EUROPE/ITALY – Mgr. Melchior de Marion Brésillac, from India to Africa to carry out "nothing but the will of God"

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - On December 2, 1813, exactly two hundred years ago, Melchior de Marion Brésillac was born in Castelnaudary , in the south of France. A missionary and later a Bishop and first Apostolic Vicar of Coimbatore, in India, on December 8, 1856 found the "Society of African Missions" (SMA) in Lyon (France). In November 1858 the first three missionaries leave for Sierra Leone, followed in March 1859 by the Bishop de Marion Brésillac and two other missionaries. Shortly after arriving in Freetown, within two months they all died, including the Founder, due to yellow fever. His sudden death, along with that of many other missionaries in those times, did not certainly facilitate the understanding of the numerous writings of Mgr. Melchior de Marion Brésillac in which he outlines his missionary thoughts. The occasion of the bicentenary of the birth has led to the publication of an anthology of his writings in Italian entitled "Nothing but the will of God. De Brésillac, from India to Africa", in which he reveals the richness and the relevance of his missionary thought. From his writings: "Our mission, our jurisdiction, our congregation, our country, our king, our government: how much damage have these words and the ideas they evoke caused in the missions". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 03/12/2013)


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