Catholic congregations in France are institutions, approved by bishops or popes, which have been created over time in response to the needs or crises of the Church, and are an illustration of the Church's evolution. Novices, aspiring to religious life, become monks by making a lifelong commitment to the three Vows of obedience, chastity and poverty.
Monks, nuns and religious people live in a community whose life is organized by a rule. This is why they are considered, in a broad and somewhat inaccurate sense, to form the regular clergy. However, nuns are not canonically part of the clergy, and strictly speaking, monks who have not received holy orders are lay people.
The beginnings: 5th–9th centuries From the earliest days of Christianity, asceticism was a form of self-giving, and monastic communities were established as early as the 2nd century. Pachomius the Great is considered the father of cenobitism or community life, generally contrasted with eremitism or anachoresis. Pachomius believed that solitude was dangerous, as it could lead to despair.
As early as 360, Martin of Tours founded the Abbey of St. Martin of Ligugé near Poitiers. At the beginning of the 5th century, John Cassian founded Abbey of Saint-Victor and Abbey of Lérins. In Gaul in the 5th century, the monk Columbanus de Bangor, a missionary from Ireland, reformed numerous monasteries at the request of the Merovingian king Guntram and founded, among others, the monastery of Luxeuil. On this occasion, he wrote the severe Rule of Saint Columbanus, which emphasizes penance and mortification. This rule was adopted by the vast majority of monasteries in Gaul.
The rise of Benedictine monasticism
When Benedict of Nursia founded a monastery on Monte Cassino around 529, the Rule of Life he drew up around 540 became widely known throughout Europe. St. Benedict's motto was Pax, "peace". It has remained the motto of the Benedictine order. Under the impetus of Charlemagne, who asked the Abbot of Mont Cassino for a copy of St. Benedict's rule, and his son Louis the Pious, the Carolingian emperors turned to St. Benedict of Aniane, who wrote the , commenting on the rule of St. Benedict of Nursia and referring to those of Basil, Paschomius and Columban. In 817, Louis the Pious imposed the Rule of St. Benedict on all monasteries in the empire with the capitulaire monasticum, prepared by Benedict of Aniane.
Ora et labora (pray and work), are the two activities of the monk. In the scriptorium, they recopy ancient manuscripts, both religious and secular. Monks were at the heart of the Carolingian renaissance. Alcuin, abbot of Saint-Martin de Tours, was Charlemagne's most sought-after advisor. Hincmar, monk of Saint-Denis and later archbishop of Reims, was the great theologian, and a staunch defender of orthodoxy against Scot Erigene. He had Pope Nicholas I condemn his opinions on Eucharistic symbolism, which led to the denial of the Real Presence.
The Ordo monachorum In Carolingian society, monks constituted a social group (ordo) with a function (officium, ministerium). Monasteries were centers of culture and education: schools were opened there. Some parents placed their children as oblates at an early age; the most famous example is Hincmar, who entered Saint-Denis as a child. The abbeys owned considerable property, and most of the monks worked in the fields, which enabled them to provide for the needs of the poor and passing pilgrims. The Redon Cartulary and Irminon's polyptych for Saint-Germain-des-Prés list their possessions. The domain of the latter covered 33,000 ha. These possessions came from donations made to the abbeys, as the monks' essential function was to be intercessors, through their prayers, who opened the gates of Heaven.
The nuns were forced to respect the enclosure, and the abbesses could only travel with the permission of the bishop. The bishop of Metz, Chrodegang, gave his canons a rule that was a compromise between communal life and pastoral missions.
The Norman, Hungarian, and Saracen invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries largely ruined these efforts. At the beginning of the 9th century, the founding of the Abbey of Cluny is, for historians, the harbinger of the so-called Gregorian reform. Faced with the disintegration of royal power and Carolingian institutions in West Francia, Cluny sought to escape the dubious authority of simoniac bishops. It benefited from the pontifical privilege of exemption, which freed it from the power of the local bishop and placed it directly under the authority of Rome. In 991, at the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy, convened to judge the Archbishop of Rheims, she and Abbon of Fleury supported the Pope's exclusive jurisdiction over Gerbert d'Aurillac, who favored the jurisdiction of the Council of the Gauls in the case of a peer.
Renewal at the start of the second millennium In search of a mainly contemplative life, Bruno of Cologne withdrew with a few companions to the northern pre-Alps in 1084, where he founded the Carthusian Order.
In 1098, reacting against the opulence of certain monasteries, a group of Benedictines founded the Abbey of Cîteaux. Bernard of Clairvaux played a key role in the birth of the Cistercian Order, and in his desire to respect the spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, his reform reintroduced manual labor and strict poverty. This led to the birth of the Grandmontines, Premonstratensians, Gilbertins, Congregation of Savigny and many others.
This need for reform also led to the creation of Mendicant orders, notably the Franciscans around 1210 and the Dominicans around 1215, who chose a life of poverty and preaching; they set up their convents in the heart of towns to be close to the faithful. Personalities of this new type of conventual life even found their way into universities (Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure). Thanks to these Mendicant orders, many Christians remained faithful to the Church.
Reforms from the 16th century onwards
Before the Council of Trent In 1517, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin emerged from the Franciscan order, further emphasizing the latter's ideal of poverty.
At the same time, in Rome in 1524, Saint Cajetan de Thiene and Mgr Pietro Carafa, later Pope Paul IV, founded an order of regular clerics: the Theatines.
Little by little, congregations sprang up, specializing in specific activities.
In 1530 in Milan, Anthony Zaccaria founded the Order of Clerics Regular of St. Paul, otherwise known as the Barnabites, for instruction. The Somaschi Fathers, founded in 1532 in Somasca, northern Italy by St. Gerolamo Emiliani, dedicated to caring for the sick and educating orphans. St. John of God, in 1537 in Granada, laid the foundations of the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of St. John of God, for the care of the poor and sick. In 1540 Ignatius of Loyola created the Society of Jesuits, a new order of regular clerics, whose main activities were missionary work and teaching. Women's congregations were also founded, including the Ursulines, the first female teaching order, in 1535 under the impetus of Saint Angela Merici.
Foundations and reforms following the Council of Trent
Reformed congregations Saint Teresa of Avila reformed the female Carmelite order in 1562, followed by Saint John of the Cross, who in 1568 reformed the male branch of Carmel, developing the order of Discalced Carmelites.
The Benedictine order was reformed by the Congregation of Saint-Vanne et Saint-Hydulphe in 1604, then by the Congregation of Saint-Maur in 1621.
Abbé Armand de Rancé joined the Cistercians in 1664 at the La Trappe Abbey.
Foundations In 1575, in Rome, Saint Philip Neri created the Confederation of Oratories of Saint Philip Neri, an apostolic society of priests dedicated to education and preaching.
The Camillians, founded in 1584, dedicated to caring for the sick.
The Piarist Order, founded in Rome in 1597 by St. Joseph Calasanz to teach poor children.
Female teaching congregations experienced unprecedented vitality in the 17th century. In Lorraine, Pierre Fourier and Alix Le Clerc founded the congregation of the , and in Bordeaux, Jeanne de Lestonnac founded the Compagnie de Marie Notre-Dame. In Lyon, Charles Démia establishes the . Nicolas Barré founded the in Rouen. The (founded by Canon Roland in Reims), the and the (in Le Puy), the (in Mayenne), the (in Nevers), the , the (in Rouen), the (in Nantes) and de Saint-Paul (in Tréguier) were also founded.
In 1610, in Annecy, France, Saint François de Sales and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, a women's order combining contemplative life and education.
In 1611, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle founded the Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus and Mary Immaculate in Paris, with the same aim as the oratorians of Saint Philip Neri.
The Congregation of the Mission (Lazaristes) was founded in Paris in 1625 by Saint Vincent de Paul. Together with Saint Louise de Marillac, he was also behind the founding of the Daughters of Charity in Paris in 1633, dedicated to serving the sick and poor.
In 1641, Jean-Jacques Olier founded the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice in Paris, in response to the need for priestly training and the creation of seminaries prescribed by the Council.
In the same spirit, Saint John Eudes, a few years later, in 1643 in Caen, founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, otherwise known as the Eudists.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle, from 1680 in Reims, wanted to provide education for the poor, and laid the foundations for what was to become the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
The expulsion of the Jesuits The Jesuits were attacked by Jansenists, Gallicists and parliamentarians, and later by philosophical atheists. They were banned from France in 1763-4, and their two hundred colleges closed.
The suppression of congregations during the French Revolution The Constituent assembly, by decree of 2 November 1789, placed the property of the Church, including that of the congregations, at the disposal of the Nation. The decree of 13 February 1790 prohibited monastic vows and abolished regular religious orders. The decree concerned 100,000 clergy not attached to a parish, i.e. two-thirds of the clergy considered not "useful". The criteria for "usefulness" were the sacraments and the care of souls, teaching, caring for the sick and infirm, and helping the destitute.
With the decree of 18 August 1792, the Legislative Assembly abolished secular congregations, mainly for teaching and hospital work.
From the Consulate to the Second Empire The Consulate, in the organic articles appended to the 1801 Concordat, confirmed the abolition of all ecclesiastical establishments (except cathedral chapters and seminaries).
The decree of 3 Messidor An XII opened up the possibility of congregation formation, subject to formal authorization by imperial decree.
Article 109 of the imperial decree of 17 March 1808 organizing the University recognized the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
The decree of 18 February 1809 allowed the reconstitution of women's hospital congregations simply by approving their statutes, as their prohibition had caused too many difficulties in caring for the sick.
After the Napoleonic Wars, the political climate had changed. The monarchs who had expelled the Jesuits were no longer in power, and Pope Pius VII proceeded with the universal restoration of the Society by promulgating the decree Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum on 7 August 1814.
The law of 2 January 1817 required congregations to be recognized by statute to acquire real estate and annuities, and to receive gifts and legacies.