Cardinal Ouellet Celebrates the Immemorial Mass for the First Time -- 25 Years of the Abbey of Le Barroux

(Rome) The prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, on Friday, will celebrate a Pontifical High Mass on June 27 at the  Benedictine Abbey of Le Barroux in France in the traditional rite.

The occasion was to commemorate the reconciliation 25 years ago  of the Benedictine Monastery of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux with Rome. Since then  the Abbey  reports to   the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei . On June 27, the traditional Benedictine Abbey will celebrate this reconciliation, their elevation to the abbey, at which her late founder, Dom Gerard Calvet was raised to Abbot in 2008 and the consecration of the abbey church.

Abbot Gerard Calvet Could Not Accept Liturgical Reform

Born in 1927 Calvet entered   the Olivetans Order, a branch of the Benedictines, in 1950 and was ordained a priest in 1956. As a missionary, he worked for several years in Brazil. The monk saw a serious rupture in   the liturgical reform of 1965/1969, which he could not follow. He left with the permission of the abbot of his monastery Tournay and has lived since 1969 as a hermit in the Vaucluse department in the French Alps.

When young men joined him, who also wanted to live the traditional liturgy and Benedictine Spirituality, Calvet appealed in 1973 with his Convent to the Fraternity of St. Pius X. This led to a break with his Abbey and the Benedictine Congregation of Subiaco.  In 1978 Calvet began with the construction of his own monastery in Provence Le Barroux in the diocese of Avignon. In 1986, a subsidiary was founded in Brazil.

After a Few Fractures, Stability

Dom Calvet did not   follow Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 on the path of illicit episcopal ordinations. He broke the connection with the SSPX and Rome accepted the offer of reconciliation. It was step that split the community of Le Barroux. A part of the Convention separated from Dom Calvet, including the Brazilian subsidiary that was founded.

Daughter Founding in Aquitaine

In 1989,  Cardinal Augustin Mayer gave the Calvets abbatial blessing and the same year also the consecration of the abbey church was by Cardinal Edouard Gagnon. In 1995 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger aleo visited the traditional Abbey. In 2002,  the Monastery of Sainte-Marie de la Garde in Aquitaine was founded as  a new subsidiary. Today's Priory will  be an independent abbey in the future. 

Since 2003 monastery's fortunes have been passed to  Louis-Marie de Geyer d'Orth, the second abbot of Le Barroux. A few months after the death of old abbot Calvet Le Barroux was in the 2008 Benedictine Confederation added. The Abbey  now has 55 monks, while the Priory of Sainte-Marie de la Garde 13 monks.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Wikicommons