Mick Maurer.com > Bishop Francois J. Maurer, CSSp

1922-2000

Bishop Francois Joseph Maurer, CSSp

Maurer

While Mick Maurer was in the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (C.S.Sp.) he began a
correspondence with the Bishop of Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, FR.

He was Bishop Francois Joseph Maurer, C.S.Sp. Born 5-7-1922 in Bernardville, Alsace, FR.
Ordained a priest 2-15-1948, Francois was bishop of Saint Pierre from 5-17-1966 till
2-17-2000. He died in St. Pierre 4-5-2000. While we could not establish a blood linkage,
being fellow Spiritans we were brothers.

Saint-Pierre & Miquelon

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon are since 1985, a local authority with particular statute, within the French
Republic and of the European Union.

This tiny archipelago is located at the east of Canada, to 25 km in the south of the island and the
province of Newfoundland.

With the Guadeloupe, Guyana and Martinique, it is one of the four French territories in America and
the only one in North America, last piece of old New-France.

Named Isle Sainct Pierre by Jacques Cartier at the time of his passage in June 1536, Saint-Pierre
and Miquelon had initially received the name of archipelago of the eleven thousand virgins by Jose
Álvarez Faguendes, Portuguese navigator landed in 1520, the day of Holy Ursula.

The Discoverers

The European fishery on the Grand Banks began over 500 years ago when explorer Giovanni
Caboto claimed all that was needed to harvest codfish was to lower a basket into the sea.

The islands of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon were baptized the Eleven Thousand Virgins by Joao Alvarez
Faguendes of Portugal in 1520, the Green Islands by the Corte Real brothers and the Island of
Saint-Pierre by Jacques Cartier in 1536. By 1579, the island of Miquelon was given its name by
Basque fishermen.

"Nous fumes ausdictes yles sainct Pierre, ou trouvasmes plusieurs navires, tant de France que de
Bretaigne, depuis le jour sainct Bernabe, XIe de juing, jusques au XVIe jour dudict moys" - Jacques
Cartier, June 1536

The Merchants of Saint-Malo

The French Merchants of Saint-Malo settled in Saint-Pierre in the late XVIIth century and established
a very large curing and salting operation for codfish. The tribulations of war between France and
Britain would put an end to the French colonies in Placentia Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre et
Miquelon and The treaty of Utrecht of 1713 forced Saint-Pierre's inhabitants into exile in Isle Royale
(Cape Breton, Nova Scotia).

"The Ifland is as subject to Fogs as any part in Newfoundland yes if we may credit the late Planters
it is very convienient for catching and curing of Codfish" - James Cook, 1763

Treaties, war and deportation

The treaty of 1763 returned the islands of Saint-Pierre & Miquelon back to France, and despite the
subsequent deportations of 1778 and 1793, the islands were once again returned to France in
1816.

"The French, it seems, are determined to lose no time in settling a colony at Miquelon and St
Pierre." - the LONDON GAZETTE, June 5 1783

Cathedral of Saint-Pierre

Saint-Pierre and
Miquelon

Bishop François Joseph Maurer, C.S.Sp. †
Deceased
Vicar Apostolic Emeritus of Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
Titular Bishop of Chimaera

7 May 1922                Born        Bernardvillé
15 Feb 1948              25.8        Ordained Priest        Priest of Congregation of the Holy Ghost
17 May 1966              44.0        Appointed        Prefect of Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
16 Nov 1970              48.5        Appointed        Vicar Apostolic of Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
16 Nov 1970              48.5        Appointed        Titular Bishop of Chimaera
23 May 1971              49.0        Ordained Bishop        Titular Bishop of Chimaera
17 Feb 2000              77.8        Retired        Vicar Apostolic of Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
5 Apr 2000                 77.9        Died        Vicar Apostolic Emeritus of Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon

* a priest for 52.1 years
* a bishop for 28.9 years

* Principal Consecrator:
o Sergio Cardinal Pignedoli †
* Principal Co-Consecrators:
o Archbishop Patrick James Skinner, C.I.M. †
o Bishop Victor-Julien-André Gouet †

Born 5-7-1922 in Bernardville, Alsace, FR.

France today is administratively divided into 26 régions (four of them overseas), each
subdivided into 100 départements, each governed by an elected Conseil Général
(general council). Each département is divided into arrondissements, which are
subdivided into cantons, each of which is represented by one member in the Conseil
Général. The smallest administrative unit is the commune (community), governed by a
Maire (mayor), and a Conseil Municipal.
Alsace, the smallest of France's metropolitan régions, today comprises the two
départements of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin. The département of the Territoire de
Belfort, historically part of Alsace, is today part of the région of Franche-Comté. These
three départements contain 1,004 communes, each of which has a separate entry on
this site. The 1990 population of these three départements was 1,758,469. The largest
city is Strasbourg, with a 1990 population of 255,937. The smallest may be
Lamadeleine-Val-des-Anges, in the Territoire de Belfort, which in 1990 had only 29
inhabitants. As populations have shifted over the years many places which had long
existed as independent communes have been absorbed by or merged with others.

Its capital and largest city is Strasbourg. Alsace, previously a part of the Holy Roman
Empire, changed hands between France and Germany several times between the
17th and 20th century.

In the course of the 17th century, the entirety of Alsace was gradually annexed under
King Louis XIV of France and made one of the provinces of France. Alsace is frequently
(although now informally) mentioned in conjunction with Lorraine, because
possession of these two régions (as Alsace-Lorraine) was often contested in the 19th
and 20th century, following a division among the successors of Charlemagne in the
9th century.

Although it was a German dialect-speaking region for several periods in its history, all
Alsatians today speak French. About 25% of the local population is fluent in Alsatian
(as a mother tongue) or German (as a second language).

Alsace is a green and mountainous corridor wedged between Lorraine on the west,
Germany to the north and east and Switzerland to the south. The main town of the
region is Colmar, with carved and painted houses and an old Venetian quarter.

Arrondissement de Sélestat-Erstein (7 cantons; 101 communes)

* Canton de Barr (16 communes)

Bernardvillé

German: Bernhardsweiler
Variant: Bernardswiller-Barr

After World War I, the establishment of German identity in Alsace was reversed, as
Germans who had settled in Alsace since 1871 were expelled. Policies forbidding
the use of German and requiring that of French were introduced. However, in order
not to antagonize the Alsatians, the region was not considered to be subject to
some changes in French law from 1871 to 1919, such as the 1905 Law of
Separation of Church and State.

The région was effectively annexed by Germany in 1940 during World War II and
reincorporated into the Greater German Reich. Alsace was merged with Baden, and
Lorraine with the Saarland. The annexation, while putting a halt to the anti-German
discrimination in the région, subjected it to the cruel Nazi dictatorship, which was
loathed by most of the people. The German government never negotiated or
declared a formal annexation, however, in order to preserve the possibility of an
agreement with the West. France regained control of the war-torn area in 1944 and
resumed its policy of promoting the French language with uncompromising vigor.
For instance, from 1945 to 1984 the use of German in newspapers was restricted
to a maximum of 25%.[citation needed]

In more recent years, as nationalistic emotions have receded, Alsatian is now being
promoted by local authorities again as an element of the region's identity. Alsatian
is now taught in schools (but not mandatory) as one of the regional languages of
France. German is also taught as a foreign language in local kindergartens and
schools.

Alsatian wine (French: Vin d'Alsace) has a long history. The wine
producing region of Alsace in France primarily produces white wines. Its
wines, which have a strong Germanic influence, are produced under three
different Appellation d'Origine Contrôlées (AOCs): Alsace AOC for white,
rosé and red wines, Alsace Grand Cru AOC for white wines from certain
classified vineyards and Crémant d'Alsace AOC for sparkling wines. Both
dry and sweet white wines are produced, and are often made from
aromatic grapes varieties. Along with Austria and Germany, it produces
some of the most noted dry Rieslings in the world, but on the export
market, Alsace is perhaps even more noted for highly aromatic
Gewürztraminer wines. Because of its Germanic influence, it is the only
region in France to produce mostly varietal wines, typically from similar
grapes as used in German wine. France has agreed to stop calling its
wine Tokay.

Almost all wines are white, except those made from the Pinot Noir grape
which are pale red, often rosé. Much of the white wines of Alsace are made
from aromatic grape varieties, so many characteristic Alsace wines are
aromatic, floral and spicy. Since they very seldom have any oak barrel
aromas they tend to be very varietally pure in their character. Traditionally all
Alsace wines were dry (which once set them apart from German wines
with which they share many grape varieties), but an ambition to produce
wines with more intense and fruity character has led some producers to
produce wines which contain some residual sugar. Since there is no
official labelling that differentiates completely dry from off-dry (or even
semi-sweet) wines, this has occasionally led to some confusion among
consumers. It is more common to find residual sugar in Gewürztraminer
and Pinot Gris, which reach a higher natural sugar content on ripeness,
than in Riesling, Muscat or Sylvaner. Usually there is a "house style" as to
residual sugar, i.e., some producers only produce totally dry wines, except
for their dessert style wines.

There are two late harvest classifications, Vendange Tardive (VT) and
Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN). Vendange Tardive means "late harvest"
(which in German would be Spätlese), but in terms of must weight
requirements, VT is similar to Auslese in Germany. Sélection de Grains
Nobles means "selection of noble berries", i.e. grapes affected by noble
rot, and is similar to a German Beerenauslese. For both VT and SGN,
Alsace wines tend to be higher in alcohol and therefore slighly lower in
sugar than the corresponding German wines. Therefore, Riesling VT and
Muscat VT tend to be semi-sweet rather than sweet, while Gewürztraminer
and Pinot Gris tend to be rather sweet already at VT level.

Sparkling wines known as Crémant d'Alsace are also made.

to breweries in and near Strasbourg. These include those of Kronenbourg,
Fischer, Heineken, Météor, and Kanterbräu. Hops are grown in
Kochersberg and in northern Alsace. Schnapps is also traditionally made
in Alsace, but it is in decline because home distillers are becoming less
common and the consumption of traditional, strong, alcoholic beverages
is decreasing.

Alsatian food is synonymous with conviviality, the dishes are substantial
and served in generous portions and it has one of the richest regional
kitchens. The gastronomic symbol of the région is undoubtedly Sauerkraut.

The word "Sauerkraut" in Alsatian has the form "Sûrkrût (Saurkraut)", which
means "sour cabbage" as its German equivalent. This word was included
into the French language as choucroute.

To make it, the cabbage is finely shredded, layered with salt and juniper
and left to ferment in wooden barrels. Sauerkraut can be served with
poultry, pork, sausage or even fish.

Traditionally it is served with pork, Strasbourg sausage or frankfurters,
bacon, smoked pork or smoked Morteau or Montbéliard sausages or a
selection of pork products. Served alongside are often roasted or steamed
potatoes or dumplings.

Additionally, Alsace is known for its fruit juices and mineral waters.

A Jewish influence can also be noted in its goods, and in the names of
them, through the Yiddish language.

Francis Libermann, the son of a Jewish rabbi, was born in Saverne in
Alsace (France) in 1802.

is located in northern Alsace, just below the Saverne Gap (col de
Saverne), the main way of communication between northern Alsace and
Lorraine through the Vosges mountains. Saverne, nicknamed la porte
de l'Alsace (the Gate of Alsace), is watered by the river Zorn and the
canal linking the rivers Marne and Rhine, and surrounded by hills The
city of Saverne (in German and Alsatian, Zabern; 11,534 inhabitants)
crowned with Romantic ruins of medieval fortresses. The "eye of
Alsace", the fortress of Haut-Barr, located 5 km south of Saverne,
watched the plain of Alsace; when weather permits it, the spire of the
cathedral of Strasbourg can be seen from there. Bishop Manderscheidt
once had to take refuge in the fortress, where he founded the Horn
Brotherhood; members of the brotherhood enjoyed downing in one go
an aurochs horn filled up with Alsatian wine.

His Father the Rabbi

Libermann’s father was a well-known rabbi, Jews of eastern France (Alsace) and west
Germany recognized him as their spiritual leader. The Talmud was his total concern and
decided his thought and action. He refused to take part in French political and social life,
which he saw as a threat to the spiritual purity of his people’s Judaism. Ghetto life for them
and for him and his family offered protection from cultural and Christian influences.

In a climate of strict and uncompromising Judaism his youngest son Jacob (Francis) lived
his formative years. He was 20 when his father sent him to Metz, France, to study Talmud
more professionally. He hoped young Jacob would succeed him as chief rabbi. He was a
model Jewish boy, destined to be great, so his father expected, in Jewish intellectual and
religious life as portrayed in the Talmud.

He became fluent in Hebrew because of talmudic and biblical studies. When he went to
Rome (1840) he took a Hebrew Bible with him and later had it on his desk until he died.

Talmud

During his youth Libermann spent a lot of time under his father’s tutelage poring over
talmudic texts of legal reasoning aimed at finding the exact way of acting in everyday
situations. Long hours were required to deal with the intricacies of coming to a decision and
taking proper action. It could be demanding and mind-tiring, but it sharpened the mind like
few other study pursuits did. He came into contact with centuries of Jewish thought, which
let him glimpse spiritual horizons most Jews only dream about.

Arduous study of the Talmud, done out of religious motives, bolstered the conviction, often
joyous, that the Divine Presence (Shekinah) drew near. The Mishnah of which the Talmud is
a commentary describes it:

“When two sit and there are between them words of Torah, the Shekina rests between
them” (Pirke Aboth 3.3).

Torah

Studying the Talmud is studying “Torah.” Torah is a complex term, designating a variety of
things, all related to the divine instruction given Moses on Sinai. It is used of all the books of
Jewish Scripture, of the first five books of the Bible (“Pentateuch”), of the oral interpretations
of its legal codes (“the traditions of the fathers”) that were handed down and later codified in
the Mishnah around 200 A.D.. This became the “canonical” text for all subsequent Jewish
study found in the Talmud.

Tradition

Briefly, all Talmud is believed to go back to Moses, emanating from the revelation given him
and handed down to each generation. “Torah” is this tradition-written and oral-initiated and
sustained by Yahweh. Hence, Torah study is revelation study, a holy practice that naturally
engages the Shekinah, the divine presence among believers and students of what Moses
received on Sinai.

Revelation, Torah, Tradition, Talmud monopolized the mind and heart of Libermann until he
was in his twenties and stamped his psyche forever. In the Christianity of St. Sulpice and
Issy, molded by the French school of spirituality, he will find a congenial mirror image of his
Jewish spirituality. He will feel at home. He said in an early letter from the seminary: [Top]

“... I am always very content and I can assure you that I have never been as happy as I am
now”
(LS 1.5, to his brother Samson).

Away from Home

Jacob Libermann in Metz for rabbinic studies, and removed from the presence of his father,
begins to stray immediately. Like any university town, all kinds of viewpoints-religious and
non-religious-swirl around, touching everybody in sight. Jews were given freedom by
Napoleon to participate in political life, which right away took them out of the ghetto. Also, the
practical impact of the Enlightenment like “Existentialism” of the 1960s exposed the fragility
of religious adherence of many.

Among the volatile students these political and intellectual currents were breezes of fresh
air hardly breathed before, though secretly wished for. In Jewish circles, especially in the
rabbinic schools, the impact was devastating: a good number converted to Catholicism;
others abandoned any religion; others kept their loyalty to their roots but hardly with much
enthusiasm.

When Libermann arrived in Metz his brothers had already become Catholics which
disconcerted Jacob no end. He had looked up to his oldest brother Samson as far back as
he could remember. In turn, Samson, a physician, carefully looked after him, since Jacob
had been of fragile health and the youngest. Eventually, Samson’s genuine Catholicism will
make Jacob think of the apparent abandonment of Judaism as less of a monstrous deed.
In the meantime Samson’s conversion will be matched by many other Jews. This did not
escape Jacob’s notice.

Temptations

Jacob, far from ghetto life with his father, stands in a cauldron of conflicting theologies, of
modem world realism that if it’s not seen it doesn’t exist and of the freedom no other class
of people enjoy than university students. It didn’t take long before he was affected and
infected.

He was doing things “unorthodox”: learning Latin and French, reading Voltaire and
Rousseau (anybody’s iconoclasts), meeting highly respected Jewish scholars who
appeared indifferent to “Judaism”, reading the New Testament, and taking part in “bull
sessions” with student peers who usually will say anything that comes to mind or try
whatever is in vogue. A sensitive and pure person like Jacob would easily attract their
attention and their assaults on whatever he stood for or was. Few students can escape
such frequent encounters unsullied in thought and deed.

Doubts

It wasn’t long before Jacob began to have deep doubts about his religious convictions. Who
can prove the Bible inspired? Who can believe in its miracles? Who really can take seriously
the Bible’s claim the Jews are God’s chosen people? All these questions strike at the heart
of belief, where he lives deep within himself, where reside the energies for living with
motivation and where is experienced the peaceful assurance of being related to God and
accepted by him.

Libermann was tampering with his primal energies and beliefs. He was asking for trouble,
a lot of trouble. On top of this revolutionary ferment and unrest going on inside him he felt
obliged to deceive his father who had put all his hopes in him, naively confident Jacob
would not let him down like his brothers did.

Turmoil

Libermann knew that what was going on in him, and what he was letting go on, would
almost literally kill his father, chief Rabbi of Alsace, France, if he knew. He was a dominating
influence in regional Jewish life. He wasn’t dealing with differing from his father in choosing
a role within Judaism, nor was it a case of a son like the prodigal son wanting to get away
from home to taste the world and be on his own. This his father could allow as he did Jacob’
s brothers without feeling personally betrayed or fearing that spiritual death judged to be the
lot of those abandoning Judaism.

Deception

Libermann’s deception had biblical echoes. It was not a deception for freedom from
restraint, or for personal advantage. Like Jacob he would have to wrestle with doubts and
struggle with demonic influences, like Jacob he would have to deceive his father, but unlike
Jacob he had no mother (she died when he was 11) to shield him from his father’s awful
curse. His deception shielded him for a while, but could not remain secret forever. He no
doubt wanted his father to be as little hurt as possible over decisions he would have to
make. This is almost a classic case of father-son confrontation. The perennial temptation of
the father is to determine the future of his son, especially his firstborn or youngest son. He
can resist the father and end up in hostile relationship (which happened without Jacob
experiencing the hostility his father will carry to his grave). Or he can passively let the father
shape his future and then all his life wonder how different things might have been. He
chose to let his father go on thinking that all’s well with his son, at the cost of living in the
fear of being unmasked in his father’s eyes.

Libermann chose deception to protect his father’s feelings and no doubt to prevent
interference with the process of rethinking his deepest thoughts and desires. He would go
to Paris, meet Jewish intellectuals who had converted (e.g., David Drach), be housed in St.
Stanislaus seminary.

All alone

Then, alone, like a hermit in the desert, without the usual day by day experiences and
familiar faces, he would find himself drowning in an ocean of the most painful kind of
despair.

Libermann would feel he is on his own, completely, with no relief in sight. He wasn’t a kid
anymore, but an adult who had been enured to physical difficulty. His problem would be
isolation or deprivation of sense experience. He would be deprived of what matters to any
person. He has forsaken his Jewish belief and now was left with nothing to anchor his
whole being.

This abandonment of a belief that once defined his past, present and future would bring on
an insecurity that surpassed physical pain. His suffering was, you could say, metaphysical
in the sense that it touched the roots of his self-consciousness. There is no pain, no
insecurity, no despair like the loss of faith that once was the reason for everything. The Bible
knows such pain and associates it with the “fire of the Holy Spirit.” There is no aspirin to
relieve it, no book to dissipate it, no human being to give comfort. It is the pure blackness of
despair like David losing Absolom, like Judas hanging himself, like those driven to suicide
because they cannot cope with what they see as the impossibility of going on living.

Struggle

In this dark dungeon of despair Libermann did not give up. He didn’t look for distraction to
forget his troubles. He wanted answers: is God real, does he know me, does he care for
me? Even these questions didn’t relieve his despair nor give meaning to it, He was in the
deepest blackness, where no light even faintly flickered, in a darkness that was unbearably
painful. It affected his whole being, tearing apart body and soul-just unrelieved black pain.

Jacob reached the limit of his dark despair (“This was an extremely painful moment for me
... all this plunged me into a profound sadness ...”). He couldn’t go backward to the security
of his Jewish life or go forward to Christian faith as some around him were suggesting.
Reasoning about it left him cold; remembering his father’s house only aggravated his dark
isolation (“My heart felt oppressed by the most painful melancholy”).

He was perplexed, unable to assuage his pain, ignorant of how to escape “this body of
death” that Paul speaks about (Rom 7:24), He couldn’t go on pretending he believed in
Judaism nor could he embrace Christianity that disgusted him with its belief in Mary and the
Eucharist.

Libermann reached the limits of his powers on that “dark night.” Separation, loneliness,
doubts, mental pain and distress overwhelmed him, putting him up against his legendary
wall that would not fall down in front of him. His despair was almost total.

Remembering

Then, like a good Jew, he “remembered.” He remembered the God of his fathers and
uttered a prayer of anguish and lamentation like the Psalmists of old.

“It was then that remembering the God of my fathers, I got down on my knees and implored
him to enlighten me regarding the true religion. I begged him, if what Christians believed
was true, to let me know it, and if what they believed was false to remove me immediately
from it. There and then I was enlightened. I beheld the truth, faith entered my mind and my
heart ... I believed everything without difficulty.”

There is a kind of laudable presumption in his prayer that implores God to prove himself. It
differs from the Gospels’ “Throw yourself down” “Turn these stones into bread,” because it
comes from humble conviction, not arrogant independence.

Faith In God

Reeling from excruciating suffering, Libermann had no alternative than to expose his
deepest self to the only One who can make all things right. He holds onto his faith. His faith
in the one and only God, though now no pleasure to him, resists all kinds of attacks and will
prevail.

For Spiritans, Libermann’s faith remained a constant his entire life, even down to his dying
hours when he painfully breathed “God is all, man is nothing.” At this crucial juncture of his
life, his darkest night, when doubts multiply and besiege him, his Jewish faith sustains him.

Faith in God pervades his conversion, his life, his leap toward holiness. Holiness, he will
later point out, is believing that the Holy Spirit draws us up into the being of God.

In this “darkest night” Libermann undergoes the forging of his soul into complete adherence
to God.. He experiences a quantum leap into closeness with God that lights up and dispels
his despair and gives him the sensation that the “darkest night” is over (but he will learn
later that “dark nights” never cease to recur).

Enlightenment

Libermann describes the end of his ordeal of “the darkest night” as an enlightenment. It
enables him to believe everything Christians profess, especially about Mary and the
Eucharist. He is specific about what happened at the end of his cry of despair: “There and
then I was enlightened” The statement has a biblical ring to it. He doesn’t pronounce the
Divine Name (cf “Blessed [i.e., by God] are the merciful”) but stresses divine intervention.
The effect on him was remarkable. He not only “saw” as true (“I beheld the truth”) what
pertained to Christian belief he was struggling with and against, but also became a
profoundly changed man.

Baptism

He now wants to be baptized.

“From this moment on I wanted nothing more than seeing myself plunged into the sacred
font.”

Baptism will express sacramentally what was going on inside him, i.e., dying to his former
life and rising to another. He will know and so will others that he is a “new man.”

“I can’t admire enough the change that took place in me the moment the waters of Baptism
flowed down my forehead I became truly a new man.”

He received the sacrament of Baptism Christmas Eve, 1826, age 24. It was no ordinary
experience. The Baptism of adult converts, prepared and anxiously waiting, is rarely without
emotional impact and eschatological significance [they see themselves in the light of
eternity]. It gives them insights they will not easily forget.

Libermann’s Baptism was like that, but much more.

“All my uncertainties and my fears suddenly left me. I experienced a courage and an
invincible energy to practice the Christian law. I felt a sweet affection for everything that
pertained to my new belief.”

His Christian life will lend credence to this testimony by its constancy and conviction.

A New Man

He will never regret what he had done. He was a “new man” who will endure his father’s
curse with heavy-hearted acceptance. He will suffer epileptic seizures in full view of his
peers without losing sweetness of disposition that people admired in him. He will agonize
over the unexpected and tragic deaths of his first missionaries, without giving into paralyzing
despair. He will go through a long illness prior to his death, without complaint or
resentment. He dies like a saint at the age of 50. Throughout all this he was conscious of
being close to God.

“...the more I have to do the more my union with God is strengthened.”

This “new man” was aware that God looked on him with preferential designs and had
graced him with a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that others noticed, even Pope Gregory XVI
who predicted “he will be a saint.”

Like Paul the Apostle

Libermann experienced the Pauline description of Christian conversion: “Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Eph 5:14). The “light” that
Libermann experienced was the “light” that only the Holy Spirit can bring.

The grace and election of the Holy Spirit no doubt prompted him to take “Paul” as a
baptismal name. He and the Apostle Paul were both Jews, marvelously enlightened and
changed. The name “Paul” will be an omen. For, like Paul, Libermann will become a
relentless missionary.

The Setting

Libermann’s Baptism attracted a crowd, some, no doubt, curious to see a Jewish convert
baptized, the son of a famous Rabbi, known throughout France. The place of Baptism was
the seminary of St. Stanislaus where he was charitably housed. The seminarian choir and
the godparents—a baron and a countess—added importance and solemnity.

This was not an ordinary Baptism. Given all the circumstances attending this expected
event, it would be surprising if there were not present excited people, ready to be
impressed. The atmosphere, as we say, must have been charged. There are multiple
testimonies about what took place, including the recollections of Libermann himself.

Years later when he talked about his Baptism, when prompted by fellow seminarians, he
couldn’t hide his emotion which in turn affected them. They reported feeling something like
an electric spark running through them.

The Fire

The ecstatic element in his Baptism was strong. The most well-known description of what
took place is the weakly attested report of what Libermann is supposed to have said about it.

“When the holy water was poured over my forehead it seemed to me that I was in the midst
of an immense globe of fire .. things impossible to describe were happening to me” (ND
1.104).

We would like to think that the mention of “fire” recalls the Pentecostal experience and his
own predilection for Jesus’ words that he came to cast fire on earth. Perhaps he
remembered Moses and the Burning Bush. Using “fire” as a metaphor of spiritual
experiences has a long and hallowed history (e.g., Richard Rolle’s Fire-of Love, John of the
Cross’ Living Flame of Love, etc.) and so could account for Libermann’s usage.

He will later write (1841):

“When the divine Spirit is in us, our soul is on fire, and in the midst of this fore, is as it were
borne along, united to God, without trouble, without anxiety, without agitation, without
irritation, without movement of self-love ...” (LS 2.599; 1841).

Libermann’s baptismal “globe of fire” and this text have affinities that are far from
coincidental.

Spiritans

Spiritans like to recall this ecstatic event as part of their conscious tradition. It not only
underlines the divine in Libermann’s conversion but also evokes for them Pentecostal fire,
the Holy Spirit, the fire of love they pray for everyday, the holiness sought for in virtue of their
calling and commitment. They are convinced they are following a saint, especially endowed
by the Holy Spirit, and this gives a feeling of contact with the Holy Spirit present within them.
It is not like belonging to a political party or a cultural group. It is of eschatological import.
They see their heritage in the light of eternity. They live it for eternity’s sake and expect to be
vindicated in eternity for their choice.

Their charismatic and spiritual lineage leads back to Libermann whom the Holy Spirit
placed in a “globe of fire” that changed him and them forever. He knew that what happened
to him was completely gratuitous and wholly of divine origin.

“In all these miseries it pleased God to let me see my own, which doubtless is the greatest;
it is only that his goodness and mercy towards me are quite outstanding, quite
extraordinary; anything like it I have never read in a book or heard recounted.” (ND 1.502;
1838)

Ed. Fr. J. Clifton Hill CSSp. of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, met Fr. Elias
Friedman in 1994, while on a sabbatical leave. He offered Fr. Elias a series of papers on
Francis Libermann, written by Fr. Francis X. Malinowski.

Francis Libermann, CSSp

Jacob Samsonssohn, the fifth son of Rabbi Eliezer Samsonssohn and
Before his parents married in 1788, Eliezer had to get permission from
satisfaction that he had sufficient means to raise a family. As a practicing
Jew he could scarcely have found that congenial. Jacob, his son, was a
true child of the French Revolution which had broken out in 1789, thirteen
years before his birth. In adulthood he fully espoused the ideals of
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, however little they were actualized in the
Revolution. He even sympathized with the rebels of the Paris Commune
barricades trying to promote peace.

He was a very weak infant. His father the Rabbi pinned a piece of paper
with his name on it onto the velvet cover of the tabernacle in the Saverne
synagogue. He also got his congregation to pray for his little boy's
survival. That was the first thing in Jacob's disfavour: there were to be
plenty of others in his brief life of forty-nine years.

When Jacob was six and a half, under orders of the Revolutionary
Government of France, the family had to change their name. The Rabbi
would henceforth be called Lazarus Libermann, and his wife would be
known as Lea Haller. The family had indeed used the name Libermann
before. The roots of the family stretched back to Germany, thence to
Poland and to the Ukraine where, together with the Roman Catholics,
they had had to flee the Ukraine before the Cossacks who were forcing
everyone to become Russian Orthodox Christians under pain of death.
So Jacob was born into a family of wandering Jews.

Home Life

The family was quiet and cultured. Later on Jacob could not tolerate dirt
or untidiness in a confrére. He was supposed to have said that there
may be an excuse for poverty but never for dirt. His father was most highly
respected not only among the Jews but also among the Christians of
Saverne.

His father had a room permanently reserved for any poor Jew who might
be in need of a bed for the night. Is this where Jacob learned his
sympathy for the most abandoned? Jacob was later to say that he had
the best father anyone could have. He had a most affectionate
relationship with his mother. Writing to a confrére later on about Our
Lady, he said, "You must act towards Our Lady the way a child
approaches his mother. If something happens to him, he runs to her
straight away to tell her. He wastes no time dwelling on the matter. His
mother only needs to be apprised of the situation, whereupon she bends
down and plants two kisses on his cheek. That's what mothers do, and
so they heal the wound. And then the child jumps up without any more
ado. His mother has given him a kiss and spoken a few loving words.
That is sufficient."

His mother Lea died on 4th April 1813 when Jacob was only ten years
old. His father could not look after the seven children, ranging from
twenty-three to six years, so he married a widow named Veronica Weil.
Veronica brought a daughter Regina with her, and Jacob was later
engaged to this step-sister before his final examination for the rabbinate.

Education

Jacob was a weak child at school. He was continually the butt of jokes
and attacks from the other children. His brother David, eight years older,
who was a bit of a rough diamond, used to defend him. We know of the
abuse Jacob received at the hands of the local schoolmaster, having his
head banged against a wall by him. Jacob was to attribute his later
epileptic attacks to that event.

After primary school Jacob entered the Talmudic School which was run
by his father in Saverne. His older brothers Samson, David, Henoch and
Felix had preceded him, but none were as intelligent as he. Another of
the students in his father's school was David (later Paul) Drach, Jacob
made his Bar Mitzvah in 1815 and began to study the Talmud under his
father. His studies ended in Saverne to his father's satisfaction in 1822
when Jacob was aged twenty. Now it was time for university. He was
sent to the Jewish College in Metz.