2016-02-04 11:06:00

200 years of Oblates of Mary Immaculate, part 2


The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate reached a milestone in the history of the congregation last week on Jan. 25 - the 200 years of their foundation.  The story of the OMI begins amidst the ashes of the great upheaval of the French Revolution which has had repercussions worldwide.  It was an era when the Catholic Church in France was devastated and held in contempt and ridicule.  Nevertheless, on Feb. 25, 1816 in Aix-en-Provence in southern France near Marseille, a handful of zealous priests headed by their leader St. Eugene de Mazenod, committed themselves to serving the lost, the least and the last, bringing them the Good News of Jesus.   

To know about the OMI, we talked to Sri Lankan Oblate Father Shanil Jayawardena, the director of communications of the OMI at the order’s headquarters here in Rome.  Last week, in the first part of the interview, Fr. Jayawardena explained the simple but meaningful way they marked the bi-centenary of their foundation in Aix-en-Provence on Jan 24 and 25. He narrated the humble beginning of the OMI which today has grown to almost 4000 members in 68 countries.  Originally planned for evangelizing the poor and abandoned of Aix-en-Provence, the OMI later reached out to France and the rest of the world, making their first entry in Asia through Sri Lanka in 1847.  From Sri Lanka, the OMI later spread to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.   Today, Fr. Jayawardena begins the final part of this interview telling us about the charism of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

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