THE AFRICANS ARE WAITING FOR YOU

The Superior of the new mission to Algeria was Fr Viala, and he was busy preaching a successful mission in France just weeks before his departure. Eugene wrote to him:

I can understand that you have extended your mission by one week since your audience has been so attentive and enthusiastic but, you know, the Africans are waiting for you. You are already announced in the newspapers. The Paris ones have announced that your arrival in Blida will be very soon. Fr. Pulicani’s beard is growing splendidly; he is already so finely adorned as to create envy. Your chapel will be a jewel, and there will even be stained glass. A fine carpet has been bought and a credence-table and we are trying here to get together a small cargo for you. Fr. Bellanger has taken a very lovely missal from me.

Letter to Fr. Jean Viala, 17 January 1849, EO IV n4

In February of 1849, Fathers Dominique Pulcani and J. B. Bellanger, under the leadership of Father Jean Viala went to Algeria. Father J. B. Sabon and Brother Augustin Chalvesche soon joined them.

REFLECTION

We pick up the Founder’s enthusiasm for the first Oblate mission in Africa in all the small details he describes.

I am amused by his fascination with Fr Pulicani’s beard! It seemed to have been a distinctive sign of the French missionaries to foreign countries. I remember the long beards of the old French missionaries in South Africa when I was a youngster. To us they signified the credentials of men who had given their life to God so as to minister to us.