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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Prosper Louis Pascal Gueranger</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07058a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Benedictine and polygraph; b. 4 April, 1805, at Sable-sur-Sarthe; d. at Solesmes, 30 January, 1875"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="07058a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/g.htm">G</a> > Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p><a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> and polygraph; b. 4 April, 1805, at Sablé-sur-Sarthe; d. at <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>, 30 January, 1875.</p> <p><a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">Ordained</a> a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> 7 October, 1827, he was administrator of the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> of the <em>Missions Etrangères</em> until near the close of 1830. He then left <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> and returned to <a href="../cathen/09143b.htm">Mans</a>, where he began to publish various historical works, such as "De la prière pour le Roi" (Oct., 1830) and "De l'élection et de la nomination des évêques" (1831), their subject being inspired by the political and religious situation of the day. In 1831 the <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>, which was about an hour's journey from Sablé, was put up for sale and Père Guéranger now saw a means of realizing his desire to re-establish, in this <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious life</a> under the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>. His decision was made in June, 1831, and, in December, 1832, thanks to private donations, the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> had become his <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/09143b.htm">Mans</a> now sanctioned the Constitutions by which the new <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> was to be organized and fitted subsequently to enter the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine Order</a>. On 11 July, 1833, five <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> came together in the restored <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> at <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>, and on 15 August, 1836, publicly declared their intention of consecrating their lives to the re-establishment of the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Order of St. Benedict</a>. In a brief issued 1 September, 1837, <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Pope Gregory</a> erected the former <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> into an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> and constituted it head of the "Congrégation Française de l'Ordre de Saint Benoît". Dom Guéranger was appointed <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> (Oct. 31) and Superior General of the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a> of the "Congrégationde France", and those of the little <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> who had received the habit 15 August, 1836, made their solemn profession under the direction of the new <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, who had pronounced his <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a> at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, 26 July, 1837.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Thenceforth Dom Guéranger's life was given up to developing the young monastic community, to procuring for it the <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> material and indispensable resources, and to inspiring it with an absolute devotion to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">Pope</a>. Amongst those who came to <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>, either to follow the monastic life or to seek self-improvement by means of retreats, Dom Guéranger found many collaborators and valuable steadfast friends. <a href="../cathen/12119b.htm">Dom Pitra</a>, afterwards <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">Cardinal</a>, renewed the great literary traditions of the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a> of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Bishops <a href="../cathen/12076a.htm">Pie</a> of <a href="../cathen/12178c.htm">Poitiers</a> and Berthaud of <a href="../cathen/15086c.htm">Tulle</a>, <a href="../cathen/08733a.htm">Père Lacordaire</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10513b.htm">Count de Montalembert</a> and <a href="../cathen/15394b.htm">Louis Veuillot</a>, were all interested in the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot's</a> projects and even shared his labours. Unfortunately the controversy occasioned by several of Dom Guéranger's writings had the effect of drawing his attention to secondary questions and turning it away from the great enterprises of <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>, in which he always manifested a lively concern. The result was a work in which polemics figured prominently, and which at present evokes but mediocre interest, and, although the time spent upon it was by no means lost to the cause of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, Dom Guéranger's historical and <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> pursuits suffered in consequence. He devoted himself too largely to personal impressions and neglected detailed and persevering investigation. His quickness of perception and his classical training permitted him to enjoy and to set forth, treat in an interesting way, historical and <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> subjects which, by nature, were somewhat unattractive. Genuine enthusiasm, a lively <a href="../cathen/07672a.htm">imagination</a>, and a style tinged with romanticism have sometimes led him, as he himself realized, to express himself and to judge too vigorously.</p> <p>Being a devout and ardent servant of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, Dom Guéranger wished to re-establish more respectful and more filial relations between <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">See of Rome</a>, and his entire life was spent in endeavouring to effect a closer union between the two. With this end in view he set himself to combat, wherever he thought he found its traces, the separatist spirit that had, of old, allied itself with Gallicanism and <a href="../cathen/08285a.htm">Jansenism</a>. With a strategic skill which deserves special recognition, Dom Guéranger worked on the principle that to suppress what is wrong, the thing must be replaced, and he laboured hard to supplant everywhere whatever reflected the opinion he was fighting. He fought to have the Roman liturgy substituted for the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgies</a>, and he lived to see his efforts in this line <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> with complete success. On <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophical</a> ground, he struggled with unwavering hope against <a href="../cathen/10713a.htm">Naturalism</a> and <a href="../cathen/09212a.htm">Liberalism</a>, which he considered a fatal impediment to the constitution of an unreservedly <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>. He helped, in a measure, to prepare men's minds for the definition of the <a href="../cathen/07790a.htm#IIIB">papal infallibility</a>, that brilliant triumph which succeeded the struggle against <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> authority so bitterly carried on a century previously by many Gallican and Josephite <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. Along historical lines Dom Guéranger's enterprises were less successful and their influence, although once very strong, is daily growing weaker.</p> <p>In 1841 he began to publish a mystical work by which he hoped to arouse the faithful from their spiritual torpor and to supplant what he deemed the lifeless or <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">erroneous</a> literature that had been produced by the French spiritual writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. "L'Année liturgique", of which the author was not to finish the long series of fifteen volumes, is probably the one of all Dom Guéranger's works that best fulfilled the purpose he had in view. Accommodating himself to the development of the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> periods of the year, the author laboured to familiarize the faithful with the official <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> by lavishly introducing fragments of the Eastern and Western <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgies</a>, with interpretations and commentaries.</p> <p>Amid his many labours Dom Guéranger had the satisfaction of witnessing the spreading of the restored <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine Order</a>. Two unsuccessful attempts at foundations in <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> and Acey respectively did not deter him from new efforts in the same line, and, thanks to his <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zealous</a> perseverance, <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> were established at <a href="../cathen/09247a.htm">Ligugé</a> and <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a>. Moreover, in his last years, the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a> founded, at a short distance from his <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, a community of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> under the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a>. This life, fraught with so many trials and filled with such great achievements, drew to a peaceful close at <a href="../cathen/14133b.htm">Solesmes</a>.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">The complete bibliography is to be found in 126 numbers in CABROL, Bibliographie des Benedictins (Solesmes, 1889), 3-33. We shall only mention here the most important works: Origines de l'Église romaine (Paris, 1836); Institutions liturgiques (Paris, I, 1840, II, 1841, III, 1851), 2nd edition, 4 vols. 8vo (Paris, 1878-1885); Lettre a Mgr. l'archeveque de Reims sur le droit de la liturgie (Le Mans, 1843); Defense des Institutions liturgiques, lettre a Mgr. l'archeveque de Toulouse (Le Mans, 1844); Nouvelle defense des Institutions liturgiques (Paris, 1846-47); L'Annee liturgique (Paris, 1841-1901, tr. SHEPHARD, Worcester, 1895-1903); Mémoire sur la question de l'Immaculee Conception de la tres sainte Vierge (Paris, 1850); Essais sur le naturalisme contemporain, 8vo (Paris, 1858); Essai sur l'origine, la signification et les privileges de la medaille ou croix de Saint Benoit, 12mo (Poitiers, 1862); L'Église romaine contre les accusations du P. Gratry (Le Mans, 1870); Deuxieme defense (Paris, 1870); Troisieme defense, Eng. tr., Defence of the Roman Church against Father Gratry, by WOODS (London, 1870); De la Monarchie pontificale, a propos du livre de Mgr. l'eveque de Sura, 8vo (Paris, 1870); Sainte Cecile et la Societe romaine aux deux premiers siecles, 4to (Paris, 1874), and Reglements du noviciat pour les Benedictins de la Congregation de France, 16mo (Solesmes, 1885).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Leclercq, H.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07058a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Leclercq, Henri.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 7.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07058a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook.</span> <span id="dedication">Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus per Iesum Christum.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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