When Fr. Dehon started his ministry work in the parish of Saint Quentin (November 1871) he was lucky enough to find a good group of very committed lay people who belonged to the St. Vincent de Paul Societies. So, though the needs were great so was the good will of his first collaborators.

The situation would have been very different if his first destination had been, for example, Soissons, where, to the contrary, the pastoral initiatives were either languishing or did not exist.

We know about this from the letters which a priest named Demiselle had sent to Fr. Dehon during those years. Demiselle had been parish deacon of La Capelle from 1855 to 1863; he was then nominated as Canon of the Cathedral of Soissons. He became a great friend of the Dehonian Family. And it was this very priest who, already on November 6, 1871, that is, shortly before Fr. Dehon came to the parish, gave him the advice to do whatever he could to remain closely affiliated with this group, especially to the men. He told Fr. Dehon that he was sure to find “excellent collaborators for the apostolate” in the members of the parish branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Societies. (NB: It was in Saint Quentin, in 1845, that the Archpriest Tavernier founded the first St. Vincent de Paul Society in the Diocese of Soissons).

From the Notebook of His “Memoirs”

Who were these first lay people that Fr. Dehon met in Saint Quentin? Who were these first collaborators? He tells us himself, in two pages of his “Memoirs” (“Notes pour l’histoire de ma vie” [Notes for the Story of My Life] NHV IX, 80-82). It is worth quoting it here in its entirety because it provides us with a series of very good natured and generous portraits: “I began to become attached to them”, writes Dehon, “and to make them close collaborators for the good work which was to be done in Saint Quentin.

“Among them was Mr. Giulien, the administrator of a small boarding house, and Mr. Guillaume, who managed a company that granted mortgages. For a long time they were to be my helpers, without personal gain, in all the works that were to be done.

“Mr. Giulien was an optimistic type, lively and fiery, with a temperament like that of St. Peter. In the past, in Paris, he had been a watchman and he had accepted the ideas of that type of environment. Once converted by don Tavernier, Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Quentin (1844-1865), he never returned to the way he was. He had no fear of people’s opinions and always, and with everyone, showed himself openly “clerical”. He had the spirit and the style of the first members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and, for the whole of this life, worked ardently to serve the poor.

“Mr. Guillaume was from Auxerre. He was a modest man, pleasant and simple, and had been brought up with great care. He always applied himself diligently to the works, doing good with intelligence and without fuss. His brother was the famous sculpture, Guillaume; his son-in-law was the Catholic writer, Lecoq de le Marche.

“Mr. Black, who was then a cement manufacturer, was also a very original type of person. He came from a modest background and had always been the complete Catholic. He did not care what people said about him. He had had his motto engraved on his house: My God, my King and my Right. He brought up a numerous family and gave several of his children to the Good Lord.

“Mr. Vilfort, a locksmith, former pupil of the school of Chalons, was the Brother Rector of the Third Order. He also had an optimistic temperament, full of zeal, he was fervent but could not keep things in proportion: one might say that he became overly involved with the works, to the point of somewhat neglecting his own business and his own family.

“Mr. Jules Lehoult, an industrialist, from an old Saint Quentin family, was also one of Mr. Tavernier’s converts. He continued to keep something of the arrogant tone of the big bosses, but he had a lively faith and went to church regularly without fear of what people might say.

“Mr. Basquin, manufacturer of embroidered cloth, had just recently made his money. He was saturated with good will and would doubtless have become the leader of the Catholic party if a premature death had not taken him away.

“Mr. Charles Lecot was a friend of Mr. Mathieu’s and was the mainstay of his works. For a long time he was also a friend of mine. He wasn’t capable of being a leader. His temperament and his health attributed to making him a homebody.

“There were also some men of more modest backgrounds who were heroes of devotion in our works: Mr. Alfred Santerre, a grocer, Mr. Filachet, an accountant, Mr. André, an employee of the Bank of France.

“Mr. A. Santerre was a supporter of our Patronage. This man had all the fidelity and all the zeal of a sheep dog. The millions of steps he walked for the poor and the lowest of the low are inscribed in heaven”.

Leo Dehon liked to stop and talk with these people of such good will. He spoke with them about what was to be done in Saint Quentin. Together they studied the pastoral accounts which the archpriest published at the end of each year. On November 20 he wrote in his notebook: “Saint Quentin lacks the means to assist us in establishing a Catholic college, a patronage and a Catholic newspaper”. These conversations with the most active lay people and with the archpriest were to have a profound effect on Fr. Dehon’s future apostolate.

Giulien, a Faithful Collaborator

We would now like to find out something more about Fr. Dehon’s first collaborators. We can get the most help from existing correspondence. We know, for example, from a letter written by Quintin Baudouin, great-grandson of Giulien, that his great-grandfather had, before the war of 1870, organized a small Catholic college whose pupils followed the courses of the town’s Imperial High School (Letter in the Dehonian archives in Rome, dated September 1, 1952; AD.B.22/3 b). From this we can deduce that perhaps it was Giulien himself who informed Fr. Dehon of the need for a Catholic college or high school in Saint Quentin.

Fr. Dehon himself, in his “Memoirs”, informs us that Giulien was chairman of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the basilica, and when the Patronage started, in 1872, Mr. Giulien gave the children permission to play in the courtyard of his small boarding house on Sundays, while the borders were out for their walk (NHV IX, 128-129). On Sunday then, together with Mr. Guillaume, he wrote down the names of the children who would be enrolled in the Patronage (NHV IX, 134).

In 1873 he delivered two lectures to the children: one on pilgrimages to the sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial; and another on pilgrimages to Lourdes (NHV X, 12).

When, in February of 1874, Fr. Dehon founded the Committee for the Promotion of the Patronage, with the object of putting together a list of benefactors and thus being able to enlarge the work, Giulien also joined him. Each member of the Committee was then assigned a sector of the city, but Giulien was assigned two sectors: Saint Martin and l’Isle (NHV X 138; XI, 153).

Giulien was the close friend to whom Fr. Dehon went for advice regarding all the plans which were developing. He therefore also spoke with him about the possibility of founding a Catholic and monarchist newspaper. Publication of this newspaper was initiated in November of 1874 (NHV X, 187).

In August of that same year the diocesan Office of the Works was established in the Diocese of Soissons. Fr. Dehon noted that practically all the secretariat work for this fell on his shoulders and on those of Giulien and Guillaume (NHV XI, 152). And in 1876 it was once again Giulien who, with a certain Mr. Giordano, a Catholic businessman, started up a joint-stock company for the construction of worker’s houses in the districts of Saint Martin and l’Isle (NHV XII, 5-6).

After the founding of the Congregation, Fr. Rasset was given the responsibility for the progress of the Patronage. Fr. Dehon, on the other hand, kept in contact with all the various activities by means of a council which met every week; Giulien was also a member of this council (NHV XII, 145).

In 1885, the Archpriest Msgr. Mathieu asked Fr. Dehon to preach the lenten sermons in the basilica every weekday during Lent, while he himself would preach on Sundays. On this occasion Mr. Giulien, in the name of other lay people, asked the bishop if he could publish Fr. Dehon’s discourses, saying that the lay people themselves would cover the cost. But the plan fell through because, since Msgr. Mathieu was preaching on Sundays, that meant they would have to publish his sermons as well (NHV XV, 13-14).

In the Dehonian archives we have a letter which Fr. Dehon sent to Giulien on August 8, 1873, while he was taking part in the Congress of the Workers’ Associations. He told him with great enthusiasm all the details of the meeting and said that since the 1870 Vatican Council he had never taken part in such a noble and holy congress. This had been his first contact with Leone Harmel, but he had already thought of going to visit Val-des-Bois and he invited Giulien to accompany him (B. 22/3 b).

We know from other sources that Giulien took an active part in the Diocesan Congress of Liesse in 1875, in the Congress of Saint Quentin of 1876, and in that of Soissons in 1878. In that same year, 1878, at the request of the parish priest of Etaves, he went on to found a St. Vincent de Paul Society in that parish too (Cf. “Compte rendu de l’Assemblée provinciale à Soissons du 17 au 19 sept. 1878” [Minutes of the Provincial Assembly of Soissons from 17 to 19 Sept. 1878] p. 158).

When Mr. Giulien died in December 1898, Fr. Dehon wrote to Maurice Baudouin, his grandson: “I share your grief, which is also that of the whole city of Saint Quentin. Mr. Giulien was a great Christian. He was the promotor of all our good works in Saint Quentin for half a century. Put together everything you know about him and write his biography. I hope that you will go to live in Saint Quentin and that you will also become an apostle. You will have an important mission to fulfill there” (AD.B. 22/3).

For Fr. Dehon, Giulien was more than a great collaborator, he was an “wonderful friend”: that is how he started the letter which he wrote to him on August 28, 1873.

The “Semaine Religieuse” (Religious Week), the weekly bulletin of the Diocese of Soissons, on December 17, 1898 dedicated two pages to his memory. It said, among other things: “In 1847 he joined the Society of S. Vincent de paul in Saint Quentin, founded by Archpriest Tavernier, and was always the very spirit of this institution; thanks to his work there are now five sections of this Society in our city. For several years he was the chairman of the principal Society and he became part of the central council, founded on his initiative in order to direct the various sections.

“It was he above all who took care of the arrival of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and he was also one of the founding members of the “St. Francis Xavier” mutual aid cooperative.

“No one more than he encouraged the growth of new parishes in the poor quarters, showing himself to be an active and faithful collaborator with the new parish priests. Also the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Patronage, the Workers’ Club, the Society of St. Francis Regis (to regularize illegitimate marriages) all often experienced his tireless zeal.

“The newspaper ‘Conservatore dell’Aisne’, which was regarded as a work of Catholic instruction, owes its existence in great part to him. Also the church of St. Martin lists him among its most eminent benefactors”.

Of him one can truly say that “wherever he passed he did good”.

When Giulien died, Fr. Dehon was in Rome. It is above all for this reason that we find nothing written about the death of Giulien in Fr. Dehon’s “Notes Quotidiennes” (Daily Notes).

Some Minor Figures

Another modest but very generous collaborator remembered by Fr. Dehon was Guillaume. We have already noted that on Sundays, together with Giulien he cataloged the enrollment of young people for the Patronage and, as a member of the fund- raising offices of the diocesan Office of Works, he collaborated in the preparation of the Congresses of Liesse and Saint Quentin.

We find him also as treasurer of the Guiding Committee of the Patronage: as a member of the committee he was engaged in finding benefactors in the area of the town’s main square. In 1878 he was also a member of the Council of the Patronage. These are all data which we can find in Fr. Dehon’s NHV notebook. Guillaume’s name figures, in conclusion, also among the participants in the Diocesan Congresses of Liesse, of Saint Quentin and of Soissons, which we have already mentioned.

In the list of his collaborators Fr. Dehon follows Guillaume’s name with that of Mr. Black. He was a member of the Guiding Committee of the Patronage. Two of his sons joined our Congregation: Ottavio in 1885 and Emilio in 1887. Ottavio was one of the first of the group that was present at the conferences which, in 1875, Fr. Dehon started giving for young high school students. The following year Ottavio appears as the secretary of the group and, from 1889 to 1893, having already been ordained priest, he was master of the novitiate at Fourdrain. He died at Saint Quentin on June 11, 1925.

Emilio, on the other hand, died in 1888, a few months after taking his first vows. Fr. Dehon remembered him as a “little saint”, in the style of St. Luigi Gonzaga. In memory of Emilio he published a 192 page volume which was called “Notice”. It is kept in our archives in Rome.

Mr. Vilfort belonged to the group of Christian business men which had been founded in 1876. He tried to improve the situation of the workers in his industry. He was also one of the first “lay associates” of our Institute, appearing under the name of Simon of Cirene (NHV XIV, 62).

Another industrialist, Jules Lehoult, was a member of the Guiding Committee of the Patronage and also participated in the Diocesan Congress of 1876, held in Saint Quentin.

Two Very Important Lay Men - Basquin and Santerre

Ettore Basquin and Alfredo Santerre were the names of two very important members of the laity. Ettore Basquin appears from the beginning. Not only was he in the list of the Committee of the Patrons of the Patronage, in January 1874 he was elected its chairman. Shortly after that, in April of the same year, Ettore and Mr. Lecot accompanied Fr. Dehon to the General Assembly of Catholic Circles. In 1875 Ettore took part in the Diocesan Congress of Liesse and invited other members of the Patron Committee to do the same. He was part of the Christian businessmen’s group. He improved the situation of his workers and helped Fr. Dehon in the preparation of the Diocesan Congress of Saint Quentin in 1876. With him he edited a circular to arouse the interest also of other industrialists. During the Congress he spoke for the commission of Catholic Circles, which was under the chairmanship of a priest by the name of Doresmieulx. Leon Harmel, who was also present at the Congress, had asked if it might not also be opportune to start up a professional club in Saint Quentin. Basquin told him that, considering the fact that the Workers’ Club of Saint Quentin had only been active for three years, this was probably not the right moment (Cf. Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Works, held in Saint Quentin, p. 97).

On December 15, 1876, when speaking to the Committee of the Patrons of the Patronage regarding the social situation in France, Fr. Dehon included words of praise for Ettore Basquin, who was at that time sick, and pointed him out to be one of the few people who was truly interested in the workers. But sadly, when Msgr. Thibaudier, Msgr. Mathieu and Leo Dehon, at an audience in 1877, offered the pope the precious aob which had been made by Basquin’s firm, two months had already passed since his sudden death.

The newspaper “Le Conservateur de l’Aisne” dedicated a few lines to the occasion and, on December 23, 1876, it was mentioned again, this time in “The Religious Week”. Among other things one can read that “he was deeply involved in the Christian Factory Organization according to the indications of the Works of Workers’ Circles. To the Sisters of Charity, he had already entrusted the school for apprentice garment cutters, in the district of St. John. He took part in the Congresses of the Works held in Liesse, Paris and Saint Quentin. When he went to Rome, in 1875, he presented the pope with a memorandum on the Congress that had been held in Liesse. He subsequently was decorated Knight of the order of Saint Gregory the Great, an event which had been urged by the Bishop of Soissons and other prelates who knew and appreciated his work”.

When writing of this journey Basquin took to Rome, Soissons’ “Religious Week”, April 10, 1875, wrote: “During Holy Week, among the faithful who were participating at the Holy Father’s Audience, there was a very well known gentlemen: Ettore Basquin, owner of a lace making industry in Saint Quentin. He presented the pope with a stole which, according to the experts, is a work of art and of great patience. He also gave him a memorandum of love and veneration, signed by the 300 participants of the Congress of Liesse and by 400 young people from the Patronage of St. Joseph, instituted and directed in Saint Quentin by a priest named Dehon”.

Another notable figure among Fr. Dehon’s lay collaborators is certainly Alfredo Santerre. We have more information about him than we do about any other collaborator. This is because Fr. Rasset, who had known Santerre very well at the Patronage, wrote his biography.

We already know from Fr. Dehon that on Sundays Alfredo Santerre was in charge of organizing the games for the young people of the Patronage. In 1878 he appears among the members of the council. He is remembered as an apostle for the entire workers’ world of the city and Fr. Dehon said that his great fidelity and tireless zeal were truly edifying.

The biography, published by Fr. Rasset in 1902, is entitled “A Just Man of Saint Quentin. Alfredo Santerre (1832-1901). A Social and Local Study”. It is 214 pages long.

Alfredo Santerre was a bachelor. After the death of his parents he decided to continue managing, together with his brothers, the shop which they had set up, and to give the profits to the poor. Fr. Rasset notes: “Sometimes we praise the charity of people who have grown rich through speculation; here there is nothing of the kind. This is a matter of practicing charity through the hard labor of every day, avoiding every form of speculation”.

We could say that Santerre’s prime characteristic could be considered the fact that he was a person who sought no gain. He was also very generous and was especially concerned with those people who were so poor, badly clothed and filthy, that the mere sight of them was distressing. He visited them often, leaving them food parcels and some articles of clothing. He treated them as people. When they used to come into his shop in winter, even though he was not using the heating in his own home, he immediately lit the stove so that they could warm themselves.

Another one of his options was taking care of old people. He often visited the “Hearth”, a center which was run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Obviously he had to work very hard in order to live in such a charitable manner. The district he lived in had been growing rapidly in recent years and so also his responsibilities were increasing. He did good for everyone, rich and poor, Catholics and Calvinists, practicing Christians and Masons. Politically he was a conservative and a monarchist, but he did not militate for any party. He was known and appreciated by everyone. He was not a social reformer, but he had practiced a coherent Christianity, obeying the laws of his faith and of his heart.

As a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, he used to visit the poor. He helped the little chimney sweepers and taught them their catechism in preparation of their first communion. He also visited the employers of these little ones and made sure that they respected certain basic requirements. He also looked after the children of the streets which, in Saint Quentin, numbered about 200.

Fr. Rasset wrote: “In Saint Quentin it was often a question of organizing a secretariat or a Christian labor office. Alfredo Santerre, on his own, was all of this: he collected information, consulted judges, doctors, notaries, lawyers concerning what could help him. He increased the number of meetings to find work for those who did not have any. He was, all by himself, an office or an agency for people to find work. Thus, in time, businessmen who needed workers used to come and consult him with confidence”.

His activity in the Patronage of St. Joseph was also intense. Alfredo Santerre was one of the first who offered to help Fr. Dehon in this work. For 25 years he worked there with dedication and love. In the beginning there were various lay people who collaborated and assistance was also given by the authorities. But as time passed the political situation turned in an anti-clerical direction, and so a great part of the administration of the Work ended on Alfredo Santerre’s shoulders. And he, according to Fr. Rasset, also took advantage of this situation to direct the Patronage according to his own ideas. During the last 15 years especially, he was able to dedicate particular attention to the children of the street and to the most wretched.

When the children arrived on Sundays he chatted with them and found out about their families, asking them how they lived and if there were old, sick or invalid people at home; if they went to school or if they assisted at Mass on Sundays. Much of this data he then passed on to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

While he was talking with one or more of them he kept an eye on what was happening in the courtyard. He went over to the big swings, to the gym, to the vertical poles or the bars, so that he could be close to everyone and could help both the person on yard duty and those who shared the overall responsibility for this sector.

His spirituality was clearly Franciscan: he was a faithful and zealous member of the Third Order of St. Francis. However, he was also very close to the spirituality of La Selette, which was much adhered to during those years. Fr. Rasset said that he dedicated much time to prayer, to avoid the evils which he feared would come through the faults of society. He was, in the Church, a reparatory soul.

He died on October 1, 1901, on his way back from a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Madonna of Buon Soccorso, as he was carrying a young 15 year old invalid on his back. He was 68 years old. He died in the way he had always desired: performing an act of charity (Cf. also “Studia Dehoniana” [Dehonian Studies] 35, Estudios, pp. 169-199).

When, in 1902, Fr. Rasset published a biography of Santerre, Fr. Dehon wrote in his “Notes Quotidiennes” (Daily Notes): “In these days Fr. Rasset has published the life of this holy man, Alfredo Santerre, who for many years was my right arm in the Patronage. His humble and generous aid was very precious to me. After I left he, for many years, maintained the objectives we had achieved and also the traditions of the Patronage” (NQ XVII/1902, 21).

On the same page, referring to Saint Quentin, he adds: “It seems that everything is collapsing in Saint Quentin. After the death of Santerre even the men committed to the works no longer worry about helping people who were having difficulty with regard to marriage”. This was another activity in which Santerre’s presence was greatly felt. He himself looked for the necessary certificates, or urged the consent of parents when the latter opposed the marriages. The numerous contacts which he had with people made this service to the workers’ families much easier.

The Last Gleanings

Before we conclude I would like to add a few words on three more of Fr. Dehon’s collaborators, even if they are less well known than the preceding men. They are Lecot, Filachet and Andrea.

From Fr. Dehon’s correspondence we learn that Lecot started to help him as soon as he arrived in the parish. They became great friends. Sometimes Lecot and Msgr. Mathieu would go together to visit their parents in La Capelle, and Msgr. Mathieu’s parents, when they went to visit their son, would also go and say hello to the Lecot family.

Mr. Lecot was also a member of the Committee of the Patrons of the Patronage. Together with his wife he joined Fr. Dehon’s Reparatory Association, taking the name of Joseph of Arimatea. On Good Friday of 1880 he gave Fr. Dehon a garden which he had just acquired, it made our novitiate much lovelier. But in May of 1886 he withdrew his gift and Fr. Dehon had to return a piece of property, estimated to be worth about 72,000 francs, to Lecot. This fact provoked the indignation of his brother, Henri Dehon.

Another name to remember, even though it is not very well known, is Mr. Filachet. He, together with Santerre, looked after the organizing of the games of the children at the Patronage. Fr. Dehon declared that his dedication was “edifying”.

Mr. Andrea was the vice manager of the branch of the Bank of France, which had its offices near the basilica. Because of this it was easy for him to go to the Patronage on Sunday. He administered the savings of the Patronage and the Circle. When there was a special sermon in the basilica he would take a group of the children, who were very difficult to keep under control, to the Patronage. He would also sometimes assist at the little orphanage which Fr. Dehon had set up in the Patronage buildings (Cf. “Studia Dehoniana” [Dehonian Studies] 35, p. 184; NHV XII, 148).

Conclusion

With this review we have come to know about some of the first lay collaborators whom Fr. Dehon met during his ministry in the parish of Saint Quentin. With the passing of time he naturally met others with whom he had a rapport of collaboration which was more or less important. We could mention, for example, Mr. Pluzanski, the Arrachart family, etc. I do not intend to continue this study here, but merely bring out some useful indications from the examples which have been recorded.

The first thing is that one can see how Fr. Dehon appreciated, esteemed, listened to, and took account of the lay people who collaborated with him. He did not treat them with detachment or in an arrogant manner. Indeed, several of them became true friends of his. With his enthusiasm and his dedication, he stimulated them to generosity and collaboration. He himself initiated them in new forms of apostolate which, for a long time, they had been hoping for.

Many social works were born at that time in France, thanks to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. For example, the Patronages, the mutual aid societies, etc. It is interesting to note how Fr. Dehon, at the Congresses of Liesse, Saint Quentin and Soissons, was accompanied by some of his lay people who participated actively in these meetings.

What is surprising is that only two of them joined the Reparatory Association which he had founded. This is because it was not his way to impose anything. He respected each individual’s spirituality. He considered the apostolate the task of the laity also, but their first duty was towards their families: they could not be neglected.

In its turn, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, in Saint Quentin, was made up of a group of men who were open to all works of charity. In Fr. Dehon they met the right man to activate their resources and their apostolic enthusiasm.