Biography

September 23, 1906, the General Chapter held in Rome elected Fr. Auguste Lavillardière Superior General, on the first ballot and by a strong majority of votes (44 of 50). The Congregation welcomed the appointment with satisfaction. Immediately after the Chapter, he briefly visited the Oblates in Italy, France, Belgium, and Holland. But already during this long tour, the illness of which he had felt the first symptoms during the Chapter got worse. He had to stay in Lyons from where he looked after the affairs of the Congregation; he kept in close contact with the members of the General Council in Rome and carried on an extensive correspondence with the Oblates. His disease, cancer, prevented him from returning to the General House in Rome and forced him to appoint a Vicar General for the Congregationon on September 23,1907. He died in Lyons on January 28, 1908.