Camille Costa de Beauregard to Be Beatified in Chambery
“We Love Them Deeply, and These Good Children Understand That”
by
Paul Ripaud, SDB, in Don Bosco Aujourd’hui
(ANS – Paris – April 17, 2025) – On May 17, 2025, Fr. Camille Costa de Beauregard will be beatified in the cathedral of Chambery.[1] Tho this priest from Savoy never belonged to the Salesian Society, his cause for beatification was supported by the Salesian Postulation Department. But what’s his connection to the Salesians of Don Bosco?
In
1954, the Salesians were invited to Chambery to take charge of the Bocage
orphanage—a home founded by Fr. Costa de Beauregard. Along with the orphanage,
they inherited a house for a group of children, a large estate, and the
canonization cause of Camille, which had been ongoing since 1925. Fr. Albert
Chambe, the first Salesian director there, came to know the remarkable
personality of this diocesan priest whose reputation for holiness had endured
long after his death.
Camille
Costa de Beauregard was born in February 1841 into a noble Savoyard family. His
father, Marquis Pantaleon, was a wealthy landowner and grand equerry (grand squire
or master of stables/royal household) to Charles Albert, king of Sardinia. A
cultured man and lover of the arts, he was also politically active, opposing
the secular policies of Cavour in the Turin Parliament and advocating for Savoy’s
annexation to a more religiously tolerant France in 1860. His wife, the
Marquise de Verac—descended from the noble Noailles family—was a strong-willed
woman shaped by personal tragedies. She raised their children in a strict and
deeply religious environment at their estate, the Chateau de La Motte-Servolex
near Chambery.
Camille
was the 5th of 9 children and struggled academically. He began with a private
tutor, then entered boarding school at La Motte at age 9, followed by Jesuit
schools in Brugelette, Belgium; Vannes; and Toulouse. Often plagued by illness,
he eventually returned home to study with the Abbé Chenal, who would remain his
mentor for decades.
Drawn
to worldly pleasures and always elegantly dressed, Camille went through a
period of spiritual crisis, abandoning most religious practices—though he never
stopped praying to Mary. Abbé Chenal accompanied him patiently through this
phase. One evening in Paris, after a gala with his parents, Camille was
approached by two ragged boys asking for money. He gave them alms and returned
to his carriage, where he dozed off. He dreamed of taking in those boys,
educating them, and teaching them a trade. More children followed in the dream,
overwhelming him. He woke up deeply shaken. From then on, his habits changed,
and his reading became more spiritual.
Later,
in the cathedral of Chambery, he experienced a powerful conversion. Overcome
with emotion, he shed what he called “sweet tears” and felt called to dedicate
his life entirely to God through the priesthood.
After
a period of retreat, he entered the French seminary in Rome in September 1863.
His transition to a simpler life was difficult, and the austere clerical garb
weighed heavily on him. One day, Abbé Chenal gave him an image of St. Benedict
Joseph Labré, the “beggar saint,” and said, “That’s how far you still have to
go.” Camille took the message to heart.
In
June 1867, newly ordained and back in Chambery, he asked the bishop for the
humblest position—an unpaid, unlodged 4th vicar at the cathedral—so he could
serve the working class. He also founded the Saint Francis de Sales Mutual Aid
Society for workers.
Soon
after, a cholera epidemic struck Chambery, leaving many children orphaned.
Moved by compassion, Camille welcomed some of them into his modest 2-room
apartment. But as more came seeking help, he needed more space. Count Boigne, a
benefactor of the city, offered him an old customs building. In 1868, Fr. Camille
and Abbé Chenal moved there, to what became Le Bocage.
This
was the beginning of Camille’s life’s mission: serving orphans and abandoned
children. His quiet, tireless work with the young earned him widespread
recognition for holiness—even among anticlericals. From morning to night, he
was at their service, using a method inspired by St. Francis de Sales—“Nothing
by force, everything through love”—closely aligned with Don Bosco’s approach,
whom Fr. Camille had met in Turin in 1869.
The
heart of his method was affection. “People often asked me what system or
special method we used to form our children this way. One person even asked me,
‘What’s your secret for educating young people so well?’ I answered, ‘Our
secret is very simple; it’s not complicated at all: we love them very much, and
these good children understand that.’ It’s probably this love that helps us
find the best way to reach their hearts and minds, to form them well.”
Fr.
Camille Costa de Beauregard lived a life of total self-gift—marked by boundless
charity, chosen poverty, and profound humility. He died on Good Friday, March
25, 1910, at the age of 69, worn out by worry and poor health.
A
few months after his death, a boy suffering from a severe eye injury was healed
following a novena asking for Fr. Camille’s intercession. This healing,
unexplainable by science, was recently recognized as a miracle—clearing the way
for his beatification.
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