Bl. Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus Grialou – February 4 – Carmelite Saints
- Blog Bl. Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus Grialou – February 4 – Carmelite Saints
Summary:
Henri Grialou was born in Aubin, in Aveyron (France), on December 2, 1894. After his priestly ordination on February 4, 1922, he was captivated by the doctrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and St. John of the Cross and decided to join the Discalced Carmelites. After serving as superior in France, he was elected to serve as a General Definitor of the Order in Rome in 1937. In 1948, he was appointed Apostolic Visitor of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in France and religious assistant to their federations. From 1955, he was able to devote himself full-time to the secular institute Notre Dame de Vie, which he started in 1932. He died in Venasque on March 27th, 1967, the feast day of the institute. He was beatified in 2016 by Pope Francis.
History:
Henri Grialou was born on December 2, 1894, in Le Gua, southern France, the third of five children to Auguste Grialou, a miner, and Marie Miral, who came from a farming family. The family led a hard life, suffering the social deprivations of the mining region.
Growing up, his sole desire was to become a priest, which became more concrete towards the end of his childhood. His father died when he was only 10 years of age, though this allowed him to go to a Catholic boarding school, the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, for free. The education he received helped nurture a vocation to the priesthood. His mother supported his decision and worked hard to send him to the minor seminary in Graves for his studies.
Grialou entered the major seminary in Rodez in October 1911, where he discovered the life and works of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who, at that time, was beginning the process to become a saint. Drawn to her works, he learned of her little way of spiritual childhood.
His formation and studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, and Henri volunteered for the army in 1913. He served on the front lines as an officer, and for five years, Henri took part in the major campaigns at Argonne, Verdun, and Chemin des Dames. Upon his discharge at the end of the war in 1919, he held the rank of Lieutenant and was decorated as a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor with the Military Cross. During the war, both he and his men felt the powerful protection of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and took solace in knowing he had a powerful intercessor. In the 1920s, he wrote of her: "It seems to me that the mission of the little Blessed is to spread the divine love in souls in the form which God wills for our times."
After distinguishing himself on the front lines, he reentered seminary in 1919 at Rodez, where he said, “I made a definitive choice to become a priest.”
As he was on his retreat to prepare to be ordained a sub-deacon, he took along a little book about St John of the Cross that a Carmelite nun had just given him. During his reading on the evening of December 13, 1920, he received a sudden, overwhelming revelation that God wanted him to become a Discalced Carmelite. Though he had never met a Carmelite friar and was unsure whether there were any in France, he knew God had made him a Carmelite. However, numerous difficulties would arise in pursuing this call.
He first approached his seminary spiritual director, who told Henri, ‘absolutely not’ and forbade him from speaking about this again. Obediently, Henri said nothing and sat alone with his thoughts of entering Carmel. Time passed, and after his ordination as a subdeacon, he prayed to the Lord, saying, "My spiritual director must bring this up before Easter of this year, or I will know this is not really from you." Lent arrived, followed by Holy Week and the Triduum, yet still no word. On Good Friday, however, his spiritual director approached him in the chapel to ask about his thoughts on entering Carmel. Henri explained how his experience had matured over several months. At the end of their meeting, his director said, "If you were not resolved to go to Carmel, I myself would force you to go!"
As the weeks pass, Henri is ordained a deacon and is set to be ordained a priest in only a couple of months. He now must speak to the bishop about this. The bishop, who saw that Henri was a gifted man with great strength of personality, intellect, and heart, as well as an incredible leader, had a plan for Henri to head up a missionary band of priests to go throughout the diocese to bring back the many fallen-away Catholics. As such, upon Henri's request to depart for Carmel, the bishop said, “Absolutely not, you will report to your new assignment after ordination, and that is all.” Henri left the meeting deeply saddened but confident that God would find a way. Several weeks later, the bishop asked the seminary spiritual director how Henri was doing. To which he answered that he submits to the bishop. The bishop then recounted that, since their meeting, he has not had a good night's sleep, cannot get Henri’s request off his mind, and is convinced that God will not let him rest until he lets him go. The bishop then tells the rector that Henri may enter Carmel.
The last obstacle was also the greatest and most heart-wrenching: his mother. His mother was a widow who spent the last 10 years working various jobs to pay for Henri’s seminary education. They were very close and shared a deep love for each other. Her one dream was to retire from her arduous daily labor and live with her son at his rectory as a housekeeper and companion, which was not uncommon for a widowed mother or a single sister to do in those days. When Henri told his mom about his desire to enter Carmel, she went into a panic. She believed he was going to hide away in a cloister and never see her again. Henri tried to explain to her that this was a misunderstanding, but she would not listen. She cursed his path to Carmel and even threatened to take her own life if he left. These encounters completely broke Henri.
He did not know what to do. He was about to be ordained a priest, and his mother said she would have no part in his ordination or his first Mass. Henri knew his mother never went back on her word. He asked God for a miracle; if she comes to the ordination, this will be the last confirmation that this call to Carmel is from God. The days pass, and she will not talk to him. When his ordination arrived, and she was not in the pew. Then, right as the Mass began, Henri spotted her in a corner! The miracle has happened! For two more years, Henri’s relationship with his mother would be strained. However, after much prayer and suffering, his mom became reconciled to her son’s vocation, and the affection they shared would grow stronger as a result of this trial.
After ordination, Fr. Henri spent several days in his hometown visiting and celebrating his first Masses before departing for Carmel. Just three weeks after receiving Holy Orders, he boarded a train to Avon, France, where he began his novitiate in the Discalced Carmelites on February 24, 1922, taking the name Fr. Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus in honor of his devotion to the Little Flower. Upon entry, he declared, "My vocation is certain." He received the Carmelite habit on March 10, 1922.
Fr. Marie-Eugene’s life was driven by his devotion to the Carmelite charism and evangelical zeal. His motto was "traditus gratiae Dei" (surrendered to the grace of God). As a priest, he dedicated himself to sharing the teachings of the Carmelite saints. He actively participated in preaching after the beatification and canonization of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in 1923 and 1925, and after the proclamation of St. John of the Cross as a Doctor of the Church in 1926. Bl. Marie-Eugène was also a master of the spiritual life and a renowned spiritual director in his time. He preached that the paths to contemplation and personal holiness were open to all the Christian faithful. He gave himself fully to this apostolate, thereby contributing to the renewal of the Church in France between the two world wars.
His two major works - I Want to See God, and I am a Daughter of the Church - are filled with rich and detailed explications of Carmelite thought. They offer a synthesis based on the teachings of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and other notable Carmelites. From these saints, Bl. Marie-Eugène learned of the grace found in silent prayer.
In 1928, he became Prior of the Petit Castelet Monastery in Tarascon. The next year, on Pentecost, three women who ran a private school in Marseille sought Fr. Marie-Eugène's advice; one of them was Marie Pila. From that meeting, he and Pila founded the Secular Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie in Venasque in 1932. This lay institute, which is similar to a Third Order, still exists. He opened its first branch in the Philippines and celebrated the inaugural Mass there on December 25, 1954. The institute's aim was the Carmelite ideal, realized by the prophet Elijah: “To closely join a contemplative and apostolic life in the world, by permeating every apostolate with mental prayer, so as to be the witness through word and life to the living God.”
From 1932 to 1936, he was the Prior at Agen, and in 1936, he was appointed Prior in Monaco, which he served for a year. He also sought to revitalize Carmelite monasteries and convents, and, in 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed him an Apostolic Visitor to this end, as a member of the General Council of the Order in Rome, where he remained until 1955, apart from the war years of 1939-1945. More specifically, he was given the responsibility for all the French-speaking Carmelite monasteries. He paid special attention to the persecuted communities. In the order itself, he was the General Definitor from 1937 to 1954 and the Vicar-General from 1954 to 1955; in the latter post, he travelled to various Carmelite monasteries.
On returning to France in 1955, he was elected Provincial from 1957 to 1960 and again from 1963 to 1967. He closely observed the upheavals of the 1950s and new apostolic initiatives in the Church.
From 1965 onwards, Fr Marie-Eugene's health gradually deteriorated. He focused on the essentials: teaching the fundamentals of the spiritual life and supporting the growing number of people seeking his advice.
Devoted to the Holy Spirit and our Blessed Mother, after many months of severe suffering, Fr. Marie-Eugène died on Easter Monday, March 27, 1967, the day on which he enjoyed celebrating the joy of Mary, Mother of Life (Notre-Dame de Vie), the feast day he had previously established for the institute. His final words to those gathered at his bedside were: "As for me, I am on my way to perfect union with the Holy Spirit".
On September 27, 1985, Pope St. John Paul II granted him the title Servant of God. On December 19, 2011, he was proclaimed to be Venerable after Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged that Henri had lived a model Christian life of heroic virtue - both cardinal and theological - which the pope deemed Grialou exercised to a favorable degree. He was later beatified in 2016 by Pope Francis.
Prayer:
God, rich in mercy,
you gave Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus
the grace and light to guide your people
along the paths of contemplative prayer
and missionary witness toward the fullness of Christ.
Grant us through his intercession
to grow in submission to the Holy Spirit
and to work, in faith, for the coming of your Kingdom.
Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
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