NÉCOL Jean-Pierre (Brother)
Pagolle (France), 29 March 1930 - Betharram, 1st November 2018
Brother Jean-Pierre Nécol was born in 1930 in Pagolle, a little village on a hill like Ibarre and a lot of other villages in this part of the Basque Country. He loved these open spaces that formed the hills and the woods. He said to us : ‘that helped us feed the animals. In the morning, we would open the doors of the barn, the sheepfold and the pigsty, and the animals would go and spend the day on the hills, and in the evening when they returned, there was no point in feeding them; they came back to sleep.’
He also spoke to us about a large restaurant where his mother used to give a hand in the kitchen on Sundays, a restaurant renowned in the region and even beyond ; the most biased would say: ‘Lots of people come from all over and even from Paris!’ and they dreamt of a special train, a Paris-Pau- Pagolle train!
It was in this simple and happy environment that Jean-Pierre one day heard the call of God and of St Michael: Ibarre was just on the other side of the hill. He wasn’t the only one to hear this call ; two other young people from Pagolle became Betharram fathers, Fr Eyhéramendy and Fr Caset.
To do his Novitiate, he was sent to Balarin in Gers. It was there that hetook his first vows in 1947. He was made responsible for buying in the food supplies of the Community (50 scholastics and novices). That meant going out of Balarin where there were no shops, only large farms. Mainly grapevine and wheat were cultivated there. At the break of day, he harnassed Margot, the fearless mare, to the cart and went off to Montréal (4 kms away) to get bread, and two times a week, he went to Condon (12 kms away), again with Margot, to go to the butcher’s shop, the chemist’s shop and other stores.
At harvest time, he went around the farms for the parish tithes. Unusual parish tithes, as they were paid in kind, that is to say, in 100-litres of wine and bottles of brandy. He knew all the farms and all the residents. ‘I was well received everywhere, he told us, even by those who didn’t set foot in a church.’ He loved this contact with the people who had adopted him as one of their own.
When they shut down Balarin tomove to Floirac, it was with much regret that he left this region and he entered the Maison Neuve Community at Betharram. It was suggested he do a job he had never tried: construction painter!
In order to learn the job, he got on with the boss of a painting workshop at the secondary school in Betharram. He was taken on as an apprentice among the other workers.
He said to us one day that he would have liked to sit a vocational qualification, but it was a step too far for Betharram.
But how happy people were with his work; he was in demand in several of the Betharram houses: Paris, Pau, Sar- rance.... And even a lot further away in Rome and the Holy Land. To tease him, people would sometimes say: “Do you think no-one knows how to paint in these countries?” He would respond: “I work free of charge and I don’t count up my hours.”
How many Brothers worked with only the love of God and the gratitude of the Congregration as their payment?
How many hours did he spend at the top of a ladder? But all this was already offered in the Mass he served for Fr Gillet at 6 o’clock in the morning to the One who gives us the strength to work, Jesus the craftsman from Nazareth.
Beñat Béhocaray scj
Some dates :- Birth : 29th March 1930 in Pagolle (Soule Province, France).
- At the age of 11, he went to Etchécopar house at Saint-Palais with about 10 other youths; through contact with the fathers, he discovered St Michael Garicoits and his spirituality.
- At the age of 16, 6 months postulate in Balarin, then novitiate.
- He took his vows on 5th October 1947.
- At the age of 21, he arrived in Betharram.
- To undertake painting work, he would go to Casablanca, Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Rome, Nazareth and Bethlehem.
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