Jacques-André Émery

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Jacques-André Émery

Jacques-André Émery (born August 26, 1732 in Gex , Département Ain , † April 28, 1811 in Paris ) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman . He was superior general of the Sulpizians from 1782 until his death . From 1790 to 1802 he headed the Archdiocese of Paris on behalf of Archbishop Antoine de Juigné, who had gone into exile . In the turmoil of the revolution , which brought him imprisonment and mortal danger, he remained “perhaps the coolest head of the French clergy” and, as a mediator, enabled the continuity of church life.

Life

Career

Émery received his education from the Carmelites in Gex and the Jesuits in Mâcon . He entered the seminary in Lyon and continued his studies at Saint-Sulpice in Paris. There he joined the Congregation of the Sulpizians and was ordained priest in 1758 . Soon afterwards he received a teaching position at the seminary in Orléans , from 1764 in Lyon, where he had been a seminarian. Here he opposed the Gallican tendencies of Archbishop Antoine de Montazet, who was influenced by Jansenism , with diplomatic skill . The connection between the French Church and Rome remained non-negotiable for him even during the revolutionary and imperial times, despite the willingness to compromise.

General Superior

1776 was Émery superior of the seminary in Angers , 1777 assistant to the superior general Pierre Le Gallic . After his death in 1782, the general assembly of the Sulpizians elected him as his successor and thus also head of the seminar in Paris. Most of his alumni were aristocratic sons hoping for a profitable bishopric. Émery set about renewing spirituality and discipline according to the ideals of the founder Jean-Jacques Olier , not without encountering resistance, and brought about a spiritual awakening on the eve of the revolution. The teacher-student relationships and the trust that grew in him made his later key role possible.

revolution

As a revolt against the Ancien Régime , the French Revolution was directed not least against the privileged higher clergy , the “first estate”, and the state church that was intertwined with the king and the nobility . All persons and institutions of the church and the Christian religion itself were suspected of being counter-revolutionary and royalist . The first repression of Saint-Sulpice took place on the occasion of the Federation Festival on the first anniversary of the storm on the Bastille . In August 1790, the general assembly of the congregation decided to establish a seminary in the United States ( Bishopric of Baltimore ) as a place of refuge. Émery and all Sulpizian priests refused to approve the civil constitution of the clergy , as did Archbishop Juigné. This went into exile after he had entrusted Émery with the provisional management of the diocese. In 1791 all Sulpician seminaries were closed; but the house in Paris continued for the time being. Émery had the archive and the most important valuables brought to a safe place.

On August 15, 1792, a large number of lecturers and seminarians were arrested in Saint-Sulpice. 16 of them were murdered on September 2nd in the course of the September massacre. On September 4th, Émery decided to permanently close the seminar. He himself stayed there alone.

In the years that followed, the revolutionary governments demanded an oath of loyalty from all public figures, including the priests who were still in office. This demand divided the clergy. Émery took the oath of "equality and fraternity" (September 3, 1792), that of "submission to the laws of the republic" (1795) and also that of "hatred of royalty" (September 5, 1797). If interpreted correctly, he saw in this no problem of conscience and also encouraged the insecure pastors with whom he was in contact to do the same so that worship and church life did not come to a complete standstill. On the one hand, he received sharp criticism from royalists such as Cardinal Jean-Siffrein Maury , but on the other hand he could not escape prison. He was in custody from May 19 to 31, 1793, then again from July 13, 1793. During this time, his composure radiated to his fellow inmates. On August 14th, he was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal. It was probably thanks to influential advocates that he was not executed.

The anti-royalist coup d'état of September 4, 1797 , did not condemn Émery, which earned him again severe criticism from parts of the clergy. In the following years of relative calm and personal seclusion, he wrote several treatises on 17th and 18th century philosophers and their position on Christianity.

Napoleon

With the coup d'état of November 9, 1799 , Napoleon Bonaparte became the sole ruler of France. The 1801 Concordat with Pius VII put ecclesiastical life on a new basis, largely shaped by the results of the revolution, and put an end to the suppression of religious practice. At the age of almost 70, Émery took up the pre-revolutionary renewal work and reorganized the formation of priests under the responsibility of the Sulpizians. A new house was found for the Paris seminar.

Napoleon had an ambivalent relationship with Émery, which was determined by esteem, but also by fear of the Sulpician's great influence. Émery mediated the return of Joseph Fesch , the emperor 's step-uncle , to communion with Rome, so that he could become archbishop of Lyon in 1802 and cardinal in 1803 and participate in Napoleon's marriage and coronation in 1804. When the Jesuits were again banned in France in 1807, the Sulpizians were spared. In 1808, Émery was appointed to the Conseil de l'Université founded by Napoleon . However, he remained a staunch opponent of all anti-Roman efforts.

When Napoleon set Pius VII in Savona in 1809 and set up a commission to prepare the creation of a French national church under the leadership of the emperor, Émery as a commissioner contradicted these efforts uncompromisingly. On June 13, 1810, Napoleon decreed the repeal of the Congregation of the Sulpizians. Under the impression that his life's work had been destroyed, Émery died on April 28, 1811.

To Emery's last seminarians had 1808 de Mazenod Eugène heard, later Bishop of Marseille, founder of Mission wafers and holy . He became Émery's collaborator and confidante and accompanied him through his illness until his death. Mazenod arranged for Émery's heart to be removed from the body and stored in the Saint-Sulpice seminary. He also led the funeral ceremonies in Issy-les-Moulineaux , where Jacques-André Émery was buried in the Sulpizian cemetery with a large number of priests and the faithful. In 1842 Mazenod drew a moving portrait of Émery in a letter.

Web links

Commons : Jacques-André Émery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the French sources, the surname is written partly with and partly without an accent aigu .
  2. ↑ "perhaps ... the coolest head among the churchmen of France" ( Catholic Encyclopedia )
  3. ^ “The real moderator of the clergy during twenty years of the most violent storms” ( Cardinal Bausset , quoted in English in Catholic Encyclopedia)
  4. ↑ a b c d sulpiciens.org
  5. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
  6. ↑ Memorial plaque in St-Sulpice (Paris)
  7. ↑ omiworld.org ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.omiworld.org
personal data
SURNAME Émery, Jacques-André
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emery, Jacques-André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French clergyman, superior general of the Sulpizians
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1732
PLACE OF BIRTH Gex (Ain)
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1811
Place of death Paris