the district of Blaye. This first mission of trust fulfilled, he had to employ his talent as a preacher to remedy the evils produced by the Revolution: he preached in Bordeaux, at the invitation of his archbishop, a most fruitful mission, following which a canonry was offered to him. Abbé Rauzan refused with the most delicate disinterestedness in favor of a poor ecclesiastic, and, remaining free and without employment, always faithful to the inclination that drew him toward childhood, he happily resumed his catechisms to which he devoted all his care and which he only interrupted to go by obedience to preach a Lent in Lyon, in 1806. The will of God was about to manifest itself in this city. Cardinal Fesch was form ing the project o Le cardinal Fesch Archbishop of Lyon and uncle of Napoleon, protector of Rauzan. f founding in his diocese a house of missionaries destined to come to the aid of the parish clergy: but above all, a superior was needed for this house, and M. Courbon, vicar general, was charged with taking care of it. The successes of Abbé Rauzan in preaching and his piety in the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass fixed the choice of the grand vicar, who hastened to point him out to the Cardinal. The latter, sure of the devotion of Abbé Rauzan, immediately occupied himself with requesting him from the Archbishop of Bordeaux; but it was with difficulty that Mgr d'Aviau yielded to the Cardinal's insistence. The enterprise of the missions was immediately carried out with great activity. Events, moreover, seemed to lend themselves to it in the most unexp ected wa Napoléon Emperor of the French whose decisions affected the society of Rauzan. y: for Napoleon, dissatisfied with his uncle, too good, in his opinion, for the sovereign Pontiff, recalled him from Rome, and the Cardinal, freed from the care of any other business, obtained from the Emperor the approval of his project and immediately installed the missionaries in Lyon, under the direction of their superior who was named at the same time canon of the metropolis, member of the archbishop's council, and honorary grand vicar.

The beginnings of the missionaries in Lyon were very brilliant: they had even just obtained a lively approval from the Emperor, when, by a sudden reversal, the latter, irritated by the resistance of Pius VII, and enveloping in his hatred against the clergy the nascent society, had all exercise of the ministry in the parishes forbidden to it. The dissolved society was nevertheless not entirely destroyed: a part of its members remained in Lyon, and Cardinal Fesch took with him, to Paris, the abbés Rauzan and Guyon, who thereafter were part of his family. The life that Abbé Rauzan led in Paris is little known; although he was chaplain to the Emperor, he always preferred silence and obscurity: however, he was twice obliged to preach before him. In his first discourse, he expounded the mystery of the Cross with so much faith and simplicity that he immediately received the congratulations of the sovereign. His second discourse, unfortunately destroyed, like the previous one, by the author himself, was even more to his glory by the loyal and at the same time skillful manner with which he knew, in the funeral oration of Cardinal Caprara, how to respect the rights of the Church, while sparing the susceptibilities of the power.

However, the difficulties between the Pope and the sovereign were becoming greater from day to day: an ecclesiastical commission was chosen to rule on the dispute; but the eminent members of the clergy who composed it, not having given the desired solution, the Emperor immediately convoked a national Council, and this one seemed at first to be more docile. Perhaps it was even going to betray its duties entirely, without a word from Abbé Rauzan, who happily led several bishops to retract: these bishops were imprisoned, but the Church of France was saved.

After these events, the Abbé Rauzan remained in Paris for another three years, devoting his care to all works of piety, and preparing himself through retreat, prayer, and study to resume the work he had always contemplated, and which was so necessary to the Church at that time. Ignorance, in fact, was general among Christians; some had forgotten, others had not even learned their duties toward God. Those who, by exception, still knew what they owed Him, did not dare to pray to Him out of human respect; for hatred of religion had been very intense, and it still persisted in many hearts. Now, the missions fought precisely all these obstacles: they opened to the people all the channels through which grace reaches the soul and prepares it: they instructed, by putting the evangelical word within the reach of all, learned and ignorant, by attracting upon it, through much more numerous prayers, the blessings of God that make it fruitful. Then the momentum they produce, this religious current that passes through a city during the missions, helps weakness, silences prejudices, in a word, raises one above human respect. And after this first result is obtained, the hymns, the more solemn ceremonies, the more touching word of God, sometimes the greater ease of making known to foreign confessors confessions that have weighed for a long time, brings salvation to a great number of souls. Such is the mission, such are, in summary, its fruits, which the Abbé Rauzan longed to procure for his homeland, so tried and all the more beloved.

It was in 1814 that he found the possibility of resuming his labors, which had been so prematurely overturned. The conqueror of Europe was in exile, and his captive was free once again on the Chair of Saint Peter: the Church gathered the faithful around the pulpits, and the people heard with happiness the word of God, which had been silent for so long; they saw with emotion the ceremonies that had been proscribed for so many years, which many barely remembered. In truth, alongside this, there was a most intense hatred against the Church: it was her enemies, deceived in their hopes, the renegades who could not forgive her for their crime; it was also the enemies of the throne who were beginning the war against the two united powers, and were spreading the grossest lies in profusion about both. The Abbé Rauzan saw all this: he accepted the hope and the struggle. He had just been named chaplain to the king, and had won the friendship of a powerful man, Cardinal Talleyrand-Périgord: but that was not his path; he abandoned the honors and once again patiently resumed his work. This time, God seemed to favor him; He sent him a man equally remarkable for his birth, his talents, and his fortune, the Abbé de Forbin-Janson, who offered himself to the Abbé Rauzan and helped him powerfully through the influence that his n ame and family gave him. l'abbé de Forbin-Jeanson Major collaborator of Rauzan and co-founder of the missions. They immediately settled into a small house on the Rue Notre-Dame des Champs with the first missionaries from Lyon and two other ecclesiastics. The house was poor, its furnishings even poorer; but God granted it to be protected by the Abbé Frayssinous, Messrs. Augé and Liautard; and above all by Mr. Legris-Duval; it also had the good fortune to interest the piety of several illustrious ladies, and thanks to the zeal they displayed, as well as the alms they obtained for them, the evangelical workers were able to inaugurate their labors at the beginning of 1815.

The missions given at that time were very numerous: let us say a word about those in which the Abbé Rauzan took part and which were the most important. The first, given in Beauvais, was unfortunately interrupted by the Hundred Days, during which the Abbé Rauzan followed the king to Ghent, only to return with him after the new and definitive fall of Napoleon. The small house of Notre-Dame des Champs had been respected: the Superior promptly reorganized his staff, then opened the mission of Orléans in the month of November, fruitful in the most beautiful results, which pious associations maintained for a long time in the city. Everything had not been easy there, however; setbacks had arisen; but the Abbé Rauzan, through his prudence and the persuasive unction found in self-forgetfulness and the love of souls, triumphed over all resistance and even brought the most hardened back into the fold of the Church. The same success was repeated in Angers, despite the efforts of the impious who were reduced to silence as much by the patience and dignity of the preachers as by the Christian and disdainful attitude of the population; then in Nantes, where two quite remarkable facts occurred: the theater was left entirely deserted despite the efforts of the director, and the mission cross, by a circumstance as fortuitous as it was moving, was planted at the very spot where Charette had been shot.

Following these first labors, the missionaries divided into two groups in order to be able to respond to all requests: one of these groups, led by the Abbé de Forbin-Janson, went to evangelize Poitiers and Tours, while the other, presided over by the Abbé Rauzan, went to give a mission in Caen, where success was a little slow in coming, but where the catch was then truly miraculous. It was in this city that he fell ill from fatigue and had to yield his place for a moment to the Abbé Guyon. The one of all the missions that best answered the aspirations of the holy priest's heart was, without contradiction, that of Bordeaux, his homeland, which he loved so much, and to which he was happy to bring the blessings of God.

The small society multiplied its labors: in 1817 and 1818, Arles, Grenoble, and Clermont were successively evangelized, and almost everywhere the fruit of the preaching was manifested by striking reconciliations. But almost everywhere, too, the contradiction that had attached itself to Jesus Christ attached itself equally to his work: in Bayonne and Toulon, Father Rauzan had to endure the violent insults of the enemies of religion, who strove by all means to paralyze the action of his zeal; nevertheless, grace always prevailed and God continued to visibly bless the labors of His ministers. He even gave them from time to time those joys that make the missionary forget all other pains and give him new courage for his task, which was so often difficult; such was for Father Rauzan the unexpected success he obtained with the galley slaves of Toulon, which remained one of his great consolations until the end of his life. It is perhaps in Paris that success was more dearly bought than anywhere else: the wicked had banded together, the bad newspapers, redoubling their insults and efforts, had stirred up so much hatred that the missionaries themselves ran the greatest dangers there and their ministry was far from obtaining the fruits they had promised themselves; however, thanks to the intervention of the government and the good intentions of the true faithful, their preaching was not entirely unfruitful, and Father Rauzan later received the most serious testimonies of it. This took place in the first years of the episcopate of Mgr de Quélen, in 1821-1822.

During the two following years, Father Rauzan gave himself little to the missions; what occupied him more were the ecclesiastical retreats and the establishment of associations and confraternities to preserve the happy effects of the missions: the most important action of his life at that time was the funeral oration for Louis XVIII, which he delivered in 1824. Back in the fray, Father Rauzan gathered an abundant harvest of joys the following year, for Dijon, Strasbourg, and Besançon responded with wonderful unity to the voice of the mis sionaries, Louis XVIII King of France whose funeral oration was delivered by Rauzan. and particularly those last two cities where the entire garrison with its leaders rendered all human respect not only powerless but impossible, through its eagerness to fulfill the duties of Christians. The mission of Rouen was far from being as consoling, and troubles even broke out there with violence; but shortly after, Providence comforted the courage of its apostles with that of Lyon, where Father Rauzan, always alive in memories, was largely consoled by the numerous conversions that took place.

However, opposition grew day by day: despite their eloquent defenders in the Chamber, despite the goodwill of a government that was too lacking in energy, the missionaries saw obstacles multiplying before them, and real disturbances breaking out at every moment at the instigation of impiety: such as in Chartres in 1827, and in 1828 in Limoges and Tulle, which were almost the last ones given by the small society before the revolution of 1830. The reproaches made against the missionaries, the slanders spread against their work, were in truth recognized by educated men as so many lies. We do not wish to state all the inventions inspired by the hatred of the wicked, any more than it is possible for us in this short summary to make known the numerous apologies that came to console the missionaries and support their confidence. Moreover, few of the recriminations of their enemies were new, and most fell away of their own accord. Fr. Rauzan was not in the least frightened by them; his confidence was never shaken, and his serenity in the midst of the most intense struggles remained intact, thanks to the profound persuasion he held that contradictions can do nothing against the work of God, who permits them, reserving for Himself the time to make them cease. God, indeed, blessed the efforts of His apostles: the numerous associations they had founded to continue the work of the missions among the people still subsisted and affirmed the perseverance of these numerous conversions, which the unbelievers were so fond of calling fleeting: it would be too long to examine these various associations or confraternities one by one; let us at least see their whole and general character. Invariable in the good that was his goal, willingly making his particular plans yield when he recognized it as useful either for the salvation of his neighbor or for the glory of God, an enemy of what puts one outside common duties, preferring even by far their exact fulfillment to extraordinary works, forgetful of himself, living, praying, and acting always for God and for souls, Fr. Rauzan animated all the institutions he had founded with the same spirit. Thus, one can see in the associations established at Sainte-Geneviève in 1822, whether for men or for ladies, where he requires from each member the most absolute devotion to make fidelity to the commitments made easy for all and profitable to the glory of God, the common good works, and where, to combat more effectively self-love and envy, those two children of pride so skillful at destroying, he inclines through the whole of his advice and his own conduct to prefer to the good one does oneself, the good one helps to do. We cannot even cite all his works one after the other; let us therefore only say that not one of the numerous classes found in the Church remained a stranger to his devotion. To all Christians, in general, he offered places where faith and piety could come to be refreshed almost every day at the spectacle of the most imposing and touching solemnities of religion: such was the Calvary of Mont-Valérien until 1830. To faithful Christians, he offered the support of common works, confraternities, and pious associations. But repentance also had a large share in his solicitude: the house of the Good Shepherd offered to detained and repentant girls, upon leaving prison, an asylum that facilitated their perseverance by ensuring them, along with good example, sufficient work to live; the same asylum was offered to young prisoners: these were two works that Mr. Legris-Duval had first thought of without having the happiness of realizing them. Christian childhood, thanks to the provident solicitude of the venerable priest, also had wise institutions created especially for it; and what is to be remarked in the Stanislas College intended for boys, and even more in the house of Sainte-Clotilde intended for girls and the privileged work of Fr. Rauzan, is the obligation imposed by him on masters and mistresses to live entirely for their students, with their stud maison de Sainte-Clotilde Educational institution for girls founded by Rauzan. ents, and to cease belonging to themselves in order to be entirely for their students, so as to provide childhood with the family life, the lack of which is so keenly felt in our time. Such is, more or less, the whole of the works that the Church of France owes to the devotion of Fr. Rauzan, and to which he did not cease to give his care until the end of his life, without neglecting for that his most important work, the Congregation of the Missions. It remains for us to see what perseverance was required of the pious founder to give a rule to this new society, to support it, and to ensure its existence in the spirit he had endeavored to inspire in it from the very first days.

The turbulent days of 1830 had arrived: despite the good they had done, the missionaries were subjected to the most intense hatred and singled out for the first blows by men of disorder. Thus, the small house, the center of the Society, which Fr. Rauzan had had so much trouble obtaining, and which had subsequently given him so much joy and hope, was invaded, looted, and nearly burned down, while the priests of the society and the venerable superior himself escaped the popular fury with great difficulty. Finding it impossible for the missionaries to gather again, the superior gave his priests some advice in anticipation of a better future, assured himself of their perseverance, and resolved to use the time of the storm to give the Society its definitive constitution. It was a way to affirm his unwavering confidence, to make his work lasting, and at the same time to make his labors more useful by linking the efforts of a great number through the unity that guarantees success. This is why he left for Rome on September 8, in order to draw from its source the spirit of Jesus Christ and the Church, with which he wished to animate his constitutions. Nothing could be more affectionate and comforting than the welcome he received there from the Sovereign Pontiff Pius VIII, and from all those who had heard of the missions; nothing could be more sincere than the congratulations of these eminent men who had all followed his apostolic labors with interest. Fr. Rauzan therefore immediately began to pray and knew no rest until his work was ready to receive the sanction of the Holy Father. God finally seemed to want to reward the faith of his apostle, so easily did He make the realization of his dearest hopes: Pius VIII, already so favorable to Rauzan, had been succeeded by Gregory XVI, who called himself his friend and who urged him to complete his work as soon as possible so that he might bless it; several members of the Sacred College assured him of their support and encouraged him, so that when the calm returned to France and allowed him to return, the venerable priest was able to present his completed constitutions for the approval of the Sovereign Pontiff, who granted it some time later, on February 18, 1834.

At that time, Fr. Rauzan had been back in Paris for several months; he had happily found there most of his priests, his children of old, who had rushed to place themselves once again under his direction, the devotion of all the friends he had left behind, and the filial attachment of his Daughters of the Institution of Sainte-Clotilde, which his long absence had not been able to diminish. But alongside this, Fr. Rauzan no longer found the same disposition from the government as before: instead of benevolence and support, there was distrust, which would restrict the scope of his work and set limits to his zeal. Nevertheless, the missionaries set to work courageously, resigned to the situation they were in, but consoled by the presence of their venerated superior and by the hope of dedicating themselves until death in the definitively approved Society. The contradictions and hatred that persisted in a certain number of pe ople toward the Society of the Priest Société des Prêtres de la Miséricorde Religious congregation founded by Jean-Baptiste Rauzan. s of Mercy (the new title of the missionaries) cast a veil of sadness over the life of Fr. Rauzan. From that moment on, he almost entirely ceased to appear in public; once, however, he consented to preach in Versailles, where he moved a large audience again, but all his attention and time were absorbed by the care of his main institutions. It was only there that he made himself heard in intimacy, at the Council of Ladies at Sainte-Clotilde and in his community of the Priests of Mercy, and there shone with all the more brilliance, as he spoke with more abandon, the ardor of his faith, the penetration of his spirit, and his entire devotion to the cause of God and souls.

However, as the Society grew more numerous, it became necessary to think about creating new establishments: the first attempts were not successful, for a house initially founded in Rome struggled to maintain itself and ceased to exist in 1849 for lack of subjects. Another house, founded in Marseille, had only just been born, for the Society being very small at that time, the missionaries had to be recalled immediately. But the year 1837 saw the formation of two establishments that were more successful. There was in Bordeaux a very renowned sanctuary, dedicated to the apostle Saint James, which, partially destroyed by the Revolution, was sold and transformed for some time into a theater: M. Allary, a parish priest in Bordeaux, conceived the project of restoring this sanctuary, and Father Rauzan, informed of this project, adopted the enterprise for himself, which seemed to him indicated by God, and which his love for his homeland made all the more dear to him. He came himself to Bordeaux at the age of eighty, quickly finished the negotiations, and a year later the Priests of Mercy were installed there. Likewise, in Orléans, the Society was installed in the abbey of Saint-Euverte, profaned by the Revolution and used until then for a profane purpose: it was Father Caillau, so renowned for his erudition, who directed this flourishing house until 1850, where Father Rauzan never had the happiness of coming. Finally, some missionaries also went to America with Bishop de Forbin-Janson, and made the Society of the Priests of Mercy known there advantageously; but the Superior did not participate in any way: weakened by age and illness, he was content to congratulate his courageous children, to follow them in his thoughts, and to bless them.

During the last years of his life, his increasingly faltering health no longer allowed him to attend the common exercises of the community; it even required the greatest efforts and the support of a devoted servant to come, like Saint Alphonsus Liguori, to contemplate the hidden God from the threshold of the half-open chapel. Only one thing remained firm in him: his faith; but God warned him through a general weakness that gradually invaded his intellectual faculties as well as his body that the time for the reward was near. Finally, his weakness becoming extreme, it was recognized that the last day had come, and the venerable priest himself perceived it without fear; he received with the liveliest devotion the sacraments of the Church, blessed one last time those of his own who were in Paris and whom he had called to his side, then he fell into a long prostration, from which he only emerged for an instant. One of his priests had approached him to say: Father, do you also bless your daughters of Sainte-Clotilde? Yes, yes, yes, he replied. These were his last words; he fell back into his slumber until six o'clock in the evening, when he breathed his last. It was Sunday, September 5, 1847: he was eighty-nine years and nine months old.

His death, as foreseen as it was, cast a great mourning everywhere, and revealed what deep veneration all those who had known him professed for him. His funeral took place at Notre-Dame de l'Abbaye-aux-Bois, and a large and collected crowd came to pray one last time for the holy priest who had served as a guide and model to so many for long years. His body was then transported to Bordeaux, at the request of that city, and buried in the midst of the greatest and most worthy solemnity, in that Saint-Jacques church that he had loved so Bordeaux City and diocese of which Amand was bishop. much, where he had made his first Communion, and which he had restored to Catholic worship.