Jacques Bridaine

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Jacques Bridaine (21 March 1701, in Chusclan – 22 December 1767, in Roquemaure)[1] was a French Roman Catholic preacher.

Biography

Having completed his studies at the

Lenten preacher in the Church of Aigues-Mortes
.

It was at Aigues-Mortes where his extreme youth provoked the derision of the people and when Ash Wednesday arrived, the church was empty. Undismayed, he put on his surplice and went out in the principal streets, ringing a bell, and inviting the people to hear him. He succeeded in filling the church with congregants who came out of curiosity but when he began in a most unusual fashion by singing a canticle about death the congregation burst out in loud laughter; whereupon he denounced the congregation.

In the course of his life, Bridaine preached two hundred and fifty-six missions,[1] traveling to almost every town of France in the performance of his work. Pope Benedict XIV gave him permission to preach anywhere in Christendom, and his notable missions included:[1]

Bridaine, who tended to extemporize rather than writing his sermons in advance,

Madame Necker describes a typical stunt, in which Bridaine ended a sermon by telling a great procession "I am now going to bring you home," and then led them to a graveyard. Bridaine was known for his vivid and often grotesque imagery, impressing his audience with vivid descriptions of death and hell.[5]

Longfellow references it in the poem "The Old Clock on the Stairs."[6] Later, however, Maury would admit that he had written it himself, inspired by a secondhand description of Bridaine's preaching.[1] Nevertheless, Bridaine's preaching did cause great excitement and draw enormous crowds. His mission in Chalon-sur-Saône
drew 100,000 francs in donations.

Medals were struck in Bridaine's honor, and the most distinguished prelates showed him the greatest reverence and affection.

Protestants of France are said to have been particularly friendly to him, because of the many good offices he performed in their regard. For fourteen years he followed the spiritual guidance of a missionary like himself named Mahistre. In 1742 Cardinal Fleury
proposed to establish a missionary congregation for all France under the direction of Bridaine, but the death of the cardinal caused the project to fall through.

In the course of his missions, Bridaine established what he called "peace tribunals" (Bureau de Paix), courts composed of some of his associate missionaries, a number of irreproachable laymen, and the parish priest. To these courts all disputes were submitted and the decisions were accepted as final.[7]

Bridaine's Cantiques Spirituels passed through forty-seven editions, in use in most French churches. He has also left five volumes of sermons (ed. Avignon, 1823; Paris, 1861).

Bridaine died in Roquemaure in 1767, after a failed operation to treat kidney stones.

Abbé Carron wrote his biography, first published in 1831. In 1882, a monument was built for Bridaine in his hometown of Chusclan.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Dargan, Edwin Charles (1912). A History of Preaching, Volume II. New York: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 254–257. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  2. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780191520631
    .
  4. ^ Challice, Annie Emma (1863). Heroes, Philosophers, and Courtiers of the time of Louis XVI, Volume II. p. 56. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  5. ^ Gibson, Ralph (July 1988). "Hellfire and Damnation in Nineteenth-Century France". The Catholic Historical Review. 74 (3): 383–402.
  6. ^ "Evenings in the Library". Belford's Monthly Magazine. Vol. 2. Belford Brothers. 1877. p. 59. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Jacques Bridaine, the French Whitfield". The Baptist Magazine. Vol. 49. J. Burditt and W. Button. 1857. pp. 275–280. Retrieved 19 July 2023.

References

External links

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