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In his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelica Testificatio, Pope Paul VI states:
PART I Pierre-Auguste Marie Saintourens was born 13 May 1835 into a deeply Catholic family in the city of Marmande, in southwestern France. Amidst the loving care and encouragement of his parents, sister and two brothers, young Pierre received his earliest Christian formation. From his Autobiographical Journal we can get a glimpse into the home of the Saintourens family. "I often recall, that being still a child of nine or ten, how I used to construct little chapels in honor of the Holy Virgin. My mother had given me a table especially for a small altar; my sister had given me furnishings and lace to decorate it... From the age of nine I used to say that I desired to be a priest, and the vocation was already so rooted in my small head and in my heart that my greatest happiness was to say Holy Mass. My father brought me from Bordeaux a small chalice with a paten, an ostensorium to give Benediction, and small candelabras to decorate my altar. My oldest brother, who was then in the major seminary preparing himself to be ordained priest, cut out for me some ornaments from large sheets of strong paper... I remember I was about ten...one day I called together my little friends for a sermon. I climbed upon a chair in the front room in which I had my little chapel in honor of the Holy Virgin...Mounted on my chair, my book in my hand, I read and explained..." "At last, the twenty-first of December, 1845 was the chosen day, the great and beautiful day of my First Communion...my confessor had prepared me for this great day so that it would coincide with the first Mass of my brother. My brother would say his first Mass, and I would receive Our Lord for the first time. The first Host which my brother gave was to me. My second brother served the Mass. Around the altar were gathered my father, my mother, my sister and the other members of my family..." |