Page 11 - Michael 2024 March

ise, who was very stubborn and didn’t want to go to
school. She became a Sister of Wisdom and took the
name of Sister Barthélémy.
The Poulanière farm

The Even family grew up on the Poulanière farm,
in one of those ancestral stone houses, consisting of
a single room for the family, an unfinished attic, and
two rooms for the animals. The family room was locat-
ed between the two animal rooms. Louis-Marie slept
under the stairs leading to the attic. He liked to joke
that to get dressed he hid between two cows in the
animals’ flat.
Despite their poverty, Louis-Marie was not a dull
child. He loved to laugh and tease his sisters. One day,
he was playing with his little brother Léon next to his
sister Philomène, who was knitting. He hid one of the
knitter’s brooches. Philomène was so distressed that
she started praying to St. Anthony of Padua to find her
knitting spindle. Her brother, Louis, the guilty party, pre-
tended to find the brooch and gave it to his sister. They
both thanked St. Anthony, but Louis-Marie felt guilty for
the rest of his life for having lied to the holy saint.
With the Brothers of Christian Instruction
When Louis-Marie was 11 years old, a Brother
of Christian Instruction (a congregation founded in
Ploërmel in 1819 by the venerable Jean-Marie de La
Mennais) came to La Poulanière. Pointing to young
Louis, he told the father: “This one is old enough for
the juniorate.” The father agreed, and the child left his
father’s house for good, only to return once, at the age Five of the six volunteers for the mission to
of 15 to witness the last days of the life of his beloved the United States, Louis Even (Brother Amaury-Jo-
mother, whom he watched over with other members seph) is first on the left, second row
of the family, awaiting her flight to heaven.
Louis-Marie entered the Livré Juniorate on August Louis Even, then a young student, suffered from an
4, 1896, the feast of St. Dominic of the Rosary. He was unnoticed infirmity. He was deaf. One day the teacher,
believing him to be stubborn because he did not carry
particularly hard hit during the months that followed. out a given order, gave him a solid kick, which made
One month later, on September 5 at St-Laurent-sur- him flinch. The poor child complained that he hadn’t
Sèvre, his sister Marie-Sainte, a Sister of Wisdom understood. It was then they realised he was deaf.
under the name of Athénaïs de Jésus, died at the age This called his vocation into question, as deafness was
of 23. According to the notes of Louis Even’s niece, a major handicap for a teaching brother.
Sister Saint-Barthélémy, herself a nun at St-Laurent,
Marie-Sainte was considered the family saint. At the There was talk of firing him. This caused him a
time of her death in St-Laurent sur Sèvre, she ap- great deal of pain. But as he was very intelligent, studi-
peared to her father, who was returning from Mass ous and of exemplary piety, it was decided to under-
in Montfort on Sunday. She told him a secret that he take a novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague to obtain
never wanted to reveal. When we learn that the good his cure. Once the novena was over, he improved suf-
father, Pierre Even, died in 1897, the following year, ficiently, and the superiors decided to keep him. We
we can easily imagine the content of the secret. The can now understand why Louis Even maintained a life-
mother was to follow her husband and Marie-Sainte long devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague, remem-
to heaven three years later in 1900. bering the promise: “The more you honour Me, the
Another of Louis Even’s brothers, Émile, who be- more I will give you.”
came Brother Barthélémy with the Montfortians, died On February 2, 1901, the Feast of the Purification
at the age of 24, in 1905. His sister Françoise, who of Mary, Louis-Marie Even entered the novitiate at
joined the Augustinian Sisters (Soeurs Hospitalières Ploërmel. There he received the holy habit and took
de saint Augustin) and took the name Soeur Ste- the name of Brother Amaury-Joseph. He took his first
Geneviève, died a novice and had taken her vows on vows on February 2, 1902. u
her deathbed.

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