A little known fact, and a prompt to us as members of the Society of Mary today, is that none-other than the Cure of Ars[1] tried several times to retire to a Marist Community.In 1812, Jean-Marie Vianey and Jean Claude Colin enter the minor seminary of Verrieres on All Saints Day. Marcellin Champagnat had already been there for 7 years. There were 232 students. On the possibility that “our three seminarians formed lasting ties of friendship at Verrieres” Coste comments, “A rapid study is sufficient to show that the statement is devoid of basis” (p.371), and “lacks any really solid historical foundation” (p.375).
It was in 1813 that Jean-Marie Vianey began his first year of theology at the major seminary of Saint-Irenee in Lyons on All Saints day, with Marcellin Champagnat, Jean-Claude Colin, Etienne Declas, Phillippe Janvier, Jean-Baptiste Seyve, Etienne Terraillon who were among the first Marist aspirants.
Less than six weeks after the beginning of the school year, on 9 December, M. Vianey was “sent back to his parish priest” because of his inadequacy with Latin. He returned to the seminary for the examination of June 1814 and then for the preparation to the diaconate beginning in May and extending through to 23 June 1815. He was then ordained a priest on 13 August 1815 in the seminary chapel at Grenoble & immediately appointed as assistant in Ecully.
Did Jean-Marie Vianey know of the project of a Society of Mary, was he one of the seminarians that gave his name to this undertaking? “There again,” says Cost, “ we must answer absolutely in the negative” (p.375).
“It was only during the school year of 1815-16 that the Marist project became generally known in the seminary and that a group of aspirants was formed. At that time, M. Vianey was already engaged in parish ministry. We must therefore exclude categorically that he was ever a member of the group of future Marists” says Coste (p.375).
From the records of ordinations of the archdiocese of Lyons:
- 23 June 1815: Diaconate for M Champagnat, J-C Colin, Declas, Terraillon, Vianey, in the chapel of Saint-Irenee’s seminary, conferred by Bishop Simon.
- 13 August 1815: Priesthood for Jean-Marie Vianey in Grenoble, in the seminary chapel, conferred by Bishop Simon.
- 22 July 1816: Priesthood for M Champagnat, J-C Colin, Courveille, Declas, Terraillon in the chapel of Saint-Irenee’s seminary, conferred by Bishop Dubourg.
Fr Colin on the Cure of Ars
“It is evident that Fr Colin went many times to Ars, but that he was not the guest of his former fellow student, as Fr Declas was to be. Like all other pilgrims, he listened to the Cure and had some conversations with him” Coste, p.381.
“That which evidently attracts Fr Colin to Ars is the example of scorn for the world given by the holy Cure, and it is in this light that he speaks of him to his religious. Won over by this eminent sanctity of this priest, he seems to have had some hesitation in presenting him as a model, for fear, perhaps, lest the Marists attach themselves to certain of the more eccentric traits of Abbe Vianey, or to his manner of preaching. In short, there is no trace of great intimacy or enthusiasm, but sincere admiration for a priest who was sanctifying himself in his own vocation and was giving to everyone a great lesson in detachment” (Coste, p.383).
The Cure of Ars on Fr Colin
“Not only did the Cure d’Ars and Fr Colin meet again after their days at the major seminary, but that they had a profound admiration one for the other, and did not hesitate to canonize each other while still living, as was done, for that mater, more easily in those days than now. Detachment and scorn for the world on the one hand & great devotion to the Blessed Virgin on the other, seem to be the characteristics which each found most striking in the other. (p. 387).
The Cure d’Ars and Fr Declas
“If, among the future Marists whom Jean-Marie Vianney knew at the seminary, there is one who deserves to be considered his friend in the full sense of the word, it was not Marcellin Champagnat nor Jean-Claude Colin, but Etienne Declas. (p.387).
“While Fr Colin, when he went to Ars, stayed in a house in the village, Fr Declas did not hesitate to share a meal with the Cure, and to speak to him familiarly about his missions. If to this we add the fact of their friendship in the seminary, (were in the same philosophy division at Verrieres, even though Declas was 3 years older than Vianney), we may conclude that the Marist with whom the Cure d’Ars was on the greatest terms of intimacy was without doubt the ‘Apostle of the Bugey,’ who, like him, had a burning desire to save sinners, and an indefatigable zeal in the confessional” (p.391).