Chapter 71 p. 3: To the Seminary at Amiens

To the Grand Seminary of Amiens,

August 11, 1818

Dear Sir,

I wrote to M. Etienne Prieur, one of your seminarians, in response to his letter of July 7.  In this letter he promised to let me know the exact time of his departure for Paris, which he assumed to be at the end of the said month of July. However, I have not received any news from him since then. 

Would it be possible for you to tell me whether Mr. Prieur still resides with you? Or if he has returned to his homeland of Moulins, could you share his address with me? I would be hugely grateful. 

If he is with you, please send him the letter I have respectfully written you, and invite him to give me some sign of life. 

If not, your gracious reply would be welcome, and forgive the liberty that I take in interrupting your good work. 

It is my honor to be your humble servant,

M.B. 

To the Grand Seminary of Amiens,

August 18, 1818.

I had the honor of sending you a letter on the 11th of this month, concerning Mr. Etienne Prieur, who is in your care, and I find myself lacking your reply. 

Please grant me some few lines in your own handwriting, or else encourage Mr. Preur, if he is still at your seminary, to write me himself, as he had promised. 

I hope that you will forgive me if I must bother you again, in the hope of you answering the request that I respectfully make of you. 

It is my honor to be,

M.B.

From the Seminary of Amiens, August 16, 1818.

Sir,

Mr. Prieur went on vacation on July 17 or 18. He was here only in passing, and I cannot see him wishing to return to this house. I don’t know if he gave his address to anyone. In all likelihood, he took the road to Paris, though I do not know if he was going as far as Moulins. I wish I could give you a more satisfactory answer, as this is obviously of great interest to you. No doubt Mr. Prieur will soon satisfy your request. As he was only here in passing and cannot have the desire to go back to this house, I do not know that he gave his address to anyone. He certainly took the road to Paris; but I do not know if he is going as far as Moulins. I would like, Sir, for the interest that you seem to take in his affairs, to be able to give you more satisfactory information: no doubt he himself will not delay in satisfying your eagerness.

Your very humble and obedient servant, 

Trippier [1]

From the Seminary of Amiens, August 23, 1818. 

Dear Sir,

Mr. Prieur is no longer in our seminary, he left on July 18; I do not know where he is. I have not received any letter from you, addressed to the superior; sent on the 11th of the month. I am responding to your more recent letter, in the absence of the Superior, who is at the waters of Vichy. [2]

Your respectful and humble servant,

Bailly, Seminary of Amiens [3]

[Note: Since this letter was not signed under the same name as the previous one, I informed the head of the seminary appropriately. – M.B.]

To the Superior of the major seminary of Amiens, Paris 

September 4, 1818. 

Dear Sir,

I received your letter dated August 23. I was quite surprised to learn that you had not received my first letter, sent on August 11. 

As you were kind enough to reply to my last letter, I am confident that you would have replied to my first one, if it had fallen into your hands, which leads me to believe that it was intercepted. The reply to the first letter was signed by a Mr. Tripier, as far as I could read his name. It was sent August 16, from your seminary. 

Having received it on the 19th, I then received the second on the 23rd of the said month, signed Bailly. These different names lead me to believe that the second letter went to the proper address, while the first might have fallen into someone else’s hands. You would probably recognize the handwriting, I’d be happy to send you the letters, if you wish, if you could use a reliable method to receive and return them. 

In one of his letters, dated July 7, Etienne promised to inform me of his arrival in Paris, but I have heard nothing more from him. That said, I know that he is here, his brother Baptiste had seen him here, though he was not able to tell me where he was staying. These two gentlemen seem to want to keep me in ignorance of his location. I don’t know why, I’m quite irritated by this behavior. 

I hope that you will be kind enough to respond to this third letter, and I do apologize for this request. 

Your humble servant, 

M.B. 

1] likely Jean-François Trippier, head of the major seminary of Saint-Flour around 1825, who interestingly established a boarding school for boys who wanted to attend seminary. (John Gabriel Perboyre, letters to his family) 

[2] Vichy, France is known for its mineral springs, and is a World Heritage Site under the category,  “great spa towns of Europe”. It had seen some recent fame, Louis XVI expanded its thermal baths in 1787, Napoleon’s mother visited in 1799, and it became known as a medicinal, therapeutic destination, increasingly popular for the rich and famous. 

[3] “Bailly” may be a figure of some note, possibly the founder of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, formed by “six young college students and an older gentleman,” Joseph-Emmanual Bailly. 

His father, Nicolas Bailly, was a superior at Amiens, thrown into prison in 1793 and died in captivity. Emmanual had nine male cousins, presumably all named “Bailly,” and his brother, Ferdinand Bailly, taught at Amiens. Emmanuel studied at the seminary, and moved to Paris, teaching in the area. Is this the “Bailly” mentioned here? Maybe, maybe not, the timing seems a bit off for either Ferdinand or Emmanual to have signed the letter, but Bailly was clearly a name that opened doors in the Amiens seminary. And interestingly, both Emmanual Bailly and Trippier, mentioned earlier, had done a lot of community work supporting young boys with religious inclinations, and may have worked with Etienne Prieur in some capacity.