Fathers of Mercy

Fathers of Mercy

Badge of the institute
Motto
Misericordia motus est "He was moved with mercy" (Luke 15:20)
Member Data
Postulants: Novices: Brothers: Deacons: Priests:	0 3 4 2 27

The Fathers of Mercy (Latin: Congregatio Presbyterorum a Misericordia, C.P.M.) is a Catholic religious institute of missionary priests, founded by Jean-Baptiste Rauzan in early 19th-century France.

The institute was first established at Lyon, France, in 1808, and later at Paris, in 1814, and finally approved by Pope Gregory XVI on 18 February 1834.

The founder, Jean-Baptiste Rauzan, was born at Bordeaux on 5 December 1757, and died in Paris, 5 September 1847. After completing his ecclesiastical studies, he taught theology and sacred eloquence and later was chosen Vicar-General of Bordeaux where he inaugurated a missionary movement.

After preaching in the Diocese of Troyes the institute received from the Government of Emperor Napoleon I, unsolicited, subsidies to defray the expenses of their missions. However, following Napoleon's dispute with Pope Pius VII, the society, called the Missionaries of France, was suppressed. In 1814, at the suggestion of Cardinal Fesch, Father Rauzan and his colleagues, with the addition of the young Vicar-General of Chambéry, de Forbin-Janson, afterwards Bishop of Nancy, Denis-Luc Frayssinous, who founded St. Stanislaus's College and instructed the young missionaries in sacred eloquence, Legris Duval, the St. Vincent de Paul of his day, Le Vasseur, Bach, Armand-Benjamin Caillau and Carboy, evangelized the French cities of Orléans, Poitiers, Tours, Rennes, Marseilles, Toulon, Paris and other places, and established the Works of St. Geneviève and the Association of the Ladies of Providence in many parts of France. Rauzan founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Clotilde for the education of young ladies. The royal family assisted him financially and gave him the Mount Valerian, at that time the center of piety, and later one of the principal forts protecting the capital.