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Fr. Jean-Pierre Medaille, SJ | Foundresses | Mother St. John | St. John Francis Regis, SJ | Le Puy
A Glimpse of Jean-Pierre Medaille, SJ: The Man. The Jesuit. The Founder.
By Anne Hennessy, CSJ
Travel Routes of Jean Pierre Médaille, SJ
“Effect in me a miracle of love.”
Ordination Prayer of Jean-Pierre Medaille, S.J.
O Jesus, by this miracle effected in the Mass,
effect in me a miracle of love!
As Your all-powerful words change,
in the hands of the priest,
the substance of the bread and wine
into Your Body and Blood,
so may Your grace,
when I have the happiness to receive this sacrament,
change my life into Your life,
making me die to the spirit of the world,
to self-love, to my countless failings.
Fill me with Your spirit,
with the purity of divine love,
with all Your virtues,
in brief, with your Self,
in order to verify Your loving promise
that he who eats Your flesh and drinks Your Blood
abides in You and You in him;
that You may be the Soul of his soul,
the Principle animating all he does.
Medaille and the Jesuits – Summary
Jean Pierre Medaille was born on October 6, 1609, in Carcassonne, a walled city in southern France. The reputation of the city in the seventeenth century focused on its military importance, its administrative excellence, its textile production and the romanticism of its authors and artists. The inhabitants are variously described as hot-blooded, ardent, passionate and vivacious. Nevertheless, the city had more than its share of pious foundations!
The Medaille Family
Jean Pierre Medaille was the eldest of three brothers. His father was a “King’s lawyer” and belonged to the legislative body of Toulouse that governed a large portion of southern France. The role of these men included publicizing royal edicts and administering royal justice. Their power extended not only to capital punishment, but also to judgements regarding inheritances which involved both physical and social life-or-death decisions for individuals and for families.
Thus, the Medaille family was part of the provincial bureaucracy called “the robe society,” a well-educated and property-owning group. Socially, families in this group were known for their honor and their “devout political activism.” The sons in this social class were educated from an early age and mingled with their father’s colleagues and clients. They were expected to follow their father’s profession, to maintain the family’s socio-economic status, and to bring “honor” to the social position of the family.
1610 – Born October 6 in Carcassonne, France
1626 – Entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Toulouse 1628 Makes Vows as a Jesuit September 16
1629 – Studies in Humanities in Toulouse
1633 – Teaches in Jesuit College in Carcassonne (High School) 1635 Theology-Philosophy Student in Toulouse
1637 – Ordained to Priesthood at age 27
1637-1669 – Active Ministry in many towns Southern France 1650 Establishes the Sisters of St. Joseph
1657 – Publishes The Maxims of Perfection
1662-69 – Writes the Constitutions of the Sisters of St. Joseph
1669 – Retires to Billom and Dies December 30, 1669
Medaille, the Jesuit
Jean Pierre Medaille was educated by the Jesuits and entered the Toulouse Province of the Society of Jesus on September 15, 1626. The growth of this Province had been countered by a three-year outbreak of bubonic plague that decimated the province, but also enkindled zeal for service among the survivors.
The life and spirituality of Jean Pierre Medaille were expressions of devotion and service to Jesuits and to non-Jesuits, to men and to women. His first seventeen years of ministry were in the Jesuit colleges located in the mountainous regions of central France. He was often responsible for the temporal needs of his religious community and served as confessor in local Jesuit houses and in parishes. He also directed some of the pious confraternities associated with these parishes.
It is interesting to note that in the annual report to the Father General of the Society of Jesus, one of Jean Pierre’s superiors wrote of his “superior intellect,” though Medaille was often assigned to rather mundane tasks in local Jesuit communities. Another superior asserted Medaille’s “talent for ministries of the confessional and for spiritual direction.” Throughout his life as a Jesuit, Medaille held positions of responsibility within local Jesuit communities, but he did not hold any leadership positions.
The greater part of Medaille’s ministerial life was given to home missions in the Auvergne, a mountainous region of south-central France. The ministry involved traveling among villages and towns administering the Sacraments and giving basic religious education. The Founder, Saint Ignatius wrote that Jesuits sent to these missions should be “strong and healthy,” and should be able to serve the rich and the poor, the learned and the illiterate. The Founder further counseled that superiors should send men of different temperaments in pairs, who would spend some days of retreat before a mission, and travel by foot as a sign of poverty and a desire to edify the local people.
Medaille, the Founder
An important aspect of this ministry in the Auvergne was engendering and sustaining the piety of the local people, which was often accomplished by forming pious groups and founding confraternities of men and of women. It was on such a mission, around 1650, in the cathedral town of Le Puy, that Jean-Pierre Medaille met and helped to organize a group of six women devoted to the Lord and to the service of His people.
Medaille wrote the founding documents, both pious and canonical, for this group. The writings carry the same themes that are found in most of Medaille’s writings: Above all: adoration of God, through union with Christ, which is a grace that involves utter detachment from self and the world. Adoration calls forth attitudes of total generosity and openness to the Divine agenda.
Medaille’s writings for the women of Le Puy are rooted in Pauline and Ignatian themes; in particular, self-emptying which leads to being filled with love of God and neighbor. This love is expressed in a life characterized by humility, patience, gentleness and peace of heart; it is firmly established in obedience to grace and to religious superiors. Because of Medaille’s primary mission work, he did not remain in Le Puy, and so he did not guide the women in person after the initial foundation of the group that would become the Sisters of Saint Joseph.
Various official documents of the Society of Jesus give some insight into Medaille’s personality. He is described as having “great talent for instructing and teaching souls” and being a man “born for the missions.” In 1651 he was described as having “great talent for all the works” of the Society of Jesus.
The physical and spiritual ardor of his ministry brought Medaille to the Jesuit residence in Billom, with the sole duty of hearing confessions. He died there a mere two months after his arrival, on 30 December 1669. His death notice read in part:
The greater part of his life was spent in the missions…with such zeal and so great a reputation for holiness that here and there he was called “the saint,” “the apostle” …he was highly esteemed by rich and poor alike, but especially by the bishops in whose dioceses he labored.
The life and spirituality of Jean Pierre Medaille were expressions of devotion and service to Jesuits and non-Jesuits, to men and to women. There were two major environments of his life. His youth was lived amidst the romantic poetry, and the wealth and security of city life in the genteel society of a prosperous city in southern France, but he spent most of his adult years traveling among small villages, living in the harsh realism of the material, intellectual and spiritual poverty of remote mountainous enclaves. In both realms he encountered the beauty and love of God in a wide range of natural and human situations, and in both situations, he encouraged others to live that love and humility which characterized the humanity of Jesus Christ