Pierre Bonhomme (priest)

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Pierre Bonhomme, contemporary portrait

Pierre Bonhomme (born July 4, 1803 in Gramat ; † September 9, 1861 ibid) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman, educator and founder of the order. He stands at the beginning of the Congregation Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Calvaire (Sisters of Our Lady of Calvary). In 2003 he was beatified .

Life

Training to become a priest

Pierre Bonhomme was born in 1803 as the son of a cutler in Gramat im Quercy (not far from the famous pilgrimage site Rocamadour ). He attended Catholic schools in Reilhac and Montfaucon , and from 1822 the Collège Royal (today: Lycée Gambetta ) in Cahors . He was the type of likeable model student. In 1824 he passed the Abitur (Baccalauréat) and switched to the seminary in Cahors, which was run by the Lazarists . In 1827 he was ordained a priest.

The pedagogue

With the support of Bishop Paul Louis Joseph D'Hautpoul (1828–1842), who was the army chaplain of the army of emigrants and had remained a man of the Ancien Régime , he opened a Catholic school in Gramat, which was initially successful through the July Revolution of 1830 got into trouble because Bonhomme, like his bishop, thought monarchist and anti-republican, but he managed to save the school and even found a second school in Prayssac in 1831 .

The founder of the order

In 1832 Bonhomme founded the girls' community of Marienkinder ( Enfants de Marie ) in Gramat , whose members imposed a strict rule of life and felt that they were the Catholic elite. When he was appointed pastor of one of the two churches in Gramat in the same year and wanted to build a hospital, he failed with this project, but he was satisfied to see another of his projects grow out of it, the founding of a women's order. In 1833 he gathered the Marian children intended for the hospital, above all Hortense Pradel (later order name: Thérèse ), also Cora Rousset ( Marie ), Adèle Pradel ( Vincent ) and Mathilde Rousset ( Marie de la Croix ), to found a new order (the Sisters of Our Lady of Calvary) in the service of the destitute sick and for the Christian education of girls. After an apprenticeship in various monasteries in Cahors, Bishop D'Hautpoul approved the statutes drawn up by Bonhomme in February 1834. The sisters were able to settle in Gramat, where they were dressed on October 15, 1835. Bonhomme immediately began building a monastery for the community, which had now grown to eleven sisters.

Reorientation

In 1836 he accompanied two sisters to Paris to train with the Sisters of 1821 by Jean-Baptiste Rauzan (1757-1847) Congregation of the Holy founded Klothilde ( Soeurs de Sainte-Clothilde ) and stayed there for two months. Then he retired to the Trappist Abbey of La Trappe for a retreat. There he longed for the monastery life as a Discalced Carmelite , but also for the apostolate as a preacher of the Inner Mission . He withdrew from the school administration, resigned from his pastoral position in 1837 and concentrated (after a trip to Rome to join the Carmelites had failed) on the two main activities of congregational leadership and missionary work for the Quercy .

Development of the Congregation during Bonhomme's lifetime

With Marie-Hélène de Josselin (1810–1890) as superior, the monastery should develop successfully. Early on, there were further foundations, 42 during the founder's lifetime, namely in Gramat and the surrounding area (12), in the area of ​​Cahors (7), in the area of ​​Montauban (5), along the Dordogne (5) and in and around Paris ( 6).

The mission preacher

In imitation of his model Jacques Bridaine (1701–1767), Bonhomme preached 60 missions lasting several weeks from 1837 to 1847, with which he was very successful with the people because he was a gifted preacher and spoke to his audience in his native dialect. He was so exhausted that he finally lost his voice and fell silent at the age of 45.

Care of the deaf and mute

From 1852 Bonhomme started another project, the special turn of his congregation towards the deaf and mute, based on the model of Gabriel Deshayes (1767–1841). He had sisters trained and opened several houses for deaf and dumb girls, as well as for other disabled people.

Last years and death

From 1859 Bonhomme lost his strength. In 1860 he succeeded in printing the rules of the order. But in addition to physical decline, there were also quarrels with Bishop Jean-Jacques-David Bardou (1842–1863), who thought completely different politically than Bonhomme and D'Hautpoul. After walking the 10 km from Rocamadour to Gramat, he died of a stroke in September 1861.

Development of the Congregation after Bonhomme's death

The Sisters of Notre-Dame de Calvary reached Brazil in 1906, Argentina in 1907, Ivory Coast in 1959, Guinea in 1990, the Philippines in 1999, Burkina Faso in 2007 and Vietnam in 2009.

beatification

In 1987 Bonhomme was recognized as a Venerable Servant of God and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Rome on March 23, 2003. Bishop Maurice Gaidon of Cahors was present.

Foundations during Bonhomme's lifetime (chronological)

literature

  • Pierre-Bernard Mongrelet (1830–1905): Vie de l'abbé Pierre Bonhomme, fondateur de la congrégation des Soeurs de Notre-Dame du Calvaire à Gramat (Lot), 1803-1861 . Paris 1892. (online)
    • (Portuguese) Padre Pierre Bonhomme. Sua Vida. Sua História . Loyola, São Paulo 2015.
  • Gaëtan Bernoville (1889–1960): Un prêtre de chez nous. Pierre Bonhomme, fondateur de la Congrégation des religieuses de Notre Dame du Calvaire . Bernard Grasset, Paris 1953.
  • Maria Winowska (1904–1993): Bâti sur pierre. Pierre Bonhomme, 1803–1861 . Xavier Mappus, Le Puy 1962.
  • Agnès Richomme (1906-2001): Pierre Bonhomme et les Soeurs de Notre-Dame du Calvaire . 1962,1990 (comic)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bonhomme, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Roman Catholic clergyman and founder of an order; Blessed
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Gramat
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1861
Place of death Gramat