OUR LADY OF GRACE

SAINT EUGENE DE MAZENOD

CHARLES JOSEPH EUGENE DE MAZENOD WAS BORN IN AUGUST 1, 1782 ON Aix–én–Provence, France from a struggling aristocratic family.  He looked to be assured of his family’s wealth, but things started to shift as the French Revolution unfolded.

Saint Eugene grew in an environment of turmoil and uncertainty; he was only eight years old when they fled France as political refugees.  As they trailed through Italian cities, he lived a life that was never secured.

But as they moved through Venice, a sympathetic priest that lives adjacent to their house, Don Bartolo Zinelli, educated the young de Mazenod.  Don Bartolo gave Saint Eugene a fine and fundamental education, but with the lasting sense of God.

And as they moved to several places, such as Naples, the clouds of ambiguity grew darker.  It was only in Palermo, through the Duke and Duchess of Cannizzaro that the de Mazenod family experienced a noble life.  Saint Eugene took the title “Count de Mazenod”, and for once, a great light opened up for his future.

But again, Saint Eugene’s family succumbed to poverty as they returned to France with their homeland appearing a lot different.  His parents got separated; his mother was trying hard to obtain their lost possessions; and his sisters were out to marry men of nobility.  Saint Eugene, on his part, was supposed to marry the richest possible heiress in France.  The plan saddened Saint Eugene, for he was not given any freedom.

Yet it was not only his mother’s selfishness that troubled him, but the status of France.  He felt extreme compassion for the destitute people, for the prisoners, and for the French Church that was attacked by the Revolution.  It was in his return to his homeland that the teaching of faith in Venice began to surface.

On a certain Good Friday, Saint Eugene came to the realization that he was called to serve God.  But his mother would not allow him to become a priest as the de Mazenod clan is at the point of evaporation, because he was the last male descendant.  His sisters cannot carry the name for the rest of their lives, because they were to marry, thus changing their surname.

Yet Saint Eugene was determined to be a priest.  Despite his mother’s opposition, he entered the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris.  He was ordained as a priest on December 21, 1811.

Saint Eugene returned to Aix–én–Provence, where he first conducted his missions to the poor, both of faith and material.  Little by little, the Missionaries of Provence grew into a world–renowned Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which is famous for being the specialists of difficult missions.  Until now, Saint Eugene’s successors are scattering the light of God through physical, economical, and religious assistances, across sixty–eight countries.