Arrival in the Dominican Republic
Building at San José de las Matas (Missionary Seminary)
Missionary seminary of San José de las Matas
From 1959–1969 he was director of the journal Amigo del Hogar, which he founded at San José de Las Matas; this journal is still published today, not in San José de Las Matas but in Santo Domingo; and Amigo del Hogar has become a specialized printing house, which is directed by Father Raymond-Marie Audet, M.S.C., and employs 60 people. From 1966–1973 Father Émilien was superior of the Congregation in the Dominican Republic, and in 1971 he was to be appointed provincial administrator of M.S.C. in the country.
During his years of superiorship, a multitude of projects were carried out: the M.S.C. vocational centre in Santiago, the M.S.C. seminary in Santo Domingo, the Los Padros residence, the Amigo del Hogar printing house in Santo Domingo, various chapels, centres of human development, of catechesis, etc. For nearly 17 years, in addition to his commitments in his community and in parishes, he took part in animating the Christian Family Movement and the Cursillo Movement.
From 1956–1963, upon his arrival in the Dominican Republic, he was a professor at the missionary seminary of San José de Las Matas and was also responsible for it for a few months.
Back in the Dominican Republic after his miraculous healing from pulmonary tuberculosis, Father Émilien, from 1974 to 1985, was in the parishes of Nagua, Sanchez, Pimentel, La Romana and San José de Las Matas, giving teaching and charismatic retreats in the country and elsewhere in the world. On November 28, 1982 he founded the lay community “The Servants of the Living Christ”; and in 1985 his congregation freed him from parish ministry so that he could devote himself fully to preaching and to the healing ministry throughout the world. He evangelized in 72 countries, and died on June 8, 1999 while preaching a priests’ retreat at Cordoba in Argentina.
Father Gabriel Groleau, a Dominican father born in St-Zacharie
Father St-Georges Groleau, O.P. (Gabriel) of St-Zacharie, missionary in Japan
As a young man, Émilien had heard one of his missionary sermons; from that meeting onward, he too desired to become a missionary.