Chapelle des Oblats - Aix-en-Provence, France CRW_6217rt
Completed in 1701 and originally part of a Carmelite convent, it was confiscated in 1792 by French Revolutionary forces who drove out the nuns and de-consecrated it.
Many aristocratic families left at the same time, including the Mazenods, who were living up the street until they fled to Italy. Some twenty-five years later their son Eugène, by then a novice priest, returned to Aix and acquired the abandoned church as a base for his project of establishing an organization to help marginalized people in Provence.
The organization soon became known as the Oblate Missionaries, and now works in over 60 countries. This chapel remains their international home, and features a statue of their founder, Eugène de Mazenod - now a saint - inside.
Chapelle des Oblats - Aix-en-Provence, France CRW_6217rt
Completed in 1701 and originally part of a Carmelite convent, it was confiscated in 1792 by French Revolutionary forces who drove out the nuns and de-consecrated it.
Many aristocratic families left at the same time, including the Mazenods, who were living up the street until they fled to Italy. Some twenty-five years later their son Eugène, by then a novice priest, returned to Aix and acquired the abandoned church as a base for his project of establishing an organization to help marginalized people in Provence.
The organization soon became known as the Oblate Missionaries, and now works in over 60 countries. This chapel remains their international home, and features a statue of their founder, Eugène de Mazenod - now a saint - inside.