In November 1800, Fr. Chaminade returned to Bordeaux, France, after three years in exile. He had a head full of ideas to restore Christianity and the Church in France after the chaos of the Revolution. The exiled priests in Spain had talked about what to do when they returned and already knew of projects in some dioceses that would make use of committed laypeople. Chaminade himself had a ministry in Bordeaux during the Revolution, so he already knew of dedicated laypeople who could help. He had corresponded with Marie Thérèse de Lamourous during his time in Saragossa; there also was Louis Arnaud Lafargue, who helped remove Chaminade’s name from the list of those who had left France during the Revolution; and certainly others. When Chaminade arrived in Bordeaux, he wasted no time.
Jean Lalanne tells us that Chaminade opened his oratory and met a couple of young men, and he proposed to them the establishment of a group of laypeople who would take up the task of re-Christianizing Bordeaux, attracting others into the ways of salvation. Some suggestions were laypeople Chaminade already knew; others were laypeople who wanted to join in this mission. There were twelve of them, to imitate the 12 Apostles and the early Christians who were of one heart and mind gathered around Mary. They, too, were following Mary and became the first Lay Marianists to consecrate their lives to Mary, which they did on February 2, 1801 (then, as now, a feast of Mary). This group of Apostles, the Marianist Lay Community of its day, was on its way to being a Christianizing force in Bordeaux and Southwest France, with Mary as their leader and model.
Today, celebrating this event can be an encouraging reminder to continue the task of Christianizing our neighborhood and the world through communities dedicated to Mary’s nurturing care for all.
With this reminder at the forefront of our minds this month, we encourage you to reflect on the following questions:
- How does my own commitment to Mary influence the way I care for myself and others?
- How does my community celebrate and embrace the commitment to share Christ with others in an effort to Christianize the world?
To learn more about the Bordeaux Sodality, we recommend the following three resources:
- Bro. Tim Phillips, SM’s “Story of the Beginning of the Sodality of the Madeleine, the MLC of 1800,”
- Chapter 7 of the “Basic Handbook of Marianist Studies,” which focuses on the “First Foundations,” and
- Mary Lynn Gasaway Hill’s Stories from the Wake, available in our bookstore.