OEUVRE DE LA JEUNESSE. - In 1799, in the midst of the French Revolution, Fr. G. G. Allemand laid in Marseilles the foundations of a new form of religious life which anticipated the modern secular institutes, recently recognized in canonical form.
Its purpose is to gather young people, especially workers, at fixed days and hours, in order to provide them with a Christian education. The members wear no special dress and live in their own homes, engaged in secular professions and occupations, in order more easily to escape all external control; but they meet together for devotional practices. They take vows of chastity, obedience, and zeal for the sanctification of the young; they do not take the vow of poverty unless, having withdrawn from business, they live in the houses of the Institute and obtain permission to take II. There are therefore also certain establishments in which community life is lived.
The Institute was canonically erected in 1821 and received the decree of praise in 1863. It was then approved by the Holy See in 1865, and in 1871 its Constitutions were definitively approved; these were again revised in 1942. It now has 5 houses with 35 members.