Beatified: September 22, 2012
Feast Day: October 12

Louis Brisson was born on June 23, 1817, in Plancy, France, the only child of Toussaint and Savine Brisson. He was an inquisitive child who had a great interest in both literature and the natural sciences, especially chemistry, physics, and astronomy. After a basic education by a local priest, he entered the diocesan seminary and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Troyes on December 19, 1840.

Fr. Brisson was assigned to teach science at the Visitation Monastery School in Troyes. He was known as a gifted teacher who enjoyed communicating the wonders of the natural world to his students. Fr. Brisson later became the confessor and chaplain to the Sisters of the Visitation in Troyes, a position he would hold for the next forty-one years. It was during this time that he met the woman who would be his spiritual mentor and inspiration: Venerable Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, VHM, superior of the Troyes Monastery.

Widely known for her mystical prayer life, concern for the marginalized, and ability to communicate and teach Salesian spirituality, Mother Chappuis began to slowly teach Fr. Brisson about Salesian spirituality, specifically the Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales, a small book of spiritual practices designed to assist the individual in remaining in God’s presence throughout the day. At the same time Mother Chappuis and Fr. Brisson began working to reform French Catholicism through their participation in the Association of St. Francis de Sales, a European network dedicated to foster a renewal of the Catholic faith and its practice throughout the continent. The Association was established in Troyes in 1857 with Fr. Brisson as its director and Mother Chappuis as its treasurer.

Through this work, Fr. Brisson became concerned about young women who had come to Troyes seeking jobs in the city’s many factories. Due to the Industrial Revolution, Troyes had become a city that specialized in the textile industry. The young women who came to work in the factories met with deplorable working and living conditions, lack of necessities, and a loss of religious practice. Fr. Brisson established shelters for these young women which provided them with lodging, food, safety, and the ability to once more practice their Catholic faith. While he originally entrusted the operation of the shelters to volunteers, Fr. Brisson soon realized that more competent staffing was needed. In 1866, together with Leonie Aviat, a graduate of the same Visitation monastery school where Fr. Brisson ministered, he founded the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales to care for these young women and provide them with religious education and support. 

Throughout his ministry, Fr. Brisson continued meeting and collaborating with Mother Chappuis. In one of their meetings, Mother Chappuis revealed to him that she believed God had called Brisson to create a community of men who, formed by the Spiritual Directory, would continue the pastoral ministry of St. Francis de Sales. For a variety of reasons, Brisson was strongly resistant to the idea of founding a male congregation as envisioned by Mother Chappuis. It was not until the Lord Himself appeared to him in the parlor of the Troyes Visitation monastery on February 24, 1845, after a heated discussion with Mother Chappuis, that Brisson finally acquiesced. However, it was another thirty years before the Oblate priests and brothers were founded, fulfilling Mother Chappuis’s lifelong desire. On October 12, 1873, Fr. Brisson and six contemporaries received the habit of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and began a two-year novitiate period of prayer and formation in the consecrated life. In 1875, Fr. Brisson received the official papal decree granting the Oblate congregation its first charter and placing it under the direct and immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See. In 1876, Fr. Brisson and his companions pronounced their first vows as Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

The new community devoted itself to education, pastoral work, and the foreign missions. The Oblates grew rapidly and spread from France to South Africa, Namibia, Ecuador, England, Austria, Italy, Brazil, and the United States. In the early 1900s, the French government began a program of secularization which resulted in the closing of many religious houses and institutions, including the shelters for young women and religious schools established and staffed by the Oblates. Many of the Oblates left France and continued to establish the congregation outside of the country. Because he was too old to travel, Fr. Brisson returned to his family home in Plancy and remained there until his death on February 2, 1908, with Mother Leonie Aviat, OSFS, and other Oblate priests at his side. Fr. Brisson was beatified on September 22, 2012.

From their humble beginnings, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales became an international congregation with religious houses in North and South America, Europe, and Africa. Mother Chappuis and Fr. Brisson’s vision for a religious order of men to serve the church just as St. Francis de Sales did continues up to the present day.