After the clear-cutting of the French Revolution Benedictine monastic life slowly returned to France. The Abbey of St. Paul of Wisques was founded in 1889. The monks were expelled in 1901 by anti-Catholic laws yet again and found refuge in the Netherlands. In 1920 they managed to return.
Wisques followed the liturgical reform in 1970 and introduced the new rite. The youth did not materialize. Although in 2009 there were still 14 monks in the monastery, the "youngest" was already 72 years old. For 25 years no novice had come. The community could therefore choose no more abbots. The Abbot of Solesmes appointed an administrator. Thus began the search for a solution that was found in Fontgombault.
The new rite led to the end of the Abbey - The old Rite makes it new
With the approval of Bishop Jean-Paul Jaeger of Arras, the abandoned convent was transferred to the old Rite Benedictine monastery Of Our Lady of Fontgombault. This had not implemented the liturgical reform of the late 60s and enjoys numerous vocations.
Early in 2013 the first monks came from Fontgombault to Wisques. They held to the traditional rite and the old Divine Office. The experience has been very positive. Since October 2013, the old Rite convent has 18 monks. Since that moment, Wisques is suffragan of the the Abbey of Fontgombault. Their abbot, Dom Jean Pateau, was also administrator of Wisques.
After a transition period an abbatial election had taken place on Sunday, April 3. Dom Philippe de Montauzan, the sixth abbot of Wisques and first since the old ritual repopulation. He has held the position of Prior since 2013. De Montauzan was previously novice master of the Abbey Fontgombault. The repopulation of Wisques took place under his leadership.
The blessing of the new abbot will be held this coming June 4th.
Wisques is located in the extreme north-east of France near the Belgian border. The Dutch town name is Wizeke (place of Wico). The area belonged in the 18th century to the German or Dutch-speaking area. The French-Dutch language border is still barely ten kilometers east of Wisques.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Grafica.Kulo / Abbaye Saint-Paul Wisque
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
15 comments:
In monasteries, this is true the world over....and in convents,cloisters and seminaries. Where the new Mass and all the abuses is there, there are no vocations. Where the old Mass and Catholic tradition is....vocations come back and flourish.
Some Orders look traditional but are hypocritical, in that they do not allow for the old Mass, and their discipline is all Vatican II...yet they wear the habit. There are a few Orders of nuns like that in the USA. One of the best examples of that I think are the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Motherhood, and the Carmelite Sisters of Los Angeles. Both wear the traditional habit, but neither allow for the traditional Mass or Catholic liturgical traditions or pre-Vatican II religious disciplines. The Legionaries of Christ were a male example of the same thing. But they are now largely discredited.
There is one monastery of cloistered Discalced Carmelite nuns in the USA, located in Valparaiso, Nebraska, which has kept to the old Mass and Catholic traditions and has so many vocations that they have both founded new monasteries (1), and have helped revive dead cloisters of Carmelie nuns which had adopted Vatican II (1-2 other houses they have re-populated/restored). The Valparaiso monastery has over 30 in community. Don't be surprised if they establish yet another monastery soon.
the late, great Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation PCPA, did much to revive/restore her own Order by re-populating 1 monastery in the USA, founding a flourishing monastery and shrine in Hanceville, Al., and helping to restore a PCPA (Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration )monastery in France. They used to be known as the "Franciscan Nuns of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Perpetual Adoration".
Here in the USA, all the once thriving Trappist abbies for monks in the USA are dying out. Two have closed/will close (out of the original 12 houses). Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky( home of the radical liberal Thomas Merton), has gone form 275 monks in 1956, to about 30 today with a median age of 76. Most of the other 9 remaining Trappist houses for men in the USA are equally depeleted and aged. Look for2-3 more of them to close in the next 2-3 years.
I need not mention the radical liberal, corrupt St. John's Abbey of Benedictines and their pervert monks, but among Benedictines for men, only the Clear Creek Abbey which uses only the Tridentine Latin Mass and the old traditions is flourishing in the USA....in a few years, it will probably be the 2nd largest Benedictine house in the USA after St. Vincent's Archabbey in Latrobe,Pa.
Among the USA Norbertines, only the Abbey in California is flourishing and seeking to build a larger abbey. They use both rites. The other two houses, St.Norberts in DePere WI, AND Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pa. (near Phila.) are radical liberal hosues with aged monks and no vocations...Daylesford Abbey is badly maintained, and just sold off most of it's land for housing development.
So, it's only where Catholic traditional Mass and other disiplines has been restored, or always maintained, that s seminary,monastery.cloister or religious house thrives. The others will all die out. Don't shed any tears for the liberal Orders and houses dying out today, but weep for the great places they once were.
Damian Malliapalli
Let's get this straight:
All the liberal NO orders are dying out.
All the traditional orders are thriving.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that if you want vocations, return to the traditional discipline and Sacraments.
So...why can't the Vatican see the obvious and realize that the future belongs to Tradition???
Because they are one of perhaps three things;
1) genuinely evil, and support the destruction of the Catholic Faith caused by Vatican II and all the multitude of warped abuses that have come form it.
2) inept,bumbling but well meaning paper-pushers not wishing to rock the boat//spineless jellyfish.
3).Totally naïve and ignorant...unaware there is anything wrong.
I believe that Benedict XVI was #2, John Paul II and Paul VI #3's, but Pope Francis and his gang are all # 1's. That's the root of the problem.
Damian Malliapalli
"This had not implemented the liturgical reform of the late 60s and enjoys numerous vocations."
Funny how that works.
"So...why can't the Vatican see the obvious and realize that the future belongs to Tradition???"
Pride.
Well ... Fontgombault uses for the conventual masses the 1965 missal. For the private ones the 1962 missal. The 1965 missal is the one that made the changes asked by the Vatican II council. The main problems are with the 1969 missal. But since the motu proprio of 2007, we're again on the right path.
The root of all evil is definitely not Vatican II. The problem is the hijacking of the council by the modernists and what happened after the council.
Remember the text on liturgy of the II Vatican Council said :
"36. 1. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites."
"116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html
And the council never talked about the "versu populum" for all change.
That's what happened with the Bugnini gang and the protestant "observers". And Bugnini was already around with Pius XII who also did some bad changes besides the fact he was a great holy father.
Fongtombault and their daugthers will continue to grow, no doupt. There's the Lord's blessing on them, not mainly because they use this or that missal, but because these monks are holy mens and they welcome the whole Latin tradition.
God bless you all.
"The real hijacker of Vatican II and its authentic interpretation was Card Ratzinger/Pope Benedict. He lost his nerve and his integrity. His material non-reception of and schism from Vatican II was, in the opinion of some/many writers, the principal reason why he was persuaded to abdicate"
This is true. Many Catholic writers agree that Benedict XVI, by his return to so many vestments,traditions and expressions of the papacy, and by his allowances for the Tridentine Latin Mass put him at odds with the radical liberal modernist corruptors of the Catholic Faith such as the Bugnini crowd, Cardinals Martini of Milano, Cardinals Sodano,Re, and Archbishop Piero Marini and others that they forced him to resign. What is that Latin expressions that translates roughly as "I will not serve/obey" That was the radical Martini crowd. They were a stone wall against Benedict XVI and they forced him out. Benedict XVI was too Catholic for them...a reminder of the great days of the Papacy and the Church, of which they want no part. They wanted their man in, and benedict XVI out.
Benedict XVI was fool enough to give in. And the corruptors of the Faith (Sodano, Re, and by then the late Martini), got their man in.....Francis.
But his term will be a lot briefer than they think. They are rejoicing now....but now this time next year or so.
Damian Malliapalli
Who are you talking to?
I am afraid a whole generation of clergy fell for the phony spirit of Vatican II. One can understand how hard it is for them to admit that they got it all wrong and realise the damage that has been done. They need our prayers.
You
Damian Malliapalli
About what and where?
Agreed.
@Athelstane
Other reasons include zionist/masonic/homosexual infiltration and the desire, motivation,and financial resources to destroy God's one holy apostolic catholic Church.
More accurately, the Solesmes congregation houses use a modified 1962 missal at conventual Mass. The list of permitted changes is extremely short and can be found on the St. Bede Studio blog.
I wish the monasteries used pre-1955 for the Mass, but they don’t.
Interesting article, I really hope to go there after the COVID-19 plague passes. Thanks for posting.
Post a Comment