Claude La Colombiere

Claude La Colombière was a French Jesuit priest and the confessor of Margaret Mary Alacoque. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. His feast day is the day of his death, 15 February. He was a missionary and ascetical writer. He left a large number of writings, including his principal works, Pious Reflections, Meditations on the Passion, and Retreat and Spiritual Letters. He was born in 1641 in the city of Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon, then in the ancient Province of Dauphiné, the third child of the notary Bertrand La Colombière and of Margaret Coindat. The family soon moved to the nearby city of Vienne, where he began his education, before attending the Jesuit school in Lyon for his secondary studies. In 1658, at the age of seventeen, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Avignon. He did this despite what he recorded as "a terrible aversion for the life embraced". When he completed the two-year novitiate, he started his higher studies in the same city. He was professed there and completed his studies. After this he spent the next five years of his regency teaching grammar and literature at the same school. Colombière was sent to Paris in 1666 to study theology at the College de Clermont. He was also assigned to be the tutor of the children of the Royal Minister of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. After completing his studies there, he was ordained a priest in 1669 and initially assigned to teach at his former school in Lyon. He then was assigned to join the preaching team of the Jesuit community, through which he gained notice for the clarity and soundness of his sermons. In 1674, after 15 years of life as a Jesuit, Colombière did his next period of probation known as the tertianship, which was to prove decisive in his life. As a result of this experience of the Spiritual Exercises, he made a personal vow, as a means of attaining the utmost possible perfection, to observe faithfully the Rule and Constitutions of the Society under penalty of sin. Those who lived with him attested that this vow was kept with great exactitude. After professing the Fourth Vow of the Society at the end of his tertianship on 2 February 1675, Colombière was appointed the rector of the Jesuit community at Paray-le-Monial, where he also became the spiritual director of the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation Sisters located next to the church. There he met Margaret Mary Alacoque, who claimed to have had visions of Jesus Christ instructing her to spread devotion to his Sacred Heart. Colombière became her confessor and supported her mission. He also wrote an account of her visions and testified to their authenticity. In 1676, Colombière was sent to England as preacher to Mary Beatrice d'Este (Mary Beatrice Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este), Duchess of York (later Queen), wife of James Stuart (later King James II). He lived at St James's Palace but also preached at Somerset House (the residence for French Catholic nuns) and St James's Church (the Spanish Embassy Chapel). He became involved in English politics when he defended John Dryden's conversion to Catholicism in a public debate with Stillingfleet, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. In 1678, during an outbreak of anti-Catholic hysteria known as the Popish Plot, Colombière was accused of being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he suffered from harsh conditions and ill-treatment. He was released after four months due to lack of evidence, but his health was severely damaged. He was banished from England and returned to France. He spent the last two years of his life at Lyon, where he continued to write and preach. He also received several letters from Margaret Mary Alacoque, who informed him of the progress of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. He died on 15 February 1682, at the age of 41, from hemoptysis (coughing up blood). He was buried in the Jesuit Church at Paray-le-Monial, where his tomb became a place of pilgrimage. Colombière was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 16 June 1929 and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 31 May 1992. He is considered one of the great spiritual writers of the 17th century and a model of Jesuit spirituality. He is also the patron saint of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.