The weekly messenger., 1888-08-11
Anniversary Mass.
Very Rev. Ange Marie Felix Jan
Late Rector Of st. Martinville.

gone. II Is so sweet and so cOnS0lirg tu
remcmher them whom We love. Father
\. y. LansIois, the worthy successor of
Father Jan, has already made the ncceS-
ry Of his sanity predecessors death cele-
brated in the most solemn manner.
iicnce numerous invitations have been
seat TO the Rev. Clergy to attend Il sol
emn Requiem High Mass which will be-
sung on the 22d inst, at st. Martinsyiile.
To please the numerous friends of the
deceased We publish the following short
sketch of his life.
Father Jan was born at PoIItivity. in
Brittany, Of highly respectable parents,
April -, 1900. and was secretly baptized
in a hospital in the stormy epoch of the
Republic. Pere Jan, as he was fCndly
called by his aifectionate people, WAS a
link connecting the present with the for
mer generation. The old priest just
dead in st. Martinsyille had lived
through the latter days of the first
French Republic, remembered the feet
ing glory of the first empire, was not too
young to share in the anxiety of the
Hundred Days, was ut school with the Je-
suits Of Ste. Anne GAurcy on the memo
rablo 18th Of June. 1915. and, 10 doubt
reiOiced like a ROYAL Breton. as he was.
al the restoration Cf the BOurbons and
monarchy.
II Was the intention OF the youth to
join the Society Of Jesus, but being or
posed by his tutor, he, in 1923, entered
st. Sulpice, Paris, as seminarist. HAY
ing completed his theological course he
was ordained at Notre Dame by Archbi-
shop Purcell Of Cincinnati. On Trinity
Sunday he said his first mass at the Con
vent dcS Carmes, ever memorable as the
scene Of the massacre of so many priests
in 1893. His intimate friend Able Sur
rat. served at the first mass. Little did
either then think that this same Able
would live to witness, forty-fve Yeas la
ter. in the fair city Oh the Seine, scenes
moi less horrible than those of %, and he
come the victim of another massacre, in
atrOcity second only to that of the Con-
vent des Carmes, for the Abbe Surrat was
asSassinated 10y The communists.
On the return of Charles X, from
Rheims to Paris, Pere Jan acted as one of
the mditres de ceremonies, at the grand
TIE Deum at NOtre dame. Often did the
simple priest. in far away st. Martins
vile, smile to think that he, on 50 grand
an occasion had given the order "idissey
lasSer' to many g reat personages. among
others. Mgr. FrayssinOus, Minister Of
Public instruction. A few years later,
he saw the ignominiOus flight of the
same Charles, that typical Bourbon who
could neither forget nor learn.
Bat the Weiss itmdes Of royal person
ages could not interfere with the even
tenor of his way who considered the time
spent with his cattclism class at st. sui
pice as 1.-The happieSt Of his life"
Among Pere JAMS early friends were
I.acOrlarie, Barat and Varin. Lacorda-
rie was in philosophy when Pere Jan was
iii theology in the same college.
1t is said that il was to escape the mitre
that Pere Jan offered himself for a diff
cult mission to West Indian Isle, when
he was roughly treated by the terrible
SOulOuque. In January, 1851. he became
pastor of st. Martinsyille, and devoted
himself with astonishing zeal to the wei !
fare of the people. He never left his
post even for a day-neyer once visited
New 0rleans-laid, so to say, between
the porch and the altar-never left his |
house except to visit the church, the |
schools or the sick, led life of prayer,
labor, and, modification, and died on the
feast of the Assumption of the Blessed |
Mother. to whom he was deeply devoted. |
He was priest for over sixty years,
Turing which his daily mass was omit
ted only three times. He was a total alb
tainer and never touched tobacco. When
not visiting the sick or the schools, he
almost lived in the confessional.
His life, therefore, was well spent. II
was truly the life of "the good and faith
'ul priest" How sweet and soul inspir-
ng must then have sounded to his ears
he invitation Of his Master: well done.
,ood and faithful servant, enter
II the Kingdom of thy LOrd.-The
Morning Star.
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& III, hncf r.ifiunnr of NJ -.----r |