Born on August 1, 1782, in Aix-en-Provence in southern France, Eugene de Mazenod was a member of the French nobility. During his childhood, the French Revolution broke out, and the de Mazenod family was forced to live in exile in Italy for several years.
During his time of exile, Eugene had little formal schooling and was introduced to people and ideas that were both good and bad influences. In Venice, the young Eugene was befriended by Don Bartolo Zinelli, a priest who provided some opportunity for education. Don Bartolo also instilled the first thoughts of a religious calling in the mind of the 12-year-old Eugene. As a young man living in Palermo, Eugene was also introduced to a more worldly society, to a life of parties and materialism.
When the Revolution ended, Eugene's mother and sister returned to France. However, Eugene chose to stay in Italy with his father, who was forced to remain in exile for political reasons.
After 11 years in exile, at age 20, Eugene returned to Aix at his mothers' request. He struggled to reunite his family, especially his estranged parents who were eventually divorced in 1802. He also tried to regain the family's holdings that had been lost during the revolution. Meanwhile, he experienced an inner struggle, wavering between the kind of social life he had enjoyed in Palermo and the priestly life he dreamed of.
At age 26, Eugene's struggle to "find himself" ended when he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris. After his ordination in 1811 at age 29, Fr. de Mazenod declined the first assignment offered to him, the prestigious position of Vicar General to the Bishop of Amiens. Instead, he asked to work with the poor, neglected, and abandoned people of Aix.
Fr. de Mazenod visited the sick and those in jail and reached out to the troubled youth of Aix. He also preached church missions to the poor, working-class people of Aix. Instead of the French used by members of the upper class, he spoke to them in their own Provencal dialect.
Realizing that he alone could not meet the needs of Aix's many poor, Fr. de Mazenod invited other men to join in his work. he purchased a former Carmelite convent and its adjoining church for his future community. Soon, a small band of priests was formed, and they began preaching church missions throughout the French countryside, calling themselves the Missionaries of Provence.
When the success of their work led to requests for their services on a wider scale, de Mazenod took steps to form his coworkers into a religious congregation. In 1826, de Mazenod received approval from Pope Leo XII for his new congregation, placed them under the patronage of Mary and so they were known as the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
In 1837, Fr. de Mazenod became the Bishop of Marseilles. The new bishop had many plans for his diocese, from realigning parish boundaries to fighting the government's monopoly on education. While serving as bishop, Eugene de Mazenod continued to oversee his small congregation of priests in Aix and to plan their future.
In 1841, at the request of Bishop Bourget of Montreal, four Oblate priests and two brothers went to Canada and began the congregation's missionary outreach. Soon, Bishop de Mazenod began receiving more requests for help. While seeking priests for his mission in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), one bishop was told to visit Marseilles where he would find a "bishop with a heart as big as St. Pauls', as big as the world."
Bishop de Mazenod was determined to answer every request for missionaries that he received. Before his death in 1861, his congregation of 416 men had spread to ten countries, including Canada, the U.S., England, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. His message of service to others has inspired many men to answer the call to serve in Oblate missions throughout the world.
Efforts to have Bishop de Mazenod canonized began in 1926 and were rewarded with his beatification in 1975. The process continued, and on December 3, 1995, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him a saint of the Church
Prayer to ask a special favor
God, Our Father, by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod to gather priests and brothers as Missionary
Oblates of Mary Immaculate to announce the Gospel, especially among the poor and
neglected. May we be inflamed with his zeal for announcing the Gospel of Jesus
Christ our Savior and receive through his intercession the special grace we ask
for at this time.
St. Eugene de Mazenod, pray for us.