Le Saulchoir

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Le Saulchoir ( lat. Salicetum , German : " place planted with willows ") was the college of the Dominican Order for the order province of France and still exists today as a research facility and library within the framework of the Center d'études du Saulchoir, founded in 1992 .

Flavigny-sur-Ozerain

The Dominican order province of France, which has existed since the 13th century, was repealed during the French Revolution by the ban on religious orders by decree of February 13, 1790. During the Second Republic , it was able to be re-established in 1850. Henri Lacordaire was appointed its Provincial . In 1865, the order opened a studium generale in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy ( Côte-d'Or department ). Due to the anti-clerical political boom in the Third French Republic , the study house had to move to Volders ( Tyrol ), Belmonte ( province of Cuenca ) and Corbara ( Corsica ) from 1880 onwards . From 1895 it was again in Flavigny.

Cain-lez-Tournai

When the Order was again forced by the Association Act of July 1, 1901 to relocate its facilities abroad, in 1904 the study convention also moved to the former Cistercian Abbey of Le Saulchoir in the Kain-la-Tombe district of Kain-lez-Tournai near Tournai (Belgium ). The name of the abbey, derived from the pastures lining the park of the monastery, has since become the name of the university itself, which it continued to use even after returning to France.

In the following years, Le Saulchoir developed into an important center not only of education, but also of historical research, with a special focus on the medieval history of Thomistic theology and philosophy. Journalistic milestones with a major impact on global research were the founding of the Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques (since 1907), the Bulletin thomiste (1924–1965) and the publication of the first edition of the Bibliography thomiste (provided by Pierre Mandonnet and Jean Destrez , 1921). After Pius XI. With the Constitution Deus scientiarum dominus (1931) ordered a worldwide reorganization of the ecclesiastical higher education system based on the Roman model, Marie-Dominique Chenu , head of Le Saulchoir since 1928 , undertook the reorganization of the school and obtained the school from the Roman Study Congregation on June 29, 1937 Recognition of the philosophical and theological faculties as faculties of canon law.

"A school of theology"

Under the aegis of the older founding fathers Ambroise Gardeil (1859–1931), Antoine Lemonnyer (1872–1932) and Pierre Mandonnet (1858–1936) and then the younger professors Chenu, Yves Congar (1904–1995) and Henri-Marie Féret ( 1904–1992) a milieu of reform-oriented teachers and students emerged in Le Saulchoir, who promised themselves answers to the theological and social questions of their time through methodological pluralism, historical-critical curiosity and science anchored in living faith. Chenu outlined her working methods and guiding convictions on March 7, 1936 in a speech on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas , which in the following year also circulated as a private print under the title Le Saulchoir, une école de théologie and found great interest within the order, but also provoked opposition from conservative circles at other universities and at the Roman Curia. Chenu was forced to sign a catalog of ten theses, but was able to initiate a trial before St. Do not avert the Office , which in 1942 led to his being deposed as head, banned from teaching and his writing on the index.

Étiolles-sur-Seine

By 1937 the school had grown to 22 professors and 122 students, for whom there was no longer sufficient space in Cain despite a new building. Since the legal and political obstacles to a return to France no longer existed in the 1920s, the school and its library, which had now grown to around 65,000 volumes, moved to Étiolles ( Essonne Department ) a few kilometers southwest of Paris in 1938/39 . Here she experienced the crisis of the trial against Chenu, as a result of which her fellow campaigners Congar and Féret Le Saulchoir had to leave.

Saint-Jacques

Due mainly to the decline in the number of students since the 1960s, Le Saulchoir was relocated to the Saint-Jacques Abbey in the 13th arrondissement of Paris in 1973/74 , the faculties were not legally abolished, but permanently suspended, and teaching except for one Cours du Saulchoir set for students from other schools. The library, with around 250,000 volumes today, and the associated research activities were integrated into a Center d'études du Saulchoir legally re-established the following year by a resolution of the provincial chapter .

literature

  • Christian Bauer : Change of place of theology. M.-Dominique Chenu in the context of his program publication “Une école de théologie” . Lit-Verlag, Berlin 2010.
  • Marie-Dominique Chenu: Une école de théologie: Le Saulchoir. New edition with contributions by Giuseppe Alberigo , Étienne Fouilloux, Jean Ladrière and Jean-Pierre Jossua. Cerf, Paris 1985.
  • Jérôme Rousse-Lacordaire: La bibliothèque du Saulchoir. In: Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France 48.6 (2003), pp. 48–51 (digital version: PDF )
  • André Duval: Aux origines de l'Institut historique d'études thomistes au Saulchoir (1920 et sq.) . In: Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques , vol. 75 (1991), pp. 423-448.

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