One day when he came to lunch, my mother had killed a rabbit, a dish reserved for special occasions. However, when she sat down to eat, she realized with amazement that it was Friday, a day without meat! Father Ausone, renowned for his humor, then solemnly declared: “rabbit, I baptize you fish” and everyone could eat!
Born in the town of Marillac in 1886, Henri Dampérat was quickly spotted for his intellectual abilities. He left to study in Deux-Sèvres then in Belgium where he became an Assumptionist religious in 1905 under the name of Brother Ausone. In 1910, we find him a professor in Turkey and he is ordained sub-deacon in Constantinople on the eve of the Great War. Initially rebellious, he joined the infantry in 1917 then, appointed stretcher-bearer, he won the Croix de Guerre for heroic conduct. After passing through Salonica as an interpreter, he was finally demobilized and ordained a priest in 1920. He was then sent to Bulgaria in various colleges. He will stay there for 30 years. At the service of youth, he organized musical and sporting events, created the first football club in the country and founded the national league. His influence was such in government circles that he was part of the Bulgarian delegation to the 1946 Inter-Allied Conference, which earned him numerous medals.
A talented speaker
Driven out by the communist regime in 1950, he returned to France where he directed the college of Mongré in the Rhône. He visits his family more frequently. Very young at the time, Jacques Thibault remembers this impressive man with his big black cassock and says: “One day when he came to lunch, my mother had killed a rabbit, a dish reserved for special occasions. However, when she sat down to eat, she realized with amazement that it was Friday, a day without meat! Father Ausone, renowned for his humor, then solemnly declared: “rabbit, I baptize you fish” and everyone could eat! »
To find out more about this prankster, polyglot, talented orator, resolutely optimistic pedagogue, meet at 11 a.m. at the Saint-Didier church for a ceremony open to all, presided over by Monsignor Gosselin, Bishop of Angoulême, and in the presence of Father Gillier, an Assumptionist currently stationed in Bulgaria. The morning will end with the inauguration of a commemorative plaque and the laying of a wreath in the cemetery. After a meal in the village hall for the registered guests, there will be a time for discussions on the life of Father Ausone, Bulgaria and the traces he left there.
During his career, Henri Dampérat received numerous Bulgarian and French medals.
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Father Ausonius seated between Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria and his wife, whose friend he was.
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