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Marvellous companions of Marcellin
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freely pronounced the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for the term of five years.” On 6 October 1833, he privately pronounced the three perpetual vows, which he renewed publicly on 10 October 1836. He died at Notre-Dame de l’Hermitage on 2 September 1837. Brother Avit tells the following anecdote. “The Hermitage had a cow from which it got milk for the sick. Brother Dorothée looked after the animal. He was a brother with little schooling but who was very pious, very obedient and of great simplicity of nature. One day, Fr Préher, the parish priest of Tarentaise, came to see the pious Founder, his friend. After dinner, they went for a walk in the garden. Noticing Brother Dorothée, who was tending his cow in the pasture at the bottom of the garden, Fr Préher greeted him, saying “Good day, brother of the cow!” The good brother, who mistook the curate for a Marist priest, naively replied, “Good day, my Father!” So, said Father Champagnat, laughing, this means that you are the cow’s father!” A little too late, Fr Préher resolved to no longer take advantage of the simplicity of others” (Avit, Annales de l’Institut, p. 179/180, Vol. I, Rome 1993). Brother Jean-Baptiste (Biographies de Quelques Frères, p. 40-46) reports some dialogues which reveal the soul of this brother. He writes how “his humility and the low opinion which he had of himself led him to insist on being given the care of the farm animals and the stable. His request was granted and he spent nearly all his life in this humble job.” One day, a priest who knew of his virtue found him busy looking after the cows and asked him:
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