V.J.M.J.
Notre Dame de lHermitage, 5th August 1837
Father Vicar General,
This morning, while I was hearing confessions, it occurred to me that my faculties had almost expired. I immediately left the confessional to check the sheet. My faculties expired yesterday, 4th August. Please renew them, if you think it advisable, usque ad revocationem, which would leave me with one less thing to worry about. I have been requesting renewals for twenty-one years now, but do whatever you think best.
I intend to have a reception of the habit on the feast of the Assumption, if you will give me permission.
Everything is going along, as you know. We are always short of workers. We are so bombarded with endless requests that we can scarcely find the personnel to fill them.
We are going to make a novena to ask for workers, so that the sovereign masters field may not lie fallow. Please unite your good prayers with ours, and believe the sincere devotion which I have the honor to be, with profound respect, Fr. Vicar General, your most humble and most obedient servant,
Champagnat
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Notas
According to document AFM 143.10, the Marist Fathers at N. D. de lHermitage had received confessional faculties on 22nd October 1830. These faculties had been renewed every year: 4th August 1831, 16th July 1832, 21st August 1833, 18th August 1834, 22nd August 1835, and 4th August 1836. They would therefore have expired on 4th August 1837, except that in the meantime, on 24th September 1836, Fr. Champagnat had become a Marist Father. (The Marist Fathers had been granted special faculties by Rome.)
It was with this in mind that Fr. Cholleton answered, as he habitually did, at the top of the request itself: Fiat ut petitur usque ad revocationem [granted as requested until revoked], for the powers (which in any case could not have expired on the fourth if you were a Marist on the fourth).
As for the reception of the habit, since the Institute was not yet approved, it was entirely dependent on the diocesan authorities. Fr. Champagnat had to ask for authorization every time he conferred the religious habit, and he requested it regularly. Fr. Cholleton always answered at the top of the page: Fiat etiam ut petitur for the taking of the habit. I join wholeheartedly in your novena. Totus tibi, semper devotissimus, Cholleton, V.G.
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Daprès lexpédition autographe; AFM; 113.10; éditée dans CSG I; p. 229;
