VATICAN – Pope Francis told the Oblates of St. Joseph that for decades he has relied on the intercession of St. Joseph, and "never, ever has he told me no."

What we cease to celebrate we will soon cease to cherish. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of the religious congregation to which I belong, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. We have a proud history, 200 years now, of ministering to the poor around the world. This merits celebrating.  

On Jan. 25, 1816, six priests came together in Aix en Provence, France, drawn by an inspiration so powerful they were prepared to dedicate their lives to it. They were roused into action by the situation of the poor people around them, whose lives were changed by the events of the French Revolution.

St. Eugene de Mazenod was born in 1782 in Aix-en-Provence, France. His father, Charles Antoine, was a member of the French nobility and the President of the Aix parliament. His mother, Marie-Rose Joannis, was affiliated with the expeditiously evolving bourgeois merchants.

Two hundred years ago the French aristocrat Eugene de Mazenod gathered a few priests into a kind of evangelical team in southeastern France. They went into neglected, impoverished parishes preaching in the local dialect of Provençal, not French, sharing their lives and the Gospel with poor people who had been left behind by modern France.

A history of service