Melchior de Marion-Brésillac

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Melchior de Marion-Brésillac (painting, 1859)

Melchior de Marion-Brésillac (born December 2, 1813 in Castelnaudary , † June 25, 1859 in Freetown ) was a French Roman Catholic bishop, missionary and founder of the order.

life and work

Missionary in India

Marion-Brésillac's father was an engineer on the Canal du Midi . He himself studied at the seminary in Carcassonne from 1832 and was ordained a priest in 1838. He first worked in Castelnaudary, reported to the Paris Mission in 1841 and was sent to India, where he arrived in 1842 (in Puducherry ). He took over the leadership of the seminary there and was ordained bishop of Coimbatore (titular bishop of Prusa ). However, since he found himself in a dilemma with regard to the degree of opportune acculturation , insofar as he saw an irreconcilable opposition between the (as he believed) the strict Vatican and its missionaries, who were mostly accommodating to the locals, he asked for his release in 1853, which was granted in 1855 , and traveled back to Europe.

Death in africa

Free again, he made another attempt at proselytizing, this time in Africa; He had Dahomey in his sights . In 1856 he founded the Society of Africa Missions in Lyon , but only got permission for Sierra Leone from Rome . In May 1859 he arrived in Freetown and died there a month later with all his comrades in an epidemic, whereupon the management of the company in Lyon passed into the hands of Augustin Planque .

Commemoration

His remains have been in the chapel of the mission house (until 2017 with the African Museum) in Cours Gambetta (150) in Lyon since 1928 .

In Castelnaudary ( Alexandre Lastrapes square ) there is a memorial plaque on the house where he was born, which reads: Ici est né le 2 décembre 1813 / Monseigneur Melchior de Marion Brésillac / Fondateur de la / Société des Missions Africaines / Pour le service des peuples les plus abandonnés / 150e anniversaire de la Fondation 1856–2006 (Founder of the Society of Africa Missions in the Service of the Most Forsaken Peoples / On the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding 1856–2006).

Since the 100th anniversary of his death in 1959, his extensive posthumous writings and several biographical appraisals, including by Patrick Gantly (1919-2002) and the postulator of the beatification process initiated in 2000 , Bruno Semplicio, have been published.

Pope Francis awarded him the heroic degree of virtue on May 26, 2020 .

Works

  • Retreat to missions given in preparation for the Synod of Pondichery, 1849 . Rome 1985.
  • Documents de mission et de fondation [1854-1859] , ed. by Jean Bonfils. Médiaspaul, Paris 1985 (English 1986).
  • Souvenirs de douze ans de mission . 3 vols. Médiaspaul, Paris 1987–1988.
    • Vol. 1: Souvenirs de douze ans de mission. 1987.
    • Vol. 2: Le journal d'un missionnaire. Suite of the "Souvenirs de douze ans de mission". 1987.
    • Vol. 3: Je les aimais. Douze ans en Inde 1842–1854, ed. Maurice Grenot. 1988.
    • (English) Souvenirs (Memories from twelve years on the missions). 3 vols. Rome 1988–1991.
  • Faith, hope, charity. Spiritual exercises given to Indian seminarists . Rome 1988.
  • Lettres . Erga edizioni, Rome 2005.

literature

  • Martin J. Bane: Heroes of the Hinterlands. The Brésillac story . New York 1959.
  • Jean Bonfils: L'oeuvre de Mgr. De Marion Brésillac en faveur du clergé local dans les missions de l'Inde au XIXe siècle . Lyon 1959.
  • Yannick Essertel: L'aventure missionnaire lyonnaise 1815–1962 . Cerf, Paris 2001, pp. 76-78.
  • Patrick Gantly and Ellen Thorp: For this cause. A life of Melchior de Marion Brésillac . Rome 1992.
    • (French) La voix qui t'appelle. Vie de Monseigneur Melchior de Marion Brésillac, fondateur de la Société des Missions Africaines. Edition SMA, Rome 1994.
  • Patrick Gantly: Marion Brésillac in India. A study of twelve challenging years . London 1998.
  • Patrick Gantly: Mission en Afrique de l'Ouest. L'histoire de la Société des Missions Africaines (SMA), 1856–1907 . SMA, Rome 2006.
  • Patrick Gantly: Histoire de la Société des missions africaines, SMA, 1856–1907. De la fondation par Mgr de Marion Brésillac, 1856, à la mort du père Planque, 1907 . 2 vols. Karthala, Paris 2009–2010.
  • Léandre Le Gallen: Vie de Mgr. De Marion-Brésillac, évêque de Pruse, fondateur de la Société des Missions africaines de Lyon d'après ses mémoires . Paris 1910.
  • Donbosco Mawdsley J .: De Brésillac's vision for the formation of local clergy as a patrimony of the Society of African Missions . Diss. Rome 2014.
  • Michael O'Shea: Mission or martyrdom? The spirituality of Melchior de Marion Brésillac and the Society of African Missions. Society of African Missions, Ibadan 1989.
  • Henry Russell: Africa's twelve apostles . Boston 1981.
  • Bruno Semplicio: Cammino spirituale per la missione. Una communitá SMA guarda e ascolta il suo Fondatore . EMI, Bologna 1982.
  • Bruno Semplicio: De Marion-Brésillac (1813-1859). Evêque et fondateur de la Société des Missions Africaines . Edition SMA, Rome 2005 .
    • (English) De Marion Brésillac (1813-1859). Bishop and founder of the society of African missions. Rome 2007.

Without an author

  • Mgr de Marion Brésillac. Notice biographique, doctrine missionnaire, textes . Cerf, Paris 1962.
  • Les 150 ans de la Société des Missions Africaines. In: Histoire et missions chrétiennes 2, 2007, pp. 1–198.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , May 27, 2020, accessed May 29, 2020 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Marion-Brésillac, Melchior de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marion-Brésillac, Melchior Marie Joseph de; Marion-Brézillac, Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Roman Catholic bishop, missionary and founder of an order
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Castelnaudary
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1859
Place of death Freetown