de la Croze, Father Matthew

1916, April 23

Date of Birth: 1866, October 29

Paris
May 10, 1916

Fathers and Very Dear in Our Lord:

To die for France on the field of battle, in the first line of trenches, in the midst of his soldiers whom he was leading against the enemy by the example of his quiet courage, soldiers whom he was winning to God and preparing for Heaven by the final help of absolution: to die on Easter morn, amidst the joy of the Resurrection, with the hope of going on high to join the glorious Savior – such as the death that our confrere, Father de la Croze had chosen, loved, sought for, and the best that his friends thought could happen to that soul, burning, austere, a bit tragic, restless and open, into which had passed, by a kind of atavism, the spirit of chivalry and of the Crusades. In a persecution, he would have gone as a martyr; in a national war it had seemed natural for him to offer himself and to sacrifice himself to serve as an example and as a ransom. He was happy to die. As his confreres, members of the Society to which he had given himself, we miss him and we weep for him. Certainly, we shall keep as an inspiration of purest devotion a feeling of admiration for that death into which he went. But there remains for us another duty – that of going beyond death with the friend, the brother, the son who has fallen at the Verdun front for us, for our liberation, for our victory. That will be the object of the prayers which I come to beg for him and to which I hope to influence you in briefly recounting to you what that life and that death meant.

Father Matthieu Annet Charles Marie Dumontet de la Croze was born at St. Jory de Chalais (Dordogne) on October 29, 1866. He was the only son in his family. In his early years he lived under the care of his mother, a saintly woman, and in the constant company of two equally saintly aunts. From dwelling in a home so out of the way and so somber, there remained on him an imprint of austerity and of a precocious maturity and the usages of an intense religious life. Still young, he came to Paris with his mother to pursue his classical education, which he did as a day-student in one of our good Christian institutions. We are not too well informed about how he spent the next seven or eight years of his schooling. Perhaps his family had looked forward to his taking up a career in the world. But God, Who had always possessed his soul, destined him for a better career. He was one of those who at the threshold of conscious and responsible life hear the call of the Master: Veni seouere me, [Come, follow Me] and who courageously replied: Domine, secuar te cuccomoue ieris [Lord, I shall follow Thee whithersoever Thou shalt go].

In October 1894, he entered the seminary at Issy, where he took his Philosophy course. Later, at Paris, he took Theology. At the time of his ordinations he was incardinated into the diocese of Paris and he received priesthood at the end of the scholastic year, 1898. His life as a seminarian was exemplary and very well fulfilled. He seemed to his fellow-seminarians to be destined for intimate and privileged service in the Church. But actually, once he was a priest, he said he wanted to be a Sulpician. With the title of aspirant, he was admitted in October 1898, to our scholasticate (St. John’s) where he spent a year and a half. In February 1900, he was sent as an auxiliary for the teaching of Philosophy to the seminary of Angers. In October 1901, he undertook his novitiate at the Solitude. In October 1902, definitively enrolled as a member of the Society, he was sent to the seminary of Bourges where successively he taught Philosophy and Fundamental Theology.

In July 1905, came the order for dispersion. Listening only to his zeal, Father de la Croze volunteered to go to work in our seminaries in America. That was generous and well-intentioned. He was allowed to do as he wished, but at the end of a year it was evident that adapting to the climate and learning the language was beyond his capability. He was probably too old. He said as much and requested his recall with the same rationale and the same clear mindedness with which he had expressed his intention of going. He came back to France and, very simply, took up again his role of director at the seminary of Bourges. He felt at home in that section of the country, with that people and that clergy. There he enjoyed confidence and credibility. There the teacher, moreso than the director, was looked up to. Everything about him contributed to his moral authority: his dependability, his punctuality, his piety, his discreet cordiality, his modesty – severe and even a bit glum.

The young clerics, particularly his penitents, did not apologize for admiring this priest, so austere, so strong in his convictions, so generous, and so vibrant in his promptings of zeal in view of all the apostolates which are open to the prospects of the clergy in today’s world. They loved and followed this master and this father [guide] of their conscience in his activity – caring, eager, exacting, meticulous. They were at the age when that activity is accepted, is profitable, and does good. Our confrere had a feeling for them, was happy for them, simply lived for them and for God. Sometimes the longing for something better – always the sensitive spot in that soul – showed itself; and after seven years, that is to say in July 1913, he took a resolution to pursue a higher vocation, that of the Carthusians.

It was a trial. It was also a right granted by the Church to all those who respond to a sincere conviction. The trial was permitted with the proviso that it was not more than that, and with the assurance that the door would remain open for a return to the fold. A few months were enough to prove that that vocation was not for anyone with his health and temperament. He returned to us in November 1913; and on our proposing it to the Cardinal Archbishop of Reims, he readily consented to give him place among the directors of his major seminary. He was to stay only seven or eight months in that seminary, long enough to give again the impression of edification, devotion, happy and fruitful activity as he had at Bourges; to win for himself there the deepest affection of directors and seminarians; to call forth for himself, after his recent death, the most heartfelt regret.

When war broke out in 1914, Father de la Croze was beyond the age of military service, but his noble and believing mind was all stirred up in his patriotism and his faith. He wanted to take part in the defense, which seemed to him to have as its motto: Pro aris et focis [for altar and hearth]. With the permission of his superiors and the blessing of his Archbishop, he volunteered as an army chaplain. By August 12th he was in the midst of his men of the Sixty-ninth Division, bravely sharing all their hardships, their privations, and their dangers; doing the work of a warrior, he was always in the front lines; doing the work of a priest because for the ill, the wounded, the fallen, he was always with them, raising their minds to God. He pretty much described himself in the Bulletin pastoral de Reims [Reims Pastoral Bulletin], in what he called “A Chaplain’s Program,” to do the work of evangelization by preaching, the work of religion by spiritual aid, the work of morale building by word and example. That meant contact with the troops in the trenches, on the full-pack march, in the rest area or the field hospital; the happy and good-natured meeting, the conversation, decent but engaging, the recalling of days dear to Christians, a shout of faith and zeal at the critical instant of assault; the coming together for Mass, for religious exercises, for prayer, for the beads, for confession, for Communion, for speedy and lively instruction, for picking out the good, for the apostolate by the few. For the chaplain it meant: intense interior life, union with Our Lord, devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the Breviary, the Rosary. This was the program proposed by Father de la Croze, and, to his credit, thoroughly carried by him. The effect it had can be judged by the endorsement given it. I have here before my eyes several letters about it, letters from soldiers and from officers expressing their admiration for its worth, for its zeal, happiness for faith recaptured and Christian life revived by its application.

More touching still is the tribute of Father Paulot, Superior of the major seminary at Reims, a tribute dated April 29th, in a circular letter to his seminarian-soldiers.