Jean de la Barriere

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Jean de la Barrière (born April 29, 1544 in Saint-Céré , † April 25, 1600 in Rome ) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman, Cistercian abbot and founder of the order. He is at the beginning of the feuillanten .

life and work

Origin and education

Jean de la Barrière grew up as the youngest child of a wealthy merchant from the lower nobility. His hometown of Saint-Céré lies between Brive-la-Gaillarde , Aurillac and Cahors . The father of the poet François Maynard was one of his friends. After graduating from high school in Bordeaux in 1561, his father bought him the benefice of the commendate abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Feuillant around 50 km southwest of Toulouse , which was not associated with a residence obligation. He studied in Paris until 1573, where the later Cardinal Arnaud d'Ossat (1537-1604) was his mentor, and graduated as a baccalaureus in theology.

Cistercians and first attempts at reform

The experience of Bartholomew's Night in August 1572 moved him to take his role as Cistercian abbot seriously. He bequeathed his fortune to the family, was dressed as a Cistercian on May 9, 1573 in the monastery of Eaunes and was ordained a subdeacon in Lombez . Then he went to his monastery and wanted to introduce reforms there, but encountered such strong resistance that he temporarily thought of resigning and had to be urged by his mentor to persevere. On April 6, 1677 he was ordained abbot by the Bishop of Lombez in Toulouse .

Return to the strict rule of the order

In 1578 he was appointed visitor of the monasteries in the Toulouse area at the General Chapter in Cîteaux and tried to enforce an ascetic model of the holiness of the monk in a literal interpretation of the Rule of Benedict (communication through sign language, sleeping and eating restrictions, sleeping in large rooms on the floor with wooden cushions, corporal punishment, self-mortification, physical work and hostility to study) not unlike the later reform movements of Rancé or Augustin de Lestrange .

Foundation of the Feuillanten

His extremely heroic view of monastic life as atonement for the evils of the time (Reformation and religious wars) brought him into opposition to Cîteaux , whose abbot, who was also Abbot General, excommunicated him around 1585. He fought against this with threefold support, through his circle of friends in the Toulouse area, through the extremely pious King Henry III. and by Pope Sixtus V , who in 1586 approved the “Congregation of Our Lady of Feuillant” and from 1587 allowed the congregation to found the first monasteries in Rome.

The Feuillanten for and against the king

In Paris, too, the Saint-Bernard monastery was founded in 1587 with the support of the king in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré , where the king was regularly seen. Barrière adored Henry III. like a new King David and had Psalm 20 prayed for him every day . The power of the king seemed to him of divine origin. He got caught between the wheels of politics, because in the form of the Holy League the Catholic party was critical of the king, and this even more so after Heinrich had the leaders of the league murdered in Blois in December 1588 . This event led to a split in the congregation, because while Barrière still clung to his royal veneration, the convent of the Paris monastery, led by the important prior Bernard de Montgaillard , sided with the league.

Escape to Bordeaux and death of the king

Barrière, who was in Toulouse, had to flee to Bordeaux. He was relieved of his office as superior of the congregation by the League on June 10, 1589, but this was particularly effective in Paris and applied to the monastery there. In Bordeaux he founded the Feuillantenkloster Saint-Antoine. When the king died on August 3, 1589, he gave him a much-noticed commemorative speech in Bordeaux.

Deposition

Pope Sixtus V ordered Barrière to an extraordinary general chapter in Turin , which took place in December 1589 under his nominal presidency, but in reality made far-reaching decisions over his head. Montgaillard hadn't come. Barrière traveled on to Rome and only there became aware of the actual disempowerment that Turin meant for him. Another general chapter was convened in Rome in 1590 under a neutral presidency. This time Montgaillard was also present. To put an end to the split in the French Feuillanten, Barrière and Montgaillard were removed. Montgaillard went abroad.

Monk in Rome

Barrière, who was declared unworthy to assume any superior office or to call himself a founder, and who was forbidden to leave Rome, submitted to his fate without contradiction and lived as a simple monk in the monastery of Santa Pudenziana . In 1596, another general chapter decided to reopen the Causa Barrière with Pope Clement VIII , but failed because of the objection of Alessandro de Franceschi, since 1594 Bishop of Forli , confessor of the Pope.

Rehabilitation and death

Instead, the rich patroness of the Feuillanten, Caterina de 'Nobili (1540–1605), widow of Sforza Sforza di Santa Fiora since 1575, Robert Bellarmin , cardinal since 1599 and friend of the Pope, succeeded in winning over the rehabilitation. Bellarmine made detailed investigations and convinced the Pope and the College of Cardinals of the innocence of the founder of the Feuillanten. Barrière was solemnly rehabilitated in 1599 in the monastery of San Bernardo alle Terme (where he had lived since 1598). He was certified heroic patience, and he was again clothed with all abbot's insignia ( ring , crook and miter ). The Bishop of Forli had to apologize personally to him (and died shortly afterwards). A few months later, a cold killed him within five days. He died in the arms of his mentor Arnaud d'Ossat.

Informal beatification and veneration of the relics

Pope Clement VIII paid the last respects to the laid body, placed him together with Charles Borromeo and Teresa of Avila in the row of the greatest dead of his term of office and declared him blessed per anticipatio (in anticipation of a beatification process ). However, there was no regular procedure, although Franz von Sales , who was a friend of the Feuillanten, advocated it. Barrière's heart came to the Feuillant monastery, and the body was buried in a mausoleum in 1626 in the monastery of San Bernardo in Rome. On the occasion the head was brought to Labastide-Clermont , the feet to the monastery of Saint-Bernard in Paris and a femur to Turin. Henri de Sponde (1568–1643, Bishop of Pamiers ) took over the transport. In the Feuillant monastery, heart and head relics were exhibited annually on the day of death until 1791 for veneration. They were saved after the French Revolution and in 1810 they were walled in a pillar of the Saint Sernin basilica in Toulouse.

literature

  • Benoist Pierre: La bure et le scepter. La congrégation des Feuillants dans l'affirmation des Etats et des pouvoirs princiers (verse 1560 – verse 1660) . Sorbonne, Paris 2006.
  • Annoncia Bazy: Vie du vénérable Jean de la Barrière, abbé et réformateur de l'abbaye des Feuillants, fondateur de la Congrégation des Feuillants & des Feuillantines, etc. et ses reports avec Henri III, roi de France, avec pièces justificatives . E. Private, Toulouse 1885.
  • Les Feuillants et l'abbé Jean de La Barrière. Actes des 2es Rencontres cisterciennes en Comminges, avril 1994, Labastide-Clermont et Toulouse . Association Savès patrimoine, Rieumes 1994.

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