LM Doc 47; also OM 2 doc: 1-10 Mayet [Gabriel-Claude Mayet, SM] Memoirs 1, 190-94
[1] Ah! gentlemen, he said to us one day, please pray to God to send someone to spread the Third Order all over the world. I want this with all my heart; I ask God for this. I need someone with an apostolic enthusiasm, someone filled with the spirit of God, someone who can preach like an apostle.
[2] Oh, I laugh when I think about the good-hearted, simple way I acted. In my request for the approval of our Confraternity of the Third Order, I simply wrote that people would see at the end of time what they had seen at the beginning: One heart and one mind. That, thereby, all the faithful, all those who were to remain faithful to God, would be of one heart and one mind. Cardinal Castracane began to laugh and said to me: Well, the whole world would be Marist then? Yes, your Eminence, I said to him, the Pope, too; hes the one we want as head. Well, right away I obtained three documents with indulgences for the Third Order. Ah, gentlemen, lets come alive; our undertaking is a bold one; (laughing:) we want to invade everything. When will the time come?
[3] I bless God for having inspired someone else with a similar idea, that of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Heart of Mary, instituted in Paris, at Notre Dame des Victoires, for the conversion of sinners, and approved. It has already obtained a large number of conversions. From Paris they sent me the little rule book of this Archconfraternity and, since I have had it in my room, I am quite ashamed that I still have among my papers the approbation of our Third Order without having yet made use of it. Well, its not from having neglected to ask the permission of the Bishop of Belley; but he thought it was prudent not to allow it to develop: People will desert the cathedral, he said. What do you think? So, I did not dare insist on the point. Then the Bishop added: Patience, have patience; the time will come.
[4] Gentlemen, we will have to choose between the Archconfraternity of the Holy Heart of Mary and the Confraternity of our Third Order. As for me, I must say that I want only what is good and that, if I followed my inclinations, my immediate feelings, I would choose that of the Holy Heart of Mary, precisely because it is not ours. What does it matter to me, provided that good is accomplished?
[5] However, our Third Order has the advantage that it is not only for the conversion of sinners, but also for the perseverance of the faithful, and so, consequently, it includes all Christians. I have asked specifically that there be no exceptions other than heretics and schismatics. Moreover, I have asked that the simple inscription of ones name in the register of the confraternity would be enough in order to share in the prayers and good works of the members, because I foresaw that many sinners who might need such prayers and good works would be reluctant to have recourse to Mary.
Also, when a family has someone who needs conversion, his relatives could have him registered secretly. A sinner could be recommended to all associates; prayers could be requested and offered. A person would not have to do anything in order to have a share in the prayers.
[6] For those who would want to carry out the recommended practices, these will be very short and very simple. I would like us to hand over a medal of the Immaculate Conception when we receive them. At first, I had thought of asking that we have our own particular little scapular, but a medal is simpler; or else we could adopt the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. There will also be a small set of rules for those who would want to live a more retired life. And in the Third Order itself there will be several branches which will be more or less broad and more or less strict.
[7] Perhaps another reason for preferring our Third Order is that doing so will build up harmony between faithful Christians and the Society, and that Marist missionaries will have a greater enthusiasm for spreading and promoting an association which naturally concerns them.
[8] Someone said to him: Father Superior, since you cannot establish the Third Order in Belley, begin it in Lyon. He said: It is not simply a matter of establishing it in Belley or in Lyon, but in Belley, in Lyon, and everywhere.
[9] Oh! If we establish it in Lyon, when we do so, I want us to be very prudent. Lets not shock the pastors of parishes; lets do everything quietly. The pastors will be at the head of this affair; I would like for the membership register to remain in their hands in each parish. I admit, of course, that it seems it may be necessary to have only one register which would be kept by the Society, so that there may be one centre. Otherwise, the project might seem weak. Pastors have a lot of other things to take care of, and they cannot give the same interest and enthusiasm to one particular thing in the midst of so many others which necessarily keep them busy.
[10] Then he came back to the topic of the brief which he had: It has been in my briefcase for three years. God forbid that I should ever want to do anything before the bishops give us permission.
Context on the second key document
This Document in ten sections records Colins words during a table conversation about the Third Order at La Capucinire, Belley; Mayet includes it in his Memoirs. It can be dated from the beginning of summer, 1838, probably sometime before August, because the Archconfraternity of the Holy Heart of Mary [mentioned in Section 3] was begun in Paris, on 25 December 1836, by Father Dufriche-Desgenelles, pastor of Notre-Dame-des- Victoires, and approved and established as an Archconfraternity by Gregory XVIs Brief of 14 April 1838. The conversation might have taken place in June 1838, thus allowing time for the Brief to be sent, the news of it to spread abroad and Colin to receive the rule book from Paris. In Section 10 Colin speaks of the Brief (actually three Briefs) that he had received for the Confraternity at Belley from Gregory XVI, the first dated 12 August, and the other two, 14 August, 1834; he says he had kept them in his briefcase for three years. This places the conversation before August 1838, the fourth anniversary of the receipt of the Briefs. Mayet records Colins words, reproducing his conversational style, as he reminisces about the simple way 30 he acted on his first visit to Rome in 1833. The material is not presented in a logical ordered sequence of events, but is a series of facts loosely strung together. The content of the ten sections is as follows:
(1) The first centres around the idea of spreading the Third Order throughout the world and God raising up the person to do it.
(2) This is an account of the actual way Colin acted in Rome, the conversation with Cardinal Castracane and its outcome: the three Briefs for the Third Order at Belley. A section has been inserted here by Mayet, which I will explain more fully later.
(3) This section describes the similar idea of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Heart of Mary, recently approved by the Pope. Colin has been sent its rule book and this reminds him that he still has the papers (Briefs) containing approbation of the Third Order in Belley. It is clear that Bishop Devie of Belley has seen them, but he seems afraid that the Third Order will draw people away from the cathedral parish. Colin wisely has not asked the Bishop to countersign them at that time.
(4) Here we have Colins feeling that if a choice had to be made between the Paris Archconfraternity and the Marist Confraternity, he would choose the former.
5)-(6) Some further facts are set out about the advantages of the Marist Confraternity:
it includes all Christians, just and sinners, excluding only heretics and schismatics;
it can provide a means of including those alienated from God in the prayers and good works of the Confraternity through secret registrations made by relatives;
its recommended practices are to be short and simple; Colin speaks of a type of medal or scapular that could be given;
an allowance is made for those who wish to live a more retired life (deeper contemplative living);
it will comprise several branches distinguished by being more or less broad or strict.
(7) Colin gives two other reasons to prefer it: harmony between other faithful Christians and the Society and the fact that Marist missionaries would spread and promote it. (Is there a hint here of its disappearance into the Church and its spread throughout the world?)
(8) Colin is asked by someone: why not begin it in Lyon since it cannot be established in Belley? His reply is: not in Belley or Lyon, but everywhere. Again the universal global thrust is seen.
(9) Colin speaks of the necessity, if the Confraternity is established in Lyon, of using prudence, especially regarding the role of the parish priests in it, and the central register, which should be kept by the Society itself, to give unity and credibility.
(10) Finally, he speaks of the many tasks of the parish priests. Colin returns to the Briefs and the necessity of obtaining the Bishops permission before acting on anything.
Now to go back to Section (2). Mayet inserted something here from another conversation of Colins words that were not in any of the petitions presented in Rome on behalf of the Third Order, but found in Chapter 4 of the Summarium, relating to the Confraternity (see LM Doc 9:109): people would see at the end of time as at the beginning one heart and one mind . This indicates that Mayet, when handing over his notes in 1840 to Father Dupuy,1 was attempting to clarify them and make them more orderly.
The whole Document is handled quite casually, and we sense Colins goodhumoured, happy tone as he expresses his satisfaction at having succeeded as much as could be expected during his first visit to Rome. By now the Priests Branch of the Society of Mary has been approved (in 1836) and has taken on the missions of Western Oceania. However, there is a certain irony that, despite Castracanes opposition and fear of the political consequences of such a vast project under a single Superior General, the only immediate result of that 1833 visit was the receipt of three Briefs for the Third Order at Belley.
Notwithstanding Colins vagueness and the lack of order in this Document, he introduces to his audience of Marist aspirants (La Capucinire was a house of formation) quite a number of the key ideas and some details not found in the first Document, the Summarium. These will be expressed more clearly and fully in the Constitutions of the Confraternity of 1873 and will be faithfully stated in Cozons Postulatum to the 1880 General Chapter, the high point of which is the synthesis of Colins thought and vision for the Lay Branch, found in Doc 31, Number 20.
[2] Oh, I laugh when I think about the good-hearted, simple way I acted. In my request for the approval of our Confraternity of the Third Order, I simply wrote that people would see at the end of time what they had seen at the beginning: One heart and one mind. That, thereby, all the faithful, all those who were to remain faithful to God, would be of one heart and one mind. Cardinal Castracane began to laugh and said to me: Well, the whole world would be Marist then? Yes, your Eminence, I said to him, the Pope, too; hes the one we want as head. Well, right away I obtained three documents with indulgences for the Third Order. Ah, gentlemen, lets come alive; our undertaking is a bold one; (laughing:) we want to invade everything. When will the time come? 
(Audio Available)
