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Marvellous companions of Marcellin
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CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY • 1810, 22 May: Pierre-Alexis Labrosse was born at Ranchal (Rhône) in a farming family. Few details of his childhood. • 1824: in autumn, Pierre-Alexis attended the minor seminary at Verrières, having had lessons in Latin from Father Desroches, parish priest of Ranchal. One of his brothers went there before him. • 1827: Pierre-Alexis left Verrières for two years of philosophy and mathematics at l’Argentière. • 1829: Lyons, the major seminary of Saint Irenaeus, with Fathers Gardette and Cholleton. He left after two years without revealing the reasons for his decision. • 1831: following a response from Father Champagnat (letter of 29 August), the young man entered the novitiate of Our Lady of the Hermitage. Brother Bonaventure was his master of novices. • 1832: first vows, for three years, 7 October. Shortly after, the newly professed was sent to La Côte-Saint-André, in the beginning being charge of the first class, and then Director until 1839. This school had been founded by Father Douillet, a friend of Fr. Champagnat. • 1834: Brother Louis-Marie privately made his perpetual profession, 12 October. He renewed these vows publicly after the retreat of 1836. The establishment at La Côte-Saint-André had 200 students, fifty of them boarders.
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