Jean Léonard
Jean Léonard (born July 15, 1815 in Saint-André-de-Majencoules , † November 12, 1895 in the Abbey of Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide ) was a French clergyman, Cistercian and abbot .
life and work
Louis Léonard attended the Minor Seminary in Beaucaire and the Seminary in Nîmes and was ordained a priest in December 1839 . From 1840 to 1846 he taught mathematics at the seminary in Beaucaire, from 1846 to 1856 he headed the ecclesiastical high school ( collège ) in Sommières . Through the spiritual care of the Ursulines there , he became aware of the Sénanque monastery, which was newly settled by Marie-Bernard Barnouin in 1854 . In 1856 he entered there and took the religious name Jean (also: Marie-Jean ). In 1857 Sénanque was incorporated into the Cistercian Order and in 1858 Léonard was sent as superior of a group of 12 monks for resettlement in the declining Fontfroide Monastery (west of Narbonne ), which he took possession of on September 6th.
Léonard worked in Fontfroide for 38 years, initially under the most difficult conditions, the last few years in great physical pain. His holy life and work earned him the nicknames “French Don Bosco ” and “ Pastor of Ars des Languedoc ”. Numerous priests and lay people sought advice from him. Fontfroide became a school of charity . As long as he was alive, the monastery was safe from being closed by the Third Republic . In 1888 he was consecrated as the successor to the late Abbot of Lérins Vicar General of the Congregation of Sénanque, and in 1889 as Abbot of Fontfroide. In 1895, 6,000 people attended his funeral in the solitude of Fontfroide.
The personalities he influenced included Therese von Lisieux , Jean-Baptiste Chautard and Antonius Maria Claret (who died in Fontfroide).
When Sébastien Wyart , Abbot General of the Trappists, visited him in April 1895 , his summary was:
“J'ai vu des hommes éminents, des dignitaires, dans ma vie; aujourd'hui, le bon Dieu m'a accordé de voir un saint "
"( In my life I have met important men and not a few dignitaries; today I was granted by the good Lord to see a saint )"
His beatification process has started.
literature
- Édouard Capelle, Un moine. Le père Jean, abbé de Fontfroide (1815–1895) , Paris, Victor Retaux, 1903, XX, 592 pages.
- EC, Le Père Jean. Abbé de Fontfroide , Nîmes, C. Lacour, 1999 (reprint).
- Édouard Capelle (1863–1940, Jesuit), Le bon père Jean de Fontfroide. Le serviteur de Dieu Marie Jean (Louis) LEONARD, cistercien, abbé de Fontfroide (1815–1895) , Strasbourg, Trifolium, 2014, 100 pages (Coram angelis 5) (originally Toulouse 1896, hagiographic).
Web links
- Literature by and about Jean Léonard in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
- Entry Jean (abbé de Fontfroide) of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
- Act of beatification, French
- Léonard, Jean, in: Biographia Cisterciensis
- Document of the beatification process, Italian, with picture
- Short biography of Jean Léonard, French, with picture
Individual evidence
- ↑ Édouard Capelle, Le bon père Jean de Fontfroide, 2014, p. 84
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Léonard, Jean |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French clergyman, Cistercian and abbot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 15, 1815 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-André-de-Majencoules |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 12, 1895 |
| Place of death | Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide abbey |