We would miss our pilgrim of Charity vocation if we directed exclusively our energy to Calcutta by denying the reality of our dying people's homes of West. By looking around us, we discover very fast the poor people who surround us, in our city, in our district, sometimes even in our family.
Of every ages, some of them hardly out of the adolescence, they went across problems of, psychological, material break down … Incapable to face alone the adversities of life and having no more reason for hoping, they are homeless, unemployed, without support; only the begging allows them to survive. The alcohol, the drug, are often their only diversion and contribute to engender a big violence. Their physical, moral misery, is very big; they are the poorest of the poor people of our cities of the West.
The project of life of our association stipulates that the Pilgrim of Charity is "at the service of the poorest of the poor people", by bringing his help to these persons without roof and without future "his action has an educational dimension". It was thus necessary to find a place, which is at the same moment a place of welcome and the anchorage point of our Association.
Acquired for that purpose in 2007, the Mill of Azinière became the Center Mary Mother of the Poor on October 10th, 2008, day of its inauguration and its blessing by Mgr. Brincard, bishop of the Puy-en-Velay.
The Mill of Azinière, a former water mill, was built in the middle of nowhere on the municipality of Saint-Georges d'Aurac at the heart of Auvergne, in this magnificent hilly region of famous volcanoes and whose inhabitants are solid and magnificently welcoming at the same time. The river is quite close, in spring the nature is green; the silence is only disturbed by the mooing of cows and the birdsong.
To protect an authentic family feeling, the accommodation facilities of this small hermitage are limited. It is intended to accommodate Brother Francis-Mary during its brief passages in France and to welcome 5 to 6 people "wishing to go out of the slump into which they are plunged". "Our purpose thus is to calm and to fill their wounds by the human and divine Love" (This resolution is registered in the Life plan of our Association, which specifies).
Indeed, "5 means will be implemented in this hermitage":
During the course of the year, we are going to acquire a ground on which are the ruins of a former sheepfold; this ground adjacent to the one who surrounds the hermitage will allow to double its surface. After restoration, this former sheepfold will become the chapel of the hermitage.
To allow to welcome better the people who will stay at the Hermitage we planned certain developments: improvement of the system of heating (the winters are rough in Auvergne), repair of the water line (the river is close but the winter it is necessary to break the ice), installation of an electric line bringing the current from the hamlet of Azinière.
Thanks to all those who support us in this mission of Love.