On 16 May 1848 a Tertiary, Miss Lamy, was received as a novice in the Lyons fraternity. She is quoted as having been told by the Cure, ‘Go to the Third Order of May; I am a member of it; it is a source of graces, it is a source of graces, he repeated.’
So it is that we have an added proof that M. Vianney belonged to the Third Order before that date.
Conclusion (p.415, 417)
It is true to say that the attachment of the Cure d’Ars to the Society of Mary is attested to by the cumulative force of many arguments that make it, beyond all doubt, a true historical reality.
When he entered Verrieres in 1812, Jean-Marie Vianney met for the first time those who were to be the foundation stones of the Society of Mary: Marcellin Champagnat, Etienne Terraillon, and especially Jean-Claude Colin and Etienne Declas, these latter being with him in the ‘second division’ of Le Soleillant (philosophy). Already M. Declas began to pay attention to and to have esteem for this confrere, and he regretted that his stay at the seminary was so short. Only one ordination, that to the diaconate, brought these five together, while the idea of a Society of Mary was to be broached only after Abbe Vianney had begun his apostolic ministry.
When did the Assistant of Ecully or the new Parish Priest of Ars first hear of this project? We do no know, and nothing leads us to think that it was very soon. In any case, when, after 1825, the first Marist aspirants began to preach missions in the Bugey, Abbe Vianney could not for long be ignorant of their existence, especially since the work of missions was very close to his heart. The Apostolic methods of the little group that grew up around Abbe Colin, the simplicity of their ways, attracted the humble cure, over and above the fact that he found many of his former fellow students in the group. It is understandable that he could have had some regret at not being himself a member of this group, especially since the responsibilities of his pastoral office were beginning to weigh upon him. Fr Declas’ friendly visits as well as Fr Colin’s occasional pilgrimages, kept him in contact with the Marists. There was mutual esteem, and the holy parish priest lost no occasion to praise the Society and its superior. When it was possible for him to direct a vocation to the Fathers, Brothers, or Sisters, he did so willingly. In other cases, he pointed to the Third Order, the existence of which he knew, and which he recommended even before it was canonically constituted and organized.
When we remember that the Society of Mary was at the time the only clerical religious congregation in the diocese of Belley, and when we think of the many bonds which united the Cure d’Ars to its founders, it is not surprising that to his plan for fleeing from his parish should have been associated the idea of retiring among the Marists. The two ideas seem to have been intermingled already in 1843. Then there is the possibility of an abortive plan three years later, in 1846. In any case, that year, his entering the Third Order, which had now been organized by Fr Eymard, shows the attachment of the Cure d’Ars for the Society of Mary. Finally, in 1853, the death of Bishop Devie coinciding with the opening at La Neyliere of a retreat house for priests under the guidance of Fr Colin, the Cure d’Ars tried once more to leave his parish in order to retire in the shadow of the Society of Mary. It seems that the Cure d’Ars never had the idea of becoming a Marist in the canonical sense of the term, with novitiate and religious profession. For him, it was rather a question of retiring in a friendly religious congregation, whose spirit he loved, and whose superior, whom he admired, would provide for him the possibility of a life of retreat and of prayer.
It was not in the designs of God that this project be realised. To the end of his life, M. Vianney was to remain glued to his confessional in Ars, directing more and more vocations to the various branches of the Society of Mary, and himself receiving many of the faithful into the Third Order.