Three more prescriptions of a legal nature follow in the first Rule regarding relations with the Bishops, and then the final paragraph states:
Vicars General and Gentlemen: Such is a comprehensive outline of the regulations that the undersigned priests present for your approval in requesting your authorization to form a community.
Done in Aix, 25 January 1816
Eugène de Mazenod, Tempier, Icard, Mie, Maunier, Deblieu
Request to the Capitular Vicars of Aix, 25 January 1816, O.W. XIII n.2
The paramount importance of this action of 25 January 1816 in the rich and varied life of Eugene de Mazenod is clear when, just a few hours before his death in 1861, he asked one of the Oblates at his bedside to communicate a message to all the Oblates:
Be sure to tell them that I die happy… that I die happy that God was so good as to choose me to found the Congregation of the Oblates in the Church.
Circular Letter to the Congregation 26 May 1861