ALZON, EMMANUEL d’. — Founder Assumption (v.), born at Le Vigan (Gard, France) on 30 Aug. 1810, died at Nîmes on 21 Nov. 1880. The sole heir of a noble and deeply Christian family, overcoming the opposition of his father, Viscount Henri Daudé d’Alzon, he left home on 4 March 1832 to go to the seminary of Montpellier. After two
years of prayer and study, declining Lamennais’s invitations to La Chesnaie and those of his friend Salinis to Juilly, he went to Rome. In Dec. 1834 he received Holy Orders, after having painfully broken off relations with Lamennais. He wrote at that time: « I am confirmed in certain maxims, whose importance my journey to Rome has enabled me to understand. The first is that one must always work for Rome, at times without Rome, never against Rome ». On returning to France, he placed himself in complete dependence on the bishop of Nîmes, who appointed him honorary vicar general (8 Dec. 1835). He retained the second position in the diocese for 45 years, under four bishops who enjoyed his confidence.
Endowed with rich gifts and rare virtues, he was always devoted to study, to which he added notable activity, sustained by extraordinary energy. He concerned himself particularly with the religious women of the Assumption, and was the counsellor and director of their foundress, M. Eugenia di Gesù. Having acquired the Assumption boarding school at Nîmes, he made it the cradle of a Congregation and adopted the habit and rule of s. Augustine. The care of this foundation dominated his entire life. In the shrine of Our Lady of Victories (Paris) he privately pronounced his religious vows (1845). The beginnings were difficult; vocations were few but of the highest quality. To the care of education, for whose freedom he organized a Catholic league and founded (1871) the Revue de l’Enseignement Chrétien (with the programme set out in the first issue: freedom of education at every level, freedom of association, freedom to own property), he joined an ardent zeal for the fruitful work of N. Signora delle Vocazioni, which he established for poor boys, who at the end of their studies are left free to choose among the secular clergy, the missions, or religious life. In 1862, in Rome, the Pope entrusted him with the task of working to bring the dissenters of the East back to the Church. Two years later he founded the Oblates of the Assumption (v. ASSUNZIONE, OBLATE dell'). A Congregation intended to assist religious men and women in various works, especially in the East. Meanwhile, one of his sons, P. Pernet, conceived in 1865 the highly popular Work of the Little Sisters of the Assumption (v. ASSUNZIONE, PICCOLE SUORE dell'). He was the founder and animator of many religious associations and communities. We may mention the convents of the Refuge and of the Carmelites, the orphanages of S. Joseph and of S. Francis de Sales, the Association of the Ladies of Mercy for women of the aristocracy, the Society of S. Stanislaus for children of the middle and working classes, the Work for repentant girls and those known as Magdalens, the Association of the S. Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners, the Work for soldiers, and the Society of S. Maurice. He left: Méditations sur la perfection religieuse, edited by E. Baudouy, 2 vols., Paris 1926–27. The process of beatification, opened at Nîmes in 1931, is in progress.
AMA (AMULA), liturgical vessel: V. AMPOLLA; BOCCALE.