Brun, Jacques Auguste

Born at Briançonnet (Var), March 11, 1807.
Ordination to the priesthood, March 15, 1834.
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, October 31, 1848.
Oblation at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, November 1, 1849. (no. 265)
Died at Notre-Dame de Talence, January 9, 1883.

Jacques, Auguste Brun was born at Briançonnet in the diocese of Nice on March 11, 1807. He studied Latin at the Jesuit college of Forcalquier. He did his last year of classical studies at the minor seminary of Grasse and his theology at the major seminary of Fréjus. Ordained to the priesthood on March 15, 1834, he lived with his older brother who was parish priest of Soleilhas where he started a small college. In 1837, he closed this college and was appointed the principal of the college of Castellane where he remained for six years. In 1843, he started a boarding school at La Ciotat in the diocese of Marseilles. In these successive posts, wrote Father Fabre: “Abbé Brun had always shown himself to be a worthy priest, imbued with a good prayer life and a lively faith and, under the influence of these virtues, he bound himself to his duty, no matter how painful it might be. Physically well proportioned with a kindly appearance and a cheerful, exuberant character, he easily won the hearts of those who had contact with him. To this set of external qualities, he added that of a rather extensive literary learning, a ready flow of words and especially a great goodness of heart.”

At Marseilles, he got to know the Oblates and entered the novitiate at Notre-Dame de l’Osier on October 31, 1848. After his oblation on November 1, 1849, he spent a year at Parménie near l’Osier, some time at Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, then, at Limoges where he preached a number of missions in the local dialect. In January of 1854, Bishop de Mazenod appointed him the first Oblate superior and parish priest at Notre-Dame de Clery in the diocese of Orléans. He was beloved at parish priest, but showed himself too generous toward the bishop, turning over to him almost all of the parish revenues. On September 28, the Founder asked Father Vincens, the provincial, to go give Father Brun some advice. “This good man,” he wrote, “is too much of a mother and quite without energy. It was our miserable lack of superiorship material which forced us to lay this burden on him, one that exceeds his powers.” (Oblate Writings I, vol. 11, no. 1251, p. 247)

In December of 1855, Father Brun was replaced at Cléry by Father l’Hermite and was sent to Vico in Corsica to take over the direction of the college opened by Bishop Casanelli d’Istria in view of preparing vocations for the ecclesiastical state. A hand firmer than that of Father Brun would have been necessary to maintain discipline. In 1858, he was appointed treasurer, professor of formation of pastoral training and of history at the major seminary of Ajaccio.

In 1860, he left Corsica to take up parish ministry once more as assistant priest at Notre-Dame de Talence, then from 1863 to 1876 as parish priest of Saint-Jean of Autun where he restored the church after the Garabaldian occupation of 1870. In 1876, a stroke, which paralysed him, rendered him incapable of administering the parish. He was sent to Talence to be cared for by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux. He still helped out in the parish, He said Mass for the sisters as well acting as their confessor.

In September of 1882, he was subjected to a renewed attack of paralysis. Father Brun was sent to the hospital of Saint André of Bordeaux where he died on January 9, 1883. Father Fabre concludes his obituary by saying: “He was really that worthy man who obtained grace from the Lord and who, from his heart enriched by heavenly gifts, brought forth treasures of good example, work well done, solid virtue and great merit. (Matthew 12:35)

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.