MY FLOCK IS RAVAGED BY THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC

I departed in great haste without finishing my visit with you in order to be back amongst my flock ravaged by the cholera. It continues to inflict much harm but, thanks to God, has not attacked up to now anyone of us. Yet we are not without anxiety for our good Father Mounier who is at grips with a high typhoid fever. The sacraments had to be administered to him today. This would be a very great loss for us to bear. It is he who is responsible for the spiritual direction of our numerous Oblates [ed. Eugene always used the word “Oblates” when referring to the scholastics and “missionaries” when referring to the ordained Oblates].

Letter to Father Jean Baudrand in Canada, 30 September 1849, EO I n 124

REFLECTION

There were five cholera epidemics during the time that Eugene was Bishop of Marseilles. Each time, he and his priests cared for and ministered courageously to the victims. Twenty-seven year old Fr Jean Francois Mounier died as soon as Eugene finished writing this letter.

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” (Theodore Roosevelt)