Jean-Ovide Védrenne

Many young people, discouraged with life, attempt suicide! That is a fact of life reported regularly in the newspapers. How sad! The world needs them so much! Why don’t they do like Ovide Védrenne? Here is his history: it tells of the mercy of God and the maternal care of Mary.

A real devil!
Ovide was born in France in 1831 and was enrolled in a Freemason’s youth group early in life. A brilliant student, gifted with unusual intelligence, but lazy, he became deeply involved in the Revolution of 1848. Thrown in prison then released, he entered a military academy where he got into all kinds of trouble. When he was twenty, he joined the African Zouaves. He was known for his courage as well as for his misdemeanors. “He was a real devil”, said one of his companions. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant three times, and three times was degraded for insubordination. All he had left was his many citations and medals, that he called his “kitchen utensils”! When the epidemics broke out in the army in the Crimea, he devoted himself to the care of the sick and contracted typhus. Given his serious condition, the chaplain tried to reach out to him but was bluntly rejected. By dint of her kindness, however, a Sister of Charity managed to make him accept a medal of the Blessed Virgin that he wore faithfully. It brought him health in body and soul.

A failed suicide
The day the peace was signed, our daredevil, removed from the battle fields and with little taste for civil life, decided to kill himself. His best friend, who had made the same decision, was the first to use the only pistol they had. Védrenne was about to do the same when friends, who had heard the first shot, rushed in to stay his arm and made him give up the suicide. A few days later, while walking along Cannebière Street in Marseilles, penniless and desperate, he met a priest. He abruptly said to him: “Father, I want to go to confession, but not to you because you are too young.” The priest then led him to Fr Louis Genthon, an Oblate, who was chaplain at Calvary church.

A Missionary without equal
After his confession the curious penitent looked at the religious. “But you are not like the other priests! You carry a crucifix in your belt like a gun….” “That is because I belong to a religious Order called the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.” “Eh! What are you saying? Missionaries… That sounds like something far away and rough.… And is Mary the General? … Is there a way to join your group?” “Perhaps, but that is up to the Provincial.” “The Provincial? Is he the recruiting officer?” “That’s right.…” The provincial at the time was a former missionary of the Americas, Fr François-Xavier Bermond. He welcomed the convert warmly and after a few days of thought directed him to the Notre-Dame de l’Osier novitiate. Despite the fact that he was thirty-five years old Védrenne resolutely began living the Rule and bending to the requirements of religious life. After ordination the former soldier was sent to Ceylon. For a score of years he edified his confreres and the faithful. “Oh God, forgive me. Ah! If I had known you earlier,” he often repeated. In 1888, he became seriously ill. The end was near. A confrere tried to comfort him saying: “Fr Védrenne, you love the Blessed Virgin, don’t you?” He answered “Eh! Who told you I didn’t? A Zouave does not tremble in the face of death. This morning, I warned God that he was going to receive a famous rascal today….” He died bravely and feisty, as he had lived, at the age of fifty-seven.

André DORVAL, OMI