Mazenod College Principal Application Pack

OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE Charles Eugene de Mazenod was born into the tumultuous world of Revolutionary France, the son of an aristocrat. Forced to flee France at the tender age of 8, he grew to young adulthood amidst the dissipating pleasures of the aristocratic idleness of the various courts of Italy. However, his life was changed dramatically by a deep spiritual experience at a Good Friday ceremony in 1807. He would go on to become Priest, Missionary, Bishop, and founder of a world-wide religious community called the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).

One of his contemporary Bishops once said: “Go to Marseilles. There is a Bishop there whose Congregation is still small, but the man himself has a heart as big as St.Paul’s, as big as the world.”

These are words that truly convey the enthusiasm felt by those who knew him in life and by those who have come to know him through the works he established and the writings he left behind. A heart as big as the world! Even when he still had only ten companions in his society, the Rule Eugene wrote for the group in 1818 already stated emphatically, “Their ambition will be to encompass in their holy desires the immense breadth of the entire world.”

That ambitious dream began to take form in 1841 when Bishop de Mazenod sent his first disciples to Canada. It was the beginning of a heroic epic that would see the Oblates of Mary Immaculate spread from the pole to the tropics: in Canada, Sri Lanka, South Africa and today in over sixty countries - wherever the apostolate demands a radical renouncing of self on the part of those whom Pius IX once called “specialists in the most difficult missions”. Thousands of Oblates have lived in the radiance of the Founder’s “big heart”.

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate arrived in Fremantle in 1894, Victoria in 1926, and at Mazenod College in 1967. Inspired by St Eugene de Mazenod OMI, the Oblates serve the Mazenod College Community in a variety of pastoral ways through service, leadership and pastoral ministry. The Oblates work closely with the staff and families to help ensure that each student discovers their God-given dignity; sees the world through the eyes of Christ, and ultimately, “Leave(s) Nothing Undared for the Kingdom of God” (College Motto).

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