Born in Orthez (France) on April 4, 1851.
Died in Le Dorat (France) on February 20, 1921.
After completing his first studies in the Betharramite college of Orthez, he assumed the habit of the Friars Minor on 9 September 1869, made his solemn profession on 29 September 1873 and was ordained a priest on 7 June 1874. He was a teacher of sacred eloquence and several times commissioner and Definitor of the French province of St. Louis of Aquitaine. During the suppression of religious orders in France, he took refuge in Italy, in Como, where he was superior of the house of Gibellina, the center of spiritual exercises for the clergy of Como.
Father Gimet, who knew Don Guanella well, a faithful frequenter of the *house of Gibellina of the spiritual exercises for the clergy of his diocese, was at the origin of the call to Traona of the *Betharramite fathers. The discernment of the Guanellian vocation of *Aurelio Bacciarini is also owed to the French friar, perhaps to a large extent. Several times he spoke with the young Ticino priest and in July 1905, when he retired to learn God's will regarding his entry into the congregation of the Servants of Charity, Father Gimet, for Don Bacciarini «a man of the highest prudence, experience and », he reassured him about the Founder's virtues: «As for the duration or stability of Don Guanella's works, we cannot know the secrets of God: the future and in the hands of the Lord; however, I say that I have known and do know Don Guanella well and I affirm that he has the qualities of a founder of the first order».
Sources:
"Schematism of the entire Order of Friars Minor", To S. Mariae Angelorum near Assisi, Ex Schola Typographica Umbra, 1909, pp. 792, 829
"Acts of the Order of the Friars Minor", To the Clear Waters of Florence, From the Typography of the College of St. Bonaventure, 1921, p. 112.
Betharramite Archive of Rome, Fondo Italie-Traona, 4008.
Guanellian sources:
SACRA RITUUM CONGREGATIONE, Comen. seu Mediolanen. Beatificationis et canonizationis servi Dei Aloysii Guanella [...]. Positio super virtutibus, Summarium, Romae, Typis Guerra et Belli, 1950, pp. 253, 277-278 (witness Monsignor Aurelio Bacciarini).
Photographs:
Not found yet.