Today we celebrate the anniversary of our founder’s entrance into eternal life – Emmanuel d’Alzon – who passed into eternal life on Nov. 21, 1880.
Venerable Emmanuel d’Alzon was a man with great zeal for bringing about the Kingdom of God in him and around him. We ask for his intercession in a special way on this important day.
Born in 1810 to a distinguished family in southern France, d’Alzon gave up the wealth and prestige he had inherited from his family and consecrated his entire life to God.
Right after he was ordained to the priesthood in 1835, Fr. d’Alzon wrote the following in a letter to one of his closest friends, Alphonse de Vigniamont:
“Dear friend, the most intimate thought of my soul is that the world needs to be penetrated through and through by a Christian idea; otherwise it will fall apart. And the world will not receive this idea but from individuals who will be taken up with it above all else in order to proclaim it in every form it might assume. Some would say the world is evil. It is true that passion turns it away from what is good. But I believe most of all that the world is ignorant. Therefore, we need to teach it and do so in words it can understand” (March 18, 1835).
Penetrating the world with a Christian idea – proclaiming it in every form it might assume and by individuals who would be taken up with it above all else – this is the driving force behind Fr. d’Alzon, the man and his vision, not to mention the driving force behind his decision to found us, his sons, the Assumptionists.
As a congregation, as an Assumption Family, he calls us to follow in his footsteps.