Born in Wixham, England on 25 October 1822
Took the habit in Maryvale on 7 December 1850
Oblation in N.-D. de l’Osier on 8 December 1851 (No. 320)
Priestly ordination in Marseilles on 26 June 1853
Expelled on 3 January 1854.
George Cooper was born in Wixham, England, on 25 October 1822. He was received in the Maryvale novitiate by Father Casimir Aubert on 7 December 1850. He continued his novitiate in Notre-Dame de l’Osier and pronounced his vows before Father Gustave Richard on 8 December 1851. The General Council had admitted him to profession on the preceding 20 November, with the following remarks: “Cooper is a young man d’un grand sens, even something a little uncouth in his character. He has done his philosophy and is versed in controversy. He gave evidence of a considerable facility for preaching, has plenty of determination and has demonstrated he has the capacity to suffer patiently the change of climate and food; by bending a little more he should succeed alright. Admitted unanimously, he should take his vows on 8 December.”
He did two years of theology in the major seminary in Marseilles. His name appears in only one report of Father Marchal, the scholasticate formator, in July 1853. We read: “Brother Cooper is a man who eludes definition. I would say something of his virtues but they seem to me so hedged in with limits that I do not dare even to call them virtues, and of his faults I could say much. Within he is a sleeping volcano, waiting to explode; on the outside, he emits a stream of complaints and the most outrageous slanders. If I had to paint him, I would give him the outer semblance of a hypocrite, the interior of a proud man. He gets on with practically no one. In his favour could be his strong zeal and perhaps his facility in controversy.”
Despite this very negative judgment, Brother Cooper had been ordained priest by Bishop de Mazenod on the preceding 26 June. The general council decided on his expulsion on 3 January 1854 because he “obstinately refused to conform to an order he had received in the name of obedience” to go from Liverpool to Leeds. He then sent Father Casimir a letter “as bad in substance as in form. This letter is nothing but a tissue of insolence, false argument, exaggeration; it is the expression of hurt pride.” It is added that he “on several occasions offended the rule of temperance in drinking strong liquor to excess”, that he is irregular, insubordinate, “that there is no hope of bringing this person to acknowledge the error of his ways.”
Yvon Beaudoin
and Michael Hughes, o.m.i.
