Born at Monteux (Vaucluse), April 4, 1828.
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, October 2, 1851.
Oblation at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, October 14, 1852. (no. 332)
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles, December 17, 1853.
Died at Notre-Dame de Lumières, October 26, 1893.
Auguste Bermès was born at Monteux in the diocese of Avignon on April 4, 1828, son of Marie Barral and Mathieu Bermès. He studied at the minor seminary of Avignon from 1841 to 1848 and at the major seminary of that same city from 1848 to 1851. He began his novitiate at Notre-Dame de l’Osier on October 2, 1851 and it was there that he made his oblation on October 14, 1852. The Council General admitted him to vows in their session of October 5 “based on the favourable comments from Reverend Father Novice Master with regard to the prayer life and the talents of this novice, in spite of the fact that he is somewhat lacking as to his disposition which is somewhat lazy and stolid.
After his oblation, scholastic brother Bermès did his final year of theology at the major seminary at Marseilles. Father Mouchette, moderator of the scholastics, judges him rather harshly. Among other things, he wrote in his 1853 report: “Bermès, very slow, listless in exercises of piety and others; it is only at recreation time that he is alert and stimulates the others; his slowness does, however, become evident when he is not involved in the games; what he needs is to be always in a hurry; his work bears the mark of this disposition of his temperament. It is my impression that he wastes a lot of time; he gets along well with all his confreres.”
Brother Bermès was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop de Mazenod on December 17, 1853. He followed the lectures on eloquence of the “advanced course” in September 1853 and subsequently preached all his life, while serving as treasurer in several houses and as superior at Notre-Dame de Lumières in 1867-1870. According to his letters, those of his contemporaries and the review Missions O.M.I., Father Bermès was at Notre-Dame de Lumières from 1854 to 1856, at Le Calvaire in Marseilles from 1856 to 1857, treasurer at Vico, then at Ajaccio from 1857 to 1862 treasurer at Le Calvaire from 1862 to 1865 and at Fréjus from 1864 to 1865, at Aix from 1865 to 1867, superior at Notre-Dame de Lumières from 1867 to 1870, at Limoges from 1871 to 1872, at Talence brom 1872 to 1874, at Nancy from 1874 to 1876, at Saint-Andelain from 1876 to 1877, at Bordeaux from 1878 to 1893, at Notre-Dame de Lumières in July of 1893. That is where he died on October 26, 1893.
Nothing has been written about him. In Missions O.M.I. His name appears several times in the list of parish missions and retreats preached by the Oblates, but we find very little with regard to an evaluation of his ability as a preacher or of his virtues. When he left Aix in 1867, it was said that at the boarding school of the Ladies of the Blessed Sacrament where he was chaplain, he was “missed by everyone.”
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
