Coincidentally, as I reflect on today’s text, I am in Paris and have spent the morning in the footsteps of Saint Eugene as a seminarian. The Seminary of St. Sulpice is no longer there, but the famous church is. It is here that he prayed, and received the various minor orders and his subdiaconate and diaconate ordination. In this church he ministered to the poor children of the area and preached. Then I went to Issy, where he spent the summer months as a seminarian and where he did several retreats reflecting on God’s call to priesthood. In this place where he received his priestly formation, he also became a formator himself, when the Sulpicians were expelled by Napoleon and the newly-ordained priests had to take over the running of the seminary for nearly a semester.
Just as Eugene had received a solid formation, so too was he concerned for the formation of religious missionaries for the well-being of his Congregation and its mission. Hence his letter to the Archbishop of Aix continued:
Besides this help for priests, I allow myself to add a request for six bursaries for those whom we call novices. They are young clerics whom we are forming for the ministry and who would all be an expense to the diocese in some seminary if they were not at the Mission. I must testify on their behalf that they all give the greatest hope and there are several who, by their great piety and talents, promise to serve the diocese in a distinguished manner. Our noviciate should be regarded as a true seminary; that’s why, in granting the six bursaries that I’m asking for, Your Grace should not fear to divert the six bursaries from their original destination, even more so since I offer definite assurance for the perseverance of those of our students for whom I request this favor.
Letter to Archbishop de Bausset of Aix, 16 December 1819, O.W. XIII n.27
Eugene uses the word “novices” in a broader sense to refer to the six who were in formation to be ordained missionary priests. They lived at the Mission House and went each day to the diocesan seminary in Aix for their classes. They were: Hippolyte Courtès, Jean Baptiste Honorat, Marius Suzanne, Alexandre Dupuy (who eventually became a diocesan priest) and Guillaume Dalmas and Hilarion Bourrelier (who left a few years later).
Today Eugene’s concern continues to be present in our Rule of Life:
Jesus personally formed the disciples he had chosen, initiating them into “the mystery of the Kingdom of God” (Mk 4:11). As a preparation for their mission he had them share in his ministry; to confirm their zeal he sent them his Spirit.
This same Spirit forms Christ in those who endeavour to follow in the Apostles’ footsteps. As they enter more deeply into the mystery of the Saviour and his Church, he moves them to dedicate themselves to the evangelization of the poor
CC&RR, Constitution 45