The option to work for orphans and slave children

The first generation of Spiritans founded places of refuge and education for children who were ex-slaves or who had been abandoned.

Fr. Schwindenhammer, the immediate successor of Francis Libermann, continued to develop the Congregation along these lines by starting social and educational works far and wide. In 1854 he opened a school/seminary at Gourin, an orphanage and agricultural school at St. Ilan and an industrial and agricultural school at Carlan. This was followed by an orphanage and primary school at Cellule in 1856. Outside France, the same policy led to new foundations at Blackrock (1860) in Ireland and an orphanage at Glasnevin in the same country. In Germany, a school/seminary and orphanage began at Marienstadt in 1864. And when the Major Seminary was opened at Chevilly, near Paris, in 1863, it also had an orphanage attached. So work for unfortunate children has always been an option for the Congregation.

Searching for food
One day, a priest in Paris, Fr. Roussel, came across a child searching through a rubbish dump. When he asked what he was doing, the child answered that he was looking for something to eat. Fr. Roussel took the child home with him, and so the priest and the child became the founders of a famous orphanage, the "Oeuvre d'Auteuil".

There were many such children on the streets of Paris at that time. The story is told of a twelve year old, as thin as a rake, half naked, dishevelled, creeping around the Fruit Market at Les Halles, seeking some shelter amongst the vegetables. He was arrested, taken to the police station and eventually brought before the magistrate. He told his story which was far from being uncommon. His father had drifted off somewhere. His mother had moved in with a worker who threw the child out, saying that he could not afford to keep him and that somebody of his age should be able to earn his own living.

The poor child wandered around for two months, getting a few coins by opening the doors of the carriages as they arrived at the theatres, somehow finding enough food to survive. He slept anywhere - except in a bed - and he somehow managed to remain honest. But according to the Penal Code he was a criminal - guilty of vagrancy.

He said to the magistrate, "For two months I have lived amongst the cabbage stalks and slept in the open air so as not to have to steal, and you are going to lock me up for being a robber?

" The magistrates realised the injustice of such a situation and asked the orphanage of Auteuil to look after him, the first of many to be sent by the courts.

Daniel Brottier at Auteuil

For thirteen years, Fr. Brottier lived among these abandoned children. He welcomed them, listened to them and suffered with them in their misery. This is how he put it himself:

 

"The sufferings of children - what sadness is hidden in these words! How I would like to be able to share my feelings with you when several times each day, these poor children arrive on the doorstep. Even though it happens so often, it is hard to hold back you tears.

"The poor little ones are the victims of cruel fate. They have done nothing to deserve their sufferings. Nobody will look after them because it is too much trouble.  

"So they turn, up full of confidence, at Auteuil. They have heard that in this house, as long as space can be found, children like them will get something to eat and drink, and a place to sleep. Even better, they have been told that at Auteuil you are taught how to work and prepare for the future, so that there will be no more talk of the miseries suffered in the past. And later on, they can start a family of their own, full of joy and love.  

"But what a crushing disappointment it is for these unfortunate children when we have to tell them that they cannot stay because there is no more room! They get so depressed; they know where they have come from and where they must return to. All they can do is cry!

Fr. Brottier, without thinking of himself, tried to give the children at least sufficient comfort to make them want to live like everybody else:

"Believe me, there has to be a minimum of well-being and comfort if these young people are to grow up without bitterness. Otherwise they will later on sow the seeds of revolt and anarchy in society".