The Confraternity of the Faithful of Both Sexes
Living in the World
[109] The general aim of the Society is to contribute in the best possible way, both by its prayers and its efforts, to the conversion of sinners and the perseverance of the faithful, and to gather, so to speak, all the members of Christ, whatever their age, sex, or standing, under the protection of the Blessed Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God; and to revive their faith and piety and nourish them with the doctrine of the Roman Church, so that at the end of time as at the beginning, all the faithful may with Gods help be of one heart and one mind in the bosom of the Roman Church, and that all, walking worthily before God and under Marys guidance, may attain eternal life. For this reason entry to the Society is also open to lay people living in the world in this Confraternity or Third Order of Blessed Mary.
Context on the first key document
The text is part of the Summarium presented to Cardinal Odescalchi by Father Jean-Claude Colin on his first visit to Rome, on 9 December 1833. It is the first paragraph of Chapter 4.
Previously, in 1816, a group of newly ordained priests and some seminarians, in the chapel of Our Ladys shrine at Fourvire, Lyons, France, had solemnly recited a pledge to found a Society of Mary. In the intervening years, the group had scattered into various parishes. J.-C. Colin was sent to Cerdon as curate to his brother, Pierre Colin, the newly appointed parish priest. In 1818, he made a vow to work for the establishment of this Society until it could be presented to the Church in Rome for approval.
So he worked on a plan for it, which he wrote in French in the no-longerextant Cerdon Notebook; this notebook contained his early ideas about the Society. Because he had vowed to undertake the work till it could be submitted to the Pope, he regarded it as a matter of conscience.
It seems that the approbation of the Society was another reason for the journey, although Colin eventually asked for much more modest things when he submitted the Summarium (in Latin) and discussed it with Cardinal Castracane, who was looking after the Marist dossier and affairs.
In 1870, at the time of the General Chapter, where his Constitutions were accepted, he says:
The plan presented set forth the Society such as I felt I was obliged to propose it to the Sovereign Pontiff by virtue of my vow. It was correctly rejected, as I expected, moreover.
Previous recourse to Rome had ended in 1822 with the decision of the Paris Nuncio, Monsignor Macchi, to entrust the documents to Monsignor Devie, Bishop of Belley. In 1830, after Colin had been elected central Superior of the two groups of aspiring Marists in Belley and around Lyon, he wrote again to Macchi, now a Curial Cardinal. Macchi advised him to come to Rome, but the Bishops of both dioceses (de Pins in Lyons) opposed that plan because of the Italian political situation.
In 1833, when it seemed that Bishop de Pins was no longer in opposition, Colin had an interview with Bishop Devie, who gave his consent when he heard of Colins vow. Moreover, Colin had written to Macchi in April 1833 and the letter was accompanied by a petition to the Pope. Macchi had written to Devie, asking him to give permission for the journey.
A dossier was prepared with testimonial letters from both Bishops, statements regarding the position of the Society in their respective dioceses, and the Bishop of Grenobles report on the Marist Brothers of the Schools in his diocese. With these was the text of the completely revised Fathers Rule, a letter of introduction signed by all the priest aspirants and a petition for the Third Order at Belley.
Fathers Chanel (Belley) and Bourdin (Lyon) accompanied Colin, setting out on 29 August after a Mass at Fourvire. Macchi took the dossier dossier and presented it to Gregory XVI on 17 September. On 28 September the three priests had a private audience with the Pope, and Colin presented him with a Petition concerning the Third Order. The Holy Father passed everything over for examination and consideration by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. After the three priests had made a pilgrimage to Loreto, the other two returned to France while Colin remained in Rome. He had asked several members of the Curia to examine the Rule of the whole project (probably an abridged version, copies of which he had brought with him) and was advised to restrict himself to the Priests Rule. However, he was to give an outline of the Rules for the other Branches.
So Colin wrote the text that is the Summarium Regularum, which deals with the Priests in much detail and the other branches only in outline. He made only four requests at this stage, as he realised that approbation would be a long process. They were: to receive postulants, to elect a Superior General, to take religious vows and to obtain a grant for indulgences for the Third Order.
Cardinal Odescalchi, in an interview with Colin, explained that the project presented problems because it was so far-reaching and broad in vision and scope. He placed Cardinal Castracane in charge of it, and Colin had several interviews with him, being well-received. However, the Cardinal was unable to come to terms with Colins grand vision of a Society with three religious branches and a Confraternity of lay people under a single Superior General. He saw it as outlandish, particularly the worldwide Confraternity not under the authority of diocesan bishops. He felt that such a potentially powerful group of people would arouse fear and suspicion in rulers of the different countries.
Although Colin wrote two further short summaries to make the dossier clearer, he prudently withdrew his earlier requests for the Priests Branch (which would have nearly been given approbation) and asked only that the priests of the two dioceses be allowed to elect Superiors approved by the Ordinaries (Bishops) and that indulgences be granted to the various Branches of the Society. These requests were granted at the meeting of the Sacred Congregation on 31 January 1834, and letters were to be written to the Bishops of Belley and Lyon.
Colin returned to Belley on 21 February, leaving matters in Rome in the hands of one Fr Paul Trinchant (former secretary of the Bishops of Chartres, who was now postulator for the cause to canonise Jeanne de Lestonnac). The letters to the Ordinaries were never sent, as the instructions do not seem to have been clearly communicated. Father Coste, in Lectures on the Society of Mary (pp 101-102), tells us it was due to the subtle interventions of Trinchant that this happened.
The final outcome was that Colin received three Briefs for the Third Order of Belley (promulgated on the 12 and 14 August 1834). The dossier of the Society of Mary seemed forgotten, till an unforeseen circumstance 2 in 1835 caused the Sacred Congregation to take it up again. The Marists were offered and accepted responsibility for the missions of Western Oceania, with Fr Pompallier nominated as Vicar Apostolic. This led to the approbation of the priests of the Society of Mary by the brief Omnium Gentium of 13 May 1836.
There can be no doubt that the Society of Mary does not exist only because of Colins vision of a vast Marian project; he desired to test it in the eyes of the Church to see if it would be worthy of recognition. If it were not, in going to Rome in 1833 and presenting his dossier, Colin would have fulfilled his vow and would know that no more was required of him. Nothing would have happened without Colins journey to Rome and his discussions with the Churchs representatives about the written material, including the Summarium. All this set in motion the train of events that followed.
Commentary on the first key document
Number 109 consists of two sentences a very long one with a semicolon in the middle and a short final sentence. The long sentence succinctly contains all the major elements of the idea of the Lay Branch written up in the Cerdon Notebook (in French) by Colin when he was a curate. This source, no longer extant, contains the primitive ideas of the entire Marist project. The first phrase gives the general aim of the whole Society. At that time in the mind of Colin, this would include all the branches: priests, brothers, sisters, lay people and not forgetting Champagnats teaching brothers. All were to do their part using note the superlative the best possible methods of prayer and action to bring to God not only those who were sinners, alienated, cut off from the Church for whatever reason, but also those faithful (just) who were leading good Christian lives, yet would need encouragement and assistance in persevering to the end in their evangelising mission.
The next section of the sentence gives that mission: the bringing together of all the members of Christ, i.e., the whole world, no matter what age, sex or position, under the protection of Mary, who is the Immaculate (pure, sinless, virgin) Mother of God. So already the openness, the mark of inclusivity helping to evangelise the whole world through Mary is clear. Today we would not categorise sinners and just, since we know we are all sinners and wounded people. We have to remember that Colin was writing this at a time when the mentality of the nineteenth century Church in France and of the whole Church towards conversion and evangelisation differed greatly from the Church in todays world.
France, a Catholic country, was recovering from the intense upheaval of the 1789 Revolution, and a spiritual renaissance was taking place. As proof, one has only to look at the tremendous number of new religious congregations and also some lay associations that began at this time! However, the sense of a triumphalist Church was strong, and the institutionalisation of the Counter- Reformation still dominated the rigid canonical discipline of the nineteenth century. Moreover, in France and elsewhere, Jansenistic narrowness could breed scrupulosity and even smug superiority in the just and destroy all hope of redemption for sinners.
There was also the Gallicanism of the French Church, which Colin repudiated, taking the Roman point of view. He always showed great fidelity to the Pope and the Church in Rome. This was the age of Imperialism, too, of empire-building, when the colonisers and missionaries moved throughout the world superimposing Western culture and religious rituals on the heathens/pagans to save them, while exploiting their economic resources quite mercilessly. As John Thornhill says so well, it was impossible for Colin to understand fully the conflict at the heart of his project the conflict which put the prophetic contribution Marists can make in the life of the Church at odds with the prevailing ideological ethos of nineteenth century Catholicism. 3 This is what he faced when he presented his case to the Curia and Cardinal Castracane, and thus, in his lifetime, he was never able to translate the vision into an organic unity. 4 Therefore, we find that the inevitable separation of the religious branches, which became autonomous, and the frustrating ambiguity and seeming inaction of Colins approach regarding the Lay Confraternity were so difficult for Marists to understand, and particularly for Eymard, when he became Director of the Lyon groups in the mid-1840s.
The next section of the sentence, on the revival of peoples faith and devotion and their nourishment by the doctrine of the Roman Church, sets the mission squarely in the nineteenth Century. Colins vision, although far-sighted, could not have envisaged the vast changes in the outlook of the Church towards ecumenism and dialogue with people of all religions and non-believers in the latter part of the twentieth Century, after Vatican II, and into the third millennium. Colin, as Castracane says, understood his era, but it is in the next section that his vision opens into a truly eschatological and limitless future: so that at the end of time, as at the beginning, all the faithful may with Gods help be of one heart and one mind in the bosom of the Roman Church, and that all working worthily before God and under Marys guidance, may attain eternal life.
Notice that Colin uses the word all three times in the complete sentence and, when it is read aloud, one sees its force. Roman Church occurs twice with the words doctrine and bosom. Here I think we see Colins tension, his dilemma, the incredible breadth and scope of the vision the whole world Marist yet still confined by the constraints of the nineteenth century Church. Seeing Mary as the protector and guide to assist all to salvation, Colin gives us in this telling sentence a picture of such vast future possibilities.
Perhaps it is only today, in the aftermath of Vatican II and its Documents and in the great Encyclicals that have followed e.g., Pope Paul VIs Evangelii Nuntiandi (On Evangelisation of the Modern World) and our Holy Father, Pope John Paul IIs Redemptionis Missio (On the Permanent Validity of the Churchs Missionary Mandate) and Ut unum sint (That All May Be One) that Colins global vision can begin to be faintly understood. At this point it seems pertinent to quote an example of these shifts and changes of outlook in todays Church to see that the mission of the Society (include here the whole Marist family) can be very relevant. I quote from No. 10 of Redemptionis Missio:
The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all it must be made concretely available to all ....many people do not have the opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church ...for such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ. It is the result of his sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free co-operationthis applies not only to Christians but to all people of good will in whose hearts grace is secretly at work in a manner known only to God.
The words speak for themselves and Marists living in the spirit of Mary, Mother of Mercy, see themselves like a bridge going to souls, to sinners.5 We realise that every element of our charism and spirituality can fit the tremendous mission of the Church today and in the future. Like her in her self-effacing hidden way, we can develop a Mariology of hope; we can desire to win souls by submitting ourselves to them.6 We can recognise the essential dignity of all and respect their freedom of conscience, for we know that God is working mysteriously in the heart of every human person at levels beyond our knowledge or understanding.
The final short sentence sums up the entry of lay people as an equal constitutive part of the project, and Colin uses both titles, Confraternity and Third Order of the Blessed Mary. He and the first Marists were not aware of the different shades of meaning in the Churchs use of words such as lay.7 Suffice to say that popular speech places clergy and religious in one category as the professionals and all others in another as lay people, and this is the sense in which the words lay and laity are used in the 1833 Summarium. Note, however, that there were exceptions later, with the admission of diocesan priests, e.g., the Cur of Ars, into the Third Order of Mary and the early separate fraternity of the priests in Lyon. The term Third Order presents a difficulty. Perhaps Colin was thinking of the Third Orders of Seculars attached to great religious orders like the Dominicans and Franciscans, etc., but already the project had four branches, and Colin learnt in his first visit to Rome that his Society was not to be an order with solemn vows. So, strictly speaking, it could not have a Third Order. Although this name had been used earlier by Courveille (Verrires 1816-17), by Colin and the Marists (Belley 1832-33), and by the Tertiary Brothers of Mary (Lyons 1832), it still continued to be used after the 1833 visit to Rome, Colin replaced the phrase with Confraternity in drafting another petition (see LM. Doc12) before leaving Rome. The name, Third Order of Mary, continued to be used in the 1840s, 50s & 60s, even by Colin. He avoided using it in the Confraternitys Constitutions of 1872, as did Cozon,8 who made valiant efforts throughout his lifetime to keep Colins ideas for the lay Branch alive.
Neither name really captures Colins global vision, although today both are still used and various others as well, e.g., Marist Fraternities, Marian Apostolate, Marist Way, etc., which have come into usage in the latter part of the 20th Century. The teachings of Vatican II and further papal writings have stressed the importance and status of lay people and affirmed co-equal discipleship, a universal call to holiness and the autonomy of earthly realities.
The names lay Marists and Marist laity seem to have the most universal application; the simple name Marists can be used if there is no problem regarding distinction or ambiguity of roles. Marist comes from Mary, with ist (a suffix meaning adhering to). I like Duffy and Girards explanation in Like a Bridge: persons who belong to Mary and promote her way, and also the story in Larkins A Certain Way, where the young high school girl at the Retreat says Its easy. The word Mar-ist is composed of the first three letters of Marys name and the last three letters of Christs name. You may begin by looking at Mary, but you always end up looking at Christ.10 We too, like Larkin, are reduced to silence!
The important thing is not being over-anxious or too precise regarding the name, but never losing sight of our Marist mission and the dynamism of Colins vision, which he never lost from those early days, to which this Document belongs, to the end of his life.
Let us listen to the words of the text of 1872, the brief overview which he addressed to the Fathers General Chapter. The vision is still as clear as when he wrote it down in the night hours near his bed at Cerdon. The Church calls the Blessed Virgin Gate of Heaven.and since she is the mother of all Gods children and since she wants to save them all, her Society ought to open its bosom to all her children who want to be saved and lay claim to her help. That is why the Society takes all kinds of people into association with itself through a Third Order, under the name of Confraternity of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners and the Perseverance of the Faithful.
1 LM, doc. 322,16.
2 See J. Coste, Lectures on Society of Mary History (pp. 104 109) for account of this.
3 J Thornhill, SM, Will Our Marist Way Live on in Tomorrows Church? Forum Novum, vol. 5, no. 3, October 2000.
4 A Greiler, SM, Marcellin Champagnat - a Marist Saint (Rome, 1999) p. 30.
5 LM, doc. 334,36.
6 FS, doc. 102,33.
7 See LM, pp. vii and viii, Lay Marists: A Problem of Terminology for an explanation.
8 See Context of document 3 for detail on Cozon.
9 L Duffy & C Girard, Like a Bridge, p.6.
10 C Larkin, A Certain Way, p.91.
11 LM, doc. 332, initial phrases in 2 and 3.
[109] The general aim of the Society is to contribute in the best possible way, both by its prayers and its efforts, to the conversion of sinners and the perseverance of the faithful, and to gather, so to speak, all the members of Christ, whatever their age, sex, or standing, under the protection of the Blessed Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God; and to revive their faith and piety and nourish them with the doctrine of the Roman Church, so that at the end of time as at the beginning, all the faithful may with Gods help be of one heart and one mind in the bosom of the Roman Church, and that all, walking worthily before God and under Marys guidance, may attain eternal life. For this reason entry to the Society is also open to lay people living in the world in this Confraternity or Third Order of Blessed Mary.
