• Death (7/7)
• Indulgences (1/7)
• Prayer (3/7)
• Purgatory (2/7)

In order to provide work for his parishioners, Fr. Paul Buguet made himself a printer and a carrier of earth and stones. To light up the path from earth to heaven, he became both a missionary and a builder. Two works born, one from social concern, the other from a mystical aspect, thus developed in parallel.

Born at Bellavilliers (Orne) on 25 March, 1843, Paul-Joseph Buguet made his first Communion in 1855 in the church of Notre-Dame de Mortagne. He studied at the college of Saint-Eloi , then from 1862 at the major Seminary of Sées. Studies and prayer were going to be, moreover, the twin poles of his life. On 26 May, 1866, he was ordained priest by the bishop of Sées, and his first appointment was as curate to Ste-Honorine-la-Chardonne (1866-1872), before being appointed parish priest at Saires-la-Verrerie (1872-1878). A man of action, he launched a girls’ youth group, had a new presbytery built and brought back the local people to Mass… At the age of 35, Fr. Paul Buguet was appointed to La Chapelle-Montligeon, a little village at the foot of the forest of Réno-Valdieu, on the side of a hill. The village church was poor; the grey houses, too, hardly conveyed the impression of wealth. The population comprised a few farmers and tradesmen, but especially wood-cutters, carpenters and clog-makers, and numbered then 770 : dwindling by 300 souls within fifty years. Many had left to seek work in town.

Still just as active, he restored the parish, then the wash-house, had a fountain built in the square to provide drinking water for the village and planned to create a tram line… However, two years before arriving in La Chapelle-Montligeon, Fr. Buguet had been deeply affected by three deaths in his family. On the evening of 1st November 1876, his brother August had been crushed to death by a falling bell at the church of Our Lady of Mortagne. “And what about his soul?” exclaimed the young priest. This tragic accident was followed by the deaths of two of his nieces, aged 12 and 16.”One consequence that can be drawn from my meditations, is the necessity to relieve the souls in Purgatory. I have delayed too long in organising the Work that I had planned. I must work to deliver these souls”, noted Fr. Buguet in his Diary a few months later. The idea of creating a work for the “the deliverance of the neglected souls in Purgatory” germinated in his mind. It would become a reality at La Chapelle-Montligeon. One of the cares that haunted him from that time was to pray and have others pray for all the dead, especially for “those for whom no one prays”. After several attempts, in 1884 Fr. Buguet obtained approval of the statutes of the Association for the deliverance of the souls in Purgatory. He became then, as he himself says, the “commercial traveller for my souls in Purgatory”, begging from parish to parish to build up his Work.

In 1887, he launched himself into another venture : “I was seeking to reconcile this double goal: to have people pray for the neglected souls, and, in return, to obtain through them the means by which the worker could make a living.” For that purpose, he decided to create a printing works in order to publish the magazines of the Work. He began in a little room in the presbytery, with the help of a clog-maker who offered his services for printing. That is the way the printing functioned for two years. But the increasing number of magazines meant he had to have sheds built in the yard and buy old houses in order to lodge the workers and interpreters. In fact, orders were coming from all parts of Europe and had to be translated from English, German or Flemish…

In 1894, the printing works abandoned the sheds and old houses and moved into new premises : it became “Société anonyme des établissements de la Chapelle-Montligeon”, a legally registered entity. At this time it had 31 workers. In 1887, after the first pilgrimage, organised to pray for “the holy souls”, pilgrims began to flood in from all over France and from abroad. The fame of Our Lady of Montligeon began to spread across the world.

In the thirtieth edition of the Bulletin of the Work, in June 1890, can be read “We would like to raise up at Montligeon a chapel worthy of our great and beautiful Work where requests from the whole universe will be united every day, rising together to God.” In response to the wishes of Fr. Buguet, gifts very quickly began to flow in, so that, on 22 September 1894, the first spadeful of soil was turned. In parallel with this, Fr. Buguet began his great journeys, always as a missionary for the souls in Purgatory : to Rome (1893) where he was encouraged by Pope Leo XIII, Western Europe (1895), the United States (1897), Germany and Central Europe (1898), Spain (1899). He travelled and travelled.

On 4th June 1896, the foundation stone of the future basilica of Our Lady of Montligeon was blessed. In that same year, Fr. Buguet left the presbytery and came to live with his collaborators in a huge building at the top of the esplanade: the Chaplains’ House. In May, 1905, the Chancel and main aisle of the basilica were finished and the first Mass took place on 1st June, 1911 during the annual pilgrimage.

Unfortunately, the building work was interrupted in 1916, because of the war. That same year, Fr. Buguet celebrated the golden anniversary of his priestly ordination. Two years later, on 14 June 1918, worn out, he died in Rome. His body was brought back to Montligeon and rests under the Basilica.