- Parish, Shrine, House of Parish Mission Preachers
- Our Lady of the Seven Dolors at Talence (1853-1903)
- The Expulsions of 1880 and 1903
Parish, Shrine, House of Parish Mission Preachers
Notre-Dame de Talence (Deves).
The Oblates arrived in the diocese of Bordeaux in 1851. That year, Father Ambroise Vincens preached the priests’ retreat there. Archbishop A. Donnet attended the conferences during which the preacher urged strongly the preaching of parish missions. Already by the end of the retreat, the archbishop had begun negotiations with Bishop de Mazenod whom he knew through Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson with whom he had worked as a coadjutor in Nancy from 1835 to 1837. He received an affirmative response from the Founder, all the more so since Bishop Donnet had promised him to entrust to the Oblates the shrine of Talence which was still being served by Abbé Carroz. While awaiting to find a posting suitable for this Abbé, the Oblates would be housed at Saint-Delphin de Pont-de-la-Maye in a property belonging to the diocese near the city.
For some years already, Father Dassy was the one to whom the Founder entrusted the business of founding new Oblate communities. He wrote to him on October 5, 1851, giving him two days to orient his successor. Then, with all haste, he was to travel to Bordeaux to set up a new establishment. “You are aware of what my expectations are of you in so delicate an affair. There will be an enormous amount of good to be done in this diocese, the important thing is to get established there under good auspices and to strike the right attitude from the beginning. You are a past master at this kind of thing. So call fervently on the Lord and our good Mother, and then use all your skill to ensure success.” (Oblate Writings I, vol. 11, no. 1088, p. 61) After a few days, Father Dassy was already in Bordeaux with Father D.A. Depetro. Shortly after, they were followed by Father Mark L’Hermite and Brother François Picard, then by Father Léon Delpeuch during the summer of 1852. They remained at Saint-Delphin for fifteen months and, continuously, they preached parish missions. In the course of their first mission given at Saint-Estèphe in the Médoc, Father Dassy preached fifty times in six weeks and three times heard the confessions of the six hundred penitents who came to him.
Our Lady of the Seven Dolors at Talence (1853-1903)
In January 1853, Abbé Carroz, the parish priest, was assigned to the parish of Langon. And on February 13 of that year, the Oblates took on responsibility for the parish of Talence which was also the site for the pilgrimage of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows.
The village of Talence is situated three kilometres south-west of Bordeaux and had fifteen hundred residents. In 1903, it numbered more than twelve thousand residents. In order to deal with the needs of the three works entrusted to the Congregation, a rather large team was called for. Already in 1854, we find six priests and two brothers in the community. This number gradually grew to reach ten priests and three or four brothers.
The Parish
It was made up of a recently constructed church and a large rectory which, on the occasion of the 1856 Chapter, they already were finding too small and too inconvenient for their needs. In the course of fifty years, only six priests were parish priests there. Toussaint Dassy (February-July 1853), Hector Merlin (1853-1863), Jean Jeanmaire (1863-1876), Peter Ramadier (1876-1895), Pierre Coubrun (1895-1900) and Charles Royer (1900-1903). Two or three priests also acted as parish assistants, taking care of several works, teaching catechism, etc.
The Shrine
The church of Talence also served as a Marian shrine. According to tradition, toward the beginning of the XII century, the Blessed Virgin appeared there, holding on her lap the lifeless body of her son, Jesus. There was subsequently built there under the title of Our Lady of Rama (twig or branch) a chapel where the faithful soon began to gather to honour the Sorrowful Mother. During the Hundred Years war with the English in the XIV and XV centuries and during the wars of religion (end of the XVI century), the church was ransacked. Rebuilt from its ruins in 1729, it was destroyed anew during the Revolution. From 1821 on it was rebuilt, and from that time on, it continued as the centre for pilgrimages of Our Lady of Pity or Compassion.
The Oblates welcomed the pilgrims who came in rather large numbers. In the report of the activities of the Congregation in 1854-1855 and 1857-1858, Father Casimir Aubert wrote that the number of pilgrims was growing. However, reports submitted by the superiors remained very restrained and only speak of the pilgrimages during the month of May. For example, in May 1880, there were 44 organized pilgrimages coming from parishes and institutions in Bordeaux, 54 pilgrimages in 1890 and 62 in 1895. A brief from the Holy See authorized the coronation of Our Lady of Talence on May 4, 1895.
Parish Missions
There, like pretty well everywhere else in France, the Oblates worked as tireless mission preachers. The superiors reports published in Missions OMI, give a good deal of information on this apostolate, an apostolate already successfully launched by Fathers Vincens and Dassy in 1851-1852. The missionary campaign began on the day after the annual retreat, November 1, and finished in May or June. For example, the priests preached 16 missions and jubilees in 1854-1855; 12 missions, 29 retreats and many individual sermons in 1863-1864; 21 missions and 24 retreats in 1865-1866; 12 missions and 40 other works in 1872-1873. Activity was suspended during the war of 1870-1871 and during the expulsions of 1880, but in the few reports still extant from 1888 to 1903 we see that the priests were still doing a lot of preaching: 17 missions and Lenten series and 58 retreats in 1893, 19 missions and Lenten series and 85 retreats in 1895, etc. In the report of that year, we learn that the Oblates were rarely asked to preach in the cities and remained especially “rural missionaries” with a great deal of success in the Médoc. In point of fact, they criss-crossed the entire south-west region of France.
The Expulsions of 1880 and 1903
During the expulsions of 1880, Father Ramadier, the parish priest, and three priests reduced to diocesan status, were authorized to remain there to serve the parish. The other priests, harboured by various families, returned little by little without attracting the attention of the civil authorities.
The expulsions of 1903 had a more serious impact. The chief of police appeared on their doorstep on, Good Friday, April 10 and served notice that the religious were to leave the house in two weeks’ time. The parish priest said good-bye to his congregation on Easter Sunday. The chief of police returned on April 20 to see whether the dispersal had actually taken place. At that time, three priests left for Canada, three of them left for Belgium and one for the Transvaal, one for the Natal, etc.
Return of the Oblates to Talence
The Parish
In 1940, in answer to an appeal from Bishop Maurice Feltin, the archbishop of Bordeaux at the time, Father Théodore Labouré, the Superior General accepted that the Oblates should once again take charge of the parish of Talence. On April 28, 1940, the bishop came to install the new parish priest, Father Marcel Brémont. The pastoral charge of the pilgrimage and the parish which boasted more than 20,000 residents was provided by the parish priest and a few assistant priests. Some detailed reports on parish life from 1947 to 1951 inform us that there were some fifteen works and very active movements and especially two free schools with more than 400 students supported by the generosity of the local Catholics. The pilgrims came especially in the month of May as they had done in the past. The most moving of the pilgrimages was that of the sick due to Father Henri d’Armagnac, parish priest from 1946 to 1957. But the pilgrimage “was almost entirely overshadowed by the spectacular development of the parish.” (Missions OMI, 1961, p. 190) The rectory had been set up as a religious house in 1948; it was suppressed in 1976. The Oblates left the parish in September of 1976 but in 1970, they had accepted the parish of Saint-Rémi in Bordeaux, as being judged more in accord with the Oblate vocation. The last superior and parish priest was Father Maxime Chaigne.
House of Mission Preachers
Before the expulsions, the community of Talence had always had several mission preachers among its members. Subsequently, a few mission preachers returned little by little and continued their preaching ministry. In order to avoid coming to the attention of the civil authorities, they were so discreet that they have left us in the dark as to when and where they lived as a community. We do, however, know that, in virtue of an indult granted by the Congregation of Religious dated November 22, 1926, the community of Talence which from the time of 1851 had been a part of the province of France-Nord, was transferred to the Midi province. According to a report published in Missions OMI of 1932, from 1928 to 1931, the four or five missionaries preached 36 parish missions and retreats, 154 other retreats and 309 individual sermons. The OMI Personnels which from 1903 on, never mentioned the Oblates in France, began to mention them in 1937. But there does exist a 1933 polycopied list in which the missionaries’ community is listed at the address of no. 141, Cours Gambetta. This residence was closed from 1940 to 1948 because of the war. When it was reopened, it was canonically erected as a religious house in 1950, then as a simple residence in 1969 and finally suppressed in 1974. It was made up of ten priests because from 1948 on, it also housed the chaplains of the lyceum and, after 1967, the chaplains of the sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux. The last superior was Father Jean Chabalier.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
