p. Sergio La Pegna, dc, Superior General
One hundred years ago, on October 17, Pope Pius XI proclaimed the Doctrinaries Claude Bochot and Eustace Felix “Blessed,” along with 189 other martyrs of the French Revolution. These 191 Blesseds were massacred between September 2 and 3, 1792, in various locations in Paris: 21 were killed in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 95 in the Hôtel des Carmes, 3 in the prison of La Force, and 72 in the seminary of Saint-Firmin, where the two Blessed Doctrinaries were also held.
This year, as a Doctrinarie Family, we wish to celebrate this event not only to remember these Blessed Martyrs but also two other Doctrinaries Servants of God: Joseph Raoulx and Sebastian Dubarry, who gave their lives for the Lord Jesus and for his Church, remaining faithful to their doctrinarie vocation until the end.
The occasion of the centenary of their beatification can give new impetus to the resumption of the Cause for the canonization of Blessed Claude Bochot and Eustachio Fèlix, for whom approval of a miracle occurred through their intercession is required, and to the resumption of the Causes of the Servants of God Giuseppe Raoulx and Sebastiano Dubarry.
But what is the reason for doing this? Is it merely a commemoration? Certainly not. An answer is given by the great Doctor of the Church, Saint Bernard, who began a famous homily for All Saints’ Day with this question, which could also be ours: “What is the purpose of our praise of the saints, of our tribute of glory, of this very solemnity of ours?” Why propose the experience of these four Doctrinaries today, in different contexts and to the universal Church? And the answer that Saint Bernard offers us is also timely: “Our saints,” he says, “have no need of our honors, and nothing comes to them from our worship. For my part, I must confess that, when I think of the saints, I feel myself burning with great desires” (Disc. 2; Opera Omnia Cisterc. 5, 364ff). Here, then, is the deepest meaning of canonization: looking at the shining example of the Saints, a great desire to be like them is awakened within us; who have lived their Christian life to the full as consecrated doctrinaires men and now live happily close to God, in his light, in the great family of God’s friends. All Christians, and not only, by looking to the Saints can contemplate in concrete terms what it means to be disciples of Jesus. The imitation of their lives by the faithful still on the journey is only the latest outcome of a broader movement, which stems precisely from a vital attractive force they exerted, to the point of asking for their intercession.
These doctrinaries martyrs, in addition to interceding for all those who, in every age, live faithfully to the Lord, some even to the point of offering their lives, can serve as examples to remind Jesus’ disciples of three characteristics of Christian following: a sincere and profound love for the Lord Jesus and his Church; fidelity to one’s vocation in everyday life; and the ability to remain “beneath the cross,” relying not on their own strength but on the power of the Holy Spirit, who has given them the grace to forgive.
In his Apostolic Exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate,” Pope Francis stated that “there is no need to be discouraged when we contemplate models of holiness that seem unattainable. There are testimonies that are useful to stimulate and motivate us, but not so that we seek to copy them, for that could even distance us from the unique and specific path that the Lord has in store for us. What matters is that each believer discerns his or her own path and brings out the best in himself or herself, everything that is truly personal, the Lord has placed within him or her (1 Cor 12:7), and not that he or she exhausts himself or herself trying to imitate something that was not meant for him or her” (GeE n. 11). And in the homily that Saint John Paul II gave on 1 October 1995 on the occasion of the beatification of the Martyrs of Rochefort, he stated: “As Saint Paul recommended to Timothy, they too have fought ‘the good fight of faith’ (1 Tim 6:12). And in the same way they have known a long Calvary for remaining faithful to their faith and to the Church. If they died it is for having wanted to confirm their close communion with Pope Pius VI until the end. In a profound moral solitude they ardently wanted to retain a spirit of prayer, ‘amid the torments’ (Lk 16:23) of hunger and thirst, they did not have even a word of hatred towards their executioners. Slowly they allowed themselves to be identified with the sacrifice of Christ which they celebrated by virtue of their ordination. Here they are, therefore, now offered to our gaze as a living sign of the power of Christ which acts in human weakness. In the depths of their misery, they have maintained the sense of forgiveness. The unity of faith and the unity of their homeland seemed to them to be the most important things. […] The profession of faith, proclaimed by the new Blessed with the offering of their lives, as the Apostle affirms, creates particular bonds between each of the witnesses (martyres) and Christ, who was the first Witness (Martyr) “before Pontius Pilate” (1 Tim 6:13)”.
A hundred years after the beatification of the martyrs of the French Revolution, their lives continue to speak to us. Today, faced with new forms of religious persecution, the example of these martyrs invites us to be courageous witnesses of the Lord Jesus and the truth of the Gospel. In commemorating the centenary of this beatification, we are called not only to remember those who gave their lives for the faith, amid great pain and suffering, but also to rethink our daily commitment to the world so that, in the light of the Gospel, we too can be authentic witnesses of the Lord, or, as Saint César de Bus loved to say, a “living catechism,” with our lives and our preaching.
