Born at Gardanne (Bouches-du-Rhône), on February 25, 1809
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame du Laus, January 6, 1832
Oblation at Notre-Dame du Laus, January 6, 1833 (no. 52)
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles April 6, 1833
Expelled from the Congregation, May 7, 1837.

Marcellin, almost always called by this name by Oblates, was born at Gardanne, diocese of Aix, February 25, 1809. When he finished his seminary studies, he made his novitiate at Notre-Dame du Laus from January 6, 1832 to January 6, 1833. Bishop Eugene de Mazenod, Bishop of Icosia ordained him to the priesthood at Marseilles April 6, 1833.

Marcellin received his first obedience for Le Calvaire where he remained for a few months doing “absolutely nothing.” (Registry of Expulsions) On October 29, 1833, the Founder wrote Father Tempier from Rome: “Take care not to discourage Marcellin; he mustn’t be made too conscious of his mediocrity, that would quite incapacitate him; he has good qulaites, he should be helped to exploit them.” (Letters to the Oblates of France, 1831-1836, Oblate Writings I, vol. 8, no. 471, p. 111)

In the autumn of 1833, he was sent to Aix “where by his stupidity and thoughtlessness, he would have ended up becoming compromised at the hospital on a very sensitive issue.” He was subsequently recalled to Le Calvaire under the direction of Casimir Aubert, Master of Novices and Director of the young priests. In his April 20, l834 report, Father Aubert wrote that Fathers Dassy and Marcellin benefited from the semi-retreat to which they were submitted. “Father Marcellin, still not well trained in the religious life, really had need of such circumstances to gain what he is lacking. He adjusted well enough to the quiet and hidden life we lead inside our communities. He acquired some kind of an idea of recollection, of decorous behaviour and has achieved an understanding that there was merit in practicing them. But, above all, he has straightened himself out a lot with regard to his illusion of being intellectually endowed and with regard to self-love.”

The novices and Father Aubert were sent to Notre-Dame du Laus in September 1835 and Father Marcellin followed them. He ministered to the pilgrims. In January of 1836, he took part in the parish mission at La Faurie where he spent “entire days in a foul mood.” He went as well to the mission of Fontvieille in January of 1837. There, he conducted himself in an unworthy fashion, “apparently humiliated because he was eclipsed by the performances of Fathers Mille and Cuynat… In his February 7 entry of his Diary, the Founder wrote that “this conduct was not designed to make people forget his performance at Notre-Dame du Laus where his grumbling, his lack of regularity along with his usual lack of virtue would already have won for him his expulsion. The opinion expressed concerning him during this last mission is not calculated to reassure me much on his account. Father Marcellin, they write me, conducted himself in an unworthy manner the first days and he did not mend his ways. He did not go to confession during the entire mission, neither to Father Mille, nor to Father Cuynat. His conduct is that of a man without virtue and he will never fulfill the ideal of being a genuine missionary.”

On the 13th of the following February, Bishop de Mazenod once again commented on this conduct: New details on the mission of Fontvieille. “Less than that would be required to ensure the expulsion of an individual who demonstrated how stupid, arrogant, irreligious, so disobedient, who has given so little hope of mending his ways. The truth of the matter is that we should never have allowed him to make vows. He never gave me one moment of reassurance and the fears that I began to have as soon as I had the opportunity to get to know him were only too evident and it not only since yesterday that these possibilities have begun to worry me. This wretched individual made his novitiate at Laus. The Masters of Novices could never be too careful in order not to labor under any misconceptions concerning external appearances. One can be deceived for a few months, but in the space of one year, if one is attentive in keeping watch over those under one’s charge and whom one is called to recommend when presenting them to the Superior General who often does not know them at all, it is not possible that one would not be perfectly capable of judging the true worth of a candidate. What belated regrets would we not save ourselves…”

After the mission of Fontvieille when he disobeyed his superior, Father Mille, Father Marcellin received his obedience for Aix. After a few days in this house, he wrote a letter to the Founder expressing his astonishment at not being assigned to work on some mission and asked to be withdrawn from this house “where he is unhappy because he never liked that city.” A few days later, Father Magnan sent the Founder a “crushingly” negative letter concerning Father Marcellin, accusing him of being a false confrere. A declared enemy of our Congregation would not have spoken so badly of our Congregation, the Founder noted in his Diary in a March 4th entry. “Father Magnan has made a very accurate judgment of this bad behaviour. His letter will be helpful in the process, that is, what I will submit to the council members for consideration when we will soon treat of the question of expelling this wretched individual from the family, a family to which he has contributed nothing other than worry and pain.”

Meeting on the 7th of March, 1837, the General Council made the unanimous decision to expel Father Marcellin. The reasons listed in the act of expulsion are many and serious. In his Diary entry of the same day, the Founder made the following comments about this event: “The council, having before it all of the facts that came to my knowledge and the overall conduct of Father Grognard since the time of his admission among us until today, the result has been a unanimous decision that this individual should be expelled from the Congregation. This is not the place to list the grievances upon which this decision was based. He was judged as being incapable of doing good in the congregation, harmful to its members and to the body of the congregation and absolutely unworthy of being tolerated any longer in our midst. Declarations made by Fathers Hermitte and Gignoux, the letters of Father Mille, Father Courtès and Father Magnan, the well grounded opinions of the greater number of those who lived with him in the different houses where its members worked on missions with him, were all reviewed. A certain and definite conclusion was reached as to the necessity of cutting off this dysfunctional member who never genuinely bonded with us from the body which he constantly drained of energy, never comforted, never helped, whose expectations he never met in anything. The consequence of the council’s decision will of necessity be the dispensation from his vows, a consequence of which he has been all too much deserving.”

On Bishop de Mazenod’s recommendation, Abbé Grognard was then placed in a parish in Aix, his diocese of origin.

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.