The reflection on the married couple Frédéric and Amelie Ozanam and Conjugal Holiness in the Vincentian chrism continues!
It is an immense grace that the “Pope of the smile”, today Blessed John Paul I, in his short pontificate of 33 days, referred to our Father Saint Vincent de Paul and Blessed Frederick Ozanam (on 27 and 13 September 1978, respectively), during the Wednesday general audiences in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
At the general audience on Wednesday 13, greeting a group of newlyweds, he told them: “In the last century there was a distinguished professor in France, Frederic Ozanam; he taught at the Sorbonne, he was eloquent, stupendous. He had a friend, (Father) Lacordaire (a Dominican), who used to say: “This man is so great and so good that he will become a priest and become a bishop!” But no. He found an excellent young lady and they got married. Lacordaire didn’t like it and said: “Poor Ozanam, he too has fallen into the trap! Two years later, Lacordaire came to Rome and was received by Pius IX; “Come, come, father,” he said to him, “I had always heard that Jesus instituted seven sacraments: now you come and turn over my letters and tell me that he has instituted six sacraments and a trap. No, father, marriage is not a snare, it is a very great sacrament”.
In Frederick’s heart, there was undoubtedly much hesitation to take his own state in life, but after incessant prayer and with the advice of great spiritual teachers, he discovered that the Lord had not called him to the priesthood, as He had called his brother Alphonsus, who would later become a priest and bishop.
And it is not that the mentality has changed much, since Vatican II has already passed and, counting on the juicy doctrine of the ecclesial magisterium, today the clericalised mentality persists, which still continues to promote, value and place the priesthood on a higher pedestal, considering the path of the lay vocation as a second-class option.
A Saint With A Deep Lay Vocation
Lumen Gentium in number 41, affirms …”. One and the same holiness is cultivated in every kind of life and profession by those who are guided by the spirit of God and, obeying the voice of the Father, worshipping God and the Father in spirit and truth, follow Christ poor, humble and cross-burdened, in order to merit a share in his glory. Accordingly, each “according to his own gifts and graces received, each one must walk without hesitation in the way of living faith, which inspires hope and works through charity…To attain this perfection, the faithful, according to the different measures of the gifts received from Christ, following in his footsteps and conforming themselves to his image, obeying in everything the will of the Father, should strive to give themselves totally to the glory of God and the service of their neighbour…”.
Ozanam never lived in longing for the priesthood, he was a happy, fulfilled man, a genuine Christian in the ordinary chores of life like any layman: with a very mature humanity, with a deep sense of others and their pain, a profound intellectual, a pedagogue of great stature in the university chair, in short an apostle of the construction of the Kingdom of God in the realities of the world, truly, a man faithful to his baptism and to the commitments acquired in this pillar of Christian life.
A Saint With A Matrimonial Halo
The Council goes on to affirm: “It is fitting that Christian spouses and parents, following their own way, should help each other in grace, with fidelity in their love throughout their lives, and educate in Christian doctrine and in the evangelical virtues the offspring the Lord has given them…”. Ozanam understood that holiness has its roots in baptism (Christifideles Laici16 ), a call he began to grow and develop, first in his single state and then as a married father of a family.
Frederic married the young woman of his dreams, Amelia Soulacroix, on 23 June 1841, at 10 am in the Church of Saint Nizier in Lyon. He was 28 years old and Amelia 20. His brother Alphonse, a priest, blessed the union. Frederic trembled as he placed the ring on Amelia’s finger, he said:
“I could hardly hold back my tears, tears of happiness. And, hearing the words of the Consecration, I felt the divine blessing descend upon me” (28 June 1841).
Frederick then wrote to his friend, François Lallier:
“In the five days we’ve been together, I’ve allowed myself to be happy. I don’t count the minutes or the hours. I have lost all sense of time. What does the future matter? Happiness in the present is eternity. I have found heaven.”
Federico never ceased to praise Amelia, nor to speak of his love for her. He writes thus:
“Come, my well-beloved, my dove, my angel, come into my arms, into my heart, come and bring me yours so pure and so generous; come and God bless you, for after two years we love each other a thousand times more than on the first day!”
Federico was a man of great human sensitivity, with a wealth of details that show what a heart of gold he had. A simple detail shows the height and depth of his marital love: he never forgot to give flowers to Amelia on the 23rd of every month, even on the 23rd of August, on his deathbed, if he was like that in small things, what would he be like in big things?
But if we highlight Federico’s love, no less warm was the love of Amelia, the woman of his life, who cared for him wonderfully throughout their married life. As the daughter of an educator, she had a great understanding of what it meant to be a teacher, in an institution of higher education. When Frederick’s health began to decline, on the advice of his doctors, Amelia took him to Italy hoping that the warmer climate and friends would restore and encourage him. Once there and in poor health, Frederick still helped to found several conferences, especially in cities that had resisted his establishment. This man, a giant of charity, could not pass up the grace of founding conferences for the relief of the poor.
His stay in Italy was one of slight calm, for the illness was still going on, but as a man of faith he asked for the anointing of the sick, and before the minister who anointed him and invited him to trust in the Lord’s mercy, he exclaimed: Why should I fear him (the Lord)? I love him so much! And with death approaching, they began their return to Paris and, in Marseilles on 8 September 1853, their meeting with the Lord took place.
Marlio Nasayó Liévano, c.m.
