Cesar was born in Cavillon, France in 1544. He was the 7th of 13 children and grew up in a Christian and noble family. He led a carefree lifestyle just as other young nobles did at that time.
At the age of 18, he joined the King’s army and took part in the war against the Huguenots. He wanted to join the navy to fight in the siege of La Rochelle but he became very ill and found himself reviewing his choice to pursue a military career. After witnessing the horror of battle, he devoted 3 years to poetry, painting, and wild frivolous living.
He took over for his brother as Canon of Salon after his passing, a position he wanted for its income and connections instead of its spiritual significance.
One night, before heading out with friends for a party, he was touched by the biography of Saint Charles Borromeo. Antoinette Reveillade, a friend and mystic, asked that he read it for her. He tried to mask his feelings and headed out for the night but then heard Christ saying to him, “Are you going to crucify me again?”. He immediately went back home and spent the night in prayer with Antoinette.
Still months passed and once again he found himself heading to a masked ball. As he was roaming the streets he came across a convent where nuns were singing. He thought, ‘What a wretch I am! These nuns get up at night to praise God, while I, at night, go to offend Him.” He saw a small light burning before an image of Mary Most Holy and he was overwhelmed by the memory of his prayer with Antoinette. She had begged God with tears for the salvation of his soul. He thought, “How can I recommend myself to God, while I am on the way to offend Him?”.
An extraordinary grace conquered and he attended Jesuit school for his studies under the guidance of Jesuit Father Pequet. He was ordained a priest at the age of 38. Still profoundly affected by the biography of Saint Charles Borromeo, he tried to take him as a model in all things including a devotion to the Passion of Christ and deep love of the Church, especially after its terrible aftershocks of the Protestant Revolution. He worked in Aix-in-Provence, France, which was full of turmoil following the Religious Wars and devoted himself to teaching the catechism to ordinary people living in neglected and rural areas of which his efforts were badly needed and well received.
In an effort to ward off heresy among the people, he developed a program of family catechesis and it was from this that a new religious congregation developed, The Fathers of Christian Doctrine. It is a congregation of priests who devote themselves to communicating the Christian doctrine to the people. The congregation in France was destroyed in the later French Revolution, but an Italian branch, the Doctrinarian Fathers has continued to today. https://www.dottrinari.org/?lang=en
His catechetical apostolate writings were part of a vast movement of religious revival which implemented the decrees of the Council of Trent. He was an impressive figure among his contemporaries. Saint Francis de Sales declared him “a star of the first magnitude in the firmament of Catechesis.”
He slowly grew blind and died on Easter Day, April 15, 1607.
He was beatified in 1975 by Pope Paul IV and Canonized May 15, 2022 by Pope Francis.
His feast day is April 15.
For God’s Glory.
