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Hélène Monastier (2 December 1882 – 7 March 1976) was a Swiss peace activist and teacher in
Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
.


Life

Hélène-Sophie Monastier was born in
Payerne Payerne (; ) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the district of Payerne, and is now part of the district of Broye-Vully. The German name ''Peterlingen'' for the town is out of use. History The earliest traces of ...
. Daughter of Charles Louis, Protestant pastor and librarian, and Marie Louise Gonin. She had a brother, Louis, who was twelve years older. She lived her entire life with a paralyzed leg as a result of the
polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...
myelitis contracted at the age of two years. Her parents attitude facilitated her childhood, but she suffered from the consequences of the disease in his adolescence. At the age of 27 she tried an operation but without obtaining noticeable improvements. However, her friend
Samuel Gagnebin Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition ...
gifted her excerpts of ''Prière pour demander à Dieu le bon usage des maladies'' by from
Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...
, and she was transformed. Since this moment she considered herself "cured". Monastier did her studies in Payerne and Lausanne, and stays in Great Britain and Germany; where she trained as a teacher and she also discovered the living conditions of workers, unemployment, class struggle and
socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
. She was a teacher of French, History and Geography for 40 years, from 1904 until 1943, at the private school ''École Vinet'' in Lausanne. Monastier organized the first camp for grammar school girls in 1909, bringing together pupils from Lausanne, Geneva and Neuchâtel. This was the forerunner of the "Camp d’éducatrices de Vaumarcus", a center for meetings, training and vacations for Christian Unions of young people, in which she participated every year up until 1962. In 1911, she joined the
Christian Socialist A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...
movement and helped working class youth at the ''Maison du Peuple'' (‘People’s House’) in Lausanne. In 1920, she was involved in founding the Christian-Social Movement in French-speaking Switzerland. Her first meeting with the Service Civil International (SCI) founder,
Pierre Cérésole Pierre Cérésole or Ceresole (17 August 1879 – 23 October 1945) was a Swiss pacifist, remembered for founding the peace organisation Service Civil International (SCI) and the international workcamp movement. Life Cérésole was born in ...
, took place in 1917 in a public meeting. where he announced his refusal to pay military taxes. They initiated a friendship and she started getting involved in his peace activism. Monastier supported the organization in its early period and helped Pierre Ceresole to network internationally. She also took part in several SCI workcamps. In Les Ormonts in the alpine area of canton
Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
, from 7 to 28 August 1924, she participated with a dozen committed male and female pacifists in the first voluntary work camp organized by
Pierre Cérésole Pierre Cérésole or Ceresole (17 August 1879 – 23 October 1945) was a Swiss pacifist, remembered for founding the peace organisation Service Civil International (SCI) and the international workcamp movement. Life Cérésole was born in ...
in Switzerland, offering help, supplies, accommodation and tools in the village, where a winter avalanche covered a house and its grounds with rocks, mud and tree-trunks. Through Pierre Cérésole she got acquainted with the
Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...
. She spent time at the
Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre was a Quaker college and conference facility in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England. The only Quaker Study Centre in Europe, it was founded by George Cadbury in 1903 and occupied one of his former properties on Bristo ...
in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and joined the Quakers in 1930. She was the first "
clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...
" of the Swiss branch, founded the annual meeting of Quakers in Switzerland as well as the magazine ''Entre Amis''. From 1946 to 1952, she was the first International President of SCI. After Cérésole’s death, she published his biography and several of his papers. In 1955, she was involved in the founding of the foreign aid organisation Helvetas (now Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation) together with Rodolfo Olgiati and others. She died in Lausanne in 1976.


Personality

Hélène Monastier is described as a born educator, "having the gift of bringing out of each of her students the best, through her respect for the personality of children", her love and her severity. "With the brain of a CEO, she had all the assets: great clarity of thought, rapidity of decision, innate sense of organization, good pen and a lot of humor


Tribute

On October 3, 2003 a commemorative plaque in her honor was placed in Lausanne (Pré-du-Marché 17).

img title="Monastier Helene 1970"; style="text-decoration: none; height:150px;float: left; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Monastier_Helene_1970.jpg" >


Publications

* Hélène Monastier, ''Pierre Ceresole, un quaker d'aujourd'hui''. Paris, 1947. * Hélène Monastier, Edmond Privat, Lise Ceresole, Samuel Gagnebin, ''Pierre Ceresole d'après sa correspondance''. Neuchâtel, 1960. * ''Textes de Hélène Monastier et Pierre Ceresole et de Arnold Bolle'', Lausanne, Alonso Diez, 1954.


References


External links

* (French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Monastier, Helene 1882 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Quakers Female Christian socialists Quaker socialists Swiss anti-war activists Swiss Christian pacifists Swiss Quakers Swiss women activists