378:, France, on December 2, 1813. He was eldest of five children. He joined the seminary and was ordained as a priest on December 22, 1838. Brésillac served briefly as a parish priest in the parish of Saint-Michel in the town of his birth. However, the young priest felt dissatisfied and began to discern his calling to mission. Both his bishop and his father opposed his desire to become a missionary, but Brésillac was determined and consecrated himself totally to that calling. Eventually, his bishop supported his choice, but the opposition of his father was so strong that the young priest left to enter the seminary of the
423:, a practice that assigned people to strictly defined social classes of "desirables" and "undesirables". Brésillac felt it was the obligation of any Christian to reject a system that made outcasts of human beings. He was appalled that so many of his fellow priests did not agree. They accepted this system as part of the culture of the people and opposed his democratic desire to train local clergy. Dismayed by this attitude and by the conflicts that the opposing views created within the community of missionaries, the young bishop eventually resigned his post and returned to Rome.
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Brésillac died of yellow fever on June 25, 1859, only six weeks after he arrived in Africa, at an early age of 46. Despite the tragedy, the newly trained SMA missionary priests who had remained behind in France were still eager to go to Africa to carry out the mission started by their
Founder. The
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Though deeply disappointed by the incident in India, Brésillac was undaunted in his missionary goals. While in Rome, he conceived his desire to bring the Gospel to "the most abandoned peoples of Africa." With the approval of the Holy See, he founded the
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Brésillac found his progressive ideas were strongly resisted by many of his fellow missionaries. He was also distressed by many of the cultural realities he discovered in India, particularly the
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Bresillac wrote mainly in Latin and French. All his writings were translated into
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During his 12 years in India, Brésillac served in many capacities,as Curate at Salern and as
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epidemic that raged through
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Bruno
Semplicio, De Marion Brésillac (1813-1859) Evêque et Fondateur de la Société des Missions Africaines (2005)
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Bruno
Semplicio, De Marion Brésillac (1813-1859) Bishop and Founder of the Society of African Missions. (2007)
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without even saying goodbye to his family. He remained at the seminary for nine months then was appointed to
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That first group was joined on May 14, 1859 by Brésillac who arrived with two more missionaries in
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work and vision of Brésillac continued under the care of his close friend and advisor, Fr.
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Souvenirs: Memories from twelve years on the missions (Vol Book 3)
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Souvenirs: Memories from twelve years on the missions (Vol Book 2)
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Souvenirs: Memories from twelve years on the missions (Vol Book 1)
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was concluded in May 2000. All documents were handed over to the
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Chapel of the
Society of African Missions in Lyon, France
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16:19th-century Roman Catholic missionary and priest
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567:Rapport à la-sacre congregation de la propagande
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131:Melchior-Marie-Joseph de Marion-Brésillac
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637:Catholicism
401:Pondicherry
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409:Coimbatore
332:Attributes
258:1813-12-02
222:Ordination
191:Term ended
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183:Installed
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126:Venerable
390:In India
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