Lazarists

Lazarists are a society of apostolic life . In 2014, the Lazarists numbered 3,383 members (of which 3,001 are priests) ^[1] . The abodes of the Lazarists are united in the provinces, the full assembly of all power in the congregation belongs to the general assembly, which must meet at least once every 6 years and include delegates from each monastery. The General Assembly elects the Principal Superior, whose residence is in Rome . Lazarists are represented in 86 countries, the total number of cloisters is 510; most lazarites cloisters in France , Spain , Italy , Poland . In Russia, brothers from the Lazarist congregation feed several Catholic parishes in the Sverdlovsk region .

The main activities of the congregation are the preaching of the Gospel among the poor, Catholic education, including the education of the clergy, the management of seminaries, assistance in administering parishes, missionary activity.

The idea of ​​creating a new congregation arose from St. Vincent de Paul during his service as a chaplain in a rich Gondi family. The two main problems of the church at the beginning of the seventeenth century in France, St. Vincent considered the low level of education and religiosity among the poor strata of society, first of all, the peasantry; and low levels of education and piety among the clergy . The solution of these problems became the main task of the congregation.

An important date for the history of the Lazarists is January 25, 1617 , when after the sermon of St.. Vincent in Folville village, many people have experienced spiritual conversion. The official date of the creation of the congregation is April 17, 1625 , when the Holy. Vincent and his disciple Antoine Portey made a vow to constantly pray for the cause of the Christian mission. A new community was placed first in the Bon-Anfan College in Paris , and in 1632 , when it already numbered more than 140 priests, it was given the monastery of Saint-Lazard in Paris, after which the Congregation of Missions received its second, but most common name .

The congregation was approved by Pope Urban VIII on January 12, 1632 , but its charter was drafted by Sts. Vincent over 30 years and took the final form only in 1658 .

Already by 1660, the abodes of the Lazarists had spread throughout Western and Central Europe. The brothers actively conducted missionary activities in non-Christian countries. The founding dates of the missions are Italy (1638), Tunisia (1643), Algeria and Ireland (1646), Madagascar (1648), Poland (1651).

In accordance with the covenants of its founder, much attention was paid to seminaries and theological training of future priests. By the end of the 18th century, the Lazarists headed almost 100 seminaries (60 of them in France).

The congregation suffered a great blow during the Great French Revolution , when almost all seminaries and monasteries were closed and ravaged, including the monastery of Saint-Lazard.

In the 19th century, the Lazarists regained their lost positions and continued their development — new missions were established in many Asian countries, including Persia and the Ottoman Empire , as well as in Africa , in Egypt and Ethiopia . Lazarist Saint Justin de Jacobis became the first apostolic vicar of Ethiopia and played a major role in overcoming the hostility of the Ethiopians to the Catholic Church.

In the 20th century, the congregation suffered new heavy losses - during the Spanish civil war several dozen brothers were killed and many monasteries were ravaged. After the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, they were liquidated or for a long time were divorced from contact with the congregation of the monastery in Poland , Hungary , Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia . Despite this, the congregation flourished most in the 1960s, when it numbered almost 6,000 people.

In 2001, Fr. Paul Roach, where he founded the first abode of the Lazarists. In the same year, the General Superior of the Congregation announced the creation of Vice-Province of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, which unites the Lazarists of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. In Ukraine there are parishes in Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Perechin and Storozhynets. In Belarus - in Grodno. In Russia - in Nizhny Tagil. Currently, the vice-province visitor is Fr. Tomaz Mavrich (SM).

During the existence of the congregation, more than 200 brothers, including 2 bishops, were martyred, many were beatified. Most of the Lazarists perished during the French Revolution (J. Francois, A. Gruyet, and others), during the persecution of Christians in China in the 19th century (bl. Jean Gabriel Perboire , Francois Cle , etc.), during the Spanish Civil War 1930s. Among the Lazarists were the “Apostle of Tunisia” J. Guerin, musician K. A. Wackett, theologian P. Kollet, missionaries and scholars E. Guyuk and L. A. Davie and many others.

The French missionary from the Order of the Lazarists is mentioned in the novel Jules Verne. Five weeks in a balloon (22 ch)

• Catholic Encyclopedia . T. 2. Ed. Franciscans. M .: 2005.

• Official site
• The official website of the Lazarists in the CIS