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Fr. Brottier: missionary and educator |
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"If you were to open his heart you would find an orphan and the Cathedral of Dakar"
In 1923, the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Dubois, asked the Congregation of the Holy Spirit to take over the running of one of the works of the diocese: the Orphans of Auteuil. At the request of the Superior General, Mgr. Le Roy, Fr. Daniel Brottier took up the task. He felt it was completely in line with the aims of Fr. Libermann:
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" The missionaries of the Holy Heart of Mary will be the advocates, the supporters and the defenders of the weak and the little ones against all who oppress them. In all circumstances, the great charity and power of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, must grow in their souls. But all their action must nevertheless be subject to a gentleness and prudence that their Master will give them if they are faithful".
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.
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Daniel Brottier at Auteuil
Learning to be printers |
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".
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Daniel Brottier found and ally and friend for his life and work: Thérèse of Lisieux. At Auteuil, he "plotted" with her many ways of "tempting Providence" for the running and development of the work for orphans. Although preeminently a man of action, his work flowed from an interior "practical union" with God. He put it this way:
" If Providence exists,
if God is concerned about orphans and abandoned children,
if the birds of the fields and the lilies in the valleys are dear to him,
if the merits of some can go to help others,
....then in that case, we must act out this belief.
We must not doubt Providence.
We must pray and act...with that programme we can flatten mountains.
We must press on with total confidence in God.
Either we have faith, or we don't have faith.
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Learning to be shoemakers
If we have it, then we must act accordingly, blindly and confidently believing and hoping in God!
Pope John Paul II beatified Daniel Brottier on November 25, 1984. This is the official prayer for his feast day:
"Lord, you gave Daniel Brottier a heart full of tenderness for the poor. Grant that through his prayers, we may love our brothers and sisters as you have loved us".
Mission is the work of all baptised people. It starts with the witness of a life inspired by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Men and women, lay people and religious, live out a life of love in their daily work. Their love and commitment touch the hearts of all, beginning with the least fortunate.
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