1. Missionary and Treasurer
  2. Departure from the Congregation
  3. Secular Priest

Born in Aix, September 29, 1798.
Taking of the habit, October 3, 1816.
Ordination, June 16, 1821.
Left the Congregation in 1830.
Died in Notre-Dame de l’Osier, August 21, 1880.

Alexandre Dupuy was born in Aix on November 29, 1798. His parents have not been identified. Madame Joannis, Eugene de Mazenod’s grandmother, paid for his upkeep and education until he entered the novitiate of the Missionaries of Provence on October 3, 1816.

His early years were spent in the care of a farmer’s wife on a farm in the demesne of Madame Joannis in the area of Banon near Aix. When he was seven years of age, he was baptized publicly in the Cathedral of St-Sauveur in Aix. His primary studies were made first with Roze-Joannis, the nephew of Madame Joannis, and then with the Frères Gris (Grey Brothers). For his secondary education he went to the minor seminary of Aix. Finally, he followed the formation given to the Oblate novices and scholastics at Aix and at Notre-Dame du Laus. He was ordained on June 16, 1821.

Missionary and Treasurer

In 1821 and again in 1823 – 1824 he was treasurer in the community recently formed at Le Calvaire in Marseilles; in 1822 he fulfilled the same task at Aix and then at Notre-Dame du Laus from 1825 to 1830.

During his stay in Marseilles, he collaborated closely with Father Tempier in purchasing the houses of the enclosure at the Accoules, their demolition and the building of the house which was the property of the Oblates until they were expelled in 1903. In 1822 – 1823 he also organized a successful drive for funds which made it possible to finance the building enterprise. In this regard he wrote to Father de Mazenod on September 14, 1826: “You will never find a treasurer who is up to my standard, you yourself have given me the title of skillful and incomparable treasurer who has no equal.”

In the three communities where he lived, Father Dupuy did not get along with his confreres. He was well aware of the dominant fault that was at the root of this habitual disagreement. On June 4, 1825 he described it to the Founder as follows: “My dear Father, you know better than anyone that I am blind to my own faults and too easily perceive those of others, and, what is worse, that I do not know how to keep silent about the latter even when it would be absolutely necessary to do so.” Father Dupuy preached some ten missions with Fathers Mie, Honorat, Jeancard, Suzanne, Moreau, Guibert and especially Albini. At first he made fun of the latter because of his piety and “mysticism” but later he asked that he always be teamed up with Father Albini when he was sent out to preach.
Father Albini’s example induced him to strive for perfection. It is only from then on that we find in his many letters some reflections that are supernatural. For example, on October 7, 1826, he wrote to the Founder: “The good Lord has willed that this mission (Upaix) contribute more to our own salvation than to the conversion of the people … May his Holy Name be praised! We praise Him as much and even more than if the success had been up to our expectations. The Lord knows how necessary is the virtue of humility for apostolic men. And so we all took the resolution, and I especially for I need it more than anyone else, to work intensely to acquire this holy, precious and sublime virtue that all the saints have practiced throughout their lives.”

Departure from the Congregation

Shortly after 1830 Father Dupuy asked to leave the Congregation. In 1825 he was aware that they were considering dismissing him. As he was very much attached to Father de Mazenod and to his religious family, he asked the Founder, on October 11, 1825, to be allowed to stay, even as a simple “servant brother”. As he put it: “I was thinking that you had decided to send me away, be it because of the bad example that I give to the community, be it to rid your community of this half-religious who can only harm the community’s good. This thought really made me suffer. I was unable to console myself and I grieved in God’s presence that I, unfortunately for myself, was as I am, a stumbling block and a scandal, even though I know myself to be unworthy to live in such a holy house and in the company of holy men. Though I cannot but acknowledge that in expelling me from the Society you would be giving me the treatment that I deserve, I was nevertheless deeply and bitterly afflicted by the decision that I thought you had already taken. In spite of that, I did not have the slightest intention of leaving the house; even if I clearly perceived that I was to be expelled, I would not have left it on my own for all that; I would have waited in adoration of the designs of Providence for the fatal moment and then it would have been necessary to push me out in some way…”

In 1830, however, he asked permission to leave because he admitted that he was not sufficiently gifted for the missions and was unable to live in peace within a community. Moreover, he felt himself to be only half an Oblate, for he had never taken the vow of poverty.

The General Council agreed to his departure and explained their consent as follows: “We saw fit to continue with this exception (from the vow of poverty) in M. Dupuy’s favour and to keep him thus within the Society for which he professed a sincere devotedness and to which he was able to provide many services. We nevertheless soon noticed that this exceptional existence put him in a sort of false situation within the Society… Today he is asking to leave and we think it good to grant him his request because, not having made the vow of poverty, he cannot be constrained to live the common life, a fact that would be a serious inconvenience if he were to remain a member of the Congregation; also because his rather particular and original character could have a bad effect in our communities and would not fail to compromise us with others outside [our Society]…”.(Reg. des expulsions et dispenses, s.d.)

Secular Priest
It can be said that his departure was providential for the Congregation. It is thanks to him that the Oblates came to Notre-Dame de l’Osier in 1834, a place where they were still present until recently.

When he left Notre-Dame du Laus, the Abbé Dupuy entered the service of Bishop Philibert de Bruillard of Grenoble. The latter appointed him parish priest of Notre-Dame de l’Osier, also in the hope that he would give new life to the Marian shrine there; it had been abandoned since the French Revolution. In the beginning of 1834 the new parish priest purchased the former Augustinian monastery that was adjacent to the shrine and set about restoring it. Father T. Dassy, who was recovering from a serious illness and needed a change of air, came to spend the summer with him. Father Dassy was a good preacher and easily made contacts with people and he worked so well that he won the Bishop’s confidence and obtained, with the Abbé Dupuy’s consent, that the shrine and the parish of l’Osier be entrusted to the Oblates as early as the end of 1834.

This fifth house, of which Father Guigues was the first Superior, brought a breath of fresh air into the Congregation as it had been marking time since 1830 when foundations in Algeria, in Sardinia or in Savoy were found to be impossible.

In 1837 the Abbé Dupuy sold his properties at Notre-Dame de l’Osier to the Oblates and then transferred to the service of Bishop de Mazenod, who in that year had become the Bishop of Marseilles. He was first made pastor of the Chartreux church and in 1844 he was made a Canon.

As a friend of the Bishop and of Canon Jeancard, he had free access to the bishop’s house and in the temporal affairs of the diocese he often worked together with Father Tempier, even though he did not quite match the latter’s capabilities. In fact, he spent the last years of his life as a poor man because of a series of bad financial transactions.

After the death of Bishop de Mazenod, Canon Dupuy spoke up to defend the deceased Bishop and the Oblates against the claims that Bishop Cruice made against certain Oblate properties. He was at that time renting an apartment owned by the Oblates near the church of Le Calvaire. In this church he provided for several years the services in the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. He was waiting for the moment when he could retire from serving the diocese and go to Notre-Dame de l’Osier where he hoped to die.

After becoming Archbishop of Paris in 1871, Archbishop Guibert wanted to attach his old friend and missionary confrere of Provence to his own church and so Canon Dupuy was made an honorary canon of Notre-Dame of Paris. Having been seriously inconvenienced by financial worries until then, the Canon could now finally retire to Notre-Dame de l’Osier. Here, until his death on August 21, 1880, he again collaborated with the Oblates. He lived in a house that he had built for himself near the basilica, and that house became the residence of the Oblates when the monastery burned down on Christmas eve of 1947.

Yvon Beaudoin, omi