Marie de Nazareth
To Jesus, through Mary
Ville-Marie today is a borough of the city of Montreal.
It is also the original name of Montreal, named after the Virgin Mary because the settlement was designed to be a Marian project. The builders of this city came from France in the 17th century, to devote themselves to charity work, starting with hospitals for the natives. They were intensely Marian in their spirituality, inspired by the French school.
A Marian City: Lay Missionaries (1)
This settlement was a new form of mission.
Gradually, 248 men, 45 women and children left France for Quebec. The travelers reached the island of Montreal on May 17, 1642, the official date of the founding of Ville-Marie. They came to live there in prayer and charity work.
The Marian vocation of the city was the idea of Jerome Le Royer, Sieur de La Dauversière, friend of Father Jean-Jacques Olier who was trained in the spirituality of the French school.
The material conditions of the beginnings were harsh. Life was organized around prayer and charity: early on a hospital ("Hôtel-Dieu") was built for the Amerindians. In 1659, Mr. de la Dauversière (who stayed in France) drove three sisters of the Religious Hospitallers of St Joseph, a congregation he founded, to the port of La Rochelle. They were to lend a hand to Jeanne Mance and take over at the Hôtel-Dieu of Montréal. Mr. de la Dauversière himself returned to La Fleche (Sarthe, France), where he died on November 6, 1659. His cause of beatification is pending in Rome.
Within the spirituality of the French school (2)
Cardinal de Berulle founded the French school of spirituality, and his disciple Jean-Jacques Olier continued to lead the movement after him. What is the French school?
"Our teachers of the French School constantly meditated on Saint Paul and Saint John; they assiduously read the Fathers of the Church...
They were realistic and recognized in the Church "clouds and wrinkles," but they saw in her the Bride of Christ, and through her Christ himself.
They also insisted on the "building" of this Body: "All that we do in this world is the composition of this Christ, all the saints work on it ..."
They placed great emphasis on two aspects of the mystery of the Church—liturgical prayer and mission. They believed that:
- the liturgical year makes us relive the states and mysteries of Jesus,
and
- the preaching and commitment of missionaries, animated by the apostolic Spirit of Jesus, continue to fulfill the mission of the Word incarnate. (2)
(1)
(2)
R.DEVILLE, « Ecole française de spiritualité », Dictionnaire de spiritualité montfortaine sous la direction de S. de FIORES, Novalis, Outremont (Quebec), 1994, pp. 428-447, p. 439.440.
Françoise Breynaert