The Congregation of St. Maur, often known as the Maurists, were a congregation of French Benedictines, established in 1621, and known for their high level of scholarship. The congregation and its members were named after

Saint Maurus Maurus (french: Maur; it, Mauro) was the first disciple of Benedict of Nursia (512–584). He is mentioned in Gregory the Great's biography of the latter as the first oblate, offered to the monastery by his noble Roman parents as a young bo ...

(died 565), a disciple of Saint Benedict credited with introducing the

Benedictine rule The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

and life into

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

. The congregation was suppressed and its superior-general executed during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

History

At the end of the 16th century the Benedictine monasteries of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

had fallen into a state of disorganization and laxity. In the Abbey of St. Vanne near

Verdun Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...

a reform was initiated by Dom Didier de la Cour, which spread to other houses in

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

, and in 1604 the reformed Congregation of St. Vanne was established, the most distinguished members of which were Ceillier and Calmet. A number of French houses joined the new congregation; but as Lorraine was still independent of the French crown, it was considered desirable to form on the same lines a separate congregation for France. At the suggestion of Laurent Bénard in 1621 thus was established the famous French Congregation of St. Maur. Most of the Benedictine monasteries of France, except those belonging to

Cluny Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon. The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...

, gradually joined the new congregation, which eventually embraced nearly two hundred houses. The chief house was

Saint-Germain-des-Prés Saint-Germain-des-Prés () is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the no ...

, Paris, the residence of the superior-general and center of the literary activity of the congregation. The primary idea of the movement was not the undertaking of literary and historical work, but the return to a strict monastic régime and the faithful carrying out of Benedictine life; and throughout the most glorious period of Maurist history the literary work was not allowed to interfere with the due performance of the choral office and the other duties of the monastic life. Towards the end of the 18th century a tendency crept in, in some quarters, to relax the monastic observances in favor of study; but the constitutions of 1770 show that a strict monastic régime was maintained until the end. The course of Maurist history and work was checkered by the ecclesiastical controversies that distracted the French Church during the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of the members identified themselves with the

Jansenist Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...

cause; but the bulk, including nearly all the greatest names, pursued a middle path, opposing the lax moral theology condemned in 1679 by Pope Innocent XI, and adhering to those strong views on grace and

predestination Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...

associated with the Augustinian and

Thomist Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions a ...

schools of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

theology; and like all the theological faculties and schools on French soil, they were bound to teach the four

Gallican articles Gallicanism is the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or the state's authority—over the Catholic Church is comparable to that of the Pope. Gallicanism is a rejection of ultramontanism; it has som ...

. Towards the end of the 18th century a rationalistic and freethinking spirit seems to have invaded some of the houses. The congregation (along with all Catholic religious orders) was suppressed in 1790 during the

French revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, and the monks were scattered. The last superior general of the order (

Ambroise Chevreux Ambroise Chevreux (13 February 1728, in Orléans – 2 September 1792, in Paris) was a French Benedictine. He was the last superior general of the Congregation of Saint Maur The Congregation of St. Maur, often known as the Maurists, were a congr ...

) and forty monks died on the scaffold in Paris in 1792, during the

September Massacres The September Massacres were a series of killings of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by '' fédérés'', gu ...

Works

Their historical and critical school produced a number of works of scholarship which still are of permanent value. The foundations of this school were laid by Dom Tarisse, the first superior-general, who in 1632 issued instructions to the superiors of the monasteries to train the young monks in the habits of research and of organized work. The pioneers in production were Ménard and

Luc d'Achery Luc d'Achery (1609 – 29 April 1685) was a learned French Benedictine of the Congregation of St. Maur, a specialist in the study and publication of medieval manuscripts. Life D'Achery was born at Saint Quentin in Picardy. He entered the Or ...

. The full Maurist bibliography contains the names of some 220 writers and more than 700 works. The lesser works in large measure cover the same fields as those in the list, but the number of works of purely religious character, of piety, devotion and edification, is very striking. What was produced was only a portion of what was contemplated and prepared for. Some of their most important contributions are: * a revision of ''

Gallia Christiana The ''Gallia Christiana'', a type of work of which there have been several editions, is a documentary catalogue or list, with brief historical notices, of all the Catholic dioceses and abbeys of France from the earliest times, also of their occupan ...

'', * ''L'art de vérifier les dates'', * l

Histoire littéraire de la France ''Histoire littéraire de la France'' is an enormous history of French literature initiated in 1733 by Dom Rivet and the Benedictines of St. Maur. It was abandoned in 1763 after the publication of volume XII. In 1814, members of the Académie d ...

''. The

cut short many undertakings, the collected materials for which fill hundreds of manuscript volumes in the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris and other libraries of France. There are at Paris 31 volumes of Berthereau's materials for the ''Historians of the Crusades'', not one in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, but in the oriental tongues; from them have been taken in great measure the '' Recueil des historiens des croisade'' whereof 15 folio volumes have been published by the

Académie des Inscriptions An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

. There exist also the preparations for an edition of Rufinus and one of

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

, and for the continuation of the Papal Letters and of the ''Concilia Galliae''. Dom Cafflaux and Dom Villevielle left 236 volumes of materials for a ''Trésor généalogique''. There are ''Benedictine Antiquities'' (37 vols.) ( Claude Estiennot de la Serre), a '' Monasticon Gallicanum'' and a ''Monasticon Benedictinum'' (54 vols.) Of the ''Histories of the Provinces of France'' barely half a dozen were printed, but all were in hand, and the collections for the others fill 800 volumes of manuscripts. The materials for a geography of Gaul and France in 50 volumes perished in a fire during the Revolution. The output was prodigious, coming from a single society. The qualities that have made Maurist work proverbial for learning are its critical tact and its thoroughness.

Prominent Maurists

* Dom Jacques Alexandre (1653–1734) *

(1609–1685) * Dom Bédos de Celles (1709–1779) *

(1728–1792) * Charles Clémencet (1703–1778) *

Pierre Coustant Pierre Coustant (born at Compiègne, France, 30 April 1654; died at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, near Paris, 18 October 1721) was a French Benedictine scholar, of the Congregation of Saint-Maur. Early life After receiving his classical e ...

(1654–1721) * Maurus Dantine (1688–1746) * Léger Marie Deschamps (1716–1774) * Ursin Durand (1682–1771) * Michel Félibien (1665–1719) * Jacques Du Frische (1640–1693) * Robert Guérard (1641–1715) * Guy Alexis Lobineau (1666–1727) *

Jean Mabillon Dom Jean Mabillon, O.S.B., (; 23 November 1632 – 27 December 1707) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He is considered the founder of the disciplines of palaeography and diplomatics. Early life Mabi ...

(1632–1707) * Edmond Martène (1654–1739) * Nicolas-Hugues Ménard (1585–1644) *

Bernard de Montfaucon Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B. (; 13 January 1655 – 21 December 1741) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He was an astute scholar who founded the discipline of palaeography, as well as being an editor of works ...

(1655–1741) *

Antoine-Joseph Pernety Antoine-Joseph Pernety, known as Dom Pernety (23 February 1716 – 16 October 1796), was a French writer. At various times he was a Benedictine and librarian of Frederic the Great of Prussia. Together with the Polish Count Tadeusz Grabianka, also ...

(1716–1796) *

Thierry Ruinart Dom Thierry Ruinart (also Theodore, Theodoricus) (1657–1709) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar. He was a Maurist, and a disciple of Jean Mabillon. Of his many works, the one now cited is his ''Acta sincera'', a martyrology, written in ...

(1657–1709) * Claude Estiennot de la Serre (1639–1699) * René-Prosper Tassin (1697–1777) * Charles-François Toustain (1700–1754) * Joseph Vaissète (1685–1756)

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

The chief source of information on the Maurists and their work is Dom Tassin's ''Histoire littéraire de la Congrégation de Saint-Maur'' (1770); it has been reduced to a bare bibliography and completed by de Lama, ''Bibliothèque des écrivains de la congrégation de Saint-Maur'' (Münich and Paris, 1882). The two works of de Broglie, ''Mabillon'' (2 vols., 1888) and ''Montfaucon'' (2 vols., 1891), give a picture of the life of the great Maurists of the earlier generation. Sketches of the lives of a few of the chief Maurists will be found in McCarthy's ''Principal Writers of the Congregation of S. M.'' (1868). Useful information about their literary undertakings will be found in Léopold Delisle's ''Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impériale''; Fond's ''Saint-Germain-des-Prés''. General information will be found in the standard authorities: Helyot, ''Histoire des ordres religieux'' (1718), vi. c. 37; Heimbucher, ''Orden und Kongregationen'' (1907) i. 36; ''Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon'' (ed. 2) and Herzog-Hauck's ''Realencyklopädie'' (ed. 3), the latter an appreciation by the

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

historian Otto Zückler. {{Authority control Benedictine congregations 1621 establishments in France