Br. Paul Sester (1926-2020) archivist and founder of Marist scholarship
We will not attempt to address every aspect of the rich personality of Brother Paul who left us on 5 April 2020. It is as a scholar concerned with establishing the sources of our historical and spiritual heritage that we will address here.
This vocation came to him very early on since he told me that during his novitiate and scholasticate at St Genis-Laval in 1942-45, he had one great regret: the letters of the Founder kept in the same house were inaccessible. During a period of retraining at Jesus Magister in 1966-67 in Rome, Brother Paul was finally able to become acquainted with Champagnat’s letters and to begin copying them. But it was only with his appointment as Secretary General in 1976 that he had the opportunity to devote himself once again to these letters, with the help of a dedicated team who would also help him to reorganise the general archives and begin the transcription of the original sources of the congregation.
The first tangible result of this long-term undertaking would be the publication of the two volumes of Fr. Champagnat’s Letters. The first, published in 1985, is a critical edition of the 339 letters that have been preserved. On becoming the archivist and with the collaboration of Jean Borne, Brother Paul published in 1987 a complementary volume of “repertories” on his correspondence, the places and historical circumstances of the production of this letters. Thanks to this scholarly work , the Congregation was no longer satisfied with texts and traditions about the Founder, but had its own writings at its disposal. In a way, his words are given back to him. But it is still necessary for researchers to study, spread and interpret this word which has benefited all of the Brothers….
That is why in 1991 n° 1 of the Cahiers Maristes was published, in four languages, of which Brother Paul was practically the editor in chief while he resided in Rome, until 1998. He himself wrote about ten articles and presented important documents. It is in this review that in May 2017 (N° 35) he describes to us in detail ” The computerization of our archives “, presenting us on this occasion with the team of his collaborators.
The result of the work of this group of copyists equipped with new tools is impressive: publication of the Memoirs of Brother Sylvester in 1992 and the three volumes of the Annals of the Institute in 1993. Many other more complex or less important documents were duplicated in the form of A4 notebooks: in particular the 12 volumes of the Annals of the Houses, which provide a mine of information on the life of schools in France before 1880-90; or the numerous manuscripts of Brothers François and Jean-Baptiste. Towards 2000, there was no longer a lack of sources but rather of researchers capable of appreciating their importance, preparing critical editions and approaching them according to academic criteria.
On returning to France in 1998, Brother Paul naturally became Provincial Archivist. He would obviously be part of the international team of Marist spiritual patrimony created in 2004 by the General Administration. One of the tasks of this team will be to help with the publication in 2011 of the Origins of the Marist Brothers: three volumes into which Brother Paul collected all the sources emanating from Champagnat and the Institute up to 1840 and even beyond.
With the death of Br. Paul perhaps we are witnessing the era of great individuals such as Pierre Zind, Gabriel Michel, Alexandre Balko, Stephen Farrell… who, by their works of scholarship and history, and also their capacity to inspire helpers and disciples, laid the foundations of a serious knowledge of our Marist identity.
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F. André Lanfrey, April 2020