Walking With Our Founders

Jan 27

*Cathedral of Troyes (dating back to the 12th century) where many of our celebrations for the 150th anniversary took place.*

Along the roads in Troyes, France, interspersed with medieval churches and 19th-century houses, I walked with my confreres in the same paths taken by the first Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

Our celebration of the 150th anniversary of our foundation was enhanced by the experience of our global Oblate community with Oblates and Oblate Sisters from all over the world coming together for prayer, reflection, and fellowship. I felt more connected to the mission of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales than before when I had the opportunity to visit the tombs of our founders and look at the town around us with the eyes of mission and purpose that would have motivated Fr. Brisson, Mother Chappuis, and St. Leone Aviat.

Our brief but eventful time in Troyes was most impactful for me in seeing the environment in which our founders lived and worked every day. Most especially, our visit to the Visitation Monastery in Troyes gave me the deepest sense of connection to Father Brisson and Mother Chappuis.

I sat in the chapel, which looked much the same as it did when they celebrated Mass there. I saw the same grille separating the nuns’ choir, where Mother Chappuis would have sat every day. Being in that chapel, I was moved by the fact that this was the very space where the interior spiritual process of Brisson’s (long!) discernment of whether or not to found the Oblates and Oblate Sisters took place. After I had heard the story of Fr. Brisson so many times, to be in the place where he plodded along his own spiritual journey day after day renewed my admiration and understanding of his holiness and his eventual sense of mission as the founder of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

The spaces we visited not only carried the memories of our beloved founders, but they were also brought to life by the Oblates and Visitation sisters still living and working in them today. The Visitation monastery was not a sterile museum piece but a living community that still serves as a spiritual center for religious and laity alike who are drawn to the gentle and approachable spirituality of Sts. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal.

St. Bernard’s was not just a monument to the beginning of the Oblates’ ministry but a lively continuation of the same mission to bring young people to know the love of God in their lives. This experience of the continuing legacy and mission of the Oblates inspires me to have the enthusiasm of our founders that sustained them through trials and kept them bound to the belief that the mission of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales was a gift to the Church and the world of their time. I believe it remains a gift to the Church and the world today.