Chaminade Lore

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by Herbert Kramer, SM
439 pp.

This book is a collection of the 120 articles on William Joseph Chaminade written from Bordeaux by Father Kramer for Maryhurst Messenger beginning in 1947 and continuing until 1962. Arranged here is a chronology of Father Chaminade's life and work; the articles include lore about the Chaminade family, the French Revolution, the development of the Sodality in Bordeaux, the founding of the Daughters of Mary and the Society of Mary, the work at the Miséricorde, the spreading of Marianist works throughout France, and Father Chaminade's last years. there are also over 200 photographs.

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  Excerpt

  From the Maryhurst Messenger of April, 1951

  Two Authentic Portraits

  I would like to devote this month's article to the portraits actually made of Father Chaminade during his lifetime.

  Two are still extant that are certainly original. They are not perfect, and they might not bring forth the qualities that we of 1951 would like to find in them; but they were made in Bordeaux and in Father Chaminade's presence, and the Marianists living there considered them faithful resemblances to their spiritual father.

  The first is a lithograph seven and a half inches high, drawn by Armand-Julien Pallière in 1827 when Father Chaminade was 66 years old. It was reproduced in the souvenir card published in 1897 for the centenary of Father Chaminade's exile in Saragossa, and it guided the sculptor Callède when he executed the bronze statue of our Founder for the Madeleine in Bordeaux.

  Pallière belonged to a family of artists but was less talented than his brother Léon, who died in 1820 at the age of 33. I have not yet found any other works done by Armand-Jullien, but I have discovered a letter of his sent on a ship named Le Bordelais from Rio de Janiero in 1823, four years before he sketched Father Chaminade. In this letter he expresses his enthusiasm for lithography that had been successfully introduced into France only in 1814: "I am crazy about this type of work, and I have had a press and all its utensils sent from France." Pallière was one of the first artists of Bordeaux to work in this new medium.

  

  Earliest portrait of Venerable Chaminade, drawn in 1827 by Pallière (1784-1862). It is a lithograph of which a certain number of originals still exist, the one photographed for this article being preserved in the Municipal Archives of Bordeaux. This portrait emphasizes our Founder's serenity as a man of faith.

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  Table of Contents

  Preface  
  Introduction Hero of Truth and Conscience
  Chapter 1 Venerable Chaminade’s Ancestry and Family
  Chapter 2 Venerable Chaminade’s Périgueux
  Chapter 3 Venerable Chaminade’s Mussidan
  Chapter 4 In Bordeaux During the French Revolution
  Chapter 5 Venerable Chaminade an Exile in Spain
  Chapter 6 Venerable Chaminade in Bordeaux: 1801-1803
  Chapter 7 Venerable Chaminade’s Bordeaux
  Chapter 8 Venerable Chaminade’s Chapel of the Madeleine
  Chapter 9 Venerable Chaminade the Person
  Chapter 10 Venerable Chaminade’s Verdelais
  Chapter 11 Venerable Chaminade and Layrac
  Chapter 12 Venerable Chaminade and the Daughters of Mary
  Chapter 13 Venerable Chaminade in Alsace and Franche-Comté
  Chapter 14 Venerable Chaminade’s Place of Final Rest
  Index