Augustin de Lestrange

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Augustin de Lestrange OCR (born January 19, 1754 in Colombier-le-Vieux , Département Ardèche , † July 16, 1827 in Lyon ) was a French Trappist abbot , order reformer and monastery founder.

life and work

Promotion to general vicar at the age of 26

Louis-Henri de Lestrange (contemporary pronunciation Létrange ) was born in northern Vivarais, the twelfth of twenty children. His father belonged to the impoverished petty nobility of the region, his mother was of Irish descent on his father's side. He went to school in Clamecy from the age of 7, and later to the Collège of Tournon-sur-Rhône . From 1770 to 1772 he studied scholastic philosophy at the St Irénée seminary in Lyon , and from 1772 (at the instigation of the Archbishop of Vienne, Jean-Georges Lefranc de Pompignan ) theology at the St. Sulpice Seminary (Paris), where he stood out as one of the best . His senior year included Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and Cardinal Anne-Louis-Henri de La Fare (1752 to 1829). In 1776 he was ordained a deacon , studied law and was installed in Lyon. Ordained a priest in 1778, he was appointed vicar general in the Archdiocese of Vienne in May 1780 .

Novice master in La Trappe

Five months later he made a surprising U-turn. He fled his office and, against the declared will of his family, entered the famous Cistercian monastery La Trappe (near Alençon ) , which was in the strict observance of Rancé , and took the religious name Augustin . A year later he took the vows and was appointed sub-novice master, then in 1785 novice master and confessor in the monastery. For his novices he immediately wrote an extensive body of instructions in which monastic life is presented as a daily struggle.

La Trappe's reaction to the French Revolution

When the French Revolution abolished all orders on February 13, 1790, the La Trappe convent was undecided and divided, all the more since the abbot had died a week earlier. Prior Gervais-Protais Brunel (1744–1794, beatified as a martyr in 1995) hoped for a negotiated solution and relied on waiting. Lestrange was in favor of a start-up abroad, but had to obey. The revolutionary commissioners who questioned the convention on November 21, 1790 (who favored the monks) received the following picture: Among the choir monks, 42 (of 53) wanted to stay in their monastery under all circumstances, among the converses 24 (of 37). The final report on Lestrange says: “Glowing fanatic. Reformer. One fears in the house that he will be made superior ”( Fanatique ardent. Réformateur. On craint dans la maison qu'il ne devienne supérieur ).

Preparation of a start-up abroad

In February 1791 it became apparent that the monastery could not be kept. Prior Gervais (who had relieved him of his post as novice master in November) gave Lestrange a free hand for the relocation plans that he had been pursuing for some time on the basis of his numerous contacts. Attempts in Flanders and in the Diocese of Trier failed. However, was successful mediation of the Archbishop of Besançon for in Friborg resident bishop of Lausanne , Bernhard Emanuel of Lenzburg (1723-1795), the same abbot of the Cistercian monastery Hauterive was. Lestrange, who had in mind a re-establishment in the spirit of Rancé, set out on the journey, obtained the approval of the nuncio and the abbot of Clairvaux , Louis-Marie Rocourt , who was superior in the Cistercian hierarchy , and obtained permission in the Canton of Friborg on April 12, 1791 for the settlement (by a maximum of 24 monks) of the vacant Charterhouse La Valsainte at an altitude of 1000 m south of Freiburg.

Abbot of La Valsainte

In La Trappe, Lestrange sought out the best comrades-in-arms (especially young ones) who met his demands for zeal, obedience and poverty, and set out on May 1, 1791 with 22 confreres (5 priests, 8 other choir monks, 7 conversers, 2 Novice choir and 1 conversational novice), crossed Paris unmolested (which could have been fatal from August 6th) and arrived in La Valsainte on June 1st. On November 10, 1794 Lestrange was officially (by acclamation) elected abbot, on December 8, 1794 La Valsainte was officially elevated to an abbey ("of the Order and the Congregation of Notre-Dame de La Trappe"). It was the first Trappist monastery to be founded outside of France.

The reformer

Following the example of Rancé, Lestrange immediately published his own set of rules under a long title that explains the motivation and the method (here translated into German):

Rules of the House of God [Monastery] of Our Lady of La Trappe by the Abbot of Rancé; rearranged and expanded to include the special behavioral norms of the House of God of La Val-Sainte Our Lady of La Trappe in the canton of Friborg in Switzerland, selected by the first monks of this monastery and taken from what with the greatest clarity in the Rule of St. Benedict, recorded with the greatest purity in the Constitutions of Cîteaux, with the greatest admiration in the religious ritual, and finally from what was the most thought-out in their own deliberations, according to their desire for renewal of the spirit of their way of life and for the most accurate entry into the tracks of St. Bernard.

So it was about the renewal of the reform spirit by returning to the sources ( Church Fathers , Benedict of Nursia , Cîteaux , Bernhard of Clairvaux , Rancé). His motto can be summarized as follows: Don't copy Rancé, but rethink it in the spirit of Rancé; ask yourself: How would Rancé have acted today? Lestrange's answer was: by tightening the interpretation of the rules. Strictness is more attractive than laxity, he said. The opinion that a new foundation is about atonement for the crimes of the revolution is historically unproven. Lestrange was surrounded by enthusiastic young men whom he had sworn by as a novice master. The spirit of optimism (and that meant a spirit of aggravation) that prevailed clearly emerges from the fact that Eugène de Laprade (1764 to 1816) , who later returned to the old rule, suggested in his first founding zeal that we only eat every other day. His proposal was rejected. The Lestrange reform was, after Cîteaux and the Rancé reform, the third reform of the Cistercian order.

Further monastery foundations

Due to the increasing popularity of the monastery (not least due to publications originating from Lestrange, which he was able to distribute organized throughout Europe), there was an influx of up to 150 people, much more than contractually permitted. That is why Lestrange went on the offensive and sent nine different founding troops around the world between 1793 and 1796. Saw the establishment of Westmalle (1794 Peugniez S. 364), Lulworth (1794 Peugniez S. 924), Rosenthal Darfeld (1795, Peugniez S. 569), Trapa de Santa Susana (1796), Sordevolo (1796, Peugniez p. 664) and the women's monastery Sembrancher (1796, Peugniez p. 627), today Abbaye Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours , as well as the men's monastery Sembrancher (1796 to 1798) as a collective monastery under Prior Urbain Guillet for those of the Trappist Gérard Boulangier (1747 to 1795) in September 1791 to Rüttenen-Widlisbach (1791 to 1793, Peugniez p. 619) and Saint-Pierre-de-Clages (1793 to 1796, Peugniez p. 627) led Trappists from La Trappe. Some attempts failed, notably Malta, Hungary and Russia. Nor did they initially come to the United States as ordered by Lestrange.

Moving to Russia (Odyssey 1)

The growing power of France led the canton of Friborg to expel all French immigrants on January 8, 1798. 254 people (including 60 boys and 40 girls from the schools of the Third Order ) set out on foot in three groups on foot towards Russia on Lestrange's orders. The strict rules of monastic life were also observed on the way. This wandering monastery, whose cohesion was entirely in the hands of Lestrange, who, on horseback like a general, blew up from group to group, did not feel as though he was on the run, but as gifted with a mission: the reformist spirit of Rancé under all circumstances receive. The train went via Konstanz, Kloster Wald , Augsburg, Donauwörth, Vienna, Krakow , Brest-Litowsk to Orscha (now Belarus ), where the Tsar had made a monastery available (not least because Princess Louise-Adélaïde de Bourbon-Condé , 1757–1827, located) and where they arrived on September 20, 1798.

Return to Germany and Switzerland (Odyssey 2)

In the meantime, however, Lestrange already knew that the Russian solution was unsustainable because the monastery rule he had coined was not tolerated by the tsar. He left Orscha alone on horseback, prepared the retreat in Hamburg and Darfeld and led a group of 60 people who had been stuck in Göttweig Abbey due to illness to Orscha (arrival July 1799). Since Lestrange did not comply with the ideas of the tsar, the Trappists were expelled again in March 1800 and went on a journey again. The United States targeted by Lestrange proved unreachable (he had traveled to Lulworth specifically for the purpose). The group lived in Hamburg and from March 1801 in Darfeld . The change in political conditions ( Concordat of 1801 ) even allowed a return to Switzerland. Lestrange arrived in La Valsainte on March 9, 1802. Not far from there, the Riedera women's monastery (1804, Peugniez p. 625) was founded and school operations were resumed.

Further start-ups, even in France

Up to 1808 there was a time of relative benevolence from Napoleon (especially his minister Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis , died in August 1807) towards the Trappists, who were granted a certain usefulness in the state. Lestrange immediately hoped for the possibility of re-establishment in France and behaved towards Napoleon in a way that some of his confreres felt as ingratiation. Attempts to found a new company include the following: Urbain Guillet (1764–1817) was sent to the United States (ultimately unsuccessful); Stapehill (1802, Peugniez p. 924), Monte Soratte near Rome (1802-1809, Peugniez p. 689); La Cervara near Rapallo (1804-1811, Peugniez p. 642); a hospice in Montgenèvre ; Grosbois Monastery (Yerres) , Peugniez p. 169; Convent in Valenton ; Mont Valérien (visit by Napoleon and Marie-Louise in 1810).

Lestrange's vulnerability

Lestrange showed two weaknesses within his monastic community: On the one hand, the harshness of the observance burdened the confreres, which some have now even started to reject as inhuman. The other weakness was the failure to observe the stabilitas loci ; a Cistercian superior had to be there instead of, like Lestrange, constantly traveling. In addition, he proceeded financially autocratically, which was especially felt by the relatively well-functioning Darfeld Monastery, which he ruthlessly drove into high debts by deducting all profits (and often from people as well). Mutiny broke out there. The monastery elected its own abbot (Eugène Bonhomme de Laprade) and returned to the rule of Cîteaux (Rancé version) on June 21, 1808 with confirmation by the Pope.

Break with Napoleon, persecution and flight to America. return

The break with Napoleon came when he imprisoned the Pope, demanded an oath of allegiance from all priests and Lestrange (after visiting the Pope) ordered the monks of La Cervara to revoke the oath they had already taken (in writing on May 4, 1811, publicly on July 16). On July 18th the order to arrest Lestrange was issued, on July 28th the decree to abolish all Trappist monasteries and arrest all Trappists. The monks of La Cervara were imprisoned in Corsica. The Darfeld monks and nuns found shelter in Cologne and near Liège and were tolerated. Westmalle lived on on farms nearby. La Valsainte was evacuated in 1812. Lestrange, who was in a hotel in Bordeaux because he was hoping to leave for the United States, fled via Lyon, La Valsainte, Constance, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Wroclaw, Berlin, Koenigsberg, Memel , and Riga for eight Months to England in Lulworth Monastery. From there he traveled to Martinique in April 1813 (three of the six young monks he had taken with him revolted against his severity), was arrested there, but made his way to the United States, where he arrived in December. There he lost all illusions about the land of unlimited possibilities, while the political situation in Europe was favorable. On November 22nd, 1814, he was back in Le Havre . From March to September 1815 he was again on the run from Napoleon in Stapehill. In December 1815 he decided to close La Valsainte and return it to France. The Trappists from Riedera followed in 1816.

Foundations and settlements during the restoration period

While there was only a single Trappist monastery before the revolution, after the fall of Napoleon the colleagues from Lestrange led to a series of new foundations or repopulations in the spirit of strict observance. On the one hand, according to the still schismatic Lestrange rule. In December 1815, the monastery of La Trappe, bought by Abbot Laprade and left to Lestrange, was repopulated. In January 1816, Prior Étienne Malmy (1744 to 1840) founded the Aiguebelle monastery . In May 1816, the Bellefontaine Abbey (Peugniez p. 274) was repopulated by Urbain Guillet . In August 1817 Abbot Antoine Saulnier (Anne-Nicolas-Charles Saulnier de Beauregard, 1764 to 1839) came from Lulworth with 60 monks to repopulate Melleray Monastery . In 1820 Lestrange founded a monastery in Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc , which lasted until 1828. The Trappist Augustin Onfroy (1777 to 1857) from the Grosbois Monastery founded Bricquebec Monastery in 1824 (Peugniez p. 254). Valenton's nuns went to Mondaye (in Juaye-Mondaye, Calvados department ), those of La Riedera founded Les Forges in May 1816 not far from La Trappe (until 1821, then Notre Dame des Gardes , Peugniez p. 276), others passed on Frénouville near Caen (which could not be kept) in the spring of 1817 to Lyon-Vaise (Abbaye Notre-Dame de la Consolation de Vaise, Peugniez p. 349).

The group led by Abt Laprade, who lived after the Rancé rule founded: first monastery Port-du-Salut (1815, Peugniez S. 282), then Monastery Le Gard (1817), which later after Sept-Fons Abbey moved . The nuns founded the Sainte-Catherine monastery in Laval in 1816 , which was later to move to La Coudre (Peugniez p. 280). Abbot Laprade, who had worked tirelessly for his family, died in 1816. His successor was Bernard de Girmont (1758–1834), confirmed by the Pope as the first abbot of the first monastery to be reopened in France. The Trappists (mostly German-speaking) who remained in Darfeld were relocated to Oelenberg Abbey in 1825 .

Complaint from the bishops to the Pope

For the despot and man of action Lestrange, who for 25 years had put considerable energy into maintaining the Cistercian ideal by means of tightening, the restoration period under the Bourbons, Louis XVIII. and Charles X. less favorable than expected. Although he was now drawing a pension from the state, the government was not favored by Lestrange, who was decried as arbitrary and extravagant. Since the state and the church thought more Gallicanist , he, however, ultramontane , and since diplomacy towards the left would have been required for the unproblematic re-admission of the medals in the Chamber, but he was arch-royalist and undiplomatic, ten years of fruitless petitions passed for him from 1815 to 1825 Negotiations. In addition, there was increasing resistance, on the one hand from the monasteries, which were less and less able to tolerate his arbitrary rule, and on the other hand from the bishops, whose authority he ignored, namely the Bishop of Sées , in whose diocese La Trappe was. When he complained in Rome about Lestrange, who was acting out of control, the Pope agreed on all points in 1822. Lestrange responded by moving his monastery to Bellefontaine and a trip to Rome to justify himself.

Lestrange in Rome

From July 1825 to June 1827 Lestrange waited in Rome for a decision by the Pope. He demanded for himself legal authority over all the monasteries that had emerged from La Valsainte, including those from Darfeld, so a total of 17 monasteries with (according to his list) 800 monks and nuns. The reproaches of the bishops related to: length of the offices, excessive manual labor, inadequate nutrition, arbitrary disposal of the monastery property (over the head of the local superiors), exaggerated penance exercises, constant draining of staff from the monasteries. Rome insisted on visiting and questioning the monasteries. The result was not favorable for him. Only the monasteries of Sainte-Baume (in the Massif de la Sainte-Baume ), Aiguebelle and Lyon-Vaise unconditionally recognized his authority.

Return from Rome and death in Lyon

On July 4, 1827, the Pope decided to elect a new religious superior in France, but Lestrange was no longer in Rome. He wanted to see that everything was going in Bellefontaine and was in Marseille on June 25th. While visiting his monastery at Sainte-Baume, the already weakened Lestrange slipped and hit his head. Nevertheless, he moved on to Aiguebelle and from there to Lyon-Vaise, where he arrived on July 12th and died on the 16th. His body was embalmed; today the head rests in Bellefontaine and the torso in La Trappe.

The Trappists to Lestrange

The Pope appointed the Abbot of Melleray as his successor. The Trappists were separated into those of the Lestrange rule and those of the Rancé rule in 1847 and reunited in 1892 on the occasion of the establishment of the Trappist Order. Since 1902 they have been called Ordo Cisterciensium Strictioris Observantiae ( OCSO , Cistercian Order of Strict Observance). The General Observance ( OCist ) did not officially come back to life in France until 1857, when the Pope confirmed the establishment of Sénanque . Benedictines were also only re-established in 1837 by Prosper Guéranger in the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes . You can see the merit Lestrange owes, despite all the controversy of his extraordinary personality.

Works (selection)

  • Réglemens de la Maison-Dieu de Notre-Dame de la Trappe par Mr. l'abbé de Rancé; mis en nouvel ordre & augmentés des usages particuliers de la Maison-Dieu de la Val-Sainte de Notre-Dame de la Trappe au canton de Friborg en Suisse, choisis & tirés par les premiers religieux de ce monastère de tout ce qu'il ya de plus clair dans la Règle de St Benoit, de plus pur dans les Us et les Constitutions de Citeaux, de plus vénérable dans le Rituel de l'Ordre, et enfin de plus réfléchi dans leurs propres délibérations, en conséquence du dessein qu'ils formèrent de se renouveler dans l'esprit de leur état et de suivre les traces de St. Bernard du plus près qu'ils pourraient , 2 vols., Friborg, Piller, 1794, 1795 (xxv, 454, 536 pages).
  • Relation de ce qui s'est passé à Rome, dans l'envahissement des états du St-Siège par les François, et fermeté du Saint-Père pour défendre l'Église, ou pièces officielles et authentiques qui ont paru à ce sujet , London , 1812.
  • Conversations de dom Augustin, abbé de la Valle-Sainte de Notre-Dame de la Trappe en Suisse, avec des petits enfans de son monastère, suivies d'un Recueil de maximes spirituelles et d'avis salutaires sur l'oraison , Paris, Leclère , 1798; Lyon, Rusand, 1832.
  • Office de la très-sainte volonté de Dieu , Cholet, F. Lainé, 1843.

literature

  • Patrick Braun: Lestrange, Augustin de. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Patrick Braun: Trappists. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Patrick Braun: Boulangier, Gérard. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Patrick Braun: Guillet, Urbain. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Patrick Braun: Chabannes, Rosalie-Augustin de. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Nicolas-Claude Dargnies (1761–1824), Mémoires en forme de lettres pour servir à l'histoire de la réforme de la Trappe établie par dom Augustin de Lestrange à La Valsainte , ed. by Richard Moreau and the monks of Tamié Monastery, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2003.
  • Bernard Delpal, Le silence des moines. Les trappistes au XIXe siècle: France. Algérie. Syrie , Paris, Beauchesne, 1998.
  • Immo Eberl, The Cistercians. History of a European Order , Stuttgart, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2002 (here pp. 482–489).
  • Wilhelm Knoll, 30 years of Trappist settlement in Darfeld 1795–1825. A contribution to the church history in the Coesfeld district , Mainz, Bernardus-Verlag, 2012.
  • Augustin-Hervé Laffay (* 1965), Dom Augustin de Lestrange et l'avenir du monachisme: 1754–1827 , Paris, Cerf, 1998; Diss. Lyon 3, 1994 (main source for this article).
  • Bernard Peugniez, Le guide routier de l'Europe cistercienne. Wit des lieux. Patrimoine. Hôtellerie , Strasbourg, Editions du Signe, 2012.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lestrange, Augustin de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lestrange, Louis-Henri de; Lestrange, dom Augustin de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Trappist abbot, order reformer and monastery founder
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Colombier-le-Vieux, Ardèche department
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1827
Place of death Lyon