logo english transparent 500px
  • About US
    • Who we are
    • Our Spirituality
    • History
      • Cardinal Lavigerie
      • Mother Marie Salomé
      • Our Lady of Africa
      • Our first sisters
    • Past & Present
      • Bicentenary of the birth of Caridnal Lavigerie
      • Our Lady of Africa family
      • General Chapter
      • 150th Anniversary
    • Contacts
  • Mission
    • Women with women
    • Education
    • Pastoral work
    • Justice & Peace
    • Health & social work
    • Our Apostolic Orientations
      • Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter -Dialogue
      • Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons
      • Modern slavery and human trafficking
      • Care of the environment
    • Our Projects
  • Vocation
    • Missionary vocation
    • Join us
    • Stages of formation
    • Forms of belonging
  • Agenda
  • Resources
    • Extraordinary life stories
    • Prayers
    • Library
    • Jubilarians
    • Entered into eternal life
    • Links
  • French
Menu
  • About US
    • Who we are
    • Our Spirituality
    • History
      • Cardinal Lavigerie
      • Mother Marie Salomé
      • Our Lady of Africa
      • Our first sisters
    • Past & Present
      • Bicentenary of the birth of Caridnal Lavigerie
      • Our Lady of Africa family
      • General Chapter
      • 150th Anniversary
    • Contacts
  • Mission
    • Women with women
    • Education
    • Pastoral work
    • Justice & Peace
    • Health & social work
    • Our Apostolic Orientations
      • Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter -Dialogue
      • Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons
      • Modern slavery and human trafficking
      • Care of the environment
    • Our Projects
  • Vocation
    • Missionary vocation
    • Join us
    • Stages of formation
    • Forms of belonging
  • Agenda
  • Resources
    • Extraordinary life stories
    • Prayers
    • Library
    • Jubilarians
    • Entered into eternal life
    • Links
  • French
Search
Close this search box.
Youtube

Saint Martin of Tours and Lavigerie’s dream

saint martin et Lavigerie à Nancy

 

 

 

 

 

It was 150 years ago, on 11 November 1866 that the future founder of missionary institutes, Lavigerie, had a prophetic dream at the tomb of St Martin in Tours.

 

 

Early in 1866, the archbishop of Tours, Mgr Guibert had asked the bishops of France to contribute to the reconstruction of the basilica dedicated to St. Martin. Mgr Lavigerie, then Bishop of Nancy, was not satisfied to simply answer the request with a few lines; he devoted a whole pastoral letter to the apostle of the Gauls.

“I had begun,” he writes, “to study for myself the life of this admirable bishop, seeking therein some examples of intrepid faith, patience, charity, which my weakness needs. But as I studied this great figure in the ancient monuments of his history and ours, I felt the desire to place before your eyes the perfect image of a pastor, monk and missionary.”

 

Ligugé et St Hilaire de Poitiers

Saint Martin and the new evangelization:

St Martin aroused the interest of Lavigerie because he knew how to respond to new conditions encountered by the Church of his time. The end of the period of persecution opened vast possibilities for evangelization throughout the country; and the conversion of the barbarians still had to find appropriate methods. One means consisted in adapting Eastern monasticism to the00 notre dame du voeu West, with the creation of monasteries. These places of worship were to maintain the essential source of a life of faith, threatened with losing its force in the too easy world of an Empire which had officially become Christian.

As for evangelization in the rural areas, St. Martin displayed a tireless activity, “Martin with his brothers came out of their monastery in Ligugé, as later they would follow him from Marmoutiers, to go preach the faith to those who did not know it. The monks taught and baptized the people with him … ”

 

 

Lavigerie Afrique

Saint Martin was a model-missionary for Lavigerie: 

Why did these thoughts preoccupy the Bishop of Nancy? Did they simply express-the interest of the former Sorbonne professor for the history of the early centuries of the Church, a study which he continued in his spare time? A real attraction, but it was more than a simple scholarly concern. His interest in the apostle of the Gauls is also explained by his study of a similar commitment – to respond to the new conditions of an era that allowed the Church to approach some regions previously inaccessible to the Gospel. This fact, despite its banal appearance, seems revealing.

 

Lavigerie’s dream on the tomb of Saint Martin

On November 11, 1866, Lavigerie was at Tours. After a day of remembering the apostle of the Gauls, he had a dream: “It seemed to him that he was transported to an unknown country, far away, where human forms—with brown or black skins and strange languages were presented to him.” The next day he returned home to Lorraine and a few days later, he received the letter of Marshal MacMahon, asking if he could propose his name to become bishop of Algiers!

  • November 11, 2016
  • 12:44 pm
  • Actualities, Cardinal Lavigerie
  • Lavigerie, Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, MSOLA, White Sisters
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
RELATED POSTS
14th May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 13, 2025
13th May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 12, 2025
Ecology Prayer May 2025 N° 32
May 12, 2025
The treasure of love shared
May 12, 2025
12 May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 11, 2025
11th May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 10, 2025
Copyright 2022 - All rights reserved
Privacy Policy
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Facebook