SAINT HENRY DE OSSÓ

 

  "LIVE JESUS.  ALL FOR JESUS!"

 

"The Lord granted me a good soul"

 

Henry De Ossó said so about himself in some brief autobiographical annotations, written rapidly and by obedience, when he still was very young.  And he was right upon telling it.  God gave him a good soul, a good heart, good parents… and Henry knew how to invest the gifts he received.  He did not have an easy life, but he knew how to surpass the adversities in his adolescence; Once a priest, he carried ahead his apostolic works despite all obstacles, all the envies, slanders and injustices on the part of the representatives of the Church, even through his maturity and his death.  Hence he became fortified in his faith.  He put hope only in God and started to offer love to everyone, even to his own critics.  That is how saints are forged.  

 

During the 55 years of his life, he was a teacher and catechist and, above all, a priest.  A diocesan priest compromised with his time and with his nearby environment, but projected always toward the entire world, that almost remained small compared to his passion to extend the knowledge and love of Jesus.  He had a teacher of apostolic and spiritual life:  Teresa of Jesus.  We would almost be able to say that a part of the great Saint of Ávila was embodied in Henry De Ossó and instilled his spirit of prayer, his love for Jesus and, as a consequence of both, the multitude of apostolic works that he carried out during his life.  

 

Childhood and Vocation.  

 

Henry De Ossó and Cervelló was born in Vinebre, a tiny town of the province of Tarragona, Spain, situated on the edges of the largest river of the Iberian peninsula:  the Ebro, that shapes a little the inhabitants of its environment, above all in the neighborhood of its estuary, as Vinebre.  Henry was born into a good Catholic family and said that he had:  "Good parents and holy grandfathers". 

When he turned 14 years old, his mother died of cholera and he felt desolated.  She had told him frequently:  "My son, how happy I would be if you were a priest".  But by then he answered invariably:  "No, I would like to be a teacher".  Little time later, his father sent him to Reus, to work in the most important store of fabrics of the city.  While he was selling behind the counter, Henry kept on thinking about other possibilities for his life.  One day he left letters of farewell and walked up the road to the Monastery of Montserrat.  There, before our Lady of Monserrat, the Moreneta, he decided his future:  "I found my vocation… I promise myself to Jesus forever, to be his minister, his apostle, his missionary of peace and love".  

 

In Montserrat, some days later, his brother found him and acted as the mediator between him and his father so that his father allowed him to go to the Seminar of Tortosa.  

 

 

 

Seminarian and Priest.  

 

In 1854, in Spain, all those who wanted to serve Jesus encountered many obstacles.  The seminars were not the right environment to study and to get well prepared spiritually and theologically.  Henry lived in the house of Mosén Alabart, a priest of the Diocese. He had one confessor in the cathedral, with whom he talked to frequently.  He studied with dedication under the guardianship of Domine Sena, who taught him Latin and things that were a lot more important:  he started to learn about Saint Teresa of Jesus.  In 1856 he began to study Liberal Arts.  In the last reports, the grades of Henry in Philosophy and Theology always appeared with the qualification of "Summa Cum Laude".  Besides, Henry drew quite well, sculpted beautiful figurines in wood with a simple knife and sang with a very nice voice.  As if that were not enough, he participated in the Conferences of San Vincent De Paul, with all the obligations incurred:  weekly meeting, monthly retreat, and visit to the poor each week; thus he got in touch with the most wretched people of Tortosa.

During the summer vacations he went to Vinebre, to the beautiful house of his father.  There he prayed, helped in the agricultural tasks, and during the time when people used to dedicate to the siesta, he gathered in the extensive, roomy and very fresh basement, all the kids of the town to teach them Catechism.  Afterwards he took them for a walk by the outskirts of the town in the afternoon.  It was not strange to see all the kids running behind him and waiting anxiously for his arrival to the town, each summer.  

 

Upon finishing the three years of Philosophy, his superiors and his family wanted him to pursue his studies at the Seminar of Barcelona.  He was registered there in 1860-61 to study Physics and Chemistry and was the disciple of an exceptional professor:  Doctor Jaime Arbós.  Henry and Arbós became good friends and Henry was his adjunct for a while.  His family wanted him to be outstanding and to climb the hierarchy of the academic honors, but Henry only worried to be well prepared to be a priest for Jesus.  

 

Over the summer he transferred to Benicasim, a coastal town of the nearby province of Castellón, where his uncles lived.  There, he recovered the energy spent during the trip.  From Benicasim he went up to the nearby mountains of the Desert of the Palms, where the Carmelite Fathers had their convent.  With the Carmelite community he got back the strength of the spirit, and spent long days of prayer and reflection in the hermitage of St. Teresa, situated in one of the summits where the sea could be seen far away and the horizon seemed as enlarged as his apostolic dreams.  He repeated this experience often during his lifetime.  

 

In September of 1861, he returned to Tortosa as the student of Theology, at the seminar. Some months later, the new bishop, Don Benito Vilamitjana and Vila found out that Henry de Ossó was not like other seminarians and had great expectations for him.  Nevertheless, a few years later the panorama changed drastically with the slanders and the cross.  

 

Three years later he returned to Barcelona, to study at the seminar, this time as an intern, for the third year of Theology.  The seminar was well directed by the Jesuits who were looking for good collaborators.  Henry admired the rector, Father Fermín Coast, but above all, Father Joaquín Forn, a wise, prestigious, good professor and good spiritual father; Henry trusted him.  Henry was outstanding while he studied the three courses of Theology in Barcelona.  The same thing could be said regarding his moral behavior and his discipline.  This phase was important in his life due to the consolidation of the lifetime lasting friendship with Sardá and Salvany, Andrés Martorell, Casanovas, Manuel Sunday and Sun, Juan Baptist Altés…

 

In 1866, when he finished his studies in Barcelona, bishop Vilamitjana called him back to the Tortosa Seminary and he was assigned to its faculty.  In Tortosa, he became subdeacon in May 26th.  He became a professor of Physics for other seminarians.  At the same time he continued his studies of Theology that he finished with the highest grades.  He also passed the exams in Barcelona, in the lay university where he acquired the degree of Bachelor in Arts.  

 

Finally, on September 21 of 1867, in Tortosa, he was ordained to the priesthood by bishop Vilamitjana.   And on October 6, in Montserrat, he celebrated his first mass.  Thereupon he became a priest forever.

 

 

 

Priest in Tortosa  

 

In September of 1868, the revolution called by some "The Septembrina", and by other "The Glorious one" broke out.  Queen Isabel II had to be exiled to France.  The triumphant army, clearly anticlerical, put new norms in the country.  The seminar of Tortosa was confiscated and closed, and the seminarians were sent home to their families.  Henry spent the whole year in Vinebre.  When turbulence was over, in Tortosa, the consequences of the revolution were noticeable, above all with the children who were "like sheep without shepherd".  They imitated what they had heard and seen during a year without religion.  Hence the catechesis became a need.  Henry had to find catechists and give them the adequate formation.  The bishop assigned Henry as general director of the catechesis of the diocese. The success of his efforts was glamorous.  The same children who had sung before "Live the national sovereignty”, sang thereupon "Hail Mary" along the streets of Tortosa; within a few months the catechetical centers had an enrollment of 1,200 children.  Ossó was a good strategist, he knew that children were those who better could convince the parents – "to conquer men through children" -.  He created an association for the teaching of the Catholic doctrine, that he directed, motivated and planned himself.  He formed teams with other priests, seminarians and lay people.  They all began their catechesis with the words that would be forever a "leit motiv" in the apostolate of Henry:  LIVE JESUS.  

 

We begin with some young seminarians a very holy deed and, a few days later, we have an enrollment of five hundred boys and girls.  Everything keeps moving forward, and by the time we say good bye to go on vacations the enrollment increases to eight hundred.

 

For the following course, from 1870 to 1871, the attendance augmented, because we were better organized; as the eight groups of catechists paid a visit to San Joseph to consecrate their heart to help children, we ended up with more than 1,200 catechists.(1)

 

The unique flawless secret to obtain a social restoration in our days was cultivating innocence, by making children grow in the knowledge of God and the love of the Religion.  These children, oh priests, that you neglect and watch with indifference today, wandered in the streets and listened only to blasphemies and perverted doctrines; these who saw scandalous examples, will be someday family parents.  They will rule and govern a city, a town or perhaps a whole nation:  and if they were educated in the fear of God, they would love the Religion and its ministers, they would educate their children piously, and they would expand the practice of Religion.(2)

 

It turns out to be extremely demanding to summarize in chronological order, the apostolic work of the priest Ossó.  His abundant and simultaneous actions prevent us from summarizing it in a few pages.  

 

In 1870 Henry founded The Pious Association of the Immaculate Conception for the rural youths.  In 1871 he started a weekly newspaper called The Friend of the Town, in opposition to the anticlerical one called The Man.  In October of 1872 the first number of the Monthly Magazine "Saint Teresa of Jesus" was published.  Henry founded and directed it during his lifetime. The Society of St. Teresa kept on publishing it after his death, changing the name to “Magazine Jesus Maestro" until 2005.  In 1872 Osso also published The Practical Guide of the Catechist, The Spirit of St. Teresa and a Novena to St. Joseph.  

Year 1873 is one of his most fulfilled ones.  He founded The Association of  aughters of Immaculate Mary and Teresa of Jesus, to form women like Mary who would read and would be imbued with the spirituality of Teresa of Jesus. Those women would be the ones who could mold the image of Christ in the mind and heart of new generations. Ossó was confident that women would be effective agents for the transformation and the regeneration of the society.  The Association spread like fire in Catalonia, Valencia and Aragon, and after only a few months there were already 700 members.

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(1)Practical Guide of the Catechist, EEO I, page 30

(2) Practical Guide of the Catechist, EEO I, page 81

In July of 1874 he signed the dedication of his masterpiece: Fifteen Minutes of Prayer to teach people how to pray.  During his lifetime there were 15 editions, and at present it has reached edition number 58.  In 1875 he published a small book of meditation for children entitled Live Jesus.  

Year 1876 is key in the life of Henry de Ossó.  A visit, the previous year, to the places where Teresa of Jesus lived and died, put his interminable creativity in action.  In March

he signed the decrees of Brotherhood Josefina, in order "to carry men to Christ".  Simultaneously he wrote the Little Flock of Baby Jesus.

On April 2, a Sunday of Passion then, he felt the strong inspiration to found the Society of Saint Teresa of Jesus committed to extend the knowledge and love of Jesus throughout the world through prayer, education and sacrifice.  That same year, nine young women from the Association of Immaculate Mary and Teresa of Jesus, committed to start on the road traced by the Father Founder.  The Society expanded quickly in Spain, Portugal, America and Algiers, during Henry’s life.  Subsequently it continues giving fruits of holiness in the world.  

 

In 1877 Henry de Ossó directed a crowded pilgrimage to the birthplace  of St. Teresa, Avila.  More than 4,000 pilgrims visited it.  They also went to Alba de Tormes.  In Salamanca, with other teresians, he established the basis of the Universal Brotherhood of St. Teresa.  A few days afterwards, in Montserrat, he wrote the project of the Missionaries of Saint Teresa of Jesus, published in 1882.  

 

In 1879 the first Sisters of the Society of Saint Teresa pronounced their vows.  Henry dedicated himself thoroughly to the formation of those women expected by him to transform the world.  He went back and forth from Tortosa to Tarragona, where was the first community.  But at the same time, he preached, and gave spiritual exercises to the youths in different towns.  He continued to take care of the several associations and wrote incessantly for the Magazine Saint Teresa of Jesus.  He travelled to Portugal and to Orán to expand the Society there.  He prepared, with some ecclesiastical personalities of Spain, the Third Centennial of the Death of Saint Teresa.  

 

The unstoppable activity of Henry de Ossó had its source in his fascination with Jesus and in the teaching of Teresa of Jesus.  

 

How many times I have asked myself:  What is happening in my interior?  What is that I feel in my heart? Where does this irresistible, never felt and vehement strength come from, that motivates me to know and to follow the way of the virtue, that tightens me to the strong column of prayer?  Where does that force come from that makes me feel propelled to profess more passion to everything that is beautiful and great in our country, and true national religious jewel?  What is this?  From where does it spring?  And after some meditation, I answer to myself:  All is work of the Avila Virgin (3).

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(3)RT nº 38 (1875) page 35

 

 The daily prayer, the spiritual exercises each summer, the days of spiritual rest in his Monastery of Montserrat… are for him interminable source of interior wealth, of God love, that he had experimented, lived and expressed in his apostolic works for the growth of the Kingdom.  Only from that prayerful side can be explained his incessant activity and his spiritual depth.  

 

Carrying the Cross …

 

Life never is easy.  In the life of the chosen by God the cross used to appear invariably.  For sure because "the disciple is not better that his teacher".  Henry De Ossó experimented the cross during seventeen long years, and in fact he died crucified.

The history began on October 12th, 1877, with the opening of the convent of Discalced  Carmelites in Tortosa at the request of Henry De Ossó.  The lot was given by a lady to Henry and other priests who were friends of his; the convent has been built with charity collected mainly through the Magazine Saint Teresa of Jesus and through the donations requested by Ossó.  The following year, in 1878, next to the convent, the corner stone was laid for what will be the Society of Saint Teresa, with great happiness on the part of all: the bishop, the priests, friends, the Discalced Carmelites…

 

On October 12th, in 1879, exactly a year later, the Sisters of the Society took possession of the building, still in construction, and they began to live in it.  The next day, the Discalced Carmelites appealed to the Court of Tortosa for the "serious damages that the Society of St. Teresa made to them".  A long judicial lawsuit started and lasted even after the death of Henry de Ossó. 

 

What has happened?  And what happened later?  The reason and the experience showed that many people changed  their affections, and are impressionable in their conclusions… Others had negative feelings like envy and sorrow caused by the triumphs of others, they desired to occupy the first places, or to be the most appreciated… Some were cowards and bent in front of the influence of the powerful.  Others preferred to be notorious… a few dishonest cheated, hid, and falsified documents and did anything so that their interests prevailed instead of the justice.  

 

All this ended with several lawsuits that Henry de Ossó had to endure during the last sixteen years of his life.  It started first in the diocese of Tortosa, then in the Metropolitan Court of Tarragona, later in the Supreme Court of Madrid and, finally in the Court of Rome.  

 

The Carmelites, some of his own friends, and even the bishop accused him to appropriate what did not belong to him: the very extensive lot where was located the Monastery of the Carmelites, the first home of the Society of Saint Teresa with its novitiate.    

 

Ossó defended himself again and again against the allegations, not because he was stubborn but because he believed that he had to defend what was not his:  the right to build on that lot (he personally had not wanted to build at that time) and the dowries of the Sisters of the Society used for the construction of the building.  The plaintiffs had in their hand the power and used it badly:  they were infuriated with Henry personally and also with the Society of St. Teresa with a grudge that was visible in the words used in many occasions and in unfair actions, such as the closings of the Society of St. Teresa and its novitiate for two years.  Bishop Vilamitjana, an old friend, who had blessed always the apostolic works of Henry became his enemy.  He even destroyed fraudulently the favorable verdict emitted by the Metropolitan Court of Tarragona changing it for an unfavorable one.  Subsequently, some documents where Henry's good faith was proven disappeared mysteriously before reaching the Vatican Court.   They were placed somewhere that they could be found only almost a century later.  The lawyers who defended Henry De Ossó advised him to put the lawsuit in the hands of the civil justice for a better chance to win it.  He never did that.  He could not put in evidence the flaws of the Church that he loved with all his heart.  

 

Then another more painful cross:  The Society of St. Teresa of Jesus for whom he gave everything, wanted to be autonomous and, as it was not well prepared yet, it ended up turning against its own Founder.  

 

Henry De Ossó had some sentences that were not mere sentences, but truths that he lived by while the cross weighed on his back:  "Those are obstacles that good people encountered" and "No adversity will damage us if we are not wicked".  He did not experiment the iniquity, but a great pain together with an enormous interior peace.  He was rejected and condemned by what he loved most:  the Church.  He was estranged by what those who owed him their life and a lot more:  The Society of St. Teresa.  

 

In 1896 he died.  He had written a lot more during those years.  Besides the articles in the magazine St Teresa of Jesus, he wrote:  Seven Sundays of Devotion to St. Joseph, St. Teresa’s Month, Novena to St. Teresa of Jesús, Constitutions,  Interim Plan Study  and other writings for the Society of ST. Teresa of Jesus, Triduo in tribute to Saint Teresa of Jesus, On the 15th of Each Month, in homage to St. Teresa, Rules for the Daughters of Mary and St. Teresa, Treasure Chest for Children, devocionario, Three Little Flowers to Our Lady of Monserrat, Catechism of Workers and Rich, extracted from the Encyclical of León XIII De Opificum Conditione,  Devoto Josefino, Ramillete del Cristiano, A Month in the School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Rules of the Little Flock of the Child Jesus, Seven Dwellings in the Heart of Jesus, Tribute to  St. Francis de Sales, Mary to the Heart of her Children, The Spirit of St.Teresa de Jesús, Novena to the Holy Spirit.  

 

The list is not complete because some booklets are not enumerated.  

 

Weary physically and spiritually, but never defeated, Henry made a fervent retreat in his favorite place of solitude, the Franciscan Monastery of Sancti Spiritus in Gilet (Valencia), in the month of January of 1896.  In his head and in his heart there were still thousands of projects to undertake to make alive the slogan that were at the center of all his works:  "Live Jesus.  All for Jesus!"  He already had given himself totally to Jesus, but he did not know.  The TOTALITY became reality in the night of January 27.  He just had an in-depth confession with one of the Franciscan Fathers.  Before withdrawing to rest he had commented:  "What a beautiful sky, Brother!  If outside it is like this, what will be inside”?  A few hours later, he passed away.  

 

He was buried in the Franciscan cemetery, as one of the friars, without any belongings, without anything.  The next day the Sisters of the Society of St. Teresa arrived, upon being informed of the news.   His body remained in Gilet until 1908, then his remains were transferred to the chapel of the novitiate of the Society of St. Teresa of Jesus in Tortosa, Spain.

 

After a long process of beatification and canonization, in which at last the proven documents of his absolute integrity, his abnegation, his faith to the Church appeared almost miraculously, Henry de Ossó and Cervelló is declared SAINT by Pope John Paul  II, in Madrid, June 16, 1993.    “Blessed is the man who fears Our Lord”

 

 

                                                                        Pilar Rodríguez Briz, stj