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When the Congregation of the Mission was
officially formed in 1625 at the insistence of Mme de Gondi (see
Gondi Family),
the small community of confreres took up residence in the
Collège des Bons Enfants at what is now the corner of
Rue des Écoles and Rue du Cardinal Lemoine in Paris (5th
Arrondissement). It was Vincent's home from 1625 to 1632, when he
moved to the Priory of
St Lazare.
He remained at St Lazare till his death in 1660. From 1632
to 1707 the Collège was an annex of Saint Lazare as a Séminaire
(Novitiate), and Retreat House. From 1707 to 1792 it was the
diocesan Seminary of Saint Firmin, conducted by the Congregation
of the Mission. On September 3, 1792, during the French
Revolution, it was the location of the massacre of
Louis Joseph François CM, John Henry Gruyer CM, and around 70
other residents of the building. The property was confiscated by
the State during the French Revolution and not returned to the
Congregation of the Mission. Little of the original building
remains. |
