Dorvaux, Father Jean Etienne

1931, March 3

Date of Birth: 1859, July 16

Issy
May 14, 1931

Fathers and Dear Confreres:

Two months ago Father Dorvaux was called to God. Thanks to the articles which have come to us from Montreal, today I can go over the important threads of his life and, for the benefit of the Society, throw some light on our confrere’s role (as if in high relief) – our confrere who, before giving the best of himself to Canada, worked many years in the United States and Issy.

Father Etienne Dorvaux was born in Boulay in the Diocese of Metz on July 16, 1859. Of his childhood and youth we know nothing except that he came from a very religious family, that he received a very manly upbringing, that he was early initiated into the most austere virtues of Christianity. In spite of the heroic detachment which he later exhibited, he remained deeply attached to his little land, Lorraine. A land of soldiers and saints; coveted by some, defended by others. Fiercely determined to be itself; always in the path of invasions; tilting ground on which peoples confronted one another for centuries. Crucible wherein, with the virtues peculiar to Christian living, were compounded the qualities which assure to its inhabitants circumspection, reserve, tenacity, energy.

Influenced by one of his uncles, and like his brother, Father Nicolas Dorvaux (deceased at Metz in 1923), Father Etienne Dorvaux early dreamed of dedicating his life to the service of the Church and God. And like them, he wished to devote himself to the training of the clergy in the Society of St. Sulpice.

He entered the seminary at Issy in October, 1877. His priestly ordination took place on July 15, 1883. Meanwhile, Father Icard had sent Father Dorvaux to the Sulpician Procure [in Rome], where he finished his studies before making his Solitude.

In 1885, his novitiate over, Father Dorvaux was named teacher of Philosophy at Issy. He must have stayed there up to the 1894 vacation period. The memory that he left there is still alive. His former students recall him with gratitude because they immediately appreciated his practicality, and his teaching – precise, clear, methodical, well-adapted to the make-up of the young minds which the teacher was to train. His penitents have not forgotten the paternal and shining devotion with which he made them his own, nor the example of detachment which he gave them. And all, as much his confreres at St. Sulpice as his colleagues at Issy happily remember Father Dorvaux’s high sanctity and his virtue – which he displayed in making himself accessible and affable, especially to close friends.

In 1891 Father Icard sent Father Dorvaux to the United States. There, from 1891 to 1896, Father Dorvaux successively taught Philosophy and Dogma at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton in the Diocese of Boston. He filled there the post of Superior of Philosophy for four years, from 1892 to the end of his stay in the United States.

But the greatest part of his life was to be dedicated to our work in Canada. Successively teacher of Dogma, Moral, Hebrew, Canon Law, and Pastoral Theology. He was also secretary of the faculty council, Vice-rector of the seminary of Theology in 1901, Superior in 1924, and chaplain of the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1927. Father Dorvaux lived for thirty-five years only for his adopted country.

No one could doubt that he loved that country, his Church, so prospering and alive. and the traditions of real Christian living which flourished there. Its clergy knew how to preserve the traditions. But as a man of faith in every trial, giving to all by his appearance and the way it matched his outlook the impression of death to the world, he hardly conveyed to others his deepest and most vital sentiment. It was necessary to deduce them from their presence in the working out of his unyielding dedication.

With Father Dorvaux, that dedication mainly showed itself in the care of conscientiousness with which he prepared and did his teaching. That was solid, supported by the best sources, based on solid and deep-rooted evidence. Above all, he was careful about doctrine, doctrine always elevated and – for subjects of prayer and sermons in particular – fully expounded. In his practical judgement he examined questions in depth, weighing the merit of reasons, taking against the danger of error all precautions deemed wise, and watching out jealously to convey to others only the truths and decisions which he was able to make clear to himself. It is possible that his prudence sometimes seemed stultifying. Or, at the end, that his teaching did not have all the rationale desirable. His impassivity, the monotony of his teaching style, a certain difficulty in adapting to the psychology of students, age – and before that, fatigue – amply explain the deficiencies which some had to put up with.

In Father Dorvaux, teacher and director melded into one saint. “Man of faith for every trial, he saw everything from a supernatural point of view. Human outlooks and the flow of events on earth did not count with him. Earthly horizons seemed never to hem him in. At certain periods it was said that he never even was aware of them.

“His attachment to St. Sulpice was striking. He loved everything about our Society: its spirit, its working, its traditions. And he would have liked that there always be applied – if that were possible – the nihil innovetur [let nothing be innovated] out of respect for and fidelity to the wisdom and the very fruitful activity of the first superiors of St. Sulpice. He loved community life in the traditional form that it had in our houses. With heroic faithfulness to common exercises, he did not ever absent himself from them. Everything that contributed to bringing the life of the fathers into line with that of the seminarians was precious to him. Truly, for him the seminary was “the training ground of the clergy.”

“Of a regularity more than exemplary, of a mortification still without let-up even on his deathbed, of an austerity of life appaling, right from the start, to ordinary human beings, he realized to perfection St. Paul’s admonition: Tempus breve est … qui utuntur hoc mundo tanquam non utantur; praeterit enim figura hujus mundi. [The time is short … they that use this world as if they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away]. He did not indulge himself in any way – for the pleasures of life, of loving, of being loved – things in his eyes of little value. His devotion to duty made things a bit rough for himself, and sometimes for others. But even in his necessary relationships, he always remained someone, a personality, a value, an authority, a true priest. His appearance was that of the serious saints, the like of which the Church has always had, of those saints who have an uncontested superiority, whom one venerates while being put off by their rough and unpolished attitudes, who win the esteem of men as they are sure of winning God’s final reward.”