Born: Saint-Étienne de Tinée, near Nice, France, November 18, 1820
Priestly ordination: June 6, 1846
Took the habit: N.-D. de l’Osier, March 8, 1847
Vows: N.-D. de l’Osier, September 8, 1847 (No. 176)
Died: Jaffna, September 10, 1853.
Joseph Alexandre Ciamin was born in Saint-Étienne de Tinée, diocese of Nice, on November 18, 1820. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 6, 1846 and he entered the Oblate novitiate in Notre-Dame de l’Osier on March 8, 1847. It was there that he took vows on the following September 8, having obtained a dispensation from six months of novitiate from the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars.
Bishop de Mazenod had just agreed to send Oblates to Ceylon. He needed men who were available without delay. The novice Ciamin, already ordained to the priesthood, had entered the Congregation to go on the foreign missions. He was chosen as a member of the first group of missionaries together with Fathers Étienne Semeria, Louis Marie Keating, and Brother Giuseppe de Steffanis. Having left Marseilles on October 21, 1847, they arrived in Gall, Ceylon, on November 28.
Bishop Horace Bettachini, vicar apostolic of Jaffna, immediately sent Father Ciamin to Mantotte where the Goan pastor of the village had become schismatic. He was unable to remain there because the Goan priest and his followers refused to receive the bishop’s man. Father Ciamin ministered in Mannar and later in Point Pedro in 1849-1850 and then in Mantotte in 1851. Since communications were not easy between Mantotte and Jaffna, he wrote little to Father Semeria who considered him to be too independent and not very obedient. When he learned of this situation, Bishop de Mazenod was concerned and he told Father Semeria that Father Ciamin would have to be recalled to Jaffna and, if necessary, sent back to France. Father Ciamin, who had to deal with the Goan schismatics, defended himself energetically against the accusations of Father Semeria. “To doubt my fidelity” he wrote, “is blasphemous and gravely injurious to me. I beseech you, if you do not wish to treat me in a manner that is seriously wrongful, to believe that I am your most sincere friend and most devoted brother.”
Later, Bishop de Mazenod rejoiced at the good understanding that existed between the two missionaries and he wrote to Father Semeria, on February 21, 1849: “Long live Father Ciamin. His behaviour is charming. His only fault is that he does not write to me.” On November 10 of that year he suggested that Father Ciamin be appointed second councillor of Father Semeria: “He is a good man; he has dignity, his attitude is good.” In fact Father Ciamin was appointed councillor by the General Council on July 2, 1851.
At the end of 1851 Father Ciamin became ill and was recalled to Jaffna. Father Semeria mentioned consumption or tuberculosis. Bishop de Mazenod gave a good deion of the illness in a letter written on July 2, 1852. “The news you give me about the illness of good Father Ciamin afflicts me deeply. Since he is coughing and spitting blood, he must rest his vocal organs completely… It is absolutely necessary that the irritation in his chest be softened so that tubercles do not form in his lungs.”
The illness worsened and the doctors gave no hope of a cure. Father Ciamin wanted to come back to die in France. In a letter dated April 9, 1853, Bishop de Mazenod encouraged the patient. He invited him to be submissive to the will of God and to give up the idea of a voyage which would be very expensive, useless and even dangerous because he might die on the way with no spiritual consolation. He died in Jaffna on November 10, 1853. In a long letter to the Founder, dated January 28, Father Semeria described the suffering of the dying man, his patience and his holy death. Two days earlier he had written to Father Ciamin: “If God calls you to himself, what does it matter whether it is by the arrows of the infidels or death inflicted by the executioner, or by the little fire of illness contracted in the exercise of a great ministry, preaching the Gospel for the sanctification of souls. The martyr of charity will not receive less recompense than the one who dies for the faith. Have courage, therefore, my dear son, you have fought well, you are assured of your crown, because the word of the Master is infallible…”
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
