Jeanne de Pourlan

Jeanne de Pourlan (born April 2, 1591 in Pourlans , † May 16, 1651 in Dijon ) was a French Cistercian , abbess and monastery reformer .

life and work

Origin and youth

Jeanne grew up as the daughter of Monsieur de Courcelle, Baron von Pourlan, in Auvillars-sur-Saône south of Dijon and was called Jeanne de Courcelle (s) de Pourlan (t). At the age of seven she retired in 1598 to Tart Abbey , whose abbess was her aunt Claudine de La Tournelle from 1575 to 1607. In 1605 she spent a year at home and in 1606 went to the Clare Monastery of Migette in Crouzet-Migette ( Canton Ornans ). There she was dressed as a nun in 1607.

Reform Abbess in Tart (1618–1630)

In 1617, she followed the request of Abbess Anne de Boisselet von Tart, whom she had chosen as her successor, was dressed as a Cistercian by Nicolas Boucherat, Abbot of Cîteaux , under the religious name of Jeanne de Saint-Joseph , made her profession in 1618 and was immediately Abbess of the monastery. She tried to reform the monastery (in accordance with the resolutions of the Tridentine , which had just been officially adopted by the French clergy assembly on the general estates of 1614), but initially failed due to resistance from the majority of the nuns and especially their families. From 1622 she was supported in her reform efforts by Bishop Sébastien Zamet , who, with the consent of Abbot Boucherat, managed to relocate the six reform-minded sisters to the city of Dijon, where in 1624 a new monastery was built in what is now Rue Sainte-Anne for 13 members while in the old town of Tart (in Tart-l'Abbaye ) the sisters who were unwilling to reform were distributed to other monasteries in the area. Since in 1625 after the death of Boucherat his successor Pierre de Nivelle opposed the reform and even excommunicated Abbess Pourlan, in 1627 the supervision of the monastery passed to the bishop.

Prioress at Port-Royal (1630-1635)

Zamet, who was also the spiritual director of the Port Royal des Champs monastery , operated the unification of both monasteries as part of his project of an institute of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ( Institut du Saint-Sacrement ). In order to better link the two monasteries, he used the introduction of the abbess election by the convent in 1629 to free Abbess Pourlan from her office and in 1630 to send her to Port-Royal as prioress, while Agnès Arnauld moved from Port-Royal to Tart and there from 1632 was abbess until 1635. The Paris project failed, among other things because of the resistance of the Archbishop of Paris against the entry of the Zamet confidante Pourlan into the institute. That is why Jeanne de Pourlan returned to Dijon in 1635.

Abbess in Tart and Death (1635–1651)

In Dijon, Jeanne lived the rest of her life for her monastery, mostly as an abbess, from 1643 to 1646 also as a simple nun under Abbess Marthe de La Tournelle. She drew up the complete monastery statutes, which were approved by Zamet in 1650 (the text is lost). Shortly before her death, she received a visit from Queen Mother Anna of Austria (1601–1666) and little Louis XIV. When she died at the age of 60, she was venerated like a saint by the people of Dijon.

literature

• Edme-Bernard Bourée: La Vie de Mme de Courcelle de Pourlan, dernière abbesse titulaire et réformatrice de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame de Tart ... dite en religion la Mère Jeanne de Saint-Joseph, ... Avec un abrégé de la vie de messire Sébastien Zamet, ... reformateur des religieuses de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame de Tart . J. Certe, Lyon 1699.
• Louis Narcisse Prunel (1874–1932): Sébastien Zamet, évêque-duc de Langres, pair de France, 1588-1655. Sa vie et ses œuvres. Les origines du jansénisme . A. Picard, Paris 1911–1912 (main source for this article).

Web links

• Image of the abbess from the Palace of Versailles
• Biographical sketch, French