Servant of God Joseph-Marie Timon-David

Joseph-Marie Timon-David, SCJ (1823–1891) was a French Catholic priest and founder of the eponymous Timon David Fathers. Joseph-Marie Timon-David was born on 29 January 1823 in Marseille, into a wealthy and deeply Christian family, which had experienced the trials of the French Revolution. His father spent much of Joseph's youth abroad. In 1833 his father died; then cholera struck Marseille. In 1835, his mother decided to send him to study at the Jesuit Collège Saint-Michel in Friborg, Switzerland. Friborg made a deep impression on him. There he met religious teachers in education and immersed himself in their educational methods. For him, Collège Saint Michel would be "the prototype of a house of education". In 1842, Bishop Eugene de Mazenod sent Timon-David to Paris to the seminary of Saint Sulpice. At St. Sulpice Joseph would become an ultramontanist in reaction to the Gallicanism at the time. There he met Dom Guéranger, restorer of Solesmes Abbey, who would open to him the meaning and beauty of the liturgy. Shortly before his ordination, providential meetings in Paris and Marseilles made him aware of the spiritual needs of the working class. He was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in June 1846. His parishioners were mostly working-class youths. He observed that most of the young people had not received a basic religious training from their parents. Following the example of Alexande-Raymond Devie, Bishop of Belley, Timon-David sought to simplify religious education and often used biblical stories, insisting on "education through the heart". Timon-David devoted the next twenty-three years to the apostolate of young workers. Gradually, through painful and unsuccessful attempts, he decided to adopt the methods a priest of Marseille, Jean-Joseph Allemand, had applied to train the youth of the bourgeoisie.