This letter was no doubt prompted by another reminder from the bishop, a follow-up to the one of the preceding August (cf.L. 208). Fr. Champagnat had founded hardly any schools in 1838, only La Grange-Payre and St-Pol-en-Artois, but because of the number of recent entries (cf. L. 200), he plans on opening eight in 1839, as well as the novitiate in Vauban. So we can understand why he asks the bishop to be patient for a year. Because of various pressures, as we will see in LL. 240 and 258, that delay would not be maintained. Since it is a novitiate under discussion, the Founder thinks it only logical that the chaplain should be a priest of the Society of Mary. He will therefore ask Fr. Colin to provide one.

My Lord,

I am very grateful for the confidence with which Your Grandeur deigns to honor our Society, and I strongly desire to respond as well as I possibly can, by sending you subjects capable of furthering your apostolic zeal for the good of your important diocese. Given the importance of the establishment which Your Grandeur is offering me, I must ask you to go along with the brief delay I am obliged to set for the carrying out of your pious projects, so that I will be in a position to give you qualified subjects. The establishments we can make this coming year have already been promised and decided on according to the number of available brothers, but your esteemed request will always hold first place among those we have to fill at All Saints 1840. During this interval I will speak with the Father Superior of the Marist Fathers, so that at the stated time, he will be able to assign a priest for the spiritual direction of your establishment, and I will eagerly grasp the first opportunity to meet with Your Grandeur in order to come to an agreement about the means to insure its success.

Please accept, etc….

Edition: Translation from: Lettres de Marcellin J. B. Champagnat (1789-1840) Fondateur de l?Institut des Frères Maristes, présentés par Frère Paul Sester,1985.

fonte: Daprès la minute, AFM, RCLA 1, p. 119, nº 137, éditée dans AAA pp. 273-274