Romain Banquet

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Romain Banquet (born December 5, 1840 in Dourgne , † February 25, 1929 there ) was a French Benedictine , abbot and founder of the monastery .

life and work

Monk in Pierre-Qui-Vire and Saint-Pierre-des-Canons

Louis Banquet studied theology at the Albi seminary . In 1864 he entered the Benedictine abbey Pierre-Qui-Vire and took the religious name Romain (after Romanus of Rome ). In 1867 he was ordained a priest. Because of his special ability for spiritual guidance, he was appointed novice master in 1875 . His watchword was: Internalization : “vie intérieure”, “to fill one's heart with Christ”. From 1877, Banquet led the attempt to establish a subsidiary in the former monastery of Saint-Pierre-des-Canons in Aurons near Salon-de-Provence . Expelled from the Third Republic in 1880, returned in 1883, the project finally failed in 1888.

Spiritual partnership with Marie Cronier and creation of En-Calcat

From 1874 onwards, Banquet acted as a conscience counselor for seventeen-year-old Marie Cronier , who nine years later had the inspiration to found a monastery in a mystical experience. In partnership with Banquet (after its failure in Saint-Pierre-des-Canaons), a Benedictine double monastery was founded in Banquet's hometown of Dourgne in the Tarn department in 1890 . Banquet headed the men's monastery of Saint-Benoît in the district of En Calcat and became its abbot in 1896.

Exile, war, return and death

In contrast to the women's monastery Sainte-Scholastique under Marie Cronier, the male monastery En-Calcat was abolished in 1903 by the anti-religious Third Republic . The convent evaded to Spain (first to Ribes de Freser , then to Besalú ). After the First World War , in which 33 monks were drafted into the war and ten of them died, En-Calcat was gradually repopulated. In 1923 Abbot Banquet resigned from his post due to reasons of age. He died of old age six years later. A street in Dourgne bears his name.

Works (posthumous)

  • Conseils de perfection pour une personne du monde . En-Calcat 1935.
  • Entretiens sur la vie interrieure . En-Calcat 1945.
  • Retreat monastique . Le Barroux 1986.
  • (with Marie Cronier) «Selon ta parole». Le Mémorial des fondateurs. Mémorial des origines de l'Œuvre de Dourgne. Textes autobiographiques, 1840–1896 , ed. by Bernard Billet. SODEC, Dourgne 1988.

literature

  • Denis Martin: La doctrine monastique de Dom Romain Banquet, fondateur et premier abbé d'En-Calcat . En-Calcat 1943.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Banquet, Romain
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Benedictine, abbot and monastery founder
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Dourgne
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1929
Place of death Dourgne