The Fondeville Notebook (2)

The poverty of his family had placed him as a servant in a good countryman’s home, near Saint Palais, at the age of 12 years. It is from this house and in this capacity that Michael Garicoits attended the catechism of the excellent and distinguished priest of Saint Palais, Mr. Barbaste. His simplicity, modesty, diligence, and above all sound judgment soon won the heart of the charitable and good clergyman. After having prepared him for and given him First Holy Communion, he enrolled him in the town’s school and introduced him to the rudiments of the Latin language; his progress was slow but steady; in 1814 he was awarded prizes in class and academic inspectors praised him for his success in his exams. It was at this time that he showed, with religious piety, his affection for the first exiles, who brought to France much desired peace. Yet what one noticed in him, was a real outrage on seeing his native soil trampled by the foreigner.

However, the good and pious priest, having learned that the Bishop’s Diocese wanted a young Basque for certain services of the Secretariat, did not forget his protégé; he presented him to Monsignor Loyson with careful notes of the judgment he had made about him. The Bishop undertook to give him Latin lessons and Mr. Honnert, Secretary of the Diocese, the so-called black bishop, took charge of him. Led by this intelligent, wise, gentle and firm hand, which had attracted the esteem of the three dioceses administered one can say that through Mr. Honnert, the young Basque made great progress in piety and in his classes. In 1818 he was entered into Philosophy at Aire; and it was there he met, and was tutored in Mathematics by, Mr. Laurence who was approaching the priesthood and who would be in a few years’ time, together with his disciple, the collaborator of the works of Mr. Lassalle; one of them would be in the Minor Seminary of Saint Pé, and later Bishop of Tarbes; the other would be in Betharram first as the collaborator of the old man, and later as his successor.

Mr. Garicoïts often recounted the care given to him by the Monsignor and Mr. Honnert. Sometimes the good Bishop threatened to hit the spirited Cantabrian with a stick, to correct him. But a mission preached in Bayonne by the Missionaries of France made that little mischief disappear, to the great edification of young Garicoïts who also benefitted from the exercise.

The holidays of young Basque were spent in the Diocese of the Bishop, until the Bishop’s death, and at Mr. Honnert’s house, for as long as God left his benefactor on Earth. The former Secretary, becoming Canon at the death of Monsignor Loyson, took his protégé to Bagnères to the hot springs. These holidays were gentle for the old and infirm Canon: Michael’s devotion was boundless and charmed his benefactor; he liked to hear him speak about the methods of the professors at Aire who had initiated him into the clergy; He was careful not to forget the venerable Abbot Dupuy, Superior of the Dax Seminary, where he followed the philosophy course; in turn, Father Garicoits missed nothing out from the familiar conversations of Mr. Honnert: He engraved most deeply into his memory the lessons he received and gradually stripped himself of his rustic customs from childhood, through contact with the man most versed in politeness and good manners of the purest propriety.

It was thus prepared, that he entered the Minor Seminary of Larressore, as Lecturer and Professor, following at the same time a Theology course under the direction of Mr. Claverie, Superior. It was then that a strong union formed between these two souls, which continued unto death. But while Our Lady was preparing her new man for the sanctuary at Betharram, Mr. Lassalle continued to direct the Major Seminary entrusted to him, with the generous and distinguished cooperation of Messrs Destenabes (brothers) and Mr. Labarrère. The pilgrimage became better regulated; and the savings grew which were put aside for the works that were in Father Lassalle’s heart, just as the time approached for these works to be fulfilled.

Simon Fondeville scj
(1805-1872)