Blessed Frederic Ozanam Biography (IV)

Francisco Javier Fernández ChentoFrédéric OzanamLeave a Comment

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Faith and Science

A Thirst for culture

Frederic Ozanam was a scholar in the full sense of the Word. His thirst for knowledge was however inseparable from his wish that it serve Christian Truth, and still better, that it demonstrates the natural union between Faith and Science.

Frederic followed courses in chemistry and botany at the Jardin des Plantes. He learned Sanskrit in order to decipher the sacred texts of the Hindus. He devoured, along with the Christian apologist, works of Bonald, Maistre, Ballanche, Görres or Baader, other works of a more materialistic nature, although he disdained fashionable novels and melodramas. All this was in view of realizing the dream of his adolescence: “demonstrating the truth of Catholic religion through the antiquity of historic, religious and moral beliefs.”

At the age of 20, in the context of the “Conference of History”, which was the prelude to the “Conference of Charity”, he was already admired for his ability to handle subjects as difficult as mythology in general, religion of Confucius and LaoTseu, the religious philosophy of India and Buddha’s reform.

One can go back even further to 1830, when at the age of 17, he explained the beginnings of his work in the “Abeille française”, founded in Lyon by Legeay and Father Noirot. There he published in 5 parts a study on “The Truth of Christian Religion” which he demonstrated by harmony of all beliefs. The same year he wrote poems about Joan of Arc (under the pseudonym of Manazo, an anagram of Ozanam), and a poem in Latin verse on the capture of Jerusalem by Titus. In 1831, he published various studies on language and thought, the philosophy of language and its effect on society, and, again, a remarkable article which appeared in the Lyon newspaper “Le Précurseur”, entitled “Reflection on the Doctrine of Saint – Simon”

In 1836, Frederic defended his dissertations as Doctor in Law, one in Latin (De interdictis) and the other in French (On Possessive Actions). After this, he specialized more and more in Arts and History. At the age of 24, he already was recognized as one of the best experts on Dante and the Divine Comedy. While teaching a course in Commercial Law in Lyon, he wrote several articles in “L’Univers”, one of which was “Protestantism and its Relationship with Liberty.”(1838)

In 1839, he defended two more dissertations: one in Latin: “De frequenti apud veteres poetas heroun ad inferos descensu”, and other in French “Essay on the Philosophy of Dante”. In 1840, he defended in Latin his dissertation for the aggregation of the Arts Faculty on “The reason for the Arrested Development of Tragedy among the Romans”, and in French on “The Historical Value of Bossuet’s Funeral Orations”, he turned toward the study of foreign literature. In a letter to Ampère, he confessed that he had a perfect command of the Italian and German languages, read English and Spanish reasonably well and knew a smattering of Oriental languages. In fact, he was capable of reading the Bible in Hebrew.

So, at the age of 27, he founded himself substitute professor to Claude Fauriel – one of the reformers of Literary History in France, in the Chair of Foreign Literature at the Sorbonne.

On the death of his master and friend in 1844, Frederic succeeded him and occupied the Chair, which was quite in keeping with his deepest desires. He wrote to Jean-Jacques Ampère, in 1840, that the “secret undertaking” closest to his heart was the in-depth comparative study of the Italian and German civilizations, with the perspective of a comparative “noble study”: “Rome and the Barbarians”, “The Priesthood and the Empire”, “Dante and the Nibelungen”, “Tomás de Aquino and Albertt”, “Galileu and Leibniz”.

This erudition was paralleled by his exacting teaching methods. When he chose “Nibelungen”, as the subject of his first lectures, he felt bound to do so from Germany. From Mainz, he wrote on October 14th 1840, that for him it was a matter of “literary conscience”. At the end of his short life, when he was ill and the weather conditions were deplorable, he went to Spain to complete his research on Medieval Hispanic Culture. On his last trip to Italy, from which he returned only to die, he was motivated by extensive research into origins of the Italian Republics at the Pisa Library. Like Fauriel, Frederic Ozanam was in search of a universal truth. His interests were as wide-ranging as the Oriental sources of Dante’s thought and the sources of Avicenne and Averroes’ thought.

But in his mind this certainty was ever-present: The Church had assimilated the heritage of the Antiquity and Barbarian paganism. This universal vision, combined with his great openness toward others, gained him an international audience and vocation. It also enabled him to remain closely linked with his Society of Saint Vincent de Paul: whether he was in Paris, Geneva, London, or Livorno, he visited the Conferences there, and his warm presence gave them extra courage.

Like all the professors and scholars who are worthy of their scientific vocation, Frederic dreamed of an immense work in which he would invest the best of himself. In his own words, it was to be “something very great”: a demonstration of “how Christianity had civilized the Barbarians with its teaching and communicated to them the heritage of Antiquity, thus creating through religious and political life the art, philosophy and literature of the Middle Ages.”

The book was called “A History of Christian Civilization among the Germanic peoples” (before and under Roman domination) and “The establishment of Christianity in Germany”, and the second volume containing “The State” or “The Building of the Empire from Charlemagne to Hohenstaufen” and “The Arts”, with the formation of the monastic schools and the flowering of ecclesiastical literature.

This first volume was almost completed in the Summer of 1846,when he fell ill and left for Italy in search of documents on the culture of the Italian peninsula between the 7th and 10th centuries. On his return, thanks to the devoted attention of Ampère, this first volume appeared in 1847. The second volume, started in 1848, was drafted amidst all the political commotion and at the expense of a superhuman effort. Under the common title of “Germanic Studies”, the two volumes were published in Paris in 1849 and were awarded the Grand Prix Gobert of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

Frederic did not stop there. He dreamed of a “ a vast fresco, which would embrace the history of civilization from the Barbarian period to Dante.” The first milestone was the publication in 1850 of “Unpublished Documents for Use in the Literary History of Italy from the 8th to the 13th centuries.” His articles were gathered into one volume called “Franciscan Poets in Italy in the 13th century” and his lectures on “Civilization in the 5th century” were published in two volumes after his death.

The Teaching Profession Seen as a Priesthood

During all this time, Ozanam also carried out the humble tasks of any teacher: the grading of exams papers, the long preparation of lectures, the fatigue of public speaking. However, he was rewarded by the respect given to him by the large number of students in his classes who were so sensitive to his scholarship, his conscientiousness, his charity, and also his eloquence. He acquired this eloquence only after mastering his shyness; his work as an attorney had almost certainly helped. However, his eloquence issued forth from the profound enthusiasm of a man who was communicating his science and his faith.

One story illustrates this: in 1852, on the day after Louis Napoleon’s coup d’etat, the Sorbonne was on the brink of a riot. The rumour went about that the professors refused to continue lecturing. Although he was seriously ill, Frederic Ozanam went to the faculty, and in front of the dumbfounded students, he delivered this admirable speech: “Sirs, people blame our century for being too egoistical, and it is said that the teachers have also been contaminated by the general epidemic. Yet it is here that we ruin our health. It is here that we use up all our strength. I am not complaining.

Our lives, my life, belong to you, we owe you our lives until the last gasp and you will get them. For my part, Sirs, if I die, it will be serving you”.

He maintained a similar attitude with his colleagues at the Sorbonne: an attitude of esteem and respect. While witnessing to his Christian faith, he accepted that certain colleagues did not share his views or were even non-believers. On this subject he wrote: “Those who doubt are great in number. We owe a compassion which does not exclude esteem.”

Faith and Democracy

After the 1830 Revolution, Frederic Ozanam declared himself a liberal Catholic, that is to say, a believer, who while remaining a loving and obedient son of the Church, considered that the principles of 1789 Revolution (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) were a modern version of the spirit of the Gospel. His mentor was Felicite de Lamennais, a Breton priest with prophetic intuition, but when he left the Church, Frederic left him.

The Alliance between Catholicism and Liberty

In Lyon, where Lamennais had many partisans, the young Frederic read “L’Avenir”, eagerly supporting enthusiastically the political and prophetical theories of its editors: Lamennais, Montalembert, Lacordaire, Gerbet.

There was a great moment of happiness when in “L’Avenir” of August 24th 1831, Frederic found a very laudatory review written by Lamennais of Frederic’s own essay “Exposition of the Doctrine of Saint Simon”. The master applauded the young writer from Lyon as someone who “from the outset” had situated himself in “the 19th century intellectual scene” and “had blended the accents of a noble soul, full of life and rich in hope” into a philosophical discussion.

In January 1832, Frederic Ozanam attended the lectures of father Gerbet, on the Philosophy of History. These strengthened his sense of the Church, sustaining it and clarifying it with an expanded vision of a world which the Church, in turn, must sanctify through its action.

On February 10th of the same year, he expressed his enthusiasm to Ernest Facolnnet: “ Lamennais’ system is the immortal alliance of faith and science, of charity and industry of power and liberty. Applied to history, throws new light on it, it uncovers in it the destiny of the future.”

The Hope of Regeneration Through Democracy

During the July Monarchy (1830 – 48) – a regime whose egotistical conservatism he deplored – Frederic did not abandon the dream and vision that he had chosen in 1830. His correspondence was full of powerful remarks like the following, dated July 21st 1834: “I think that in the face of power, the sacred principle of liberty is also necessary. I think that one must utter a warming with a severe and courageous voice to the power that exploits instead of sacrificing itself. Words are made to be a barrier that is used to resist force; they are the grains of sand on which waves of the sea are broken.”

Frederic Ozanam was fully aware that such attitudes gave rise to estrangement and displeasure. It should be specified that at that time the Archbishop of Paris was Archbishop Quelen, a prelate who was extremely attached to the old regime, whereas Monsignor Affre, who succeeded him, was in complete harmony with Ozanam’s ideas.

Frederic was struck by the lack of vitality, if not indifference of so many believers who did not seem to sense the fundamental upheaval brewing in society. As New Year 1848 approached, which Frederic sensed was to be of capital importance, he returned from Rome filled with admiration for all that he had seen. He wanted all French Catholics to turn Pius IX who, according to him was not only the liberator of Italy, but also the Pope who was going to seal the new alliance between religion and liberty, Christianity and Democracy, in the likeness of the agreement concluded in the past between the Church and the Barbarians.

Let us devote out time to the Barbarians

It was in this perspective that Frederic entered into politics by writing an article in “Le Correspondant” on February 10th 1848, an article in which he demonstrated the possible analogy between the conversion of the Barbarians to Christianity between the 6th and the 9th centuries and the conversion that led Rome to turn toward the masses in 1848. He wrote: “They are precious to the Church because of their number, the infinite number of souls to be won over and saved, and also because of the poverty that God loves and because of their work in which their strength lies”. He concluded with this cry: “Let us devote our time to the Barbarians!”

This phrase caught on. But it also frightened people, because in the eyes of many Christians, the working classes were also the dangerous classes. Moreover, people did not hesitate to say it to Frederic Ozanam, who explained himself in a letter to his friend Teophile Foisset: “By saying: let us devote our time to the Barbarians, I am asking that we do as he has done (The Pope Pius IX) , I am asking that, instead of embracing the interests of a doctrinaire ministry, of a frightened peerage, or an egotistical bourgeoisie, we look after the people who have too many needs and not enough rights, who demand with a reason a fuller share of public affairs, security in work and safeguards against poverty… It is in the people that I can see enough faith and morality left to save a society whose higher classes are lost…”

He repeated this a month later to his brother, Alphonse, as the Second Republic, whose advent he hailed with enthusiasm, was founded: “The alliance between the Catholics and the vanquished bourgeoisie is a bad one. It is more sensible to rely on the people who are the true ally of the Church, though poor, and as devoted to the cause as the Church is, and blessed in the same way with all the blessings of the Saviour.”

The encyclical “Rerum Novarum” on the position of working people, published on May 15th 1891 by Pope Leo XII, often seems to echo the premonitory social thought of Frederic Ozanam which was so generous and fraternal. He was preoccupied by injustice, inequality, the dignity of work, just wages, fair taxes, the right of ownership, and the alleviation of the suffering of those who were least favoured.

These ideas were further taken up in the encyclicals “Quadragesimo anno” of Pius XI, in 1931, and “Centesimus annus” of John Paul II, in 1991.

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