After some adventures, soon after Frédéric arrived to Paris at age 18, he ended staying at André Marie Ampère’s home, a famous scientist, who lived on Rue Fosses-Saint Victor, 19. Frédéric stayed in the room of the son, Jean Jacques Ampère, who at the time was studying in Germany. Ampère, staunch Catholic, was like a second father to Frédéric.

Mr. Ampère used to tell Ozanam: “How great is God, Frédéric! How ignorant we are!”

Frédéric related that, one day, distraught, went to the nearby parish and saw in the distance, the very Ampere kneeled praying the Rosary. He said nothing and left, very touched. Ozanam said: “[I saw] Ampère, kneeling before the same altar before which Pascal and Descartes knelt, beside a poor widow and a child, just as humble…” Ozanam remembered also how Descartes, a fervent Catholic, “shaken by his ideas that would change the course of Philosophy, went on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Liesse in Reims, for ask the grace not to deceive the human race.”

Author: Juan Manuel Gómez,
vice-president, SSVP in Spain.

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