History
Les Feuillants Abbey, the Cistercian abbey near Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) from which the order took its name, was founded in 1145. It passed into the hands of commendatory abbots in 1493, and in that way came in 1562 to Jean de la Barrière (1544-1600). After his nomination he went to Paris to continue his studies, and then began his lifelong friendship with Arnaud d'Ossat, later cardinal. In 1573 Barrière, having decided to introduce a reform into his abbey, became a novice there himself, and after obtaining the necessary dispensations, made his solemn profession and was ordained priest, some time after 8 May 1573.
His was not an easy task. The twelve monks at Les Feuillants, despite the example and exhortations of their abbot, refused to accept the reform, which they disliked so greatly that they tried to poison him. Their resistance, however, was futile. In 1577 Barrière received the abbatial benediction, re-stated his intention of reforming his monastery, and made the members of the community understand that they had either to accept the reform or leave the abbey; most chose to do the latter and dispersed to various other Cistercian houses, leaving a community of five persons: two professed clerics, two novices, and Barrière himself.
The reform that caused such strong feeling consisted of an ascetic interpretation of the Cistercian rule in its most rigid sense and in many ways exceeded even that.
- The Feuillants renounced the use of wine, fish, eggs, butter, salt, and all seasoning. Their nourishment consisted of barley bread, herbs cooked in water, and oatmeal.
- Tables were abolished; they ate on the floor kneeling.
- They kept the plain white Cistercian habit, but remained bare-headed and barefoot in the monastery.
- They slept on the ground or on bare planks, with a stone for a pillow, and slept for only four hours.
In addition, silence and manual labour were prized. Despite, or perhaps because of, this austere regime, the community grew with the admission of fervent postulants.
In 1581 Barrière received from Pope Gregory XIII a brief of commendation and in 1589 one of confirmation, which established the Feuillants as a congregation separate from the Cistercian order, the abbots and general chapters of which mostly opposed it fiercely. Their opposition did not prevent the reform from flourishing.
In 1587 Pope Sixtus V called the Feuillants to Rome, where he gave them the Church of Santa Pudentiana. In the same year, King Henry III of France built for them the monastery of St. Bernard, more commonly known as the Convent of the Feuillants (Saint-Bernard-de-la-Pénitence or the Couvent des Feuillants), with its church, the Église des Feuillants, in the Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris. In 1590, however, the religious wars brought dissension: while Barrière remained loyal to Henry III, the majority of his religious declared for the Catholic League, in which they were extremely active: Bernard de Montgaillard, known as the "Petit Feuillant", particularly stood out by the vehemence of his sermons. Once the troubles were over, the Feuillants nevertheless enjoyed the favour of the new King, Henry IV, whom they had previously opposed.
Barrière however had been condemned in 1592 as a traitor to the Catholic cause, deposed, and reduced to lay communion. Only in 1600, through the efforts of Cardinal Bellarmine, was he exonerated and reinstated, but he died early in the same year in the arms of his friend Cardinal d'Ossat.
Monks such as Dom Sans de Sainte-Catherine and Dom Eustache de Saint-Paul became notable as great spiritual directors during what Brémond has called l'invasion mystique ("the mystical invasion"). [1]
In 1595 Pope Clement VIII exempted the reform from all jurisdiction on the part of Cistercian abbots, and allowed the Feuillants to draw up new constitutions, containing some relaxations of the initial austerities. These were approved the same year.
In 1598 the Feuillants took possession of a second monastery in Rome, San Bernardo alle Terme. In 1630 Pope Urban VIII divided the congregation into two entirely separate branches: one in France, under the title of the Congregation of Notre-Dame des Feuillants; and one in Italy, under the name of Bernardoni or Reformed Bernardines. In 1634 the Feuillants of France, and in 1667 the Bernardines of Italy, further modified the constitutions of 1595.
During the French Revolution, in 1791, when the Feuillants were suppressed along with the other religious orders of France, the congregation had twenty-four abbeys in France, but not more than 162 members. The Reformed Bernardines of Italy eventually rejoined the Cistercian order.
The order also had women religious, known as the Feuillantines, established in 1588 and abolished in 1791, who had only two houses, one founded at Montesquieu-Volvestre in 1588 and later moved to Toulouse, and the other founded in Paris in 1622 in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. [2]
The Constituante of 1789-1791 took the former monastic premises in Paris for its offices. The buildings were also used for their meetings by, and gave their name to, the conservative Club des Feuillants, a political club (1791-1792) which united moderates and constitutional monarchists. From 10 to 12 August 1792 the former monastery accommodated Louis XVI and his family.
Feuillant and its plural Feuillants, a French word derived ultimately from the Latin for "leaf", can refer to the following:
San Bernardo alle Terme is a Baroque style, Catholic abbatial church located on Via Torino 94 in the rione Castro Pretorio of Rome, Italy. It is owned by the Benedictines.
The Abbey of Notre-Dame des Neiges or Our Lady of the Snows is a Cistercian monastery in the Ardèche département of south-central France. The former Trappist monastery has been resettled by Cistercian nuns in 2022. The abbey was built in 1850, located on the territory of the commune of Saint-Laurent-les-Bains, about one and a half miles east of the village of La Bastide-Puylaurent (Lozère).
Pontigny Abbey, the church of which in recent decades has also been the cathedral of the Mission de France, otherwise the Territorial Prelature of Pontigny, was a Cistercian monastery located in Pontigny on the River Serein, in the present diocese of Sens and department of Yonne, Burgundy, France. Founded in 1114, it was the second of the four great daughter houses of Cîteaux Abbey. It was suppressed in 1791 in the French Revolution and destroyed except for the church. In 1843 it was re-founded as a community of the Fathers of St. Edmund. In 1909 it passed into private ownership. In 1941 it became the mother house of the Mission de France, a territorial prelature.
Sept-Fons Abbey, Notre-Dame de Sept-Fons or Notre-Dame de Saint-Lieu Sept-Fons is a Trappist monastery at Diou in Bourbonnais in the diocese of Moulins in France. Around ninety monks currently live in the monastery, many of whom are novices sent from monasteries around the world.
Micy Abbey or the Abbey of Saint-Mesmin, Micy, sometimes referred to as Micy, was a Benedictine abbey near Orléans at the confluence of the Loire and the Loiret, located on the territory of the present commune of Saint-Pryvé-Saint-Mesmin. Since 1939 it has hosted a community of Carmelites.
Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order of the Catholic Church.
Jean Baptiste de la Barrière was the founder of the reformed Cistercian order, the Feuillants. During his life he became a spiritual adviser to King Henry III of France. During 1587 Henry III built a monastery for the Feuillants to commemorate his friendship with Jean.
La Trappe Abbey, also known as La Grande Trappe, is a monastery in Soligny-la-Trappe, Orne, France. It is known for being the house of origin of the Trappists, to whom it gave its name.
Gerald of Sales was a French monastic reformer from Salles, Lot-et-Garonne near Bergerac, Dordogne in the south-west of France. His feast day is on April 20.
Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in northern France (Île-de-France), situated in Cernay-la-Ville, in the Diocese of Versailles, Yvelines. The abbey was abandoned during the French Revolution and fell into partial ruin. Most of the buildings, except for the church, were restored in the late 19th century by Charlotte de Rothschild, and the property is now a hotel.
The Abbey of Saint Genevieve was a monastery in Paris. Reportedly built by Clovis, King of the Franks in 502, it became a centre of religious scholarship in the Middle Ages. It was suppressed at the time of the French Revolution.
Melleray Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, founded about the year 1134. It was situated in La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne in the vicinity of Châteaubriant in Brittany, in the present Loire-Atlantique, France, and in the Diocese of Nantes. Between 1817 and 2016 it was a house of Trappist monks. Since 2016 it has been used by the Chemin Neuf Community.
Soleilmont Abbey is an abbey of Trappistine nuns situated in the forest and commune of Fleurus, at Gilly near Charleroi, Belgium, founded, according to tradition, in the 11th century, which became Cistercian in 1237. The nuns were expelled as a consequence of the French Revolution in 1796, but soon re-established themselves in 1802. The community became Bernardine in 1837, and Trappist in 1919.
Valvisciolo Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the province of Latina, central Italy, near the towns of Sermoneta and Ninfa.
Les Feuillants Abbey, also Feuillant Abbey, was a Cistercian monastery located in the present commune of Labastide-Clermont, about 8 kilometres south of Rieumes, department of Haute-Garonne, France. From the 16th century it was the centre of the Cistercian reform movement to which it gave its name, the Feuillants.
The royal monastery of Saint-Bernard, better known as the Couvent des Feuillants or Les Feuillants Convent, was a Feuillant nunnery or convent in Paris, behind what is now numbers 229—235 rue Saint-Honoré, near its corner with rue de Castiglione. It was founded in 1587 by Henry III of France. Its church was completed in 1608 and dedicated to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Lyre Abbey was a monastery in Normandy, founded in 1046 at what is now the village of La Vieille-Lyre. From the mid-12th century it was a Benedictine house. It was abolished at the French Revolution and the abbey buildings mostly destroyed.
