First Period in IMF History
From the death of Father Baudouin to the end of the 19th century.
The relaunch of the Congregation.
After the death of Father Baudouin, relaunch of the Congregation and first foundations.
Mgr Paillou, bishop of La Rochelle, had suppressed in 1818 the small Society of religious priests founded by Father Baudouin.
Some professors from the Seminary had asked Father Baudouin, then in retirement in Chavagnes from 1828, after the death of Mother St Benoît, to relaunch the small society started in 1804.
After his death, on February 11, 1835, Father Baizé, prefect of studies at the Seminary and friend of Father Baudouin, seemed ideally suited to relaunch the small society in the spirit of Father Baudouin.
Following a long discernment and research, after a 30-day retreat during the holidays of 1841, an election chapter took place. Father Baizé was elected superior general and 9 priests and a deacon took their first vows on September 21, 1841 in the presence of Mgr Soyer, bishop of Luçon. Five other members were admitted to begin a novitiate.
The first religious initially received the name “Oblate Priests” and three years later they took over the title “Society of the Children of Mary”, a name that Father Baudouin had given to the small society.
On July 22, 1857, the congregation became by pontifical right under the name of “Children of Mary” whose goal was “the missions and education of youth, especially in small seminaries”.
1839: Mouilleron in Pareds.
The presbytery became a residence for missionaries and in 1844 it was erected as a novitiate house then as a motherhouse for the emerging congregation.
In 1850, the house of St Sauveur was completed and became the Mother House and house of the novitiate until it was transferred to Chavagnes in 1861.
1845: Niort.
Father Morin, a member of the Society of the Children of Mary, coming one day from St Jean d'Angély, wants to go to La Rochelle but he takes the wrong car and arrives in Niort.
He is welcomed by Father Serre, chaplain and founder of the Daughters of the Holy Heart of Mary.
Father Serre, interested in the new society, wanted a foundation in Niort and made a request to Father Baizé who refused, because the members were still too few.
Fr. Serre insisted and in Lent 1845 Frs. Coumaileau and Pécot arrive in Niort.
Father Pécot, a few years later, would be the founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate.
1860: Chavagnes.
Maison Ste Marie was built to be a novitiate house.
It housed the novitiate from 1861 until the expulsions in 1903.
It became a juniorate for the training of young people from 1920.
1861: St Maixent de Beugné.
A missionary residence in Deux-Sèvres (diocese of Poitiers).
1867: Saumur.
A residence serving the Notre Dame des Ardillers pilgrimage, in Anjou.
1876: St Jean d’Angély.
Foundation at the request of Mgr Léon Thomas who expressed his desire that “the Children of Mary establish a house in St Jean d’Angély for the missions, the service of the parishes and the chaplaincy of the nuns”.
1889: La Roche sur Yon.
First of all, there is a “footing on the ground” so that “our missionary fathers, obliged to frequently pass through La Roche for their ministry, can have at least a footing on the ground to wait in peace for the departure times of the railways”.
The “pied à terre” soon became a residence for missionaries and then the parish of the Immaculée.
1891: Limoux (diocese of Carcassonne).
Support for the St Louis college-minor seminary.
Father Destren, archpriest of Limoux, contacted the congregation in June 1891 “in the name of Monseigneur Billaud”, bishop of Carcassonne.
He proposed to Father Trottin the Saint Louis school, located in Limoux.
From 1891, there were nine members of the congregation serving the Limoux college.
The regulations of the Limoux college indicate quite clearly that it is in fact a minor seminary.
1892: Castel Nègre, near Limoux.
Foundation of a juniorate.
A widow, Madame Meunier, sold her house, called “Castel-nègre”, to the E.M.I. fathers. in 1892.
This property was located in the town of Alet, very close to Limoux.
From 1894, some fathers came to join the coadjutor brothers present since 1892 and began to teach Latin to young children who were destined to later enter the congregation.
Thus the E.M.I., between 1891 and 1903, was heavily invested in the diocese of Carcassonne: direction of a college, management of a profitable agricultural operation and founding of a “junate” in Castel nègre to improve the recruitment of the Society.
But in 1900, the students were expelled from the establishment.
They were among “the first victims of persecution at the beginning of the century”.
