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African Materials in Vincentian Archives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

C.M. Stafford Poole
C.M. Stafford Poole*
Affiliation:
St. John's College, Camarillo, California
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Extract

Of all the communities and religious orders in the Roman Catholic church that are involved in missionary activity, the Congregation of the Mission, while one of the more extensive, is undoubtedly the least known. Founded in 1625 by Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), its original purpose was the giving of parish missions in the de-Christianized rural areas of France. The rural missions remained a special concern of Saint Vincent's community and it was in this sense that the term “mission” was originally used. Prior to the French Revolution the term missionary was used almost exclusively of members of Saint Vincent's group. In the mid-eighteenth century they also came to be known as Lazarists, a name derived from their motherhouse, the famous Saint-Lazare. Though this name has been used in other countries, the Congregation of the Mission has come to be known by different names in different localities: for instance, Vincentians in the English-speaking world, Padres Paúles in the Spanish-speaking world, and Saint Vincent's Fathers in Nigeria.

Reacting against the excessive esprit de corps of numerous religious groups of his time, Vincent de Paul decreed that the work of his missionaries should be without fanfare or publicity. He even forbade some of them from writing histories of the community lest this should lead to corporate pride. It was an unfortunate precedent. This tendency, plus a general lack of historical consciousness, has caused the work of the Congregation of the Mission to be unpublicized and unknown, even by the members themselves.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 6 , 1979 , pp. 335 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1979

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References

NOTES

1. For the life of Saint Vincent de Paul and the story of the foundation of the Congregation of the Mission, see Pierre Coste, C.M., The Life and Works of Saint Vincent de Paul, translated by Joseph Leonard, C.M., 3 volumes (Westminster, Maryland, 1952), especially I, chapter IX.Google Scholar Of special importance to the historian is Coste's, monumental work of documentation, Saint Vincent de Paul: correspondence, entretiens, documents, (14 volumes: Paris, 1920–1925)Google Scholar, hereinafter cited as Coste, C-E-D. There are not satisfactory histories of the Congregation of the Mission after the time of Vincent de Paul. Basic data can be found in Poole, Stafford, A History of the Congregation of the Mission (privately printed, Santa Barbara, 1973)Google Scholar; Allou, Amédée, “Précis de l'histoire de la Congrégation de la Mission depuis de sa fondation en 1625 jusqu' à la morte de M. Etienne en 1874,” Troisième centenaire de la Congrégation de la Mission (Paris, n.d.)Google Scholar; Coste, Pierre, La Congrégation de la Mission dite de Saint Lazare (Paris, 1927)Google Scholar; Goyau, Georges, La Congrègation de la Mission (Paris, 1938).Google Scholar Of less value is Herrera, José, Historia de la Congregación de la Misión (Madrid, 1949).Google Scholar

2. On the Madagascar mission, see Coste, , Life, IIGoogle Scholar, chapter XXVII, and Congrégation, pp. 220-22; Perboyre, Gabriel, Mémoires de la Congrégation de la Mission: Madagascar (Paris, 1866)Google Scholar; Poole, History, chapter XIV.

3. On the Mascarene Islands, see Troisième centenaire, pp. 897-902; 939-40; “Notice sur la mission des Iles Bourbon et Maurice,” Annales de la Congrégation de la Mission, 27(1862), pp. 159–259.Google Scholar

4. Coste, Life, II, chapter XXXIX; idem, Congrégation, pp. 210-14. de Grammont, Henri, Relations entre la France et la Régence d'Alger au XVIIe sièale. Quatrième partie: les consuls Lazaristes et le Chevalier d'Arvieux (Paris, 1914).Google Scholar“La Mission de France et les oeuvres de Barbarie,” Annales de la Congrégation de la Mission, 64(1899), pp. 28–69.Google ScholarMémoires de la Congrégation de la Mission: Tunis-Alger, (Paris, 1864).Google ScholarMémoires du Chevalier d'Arvieux, 6 volumes (Paris, 1735).Google ScholarMisermont, Lucien, Jean le Vacher (Paris, 1933).Google ScholarPlantet, Eugene, Les consuls de France à Alger avant la conquête (Paris, 1900).Google Scholar

5. For such an unfavorable view see Grammont, , Consuls Lazaristes, p. 4.Google Scholar

6. Coste, , C-E-D, II, pp. 532–33.Google Scholar

7. Davitt, Thomas, Justin de Jacobis (Dublin, 1975).Google ScholarHerrera, José, Abuna Yakob (Madrid, 1951).Google ScholarDevin, A., L'Abyssinie et son apôtre (Paris, 1866).Google ScholarArata, S., Vita de B. Giustino de Jacobis (Rome, 1939).Google Scholar In contrast with the China missions, the story of the Vincentian work in Ethiopia is yet to be written.