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Feb. 2, 1852
Death of François
Libermann at about 15.45, while the community is singing the
Magnificat of the Vespers of the feast of the Purification.
Père Ignace Schwindenhammer takes over as interim Superior
General as Vicar General of the Congregation.
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There were many
sudden turnings in Francis Libermann's life. Brought up in a Jewish
ghetto in Saverne,
he went through a crisis of faith at the time of his rabbinical
studies at Metz. At the age of 24, he was baptized a Catholic in
Paris. He entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice but the onset of
epilepsy seemed to close the door on his hopes of becoming a priest.
The Sulpicians were kind to him and gave him welcome at their house
at Issy, where he did odd jobs and went to Paris frequently on
messages. Sometimes a feeling of rejection swept over him, he found
it hard to accept the hopelessness of his situation.
The nobleman who was asked what he did during the French Revolution
and replied " I survived" was reporting no mean
achievement. Today, in an age of "disposables"' survival is
also an achievement. Amid the pressure of the modern world, the
prospect of our same, everyday, average life stretching out before us
sometimes blurs the importance of survival. It was when Liberian's
interest in survival was at its lowest that most hung in the balance.
In his temptation to suicide he could not have guessed that the most
creative part of his life was still to come. Ten years later, when
God wanted a missionary leader, Libermann was still around, now with
special qualities that had developed in the dark days; courage and
compassion and a refusal to be overcome by discouragement.
Libermann regarded discouragement as " the universal evil"
in the Christian life. This was not a theory that he plucked from the
sky, but a truth that he learned the hard way. From personal
experience he knew the havoc that discouragement could wreak. The
momentum of his personal life had been cruelly halted by the onset of
epilepsy. He experienced contradictions and failure on the way to
establishing his missionary society. In Rome in 1840, his partner in
the enterprise became discouraged and abandoned the project. |
Welcome
to the site of the TransCanada Province of the Spiritans. We are a
Roman Catholic Religious Congregation of over three thousand members,
founded in 1703. Our missions are spread worldwide. While we may be
found involved in many diverse ministries, we have dedicated
ourselves to working with the poor and in those situations where the
Church has difficulty in finding ministers. We hope you enjoy your
visit to our site and that while browsing you will keep us in your
prayers. May God bless you.
