Jean-Baptiste Chautard

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Jean-Baptiste Chautard OSCO (born March 12, 1858 in Briançon , † September 29, 1935 in Cîteaux ) was a French Roman Catholic theologian , religious priest and abbot from the order of the Trappists .

Life

Gustave Chautard entered the Trappist order in 1877 in the Aiguebelle monastery ( Département Drôme ), where he was given the name Jean-Baptiste (Johann Baptist), and was dressed on May 6, 1877 . He made temporary profession on May 8, 1879 and solemn profession on May 21, 1882. He was ordained a priest on June 3, 1884 . On June 1, 1897 he was elected abbot of the Chambarand monastery in Roybon and in 1898 commissioned by the superior general to restore the Cîteaux monastery . On October 1st, Cîteaux was repopulated by monks from La Trappe and Sept-Fons . On June 16, 1899, Jean-Baptiste Chautard was elected Abbot of the Sept-Fons Monastery. In the course of the anti-clerical policy of France from 1901 onwards he was commissioned by the order to represent the interests of the order in Paris. On February 17, 1903, there was a meeting with the Senator and later Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau , through which he was able to prevent the expulsion of the Trappists.

Works

The book Innerlichkeit is considered to be Chautard's main work . The soul of all apostolate (original title: L'âme de tout apostolat , 1907), which several popes praised, for example Pope Pius X. 1914, Pope Benedict XV. 1915, most recently Pope Benedict XVI. on September 15, 2008 in Lourdes: “How correct was the intuition of Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, a beautiful spiritual figure from France, who in his work 'Inwardness. The soul of all apostolates suggested to the zealous Christian to meet the gaze of the Virgin Mary often! ”The key message of inwardness is that every apostolate requires an intense prayer life. The book was directed against an overemphasis on active life (heresy of works) at the expense of prayer, which was common at the time . It was soon translated into many languages; Alois Wiesinger , Abbot of Schlierbach , translated it into German . It is constantly being reissued. The book consists of five parts:

  • Part 1: About active and inner life.
  • Part 2: How to unite the inner life with the active life.
  • Part 3: The apostolic activity as a means to holiness or danger to our soul.
  • 4th part: On the fruitfulness of our works: Success of the modern "apostle" with other souls.
  • Part 5: Some tips: about prayer, liturgical life, vigilance, ...

literature

  • Bernard Martelet: Itinéraire Spirituel de Dom Chautard, Abbé de Sept-Fons . (Paris-Friborg: Saint-Paul, 1967).
  • Patrick Olive: Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, 1858–1935. Pour un Cinquantenaire . In: Collectanea Cisterciensia 48.1 (1986) pp. 3-8.
  • GilChrist Lavigne: The Re-Founding of Cîteaux and Dom J.-B. Chautard . Cistercian Studies Quarterly 35.3 (2000), pp. 327-334.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report on the meeting with Georges Clemenceau
  2. ^ Letter from Pope Benedict XV. in the English edition
  3. ^ Sermon by Pope Benedict XVI. in Lourdes on September 15, 2008
  4. ↑ Fassbaender, German edition of the book interiority of Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard
personal data
SURNAME Chautard, Jean-Baptiste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chautard, Gustave
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French theologian and abbot
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Briançon
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1935
Place of death Citeaux