Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/871

 CISTERCIANS

785

CISTERCIANS

postponed that year until October, chose for his BUcceasor the Most Rev. Dora Augustin Marre, Abbot of Igny, and titular Bishop of Constance.

Condition of the Order in 1908. — Several modern congregations must be mentioned which have been grafted on the old trunk of Citeaux, and which, with some ancient monasteries that escaped the per- secution of the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, form the Common i Observance. Their mode of life corresponds to that of the Cistercians of the seventeenth century, whose mitigation was approved by Alexander VII in 1666. They are the Congregations of Italy, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland, and the Congregation of Senanque.

1. The Congregation of St. Bernard of Italy was formed in 1S20 with the monasteries which remained of the Congregations of the Roman Province and of Lombardy, after Pius VII had been deprived of his States. The congregation adopted the constitutions of the ancient Congregation of Tuscany and Lom- bardy.

2. The Congregation of Belgium, formed in 1836, at Bornheim in the Diocese of Mechlin, by the religious who were expelled in 1797 from Lieu-Saint-Bernard- sur-1'Escaut, observe constitutions based upon the Brief of Alexander VII and the Cistercian Ritual. They were approved by the Holy See in 1846.

3. The Cistercian Congregation of Austria and Hungary was formed in 1S59 by the monasteries of Austria which had escaped from the Revolution and submitted to the President General of the Order of Citeaux.

•1. The Congregation of Switzerland was formed in 1806 by the three monasteries of Hauterive, Saint-Urbam, and Wettingen, remnants of the Con- gregation of North Germany. These monasteries having succumbed in 1841 and 1846, the Abbot of Wettingen, an exile in Switzerland, purchased, in 1854, the Benedictine monastery of Mehrerau on the Lake of Bregenz, to which the Holy See trans- ferred all the privileges of Wettingen. To this mon- astery was joined that of Marienstatt in the Diocese of Cologne in Nassau.

5. The Congregation of Senanque, or the Mean Observance, owes its origin to the parish priest, Luke Barnouin, who, with some associates, in 1*49, at- tempted the religious life in the solitude of Our Lady of Calvary in the Diocese of Avignon, leaving that retreat in 1854, to take up his abode in the monastery of Senanque, which he had purchased. The new congregation, which, without returning to the primi- tive constitutions, did not adopt all the mitigations of later centuries, received the name of "Congrega- i Cistercians of the Immaculate Conception". It was incorporated in the Order of Citeaux in 1857, and in 1S72 transferred its seat to the ancient monas- tery of Lerins. The constitutions of this congrega- tion were approved by Leo XIII, 12 March, 1892.

Wit- In 1S92, undertook to unite in one

order the three Congregations of La Trappe, His Holi- ness caused the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars to address a letter to the Cistercians of the Common Observance inviting them to join their brethren of the Reformed Observance of La Trappe. But as the pope left them free, they preferred to retain their tive autonomics. Since that time the Order of ' iteaiix is divided into two branches absolutely

distinct; the Strict and the Common Observances, To these may be added the small Congregation of Trappists of Casamari in Italy, which has only three iteries with about 45 members. The Order of Reformed Cistercians has < 1908) 71 monasteries of men with more than 1000 subjects. In this number of houses are included the annexes which win- founded in certain places to serve as refuges for the communities which had been ex- pelled from F-ance. These monasteries are dis- III. —50

tributed as follows: in France, 20; in Belgium, 9; in Italy, 5; in Holland, 5; in Germany, 3; in England,

3; in Ireland, 2; in Asia, 4; in Africa, 2; in America, 10; (4 in United States, 5 in Canada, and 1 in Brazil). The Reformed Cistercians make profession of the Primitive Observance of Citeaux, with the exception of a few modifications imposed by the Holy Sec .it the time of the fusion. Their life is strictly cenobitical, that is to say, life in common in its most absolute form. They observe perpetual silence, except in cases of necessity provided for by the rule, or when express permission is granted by the superior. Their day is divided betw-een the Divine Oflice, agricultural and kindred labours, and free intervals for reading and study. The supreme authority of the order resides in the general chapter, which assembles every year at Citeaux, from the 12th to the 17th of Septem- ber, and is presided over by the abbot general. When the general chapter is not in session, cur- rent and urgent matters are regu- lated by the abbot general aided by his " Council of De- finitors".

The abbot gen- eral, who is by right Abbot of Citeaux, resides in Rome (Via San Giovanni in Laterano, 95), with the procurator general and the five definitors of the order, of whom there are two for French-speaking countries, one for English-speaking, one for Germ a n , and one for Flemish. At the house of the

abbot general are also the students whom the dif- ferent nouses of the order send to Koine to follow the course of studies at the Gregorian University. The Order of Reformed Cistercians has for its pro- tector at Rome Cardinal Rampolla Del Tindaro.

The four first houses, which replace the ancient Abbeys of La Fert£, Pontigny, Clairvaux, and Mori- mond, are La Grande Trappe in the Diocese of Seez, Melleray in the Diocese of Nantes, Westmalle in the Diocese of Mechlin, and Port-du-Salut in the Diocese of Laval. The abbots of these four houses every year visit the mother-house at Citeaux. The other nouses are visited regularly every year by the abbot- houses on which they immediately depend.

The actual condition of the Common Observance is as follows: The Congregation of Italy has live monasteries (two of them in Koine, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and at San Bernardo alle Terme) and about 60 members. The Congregation of Belgium has two monasteries (Bornheim i with

63 members. The < Songregal ion of Austria, the mosl powerful, has 12 monasteries, with 599 religious. The Congregation of Switzerland has threi teries, with 171 members. Lastly, the Congregation of Mean Observance of Senanque, which, sir. Waldeck-Rousseau Laws of 1901, has losi Senanque, Fontfroide, and Pont-Colbert, now has but two houses, with about 102 members. The Cistercians of the Common Observance in 1900 elected as their general Dom Amedeus de Bie, of the Congregation of