Organization, celebration and history

On March 19, 1874, on the liturgical solemnity of St. Joseph, the Saint Camille Home, EHPAD (Etablissement d’Hébergement des Personnes Agées et Dépendantes), first opened its doors and welcomed Joseph, its first inmate.

The year 2024 marks 150 years of existence of this assisted living facility and deserves to be celebrated. On September 7, 2023, the board of directors took up the suggestion to celebrate this happy anniversary. The organizing team was composed of Fr. A. Sankara (Camillian religious), J.L. Blanc (administrator), M. Solerti (social worker), C. Miniggio (logistics organizational manager), M. Fassion (facilitator) and N. Moulian (director).

Three meetings were held on September 22, 2023, January 10, 2024, and March 20, 2024, at which the date of the planned celebrations was set for June 15, 2024, and the activities that would precede the anniversary day were also outlined; the budget for expenditures and funding arrangements were defined; and the tasks and different responsibilities were also distributed in a timely manner.

The celebration of the 150^th anniversary of EHPAD Saint Camille in Lyon was an opportunity for all committee members, and not only the residents and Camillian religious, to share and promote the lifestyle and activities of this nursing home, which today is run by lay professionals but guided by the spirit of Saint Camillus.

The celebration took place from June 10 to 15, 2024 with a well-defined series of activities:

Tuesday, June 11, 2024: Inauguration of the photo exhibition tracing the history of the house: Saint-Camille: photos d’hier et d’aujourd’hui (Saint Camillus: photos of yesterday and today). This exhibition aimed to highlight the main events and dates in the history of the house, from its beginnings to the present day.

Wednesday, June 12: Opening of the exhibition organized by the inmates of the Saint-Camille House: Comme un arbre dans la ville (Like a tree in the city).

Thursday, June 13: Opening of the nursing home to all citizens, in the afternoon, with the aim of offering citizens and visitors the opportunity to see, learn about and meet the people who live and animate the facility.

Friday, June 14 at 2:30 pm: Conference entitled The presence and work of the Camillian religious in France and Lyon, between past and present. This conference was organized and presented by Camillian religious Fr. Alexandre Balma (Camillian charism and spirituality), Fr. Alfred Sankara (The arrival of the first Camillians in France), Fr. Michel Riquet (The Camillian presence in France, yesterday and today: ministry and works) and Fr. Bernard Moegle (Historical surveys on the Camillian house in Lyon).

Saturday, June 15, 2024: Festive day opened by the celebration of the Holy Mass presided by Bishop Patrick Le Gal, auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Lyon, in charge of the animation of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life; festive lunch with the residents and collaborators of the house, with the relatives and friends of the residents and with the different personalities who were invited. Several Camillian religious were present, including Fr. Pierre Yanogo, provincial superior of the Camillian province of Burkina Faso, and Fr. Bernard Moegle, delegate for Camillian religious in France. Other religious were present on behalf of the Camillian fraternity. It was an authentic occasion of joy and celebration. The first and unforgettable gift of the festive day was sunshine and comfortable weather, since the weather forecast had predicted rain all day.

In his homily, Bishop Le Gal invited us to always make the good choices, as St. Camillus did, following the footsteps of Moses and the Good Samaritan, to try to see those who suffer; those who are wounded; those who need attention and help; those who need care; those who need us.

Some historical events about the Camillian house in Lyon

An excerpt of historical reflection, from the archives consulted by Fr. Bernard Moegle

In January 1874, Camillian religious Fr. Zanoni and Fr. Tezza went to Lyon, and on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, chosen as the patron saint, the house in Lyon, named Maison Saint-Camille, was opened. Numerous elderly people began to arrive, and the first, named Joseph, was welcomed and housed free of charge, as recalled by Rucher Camillien. The house was canonically erected by decree of Fr. Guardi, superior general, on October 16, 1874. The structure had 35 rooms, chapel, garden and other outbuildings.

Fr. Zanoni writes: “Our institute has none of the characteristics it might have had at other times in Italy. At the beginning of the 1870s, however, there was a lack of a gentleman’s rest home, with a distinctly Catholic spirit and management, where we could receive pensioners from good society, the elderly, the sick and the convalescent.”

This is how Fr. Charles Goutier expressed it on March 19, 1934, in his presentation of the house: “The structure, encouraged by the vicar general François-Xavier Goutte-Soulard and the Jesuit provincial, was set in a restful quietness, in the pleasant and poetic setting of a suburb among vegetable gardens and orchards which, thank God, has nothing of a ‘red ’suburb.”

The Lyon Foundation was the first humanitarian organization owned by the Camillian Order. It was a new choice, a significant reading of the signs of the times, since few realities dedicated to caring for the sick existed in France. Other Foundations followed the example of the Camillian house in Lyon, France and also in Italy.

After his third visit to France, on October 20, 1878, the superior general, Fr. Guardi transferred to Lyon the scholasticate for the studies of young candidates for Camillian religious life. The second-year scholastics remained there for only a few months before returning to La Chaux, where it was decided to establish the postulancy, while the scholasticate was transferred to Lille, where a third Camillian house had been founded.

At the time of its canonical erection in 1877, the new vice province of France numbered 29 Camillian religious. Father Louis Tezza was appointed first vice provincial. Most of the religious were of Italian nationality and came from the Lombard-Venetian province.

In France, this development of the Camillian Order was interrupted on March 19, 1879, by a state law that abolished religious congregations that did not apply for civil authorization to remain in France, within three months. The religious had to leave the country. It can be said that the transfer of the formation house to Verona in Italy contributed to the international opening of Camillians in Europe.

In October 1904, the house in Lyon was placed under state authority. Camillians rented a nearby residence, where they housed three religious brothers and three fathers, carrying out simple ministry among the sick and the residents in the facility called Dame della Salette, a nearby house.

At the beginning of the war, having obtained permission for the community to return to their home, Father Ciman contacted the Société de secours des blessés militaires in Lyon. Between September 6, 1914, and December 31, 1918, an average of 30 wounded persons per day were treated, with a total of 800 soldiers convalescing.

On March 2, 1915, Father Ciman wrote to Father Pierre Dusinelle, member of the General Consulta: “We are not sick: we are very busy from morning to night with our senior priests and caring for 35 convalescent soldiers. It’s a real mess. There is so much work to be done that it is mind-boggling. Our soldiers are devout. They come every night to the rosary and sing beautifully. The undersigned accompanies them on the harmonium … It goes without saying that I treat them well in terms of food and lodging. So much so that our small shelter has become famous in Lyon for its welfare. They prefer to come to the Camillians.”

Unable to establish a postulancy in the Moselle region, the Order thought of transferring the novitiate to the house in Lyon, the oldest in the French province. Discreetly, the house never ceased to function, welcoming some 20 inmates between 1920 and 1935, served by a dozen or so religious.

In Lyon, in addition to the activities of the nursing home, the religious participated in the spiritual life of the city. From May 1928, Fr. Ciman went to the Primatial Church on his own initiative to hear confessions in Italian. Since a Camillian religious had replaced the vicar during the vacations, the pastor of Point-du-Jour gave him Mass intentions, which was very fortunate because he received very few Mass intentions (see community chronicle).

The Camillian house always maintained good relations with other religious communities of the time. For example, one of the Camillian religious regularly celebrated Holy Mass for the Dame di Nazareth: this ministerial service, in 1925, earned the community about 100 francs a month. Fr. Baudin and Fr. Ciman also presided over the distribution of prizes to the pupils of the Sisters of Nazareth and the Pensionnat des Bruyères.

Fr. Alfred Sankara MI