Biography
Melchior de Marion Brésillac was born on December 2, 1813 in Castelnaudary, diocese of Carcassonne, in the south of France, into a deeply Christian family. Like many members of the nobility, his father lost a large part of his property
at the start of the French Revolution; he had to go into exile in 1891 and, on his return, he had to find a job before thinking of starting a family.
He was superintendent of the Canal du Midi, sold to shareholders by imperial decree in 1810. Melchior was the oldest of 7 children, three of whom died very young: in his writings, he spoke only of two sisters and a brother. It was
his father who took care of his school education until he entered the minor seminary in 1832, in the rhetoric class. It is a very brilliant subject which will start the major seminary by being a professor at the minor seminary which
he has just left.
Ordained a priest in 1938, he was first vicar at the parish of Saint-Michel in his hometown. He did not stay there even three years; in fact, in order to fully follow his vocation, after having prayed for a long time and carefully
thought through, he decided to devote himself completely to the mission “ad gentes”. To do this, he must overcome the resistance of his bishop who ends up giving him his agreement; but his father’s opposition was so strong that he
left for the Paris Foreign Mission Seminary without even greeting his family. He takes the diligence for Toulouse, then Paris, by entrusting to a friend priest a letter for each member of his family, with the responsibility for him
to deliver them after his departure.
A few days after his arrival in Paris, he received the following lines from his father: “Go, my very dear son, go where the sky invites you; I recognize the voice calling you. May he protect you; be happy; I submit. ” A fine testimony
of faith and abandonment, when we know that at that time the departure for the missions was final and without return… Melchior will stay 9 months in Paris to train for his future ministry. He was then appointed to the Mission of
India, and he formulated these resolutions before leaving:
1. To serve as a missionary with all my heart.
2. To neglect nothing for the advancement of God’s work.
3. To seize every opportunity for preaching God’s word.
4. To use every means I have – all my strength, all my study and effort – to contribute towards the formation of a native clergy. And it is there that I implore your blessing especially, O my God.
After a few months at the center of the vicariate to learn Tamil, he was first appointed to Salem, then became superior of the college college in Pondicherry. His ideas and his insistence on the need to train an indigenous clergy meant
that Monsignor Bonnand, his bishop, appointed him to this position where, despite the reluctance he would accept, he quickly gave his full measure. He would also like the vicariates (dioceses) to be smaller in size so that we can
quickly entrust the management to Indian priests. We must therefore create new ones, dividing those that already exist. Quite naturally, in 1845, during the first division of the Vicariate of Pondicherry into three separate vicariates,
the young abbot of Brésillac, he was only 32 years old and no more than three years of stay in India,
He was ordained bishop in 1846 at the age of 33. On the spot, he had to organize everything, but his priority was the Indian priests. He wanted an indigenous clergy, with their own hierarchy, capable of ensuring responsibility for
missions where the Europeans were only auxiliaries. In Carumattampatty, he will continue the work barely sketched out by Father Jarrige, bring together some children who will live at the beginning in very difficult conditions, teach
them the basics of what they need to know, starting with Latin, train them. to a deep spiritual life, to make them overcome the problems of the castes, open them to the Roman liturgy. As he said in his resolutions before leaving
France, he will use all his strength and all his means there. When he left India in 1853, he left six major seminarians, of which several tonsured: five of them will be ordained priests and all will persevere; the latter died after
1910.
The question of castes and, more generally, the adaptation to the customs of India were the cause of divergence between missionaries and even between apostolic vicars. Bishop de Brésillac would have liked more clarity in pastoral practices
and greater harmonization between those responsible. Several times he wrote to Rome because he wanted to be told clearly the line he should follow. Simple priest, he could rest on his bishop, but bishop, he must guide the conduct
of his missionaries. His rectitude of conscience, joined to problems of people, leads him to give his resignation which is accepted in Rome in March 1855. And yet, he loved his position, he loved his role, his love for the Missions
is always as strong , he remains a missionary from the bottom of his heart. “Follow your voice
He then withdrew to the Capuchin Fathers of Versailles and there he prayed and waited for the purpose of God to appear. He refuses four or five proposals which are made to him, but when, by a shipowner from Marseille, Mr. Régis, he
hears about Dahomey, he decides to devote himself to “the most abandoned peoples of Africa” and, returning to Rome at the beginning of 1856, he offered himself for Dahomey. On January 15, he wrote to Mr. Vian: “The Sacred Congregation
would be happy to see me open a new mission; but it does not want me to go alone; it urges me to do this for a Society of Missionaries.” He will now put all his strength at the service of this foundation.
He then traverses France from north to south and from east to west, looking for collaborators, finances, a house to start his work. Reading the newspaper he keeps regularly, one cannot count the number of dioceses he has visited, the
number of sermons he has given, the number of people he has contacted, the number of kilometers that he traveled most often by stagecoach or by train. Her efforts were quickly crowned with success, because the Society of African
Missions was officially born in Lyon on December 8, 1856 and she accepted the new apostolic vicariate of Sierra Leone in 1858. It was there that two priests and a brother went to go. in November of that same year. Accompanied by
two other missionaries, Mgr de Brésillac will join them on May 14, 1859,
He was right, because he landed in Freetown at the time of a serious epidemic of yellow fever. At the beginning of June 1859, there were six on the job, full of faith and enthusiasm, and all of them were young, strong, they knew the
difficulties that awaited them, but they were ready to face them… won’t even have time. The fever will quickly decrease their number and eliminate them altogether. Let us quote the names of these obscure missionaries, of these pioneers
who did not have time to give their measure: on June 2, Father Riocreux died at 27 years old, followed three days later by Father Bresson, 47 years old. On June 13, it was Brother Gratien’s turn to leave this land at the age of 29.
Bishop de Brésillac, who begins to feel the symptoms of the disease, takes advantage of a French ship passing through to have Brother Eugène repatriated. They are now only two, and two sick: Bishop de Brésillac died on June 25, he
was not even 46 years old and Father Reymond three days later; he was 36 years old.
Only two priests, four seminarians and two lay brothers remain in Lyons. What will they do ? We must not give up, we must continue. Father Planque was there to save what he could from the sinking. For nearly fifty years, he was to
preside over the destinies of the Society of African Missions; the sacrifice of the first missionaries will not be in vain. The evangelization of the countries of the Gulf Coast of Guinea, since the arrival of the first fathers in
1861, is another page in the history of the Society of African Missions in Lyon.