Marie Ephrem Garrelon

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Bishop Marie Ephrem Garrelon OCD (photo)
Bishop Marie Ephrem Garrelon OCD (oil portrait in the bishopric of Quilon)

Marie Ephrem Garrelon , full name Marie Ephrem Edouard Lucian Theoponte Garrelon, OCD , secular name Lucian Garrelon (born November 18, 1827 in Casteljaloux , France , † April 10, 1873 in Mangalore ) was a Catholic Titular Bishop and Apostolic Vicar in India.

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Lucian Garrelon grew up in Casteljaloux in the south of France and it is reported that he decided to become a priest at the age of 14. He joined the Order of the Discalced Carmelites , where he received the religious name Marie Ephrem from the Heart of Jesus and was ordained a priest on December 21, 1850 . Before his missionary stay, he was temporarily superior of the monastery in Rennes . In 1859 he set out for Mahé in French India . During a stay in France, Father Garellon visited the Carmel in Pau in 1866 and made contact with the Carmelites, of which he would have liked to have a convent in India. Six sisters finally went to India, including St. Miriam of Abellin .

On June 20, 1868, Pope Pius IX appointed Fr. Marie Ephrem as Apostolic Vicar of Quilon (today Kollam ) on the Malabar Coast and Titular Bishop of Nemesi. He was ordained bishop on November 8, 1868, by his friar Michael Anthony Anfossi (1799–1878), the apostolic vicar of Mangalore , in St. Sebastian's Church in Quilon-Tuet.

In Calicut (today Kozhikode ) he met the English nun Maria Veronika von der Passion (Sophie Leeves) and presented her with his plans for a Carmelite congregation specially tailored to the mission area, which was to combine the spirituality of the Carmelites with teaching. Under his spiritual direction and at his urging, Sr. Maria Veronika founded a congregation of Third Order Sisters of Carmel in Bayonne , France. Two years passed before the first nuns could be sent to the mission, and Bishop Marie Ephrem Garrelon was meanwhile, on January 3, 1870, transferred to Mangalore as vicar apostolic.

Bishop Garrelon took part in the First Vatican Council as a council father , where he campaigned for the dogmatization of the Pope's infallibility . At the meeting on May 30, 1870, he also gave a related address.

The prelate returned to India from Europe; on November 5, 1870, he was solemnly received in Mangalore by his predecessor Michael Anthony Anfossi. He was caught in a procession and there was a high mass with Te Deum in the Rosario Cathedral . In the same month the sisters from Bayonne, which he co-founded, opened their first convent here in Mangalore.

The purely contemplative sisters from Pau also settled in Mangalore in 1870 and Mirjam von Abellin , below, made her profession on November 21, 1871 before Bishop Garrelon ; the shepherd himself gave the sermon. Due to different visions and the behavior of the nun, however, there were later differences of opinion with the bishop and the blessed returned to France in November 1872. Garrelon had turned away from her completely and thought her visions were illusions. He later recognized a mistake in this and therefore suffered - according to people around him - a great deal of remorse, which is said to have contributed to his early death. When he died, Miriam of Abellin prophesied that he would not go to heaven until the first Holy Mass was celebrated in the Carmel she had planned in Bethlehem . She saw Garrelon in the afterlife and heard him complain loudly: "I have sinned against the glory of God."

Marie Ephrem Garrelon died on Maundy Thursday, April 10, 1873 in Mangalore and was buried in the Rosario Cathedral there.

Bishop Garrelon was particularly concerned with the education of girls and women, which was very poor in India at that time. He also believed that this work should be done by local sisters who are familiar with the specifics of Indian life and conditions. One of his traditional principles was: Asian sisters, for Asian girls.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bishop Garrelon among the councilors
  2. ↑ For the Council speech Bishop Garrelons on May 30, 1870
  3. ^ On the foundation of the Third Order Congregation by Sister Maria Veronika and Bishop Garrelon
  4. ↑ Amedee Brunot: Light from the Tabor. Mirjam the little Arab. Christiana Verlag, Stein am Rhein, ISBN 3-7171-0824-7 , pp. 96-108
  5. ↑ On the history of the Rosario Cathedral Mangalore, with a section on Bishop Garrelon (roughly in the middle) ( Memento from May 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
personal data
SURNAME Garrelon, Marie Ephrem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marie Ephrem Edouard Lucian Theoponte Garrelon (full name); Lucian Garrelon (secular name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French bishop in India, Carmelite
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Casteljaloux , France
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1873
Place of death Mangalore