Auguste Arribat

After demobilization, Father Arribat resumed his educational mission at La Navarre from 1919 to 1927, then in Nice from 1927 to 1931, where he worked as a catechist for young apprentices. In 1931, he was appointed director of the La Navarre institute and simultaneously took charge of the Saint-Isidore parish in the Sauvebonne valley (Hyères). His charity and closeness to the inhabitants deeply marked the local population, who affectionately nicknamed him "the saint of the valley." In 1934, his superiors sent him to Morges, in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. He then received three successive six-year mandates as director: first in Millau (Aveyron), then in Villemur-sur-Tarn (Haute-Garonne), and finally in Thonon-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie). It was in Villemur-sur-Tarn, during the Second World War, that he accomplished his most striking and perilous work. He founded the Saint-Pierre School there, a Salesian boarding school for boys that opened its doors on October 1, 1942. Faced with antisemitic persecutions, and encouraged by the public stance of Mgr Jules-Géraud Saliège (Archbishop of Toulouse), Father Arribat decided to hide several Jewish children within the establishment, notably Georges Doukan, Jacques Netter, and Paul Futter. To protect the parents and other Jewish families, he also found them refuge in an isolated farm belonging to the school. In April 1944, the SS Das Reich division requisitioned the school to set up its headquarters. Despite the extreme danger, Father Arribat showed great firmness of spirit and negotiated with the German officers to obtain authorization to continue classes in the property's outbuildings, thus preserving the safety of the hidden children. Unfortunately, the young Paul Futter would later be discovered by the SS and murdered, which caused immense pain to Father Arribat.

After a final term as director and spiritual animator in Thonon-les-Bains from 1947 to 1953, Father Arribat returned permanently to La Navarre in 1953. Devoid of administrative duties and weakened by age and illness, he spent the last ten years of his life there in profound humility. He devoted himself entirely to prayer, the celebration of Mass, and the service of the most modest tasks of the community (washing dishes, cleaning showers, maintaining the courtyard). He passed away on March 19, 1963, the feast day of Saint Joseph, at the La Navarre estate in La Crau (Var), surrounded by the affection of his confreres and his former students. The cause for the beatification and canonization of Father Arribat was officially opened on March 18, 1995, by Bishop Joseph Madec, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon. The diocesan inquiry, closed on December 1, 2002, gathered 121 testimonies. The acts of the inquiry were deposited in Rome on December 7, 2002, with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

On July 8, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of Venerable. The official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession is now required to pave the way for his beatification. In parallel with his ecclesial journey, his heroic action during the Occupation was recognized by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, which posthumously awarded him the title of Righteous Among the Nations on January 22, 1996.

The life of Father Auguste Arribat bears witness to an absolute fidelity to the charism of Saint John Bosco and the evangelical gentleness of Saint Francis de Sales, summarized by the maxim 'everything through love, nothing by force.' His rigorous asceticism, personal poverty, and emaciated figure recalled the image of the Curé d'Ars, but he was distinguished above all by his constant smile, his gentleness, and his total availability to the young and to sinners in the confessional. He drew his spiritual strength from an intimate union with God, a filial devotion to Mary Help of Christians, and incessant Eucharistic prayer. His educational and spiritual legacy remains alive within the Don Bosco school network. In March 2023, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his death, the Saint-Joseph College in La Navarre inaugurated a multi-purpose hall bearing his name, in the presence of civil and religious authorities, thus perpetuating the memory of the man who was called 'the saint of the valley.'