Roque, Théodore

Born at Marseilles, on November 13, 1826.
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles on July 8, 1849.
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame de l’Osier on December 7, 1852.
Oblation at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, December 8, 1853. (no. 361)
Died at Madrid on March 23, 1891.

Théodore Roque was born at Marseilles on November 13, 1826. He made his secondary studies at that city’s lyceum and at the same time took part in Fr. Allemand’s youth movement. At the end of his major seminary studies, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop de Mazenod on July 8, 1849 and appointed assistant priest in the parish of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. He entered the novitiate of Notre-Dame de l’Osier on December 7, 1852 and made his oblation on December 8, 1853. He was admitted to vows in the November 4, 1853 session of the General Council. The secretary wrote in the report of the session: “Endowed with a rare prayer life, a great spirit of regular observance and an uncommon love of religious life, this novice enjoys a happy disposition and a tractable character with good health and at least average talent […] He has been consistently a model of all virtues and the edification of the novitiate during his trial year.”

The Founder had planned to leave him for some time at l’Osier “in order to continue giving good example and encouraging the priests who come to the novitiate.” But, upon the request of Father Charles Bellon, Father Roque was immediately sent to the major seminary at Romans as professor of dogma and canon law. When the Oblates relinquished the direction of this seminary in 1857, Father Roque received his obedience for Le Calvaire in Marseilles with responsibility for the movement under the patronage of Saint Joseph and as chaplain to the Ladies of Nazareth.

In 1860, he was sent to the Oblate house in Bordeaux to minister to the Sisters of the Holy Family. He remained there as confessor and mission preacher until 1887. That year, he was appointed director of the community of the Oblates in Madrid, chaplains of the Sisters of the Holy Family. Struck down by pneumonia during the winter of 1891, he died on March 23.

The author of his obituary wrote: “From the very first months of his ministry [in Bordeaux], coming into contact with religious women who, following the example of Saint Teresa, were thirsting for wise and enlightened direction, Father Roque, by a kind of sixth sense, soon understood the religious temperament of each one of his spiritual daughters. His sensitive spirit, his experience of matters of the soul, his calmness amidst problems of conscience, and especially his devotion and his charity, made of him the spiritual father the Holy Family will long remember. What we especially treasured in him was his equanimity and, in spite of his high degree of sensitivity, he knew how by daily efforts to communicate to other souls as well as his own this truth that is so fitting in religion as it is in other things and which one must understand in order to avoid disappointments: in medio virtus.”

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.