Edmond Boulbon

Edmond Boulbon OCR / OPraem born when Jean-Baptiste Boulbon (* 14. January 1817 in Bordeaux , † 7. March 1883 in Tarascon ) was a French Trappist , Norbertine abbot and monastery founder.

life and work

The Cistercian

Jean-Baptiste Boulbon entered the Trappist monastery Le Gard at a young age, under the influence of the Sulpizian Gabriel Mollevaut (1774-1854) and took the religious name Edmond . Since Le Gard could not be kept as a monastery location and urgently needed money for the move to Sept-Fons (which finally took place in 1845) , Abbot Stanislas Lapierre sent him on donation-collecting trips all over France. He was so successful that he then took on the same role in the equally needy Bricquebec Monastery . He was ordained a priest in 1843 and sent to the island of Réunion as a missionary . But the establishment of a Trappist monastery failed and he returned to Bricquebec in 1850.

The Premonstratensian

Since Boulbon was increasingly dissatisfied with the Trappist form of religious life, Abbot Augustin Onfroy advised him to re-establish the Premonstratensian . With the Pope's permission, he had himself dressed as a Premonstratensian on June 6, 1856 in Prémontré (the Belgian Premonstratensians who had recently settled in Leffe ) and founded the Congrégation de la Primitive Observance ("Congregation of the Original Observance") with himself as the only member. The coexistence with the Belgian Premonstratensians proved to be impossible, however, and he took advice from the pastor of Ars , who encouraged him to set up a foundation in the south of France. He bought the monastery grounds of Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet south of Avignon and founded the Congrégation des Prémontrés de France ("Congregation of the Premonstratensian France") there in 1858 . His monastery was elevated to a priory in 1868 and an abbey in 1869 , and he himself was elected first abbot. Under his leadership, subsidiaries were founded in Algiers ( Basilica of Our Lady of Africa , 1868), Conques (1873) and Saint-Jean-de-Côle (1877-1900), as well as the Premonstratensian Sisters in Bonlieu-sur-Roubion (1871 ).

Expulsion and death

With the decree of March 29, 1880, the hostile minister Jules Ferry expelled the convents from the monasteries. Since the Premonstratensians of the Frigolet monastery refused to leave the place, there was a regular (and often mocked) military siege from November 5th to 8th and finally the storming of the monastery, inside which many neighbors (including Frédéric Mistral ) persevered with the monks. The displaced monks temporarily went to Storrington Monastery ( West Sussex ). Abbot Boulbon, who had to contend with the hostility of the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence , Théodore-Augustin Forcade (1816-1885), resigned as abbot on March 18, 1881 and was on April 11 by Pope Leo XIII. also deposed as superior of the congregation. He died a year later in the empty Frigolet Monastery. His funeral gathered only a few faithful (including Xavier de Fourvières ).

literature

• Bernard Ardura , Prémontrés. Histoire et spiritualité , Saint-Etienne, Université de Saint-Etienne, 1995.
• Creation et tradition à Saint-Michel de Frigolet. La restauration de l'Ordre de Prémontré par le père Edmond Boulbon (1817–1883). Actes du Colloque historique Création et tradition, September 24-25, 1983 , Abbaye de Frigolet, 1984.
• Thibaut Podevin, Le Père Edmond Boulbon avant son départ de Prémontré. Quelques précisions biographiques (1817-1856) , in: Analecta Praemonstratensia 83, 2007, pp. 172-203.
• Norbert Calmels, Lavigerie et les Prémontrés , Monte-Carlo, Pastorelly, 1986.

Web links

• Literature by and about Edmond Boulbon in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Private page with information on the history of the Frigolet Monastery, in French
• Article Stanislas Lapierre in the Biographia Cisterciensis
• Article Augustin Onfroy in Biographia Cisterciensis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.zisterzienserlexikon.de/wiki/Lapierre,_Stanislas
2. ↑ http://www.zisterzienserlexikon.de/wiki/Onfroy,_Augustin