Bishop Tissier de Mallerais: a short biography (Part 3 of 3)

Source: St. Michael's Priory

This is the last part of the biography of His Excellency Bishop Tissier de Mallerais († October 8, 2024), a tribute to his heroic work for Tradition and the Catholic Church.

(continued from last month…)

The apostolate of an auxiliary bishop of the Society

…From then on, our bishops, including Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, devoted themselves body and soul to their new mission, the main aim of which, as stated by His Grace in his letter to the future bishops, was “to confer the grace of the sacrament of Confirmation upon children and upon the faithful who ask for it”, as well as, obviously, the ordinations to major and minor orders.

It is impossible to retrace here all the peregrinations of Bishop Tissier de Mallerais around the world. However, we will mention a few that stand out, as well as a few that were particularly memorable for the Society’s District of Switzerland.

On Holy Thursday 1989, His Lordship had the joy of celebrating the very first Chrismal Mass in the history of the Zaitzkofen seminary, in Germany.

On 13th October 1990, Bishop Tissier consecrated the first church built by the Society in Switzerland, the Church of the Holy Ghost, in Delémont. The entire seminary from Ecône had come to grace this solemn ceremony.

A few months later, our venerable founder passed away. His Lordship had the honour of celebrating the Pontifical Requiem Mass, on 2nd April 1991. The Superior General, Father Franz Schmidberger, preached the eulogy.

On April 3rd, the Society’s General Council decided to set up a canonical commission, as suggested by Archbishop Lefebvre. Bishop Tissier de Mallerais was entrusted with the task of chairing this commission.

After the death of Bishop de Castro Mayer, Bishop Tissier was the principal consecrator, on 28th July 1991, for the consecration of Bishop Licinio Rangel, as successor of Bishop de Castro Mayer, at the head of the Priestly Union of Saint John Mary Vianney, in the Diocese of Campos (Brazil). 

Bishop Tissier de Mallerais remained Secretary General of the Society until 1996. He was then asked to prepare a biography of our founder, Archbishop Lefebvre. A long period of research led him in the footsteps of this great missionary, culminating in the excellent book Marcel Lefebvre: une vie, which was published in 2002 – and in English as Marcel Lefebvre: the biography, in 2004.

It was under His Lordship’s authority that the first Marian Congress organized by the Society was held in Lourdes (France), from August 14th to 18th of 1996. Also in 1996, Father Arnaud Sélégny replaced Bishop Tissier as Secretary General. However, he continued to reside in Menzingen and was able to devote more of his time to his mission as auxiliary bishop of the Society.

In the year 2000, he left Menzingen and took up residence at the Seminary of Écône, which is the heart of the Society, much to the great joy of all, especially the seminarians to whom he passed on all his knowledge of Archbishop Lefebvre and of the Society during many lively spiritual conferences.

Saturday October 2nd 2004 was the day that His Lordship consecrated the church in Wil, once again assisted by the seminarians from Ecône, with more than six hundred faithful attending. In 2004, he also blessed the foundation stone of the church in Oberriet, which would replace the former priory chapel that had become much too small.

In 2012, he moved to Our Lady Immaculate Priory in Chicago (USA). The proximity to the airport made it an ideal base for his apostolic and missionary journeys.

In September 2015, during a visit to the La Reja seminary (Argentina), he gave a series of conferences on the foundation of the Society, in order to pass on to the younger generation the spirit of Archbishop Lefebvre and his work. He would do the same, in October of the same year, at the Zaitzkofen seminary, giving the seminarians thus the chance to discover how Divine Providence had clearly guided events and blessed the Society. This series of conferences was also given in the newly established Dillwyn seminary, in 2017, to the great joy of the whole community. 

March 2019, saw Bishop Tissier de Mallerais take up residence in Dillwyn seminary, before returning to Switzerland and Ecône, in 2020.

There was great concern for His Lordship’s health, in December 2020, when news spread that he had contracted COVID-19. However, although Brother Gabriel did not survive the virus, Bishop Tissier recovered extremely well. So much so, that it was he who celebrated Brother Gabriel’s funeral in Ecône, on December 22nd, exactly forty-six years – day-for-day – from when Brother Gabriel first arrived at Ecône.

Bishop Tissier de Mallerais had been showing signs of weakness, causing concern even among the faithful, particularly when he would lose his balance during the celebration of Holy Mass. Thus, on September 28th 2024, the day decreed by Divine Providence, after reciting the morning Angelus in the seminary chapel, His Lordship fell down the stairs on his way to the oratory to say his daily Mass. Suffering a fractured skull and considerable loss of blood, he received the sacrament of Extreme Unction before being taken to hospital. After several days in a coma, he gave his soul back to his Creator and Saviour, on the evening of October 8th. The seminary Rector, several seminarians and his brother were present during his final moments. Requiescat in pace.

SOURCE: fsspx.news/en (article published in October 2024)