{"id":1883,"date":"2023-10-06T12:26:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T10:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.leprado.org\/testleprado\/?page_id=1883"},"modified":"2025-03-28T13:55:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T12:55:40","slug":"le-pere-chevrier-fondateur-du-prado","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/leprado.org\/en\/le-pere-chevrier-fondateur-du-prado\/","title":{"rendered":"Father Chevrier, founder of Prado"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Father Chevrier, founder of Prado<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Who is Father Antoine Chevrier?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"<\/h5>

Antoine CHEVRIER was born in 1826 in the heart of the city, into one of the many families who came to Lyon to work in the silk industry. He was ordained a priest in 1850 and sent as curate to Saint Andr\u00e9, a newly-created parish in the suburb of La Guilloti\u00e8re on the other side of the Rh\u00f4ne, where a whole industrial proletariat was camped. He was delighted with the appointment and gave himself generously to his ministry.<\/p>

The period he lived through was marked by episodes of insurrection (the Canuts in 1831), the fall of the monarchy (in 1848) and the Lyon Commune (1870-71). It was also a period of reconstruction for the Church in France, which saw the emergence of a wide range of missionary initiatives: education of children (the numerous Providences, the Marists with M. Champanat), missions in faraway places (Pauline Jaricot). Antoine CHEVRIER was part of this momentum.<\/p>

In these turbulent times, and in a neighbourhood right at the heart of the events, Father CHEVRIER is seen as a man who is not afraid of the people<\/u>even when angry. He is always deeply touched by people's suffering and their \"good sides\". He believes in people and in God's love for them.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The poor have a right to the Gospel, to the whole Gospel<\/h3>\nHe loves the poor so much, and he loves Christ and his Gospel so much, that he is constantly driven by the conviction that \"...the poor are the most important people in the world...\".\u00a0the poor have a right to the Gospel, to the whole Gospel<\/u>\" . That's why he spends so much time contemplating the many riches contained in the Gospel, communicating them and making them accessible to the people of La Guilloti\u00e8re.\n\nHe believes that young people, who start work at the age of 8 <\/u>in the glassworks, vitriol factories and other factories of Lyon, who found themselves at the age of 12 or 15 without knowing how to read and without having taken the catechism, were capable of experiencing great joy in knowing Christ. And he proved it with all those who went to Prado at the time.\n\nHe wanted to form poor apostles for the poor, and in particular priests.<\/u>. It was to this that he dedicated himself in poverty, accepting many sufferings and giving himself completely, every day.\n\nIt draws the necessary impetus from a contemplation of Christ<\/u>a manifestation of God's love for mankind. In the midst of his eaten life, he will spend a considerable amount of time there.\n\nIt is this spirit that he wanted to leave <\/u>the Prado family<\/b><\/a>. And that's why priests, sisters and lay people are still committed to the Prado family today, in over fifty countries, among the poor of the world of 2000 and the tumultuous currents that are shaking them.\n

A spiritual life<\/h3>\nFather Antoine Chevrier never ceased to pass on to others his concern to make Jesus Christ known to the poor. Why did he do this?\n

Seized by Christ<\/h4>\nChristmas Eve 1856, <\/u>an event took place that would leave a definitive mark on his life. He called it his conversion: as he pondered the event in Bethlehem for a long time, he felt powerfully called\".\u00a0to follow Christ more closely in order to work more effectively for the salvation of mankind\".<\/em> as he himself told several witnesses. It was a light and a call from God that would remain active in his life until his last moments. In contemplating the human birth of the Son of God in poverty, he discovered that it was not enough to love people passionately and seek to alleviate their misery. If he wanted to evangelise them, he would have to listen to Christ and do as he had done, share the life of the poor and become poor like them.\n

Account of his conversion Christmas 1856 :<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\"It was at Saint-Andr\u00e9 that Prado was born. It was while meditating on Christmas night on the poverty of Our Lord and his abasement among men that I resolved to leave everything and live as poorly as possible\" (P 2, p. 7).\n\"It was the mystery of the Incarnation that converted me\" (P 2, p. 97). \"It was this mystery that led me to ask God for poverty and humility and that made me leave the ministry to practise the holy poverty of Our Lord\" (Letter, 1865). \"My life was henceforth fixed\" (P 1, p. 47).\n\" I said to myself: The Son of God has come down to earth to save men and convert sinners. And yet what do we see? How many sinners there are in the world! Men continue to damn themselves. So I decided to follow Our Lord Jesus Christ more closely, to make myself more capable of working effectively for the salvation of souls, and my desire is that you too should follow Our Lord closely.<\/b> \"(P 2, p. 98).\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Disciple and apostle of Jesus<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"How beautiful is Jesus Christ!
<\/span>Throughout this very busy life, he found the means to spend a considerable amount of time working on the Gospel in order to contemplate Jesus Christ, seek his spirit there and follow him closely as a true disciple. He was particularly concerned to understand and imitate his poverty and love for the poor.<\/p>

Father Chevrier's original teaching approach was based on an attraction to Jesus Christ, his beauty and his greatness. Because \" knowing Jesus Christ is everything<\/strong> \"He was not afraid to list, on the basis of the Gospels and St Paul, the reasons that the disciple has for preferring him to the \"rest\". Then he asked: \"That's all very well, but do we all understand it? Answer: \"It takes a special grace to understand it.\" New question: \"Do you feel this grace being born in you? And he concluded: \"If we feel this divine breath within us, if we catch a glimpse of a little light, if we feel even the slightest attraction towards Jesus Christ, ah! let's cultivate this attraction, let's make it grow through prayer, oraison, study, so that it will grow and bear fruit\".<\/p>

Training disciples
<\/span>Then he tirelessly researched the very way in which Our Lord had \"taken care of the interior formation of his apostles\": \"He instructed them incessantly, he reproved them at every moment, he put them to everything, he formed them in everything\". He instructed them unceasingly, he reproved them at every moment, he put them to everything, he formed them for everything.\" It was in the first apostolic college in the making that Chevrier went to find his famous \"method for forming people and giving them interior life\": <\/span>Teaching, taking over <\/em>and <\/span>put into action, get things done<\/em>This is life, the lifeblood and the means of communicating it...\".<\/span><\/p>

Doing your catechism
<\/b><\/span><\/span>He systematised this \"method\" in one of his famous trilogies, setting out the \"method\" of the \"world\".\u00a0the purpose of all instruction and catechism<\/strong>\u00a0\"It's about lighting up intelligence<\/strong> through knowledge, to touch the heart<\/strong> by love and to determine the will<\/strong> to act. Faith, love and action<\/strong>These are the three effects we must seek to produce in all instruction\". (P\u00e8re Chevrier VD, 118-119; 222, 451).<\/p>

We can see that his teaching methods were rooted in the study of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. In his desire to make Jesus Christ known to the little ones, Father Chevrier encouraged the young men and women who joined him to \"do their catechism\": studying the Gospel enabled them to get to know Jesus Christ, his thoughts and his actions better, so that they could pass them on in the life of the catechist and become capable of transmitting him through words and attitude.<\/p>

Poor priests for the poor<\/b>
<\/b><\/span><\/span>He tried to find priests who were willing to live in poverty among these poor people, to share the Gospel with them in words that were accessible and attitudes that were genuine. But he encountered many difficulties: some priests did not obtain permission to come, others were unable to adapt. So he decided to train young people for the priesthood himself<\/u>.<\/p>

In 1865<\/u> he began to bring together a few young people at Prado to give them an academic and apostolic training in the midst of the Prado kids. If they wished to continue, he sent them to the diocesan seminary where he would continue to follow them, writing to them often and visiting them. He invited them to spend their holidays at Prado, so that they didn't adopt the habits of \"bourgeois priests\". He wanted to bring them back into the world of the working class, and enable them to deepen their discovery of Christ and the Gospel in their lives.<\/p>

\"We must form a true spiritual family among ourselves\".<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Find out more<\/b>.<\/a><\/p>

He also involved young workers and domestic employees in this work. To those who were well suited to this mission, he gave a Gospel training and proposed a life dedicated to Christ and the poor. One of them, Marie Boisson, became the first Sister of Prado<\/a>. Some of the young people who worked with him remained lay people, others joined the community of the Prado sisters, and of the 4 seminarians Father Chevrier trained, two stayed with him after his death. Despite the difficulties, he said:<\/p>

\"When two souls, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, listen to the Word of God and understand it, a very intimate union of spirit is formed in these two souls, of which God is the principle and the knot. This is the true bond of religion, the true bond of soul and heart\" (VD 151).<\/p>

The painting of Saint Fons<\/span>
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He likes to go to the peace and quiet of a poor little house in Saint-Fons, a few kilometres south of Lyon, to \"put oil in the lamp\", as he puts it!<\/p>

Father Chevrier wrote a lot. Some 20,000 pages ... Here : the most original of all Father Chevrier's manuscripts<\/strong>. It's a life-size manuscript, and quite unique!<\/p>

In this small farmhouse, which the mayor of St Fons (Mr Motard) had left at his disposal, Father Chevrier himself regularly came to retire to \"put oil in his lamp\".<\/p>

Then he started \"painting\" these walls in August 1866<\/strong>under the eyes of 12 young people who were thinking of becoming priests and whom he had taken there to preach a retreat to them. the founding ecclesial act of the association of priests of Prado<\/strong> and the training of \"priests according to the Gospel\" initiated by Antoine Chevrier.<\/p>

It's finally \"\u00a0the summary\" of his entire spirituality<\/strong> (it goes straight to the point and above all to the existential consequences<\/u> of his spirituality: Fr. Chevrier is a practical spiritualist!)<\/p>

A text by Philippe Brunel<\/b>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In fact, Father Chevrier very often spoke of \".\u00a0these three stations\" in his writings and letters, including to lay people<\/strong>. (cf. the work of Sister Maryl\u00e8ne, who found this triptych in the letters and writings of Antoine Chevrier). Moreover, he had already given, on paper, practically the same triptych to the young men and women who were planning to consecrate their whole lives by becoming brothers or sisters, in the wake of Father Chevrier.<\/p>

In several of his writings, Antoine Chevrier tells everyone that these three stations should become in some way like the three \"stigmata\" that should mark their whole lives, in order to \"follow Jesus Christ more closely\". This is not totally original: this triptych of cot, cross and tabernacle is fairly traditional in the Church.<\/p>

However, the St Fons painting brings a particular wealth<\/strong>. In fact, in his writings, Father Chevrier speaks of these three stations in an often linear order: cot - cross - tabernacle (or charity).<\/p>

This was far from unimportant: Father Chevrier insisted on the goal, the purpose, which is Eucharistic charity<\/u>. He speaks of the \"highest degree\" in relation to the tabernacle\/charity\/hostility: \".\u00a0becoming good bread<\/em>\u00a0\". So the other two stations, the cot (= poverty) and the cross (= dying to oneself), are in a way the paths that Jesus Christ took and that he wants to give us as an example<\/strong>so that we ourselves can have access to a totally given \"Eucharistic life\".<\/p>

But the whole point of the St Fons painting is to present itself as a \"3D triptych<\/strong>In fact, we are in a way 'physically integrated' into the painting of St Fons. It's a bit like a stage, where we are invited to enter ourselves. We no longer find ourselves on the outside, as if facing a piece of paper or in front of a theoretical presentation showing us the three linear stations: cot - cross - tabernacle.<\/p>

Here, the 'painting' of St Fons is not just a painting, it is really a 'space', in volume. In this space, Father Chevrier has concretely staged three physical symbols:<\/p>

  1. a feeder<\/u> <\/strong>in which he laid a beautiful baby Jesus on straw;<\/li>
  2. a beautiful crucifix<\/u><\/strong> which he fixed to the centre of the other wall, just opposite the cot.<\/li>
  3. in the centre, the narrow door<\/u><\/strong> unenclosed, facing us, which gives access to the small oratory, where the tabernacle is located.<\/li><\/ol>

    In the end, this space is the depth and space of the life of a true disciple, of the Christian life, of the life of a priest according to the Gospel. Because here, we are personally and physically placed in the middle, inside a set of three panels that communicate and dialogue with each other. And that changes everything!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    \u00a0<\/p>

    Ideally, I would say that the painting by St Fons is not just there to be looked at and 'calculated'; it is there to be 'traversed', that is to say put into relation with our own existence, 'experienced'. Even if we can spend long moments meditating in front of this triptych, it is not a question of sitting still in front of the painting. It's about inhabiting it, moving through it, between the cot and the cross, until we pass through the narrow gate of charity. The aim is clearly to go all the way to the tabernacle of Christ's total love, who continues to give himself with us to mankind.<\/p>

    We are therefore physically and spiritually placed at the centre of the three stations. And in my opinion, what gives the whole thing movement is precisely what first imposes itself on us, what faces us; it's the narrow gate of charity! In fact, in a way, it's the narrow door that calls us to go through it; it's the door that sets us in motion, since the tabernacle is not visible, located in a back room (a bit like the Eastern sanctuaries, which are behind the iconostasis): to reach it, you have to walk between the cot and the cross...<\/p>

    In my opinion, to enter into the deeper meaning of this pradosian triptych, we have to start by considering the<\/strong> central panel of the charity<\/strong>In other words, the word \"to give\". Indeed, if we look closely at the painting as a whole, we see that it is entirely organised around this verb \"TO GIVE\": we find it written by Antoine Chevrier five times (including 3 times in the central panel).<\/p>

    \u00a0<\/p>

    In addition, the quote \" EXEMPLUM DEDI VOBIS<\/em>\u00a0\"can be found on all three sides of the painting: \"\u00a0this is an example I have given you given<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>\" !\u00a0<\/p>

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    \n\t\t\t\t\"Having the Spirit of God is everything!\"<\/b>
    \n\"The Spirit of God is unique: he is the same everywhere:\nhe is on earth as he is in the Holy Trinity :\nHe works in the same way and his action is always to unite souls to God,\nas in the Trinity, to unite the three divine persons into one God.

    \n\nThe Holy Spirit is on earth: he works in souls and brings them to God:\nHe animates them, sanctifies them, elevates them and gives them all the same aspirations\nof love, faith and charity, to the extent that they are capable of it\nto unite them intimately to God,\nthrough him and the divine Son\". (1)\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    (1) Antoine Chevrier, Manuscript \"Preparation of the Incarnation\", 1871 or 1872 - Full text in Y. Musset, Le Christ du P\u00e8re Chevrier, Paris, Descl\u00e9e, 2000, p. 54-57<\/i><\/span>
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    \u00a0<\/i><\/span>See also<\/span>
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    Works :<\/u><\/h4>