North American Center for Marianist Studies

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Boyhood (1761-1771)

Périgueux; the Chaminade family; Blaise Chaminade; Périgord; attachment of the Chaminade family to their religion; the children; the religious vocation of Jean Baptiste and Blaise; William, the fourteenth child; William’s early education and the influence of this mother; first schooling at Périgueux; at Confirmation William takes the name of Joseph, henceforth his preferred Christian name.

Chapter 2

The Student (1771-1785)

Mussidan; Congregation of St. Charles; Mussidan college; J.B. Chaminade at Mussidan; Joseph and his brother Louis, students at the college; Joseph’s first Communion; devotion to the Blessed Sacrament; the practice of mental prayer; devotion to Mary; accident and miraculous cure; pilgrimage to Verdelais; two brothers become priests; Joseph’s private vows; affiliation to the Congregation of St. Charles; Fr. Noël Lacroix; Louis and Joseph in Paris; ordination; return to Mussidan.

Chapter 3

The First Ventures (1785-1792)

Joseph Chaminade, treasurer of the collège; rule of the community of St. Charles; reputation of the Chaminade brothers; the seer, Suzette Labrousse; Joseph, deputy to the assembly of ecclesiastic electors of Périgord clergy; good example of the Congregation of St. Charles; Louis and Joseph at Mussidan; Joseph in Bordeaux; relations with Fr. Langoiran: the property of Saint Laurent and residence there with father and mother; massacre of Fr. Langoiran; new oath stressing equality; Blaise Chaminade in exile, his mortified life, his death; Louis Chaminade exiled to Spain.

Chapter 4

Sacred Ministry during the Reign of Terror (1793-1794)

Bordeaux: relative calm at the beginning of the Terror; guillotine set up permanently; measures of Saint Laurent against persecutors; name of Fr. Chaminade on list of emigrants; exercise of sacred ministry in the town; stratagems and anecdotes; Fr. Chaminade and lists of emigrants; encouragements to priests concerning oath required by the Convention.

Chapter 5

Rehabilitation of the Juring Priests (1795)

Civil Constitution discredited; juring priests and reconciliation; Fr. Chaminade appointed penitentiary; Rome sets rules; firmness of the penitentiary; circumstances and reasons for the fall of juring priests; retractions; publicity; ceremonies involved; juring priests, diocese of Bazas; Fr. Culture, vicar general of the last Bishop of Bazas; new persecution; Fr. Chaminade resumes secret ministry.

Chapter 6

Preludes to His Later Apostolate (1795-1797)

Fr. Chaminade’s preference for youth; first disciples; Louis Lafargue, Denys Joffre, Guillaume Bouet; retreat of 1796; Mlle de Lamourous, Mlles Fatin and Bédouret; Association of the Sacred Heart and Ursulines of the Sacred Heart; 18 fructidor; Fr. Chaminade condemned to exile; death of parents.

Chapter 7

The Exile (1797-1800)

Joseph Chaminade leaves for Spain, meets his brother Louis at Bayonne; de la Tour du Pin, Archbishop of Auch; from Bayonne to Saragossa; Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar; city of Saragossa; Archbishop of Auch and emigrant priests; threats of expulsion by Spanish government; Chaminade brothers’ trust in God.

Chapter 8

Occupations of the Priests in Exile (1797-1800)

Emigrant priests in Spain; Joseph’s attention to prayer and study; visits to monasteries; Trappists of Sainte Susanne; Fr. Bouet joins Trappists at Sainte Susanne; Our Lady of the Pillar; spiritual progress of Father Chaminade; at Mary’s feet; end of exile.

Chapter 9

Administration of the Diocese of Bazas (1800-1802)

Fr. Chaminade’s name struck from list of emigrants; return to Bordeaux, condition of Bordeaux; first projects, a conversion; named administrator of the Bazas diocese; administration; See of Bazas is suppressed; Chaminade is named Missionary Apostolic.

Chapter 10

The Miséricorde (1801)

Mlle de Lamourous and Fr. Chaminade; dedication to repentant girls; Fr. Chaminade, superior of the Miséricorde; early trials, ceremony of reconciliation; extreme poverty; the work consolidated; docility of Mlle de Lamourous; similarities between the Miséricorde and other foundations of Fr. Chaminade; Miséricorde transferred; foundation of similar houses.

Chapter 11

Beginnings of the Sodality (1801-1802)

Projects for youth of France; pious associations in Bordeaux before the Revolution; Fr. Chaminade founds Sodality of the Immaculate Conception (2 February 1810); organization; similarity to Oratory of St. Philip Neri; Sodality of young women (1802); first anniversary; d’Aviau, Archbishop of Bordeaux, Fr. Chaminade, honorary canon.

Chapter 12

Growth of the Sodality (1802-1803)

Fr. Chaminade extends apostolate to men; David Monier; Married Men’s Association (Christmas 1820); sodalists; Women’s Retreat Association; spirit of the Sodality; union without confusion; spirit of the apostolate; the Immaculate Virgin; attitude toward the government; brief of Cardinal Caprara.

Chapter 13

The Madeleine (1804)

Growth of Sodality after the jubilee of 1804; chapel of the Madeleine, its history; the Madeleine, an auxiliary chapel; the Sodality; services at the Madeleine; Sunday evening meetings; annual retreat; director of Sodality; formation of sodalists; charitable and apostolic activities.

Chapter 14

The Sodality and Religious Renewal in Bordeaux (1804-1809)

Influence of the Sodality in Bordeaux; opinion of Cardinal Donnet; Sodality provides candidates to sisterhoods; postulants; first Christian school for boys; Brothers of the Christian Schools in Bordeaux; Fr. Chaminade, their ecclesiastical superior; novitiate for Brothers at Saint Laurent; Fr. Chaminade and priestly vocations; the Sodality and the seminary; minor seminary of Bazas.

Chapter15

Suppression of the Sodality (1809-1814)

Sodality in crisis, 1805; success, 1806-9; trials: death of Louis Chaminade; Sodality and imperial power; bull of excommunication; Hyacinthe Lafon and Alexis de Noailles; their arrest; Sodality dissolved; last years of the Empire; Fr. Chaminade arrested; fall of the Empire.

Chapter 16

The Restoration of the Sodality (1814-1830)

Duke of Angoulême in Bordeaux; Sodality reconstituted; the One Hundred Days; Fr. Chaminade, royalist; the Sodality’s success; its transformation; parish Sodalities; Madeleine recognized as auxiliary chapel; affiliation to the Prima Primaria; twenty-fifth anniversary.

Chapter 17

New Works, Offshoots of the Sodality (1815-1830)

Sodality of Chartons; Fr. Rigagnon; Amis chrétiens: Fr. Dasvin; Bons Livres initiative: Fr. Barault; prison apostolate; Petis Auvergnats: Fr. Dupuch; annual retreats.

Chapter 18

Affiliated Sodalities (1815-1830)

Mlle Adèle de Trenquelléon; pious groups; contact with Father Chaminade; association affiliated to Bordeaux’s; privileges from Pius VII; Bishop Jacoupy and the Sodality in Agen; men’s Sodality at Agen; Sodalities established in Bordeaux, Agen, Auch, Tarbes; affiliated Sodalities in seminaries of Bazas, Auch, Aire; negotiation with Paris.

Chapter 19

Toward the Foundation of Religious Institutes (1814-1816)

Fr. Chaminade and cooperative young men: Arnozan, Loustau, Faye; cooperative women; Fr. Chaminade’s need for unfettered helpers; mission to form religious; practice of evangelical counsels in Sodalities; Fr. Chaminade’s State, without common life.

Chapter 20

The Institute of the Daughters of Mary (1816)

The State in the Sodality of young women, 1814; vocation of Adèle de Trenquelléon; her correspondence with Fr. Chaminade; Fr. Chaminade’s choice of Agen for foundation; ideas on the institute of the Daughters of Mary; first Constitutions; Mlle de Trenquelléon and companions in community, 25 May 1816; perpetual vows and the cloister; Adèle de Trenquelléon named superior.

Chapter 21

Growth of the Daughters of Mary (1816-1820)

Problem of perpetual vows and cloister; revision of Constitutions; first apostolic works at Agen; taking the veil, Christmas 1816; Daughters of Mary and the Orphelines de Saint-Joseph; profession; trials of the community; transfer from Convent of the Refuge to that of the Augustinians; attempted merger with the Holy Family of Villefranche; foundation of Tonneins; secular Third Order.

Chapter 22

The Society of Mary (1817)

Attempts at religious life in young men’s Sodality; the fifteen; J.B. Lalanne; his resolve to devote himself to works of Fr. Chaminade and joy of the latter; cleric Collineau, M. Brougnon Perrière, M. Louis Daguzan, M. Dominique Clouzet; 2 October 1817; J.B. Bidon, Antoine Cantau; community life at Rue de Ségue; M. Lapause and M. David; Fr. Chaminade and the community; Institute of Mary.