The Association of the Holy Family, founded by Fr. Noailles in Bordeaux in 1820, is probably one of the most original religious institutions of the present era. At that time when Christian society was at a low ebb, Fr. Noailles had the broad vision of a family where the very life of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph would be relived, where people from all states of life - consecrated women in the religious and secular states as well as lay people - could live and proclaim together the Good News. The concept was revolutionary for its time. But its originator was no ordinary man: he was, in fact, a creator, fully aware of what his project entailed, and in spite of difficulties and obstacles, capable of realising it with love, sensitivity and perseverance. He was, above all, a man animated by the Spirit of God. The Holy Family became a reality and, from many aspects, it was a remarkable achievement both at a human and a spiritual level.

However, the charism of Fr. Noailles and of his Association was too advanced, too original, not to pose problems sooner or later. The ingenuity of the founder was such that, in his lifetime, difficulties did not surface in any obvious way. But, after his death, a certain misunderstanding of his project began to emerge. In time, certain essential aspects of the charism began to disappear. Little by little, the Association was transformed into a religious congregation – vibrant and powerful, it is true – but it had lost sight of an essential part of its being.

In the post-war years, however, there was a new awareness, a rediscovery of the very nature of the Holy Family. It had never abandoned its spirituality, nor had it reneged on its founder. The problem lay, rather, in a lack of understanding of his project and the essence of his charism. An important work, involving studies, reflection and consultation was undertaken. In these difficult circumstances, one cannot but admire an institution that embarks on a search for the truth in a spirit of openness and genuine concern, without reproaching or allocating blame to anybody. Considering how time can deform the appearance of things, such a step can be both prophetic and inspiring for human societies, religious or otherwise.

And so, at the beginning of the year 1990, Sister Mary Slaven, Superior General of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, and her Council approached us, two historians of Bordeaux, Professor Raymond Darricau of the University of Bordeaux-III and Fr. Bernard Peyrous, an expert on the history of the charism of the Association of the Holy Family. Basically, it was a question of determining why the intuitions of the founder, Fr. Noailles, had ever assumed a canonical, organisational form, and how this evolved over a period of time. It was not a question of producing new documents, but of reflecting on existing ones. We were asked to have a fresh look at the problem and to approach it in a “professional” way, without, however, writing a complete global history of all aspects of the life of the Holy Family. We were asked to write a history of the charism. Complete freedom was given us in our research, and all the relevant documentation, including the most recent, was put at our disposal.

Though both of us were rather busy in our own spheres, nevertheless, we readily agreed to undertake the task. We did it out of personal esteem for Fr. Noailles. He was, in fact, a very original personality in the best sense of the word, and his work deserves to be studied and recognised. We also did it because, during our life and in the course of our research, we had both encountered, in different ways, the Association of the Holy Family, and we recognised in it something very special and truly beautiful. Above all, we were touched that a religious institution should, with such utter simplicity and confidence, ask two historians what they thought of its past, even its recent past. It was this confidence and this openness, deeply felt by both of us, that decided us to embark on this intellectual adventure.

The big question was to find out what resources would be available to us in our investigation. At first sight, the matter did not appear easy: later on, a simple reading of this work will explain why that was our first impression. The biographies of Fr. Noailles are somewhat inadequate, and do not reflect either the true dimensions of the person or the complexity of his thought and work. Fortunately, the Association of the Holy Family had been doing research for some years, the results of which were available to us. The promotion of the cause of Beatification necessitated some in-depth studies. The postulator of the Cause had also compiled a number of dossiers on all the more delicate points: they contained much important information. An international team had been working on the charism and had published an impressive series of original documents, relating to the origins. It was thanks to all this work of reflection and research, spanning twenty years, that we were able to complete our task within the time allotted. We are, therefore, indebted to the previous studies carried out by some members of the Association itself.

We also referred continually to the relevant classic documents already in print – documents relating both to Fr. Noailles and to the Holy Family. Fr. Noailles’ correspondence or the numerous legislative texts are examples. We are not dwelling here on these sources of the history of the Association. A list and description of them will be found at the end of this volume.

Thus, feeling absolutely free and armed with abundant, well-authenticated and methodically presented documentation, we set to work. We wanted to do this as unobtrusively as possible; consequently, we had relatively few contacts with the General Council of the Religious Institute in the course of this research over three years. We limited ourselves to asking for further information as the occasion arose. For the rest, we studied the documentation as closely as possible and tried to understand the why and the wherefore of things. We now present you with the result of our expertise.

We thought it more practical to present our study in sequence and according to subject matter. The first chapter gives the context in which Fr. Noailles worked. The broad outlines of the ecclesial situation are known, but sometimes one loses sight of certain of its aspects, resulting in a distorted perspective. It was helpful, therefore, to review it in the light of recent historical works. Much less is known about the juridical (i.e. the Civil Law) and the canonical context, so in these areas also we have used the most recent research. Thus we hope to clarify certain positions taken by Fr. Noailles. If these points are not clearly grasped, we run the risk of being misunderstood.

But his way of acting would not have had any value had it not proceeded from a particular spirituality. Institutions, after all, are only the servants of spirituality when the charism is authentic. In Fr. Noailles’ case, this was perfectly true, and it was not possible to pass on to a description of his work without first explaining what inspired it. It is something which should be well known but, in reality, it would seem that this is not the case, judging by the authors who have dealt with the subject. Therefore, a chapter on the spiritual motivation of Fr. Noailles was essential. Let us repeat: the Holy Family in its organisation is simply the concrete expression of a spiritual intuition.

These two preliminary chapters form the basis of those which follow on the development of the Association, its organisation and, especially, its ecclesial status. We shall not introduce them here, but it goes without saying that they constitute the essential part of our study. They attempt to answer two questions: What did Fr. Noailles do? Why did he do it that way and not differently? We are here in the presence of a really exceptional person, animated by a very distinctive spirituality and confronted by immense and complex obstacles. How did he surmount or, rather, get round them? We hope the answer to the questions will be found in these chapters. If our readers feel more enlightened after having read them we shall have succeeded in the task assigned to us.

To grasp more fully the originality of the Holy Family and, at the same time, to get a better idea of its problems, it was helpful to compare the Bordeaux project with other, somewhat similar projects. This is the object of a special chapter which could, moreover, be taken up and developed later. As far as we know it is the first time that these institutions have been studied and compared from this angle.

Finally, it was necessary to see how the canonical forms of the Association of the Holy Family evolved from the time when it was fully constituted up to our own day. The last part of our work is devoted to a study of this particular aspect of things in the light of what we know about the development of Canon Law. The subject was sometimes understandably delicate but, thanks to the great freedom of expression which we enjoyed, we approached it directly, without any fixed ideas and, we hope, with respect.

At the end of this introduction, we would like to add yet one more word, in order to testify to something which, in our view, is important. No one could have assiduously spent three years with a person of Fr. Noailles’ calibre without being influenced by him. A few years ago, we organised a congress at Puy on the Venerable Agnès de Langeac, a Dominican and one of the great mystics of the 17^th century. We were struck by the fact that she did not seem to have been affected by the passage of time. We felt we were dealing with somebody who was still living.1 We experienced this same feeling over and over again, in regard to Fr. Noailles. He is alive and, through his work, is still active. May our modest work help, in some little way, the Association which he founded and over whose destiny he keeps watch, to approach with firm steps the 21^st century which we are about to enter and which needs all the treasures of the past to give it life. The thought and work of Fr. Noailles have a great contribution to offer it.