The first sentence requires comment regarding the two secretaries. The original Latin text of Colins Constitutions for the Confraternity was written by Fr. Jeantin, working with the notes Colin had made and oral explanations from Colin himself and at Colins request. In the notes were two articles written in 1868 by Fr. Georges David, Colins secretary. The first was The Spirit of the Society, which became Nos 49-50 in the 1872 text of the Fathers Constitutions and is the source of several phrases in Articles I-IV of the
Confraternitys Constitutions (Nos 5-28). The adapted Latin text of the second, The Devotion which Members of the Society should have towards the Blessed Virgin, became Article V of the Confraternitys Constitutions. 9
Cozon probably thought that both Jeantin and David had helped Colin with the Fathers Constitutions, or that Jeantin, in writing the Confraternitys Constitutions, had used the articles written by David. Preceding this number, Cozon has quoted word for word or paraphrased much of LM Doc 335 his notes on the Conversations he had with Colin (1872-75) wherein are expressed the idea on which the several conclusions may be drawn.10 These have been stated in the Context, so there is no need to repeat them here.
Then follows the conclusion, in which Cozon gives a wonderful synthesis of Colins vision of the Confraternity. Jean Coste, SM, commented that there is no Colin text which is more beautiful or more Colinian.11 Cozon says that the Lay Branch goes beyond the limits of the Society that gives it its spirit that of Mary; the Society allows it to pass through its hands and radiate freely in the Church.
By using the metaphors of a clocks mechanism and a planets constellations, Cozon affirms that it is not a centripetal movement towards its centre (the Society), dependent on it or used by it to assist it in its pious works, but a centrifugal movement, extending Marys work in the Church and in the world to its furthest horizons. The work of Mary is totally open, flexible, inclusive, passing through the Society and the members of the Lay Branch to disappear into the Church and the world. All of the Society (religious and lay) are, as Coste puts it so well, only the hands through which something passes that is going to be melded, identified and lost in the very extremities of the Church.12 When Cozon says, It is a way to extend the Societys action over the world, he takes us further than just the Lay Branch. He is giving us the global mission of the whole Society, the wider Marist family.
Without personal consideration refers to the detachment not merely of individuals, but of the whole Society. Cozons phrase joins the insight expressed by hidden and unknown, which is the permeating and underlying element of the whole charism, to the impact of the phrase, the whole world Marist. The Marist forgets himself (herself) and is true to Colins initial grand vision of Mary, Mother of Mercy, the support of the Church in these last days as she was in the early Church, when it was coming into being.
Therefore, with Nazareth as the place of prayerful discernment, enabling Marists from there to see what they have to do, like Mary, they set out for the hill country, and, like Francoise Perroton and the Pioneers of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, they set out and set out again,13 to all peoples, cultures, and places in any age, to build the new Church. All is hidden in the mysterious plan and workings of God, and Colin has left us a charism a mission of infinite possibilities.
What was the aftermath of Cozons Postulatum? Colin had warned him that he would have to be a saint to carry out the mission, but he died in 1924 without being able to overcome the opposition to his presentation of Colins ideas on the Marist laity. The General Chapter of 1880 rejected his Postulatum, despite the efforts of Fr. David to get it a fair hearing at the second session of 1884. When it was presented again at the General Chapter of 1900, Fr Louis 55 de Mijolla was the main opposition, basing a very severe critique of it on faulty historical evidence all of which Father Coste has shown to be inaccurate. The Chapter opted for the status quo, retaining the Eymardian model and the Manual, reprinted many times from the Jacquet 1857 edition, because it seemed to be working well.
However, I agree with Fr Frank McKays comments that the underlying reason was much deeper and rested on a faulty understanding of Marist spirituality at that time, which overemphasised Nazareth and the Hidden Life, with a limited understanding of the phrase, hidden and unknown. This prevailed in the Society till extensive historical research into the Founders insights was done by Fathers Jean Coste, Gaston Lessard and others from the 1950s onward. The research helped to restore Marists understanding of Marys role as the support of the new-born Church and also at the end of time, with hidden and unknown, as Coste says, the super image unifying the whole charism. This gave a clear apostolic approach that focused on the whole world Marist, the work of Mary, the Nazareth theme (with its simultaneous connection with the early Church and the end of time), and on Marists as instruments of the divine mercy. Thus, the full richness of the Marist spirit, charism and mission was rediscovered.
It was de Mijolla who, as General Director of the Third Order of Mary, reviewed Cozons 1918 plan for a new Manual, which he (Cozon) had submitted to Raffin, then Superior General of the Fathers. After de Mijollas death, a series of letters passed between Cozon and Srol (from September 1921 on, the new General Director), who seemed more open to Cozon and his mission. Cozon sent him the draft for his projected manual of the Third Order of Mary14 but, two months later, he withdrew it, saying that his Commentary on Colins Constitutions was more suitable for Directors, and the actual Manual for the Confraternity needed to be much shorter and simpler. He was working on this till his death.
So we see that Cozon never gave up he went on writing and trying to keep Colins ideas alive till the very end. However, his legacy is the apostolic work he founded in his lifetime, The Catechists of Mary,15 a successful model of Colins ideas. In 1906 Cozon had been given charge of most of the fraternities of the Third Order in Paris. With the help of a Marist laywoman, Mlle. Francoise de la Rupelle, he organised a group of parish catechists with the aim of obtaining women catechists to give religious instruction to the children of the poor and to form the catechists spiritually. This group grew and developed till 1912, when it became independent of the Third Order and, under the name of Catechists of Mary, began to admit people who did not belong to the Third Order of Mary. The laywomen also developed an outreach for children and adolescents who did not come to the parish catechetical centres, by making contact with non-practising and non-baptised children, winning their confidence and that of their families. After 1919 its members became part of the Parisian Archconfraternity of Catechists; Cozon remained their spiritual guide till 1922.
This initiative, I feel, was a concrete example of putting Colins ideas into practice: a merciful work of Mary, one giving help and restoring faith to many needy people, passing through the hands of Marists and disappearing into the Church, without any personal consideration.
1 LM, doc. 335, 31.
2 LM, doc. 335, 42.
3 LM, doc. 335, 47.
4 LM, doc. 335, 59-64.
5 LM, doc. 335, 61.
6 LM, doc. 335, 62.
7 LM, doc. 335, 68.
8 LM, doc. 335, 78.
9 LM, doc 431; see note 24.
10 LM, doc 335, 38-61; also, for the explanation of why Jeantin was unable to write the Manual and Cozon attempted to do so, see note 24 in doc. 335.
11 J. Coste, A Marian Vision of Church , Appendix C, Valpr Lectures, p.328.
12 J. Coste, ibid, p.330.
13 SMSM Constitutions, no. 16.
14 LM, doc. 474, containing a preface and commentary on the Confraternitys Constitutions.
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