“Sulpician Month”
Program of Formation Concludes July 30, 2019
Last week a month-long program for new Sulpicians from around the world concluded at the Sulpician seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux. The program, called the “mois sulpicien” consisted of four weeks of conferences, discussions, and pilgrimages on Sulpician history, spirituality, and pedagogy.
New Sulpician Generalate Website Launched
At long last the Generalate of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice has been able to launch tis new site.
Term to Begin July 2019
From February 25 to March 5, 2019 the French Province of Sulpicians held a Provincial Assembly at Le Grand Séminaire d’Issy-les-Moulineaux. A Provincial Assembly (equivalent to a “chapter” in religious orders) is the highest authority in the Province and is held only once every six years. This year seventeen delegates from around the world participated in the Assembly.
After years of research, Rev. David GILBERT, a priest of the Community of Saint-Martin, defended in 2015 a brilliant thesis in theology (Institut Catholique in Paris) and in history (Sorbonne) on the writings of a former Superior General of Saint Sulpice, Father Louis TRONSON, PSS. Father Gilbert spent many long hours in the Sulpician Archives of the Society, using firsthand sources. The thesis has now been published [2018] by Honoré Champion (Paris), the same publisher who in 2014 made available the correspondence of Sulpician founder, M. Jean-Jacques OLIER (Mystica, No. 3).
After years of research, Rev. David GILBERT, a priest of the Community of Saint-Martin, defended in 2015 a brilliant thesis in theology (Institut Catholique in Paris) and in history (Sorbonne) on the writings of a former Superior General of Saint Sulpice, Father Louis TRONSON, PSS.
Last week, April 3-15, the General Council of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice held a meeting in Rome, this time accompanied by the Provincials of France, Canada, and the USA and the General Treasurer. Such meetings are held periodically in order to apprise various dicasteries of the Holy See of the ongoing ministry of priestly formation and formation of formators.
On January 26, 2018 Pope Francis declared “venerable” a French woman known for her holiness and profound reflection on the Christian life thus opening the path to future beatification and canonization. Madeleine DELBRÊL (1904-1964), a poet, mystic, author, and devotee of the gospel message, who lived much of her life in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris, is perhaps less known outside of France, but her story is a remarkable one, and her writings have been influential in the French-speaking world for many years. She is often touted as a saintly woman for “ordinary people” because much of her spirituality is rooted in daily life.
Last year, during the celebration of the 375th anniversary of the founding of the city of Montreal, a group of faithful Québecois devoted to the early founders came to France to trace the French heritage that first arrived in Canada in 1642.
The weekend of October 20, 2017 was an eventful one at the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Siena in Langeac, in the Auvergne region of France. The cloistered Dominican Sisters there held an annual meeting of the Association that supports the monastery on Saturday, October 21st. They invited Father Ronald D. WITHERUP, PSS, to be the main speaker for the event, presiding at the opening Mass and then presenting a conference on the close relationship between Blessed Agnès de Langeac, one-time Prioress of the Monastery, and Father Jean-Jacques OLIER, founder of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice.
From July 20 to 25, 2017, the Center for Continuing Formation at St. Mary’s Seminary & University hosted a meeting of the international leadership of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice. Twenty Sulpicians from around the world attended the meeting, including the three Provincial Councils of France, Canada, and the United States, and the General Council, each of which has five members. (One member from Canada could not attend.)
Gabriel RICHARD, PSS (1767-1832), was a French Sulpician priest who labored in the United States for many years among the French-speaking settlers in the area of Detroit (Michigan) and among the native American Indians of the region. He arrived in the United States in 1792, having been sent by the Superior General of the Sulpicians, Father Jacques-André EMERY as a missionary to the new world and to escape the severe persecution of the Terror that grew out of the French Revolution.
From July 20 to 25, 2017, the Center for Continuing Formation at St. Mary’s Seminary & University hosted a meeting of the international leadership of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice. Twenty Sulpicians from around the world attended the meeting, including the three Provincial Councils of France, Canada, and the United States, and the General Council, each of which has five members.
The Society of the Priest of Saint Sulpice is proud to announce the publication of a new, critical biography of Father Jean-Jacques OLIER, founder of the Sulpicians. Written by a renowned expert in spirituality, Father Bernard Pitaud, PSS, this biography is the result of extensive research in the Memoirs of Father Olier and related materials from the seventeenth century. The book is titled, Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657) and is published by Lessius in Belgium.
After extensive renovations and a renaming, the Villa Olier in Catonsville, Maryland, just outside Baltimore, is now home to ten retired Sulpicians from the U.S. Province, plus a local Superior. Formerly known as Saint Charles Villa, the independent living facility was entirely gutted and redesigned to modernize the infrastructure of the building and to create more agreeable living spaces.
Every year the Sulpician Seminary of Saint-Sulpice at Issy-les-Moulineaux sponsors a day for visitors called [Journée Portes Ouvertes (Visitation Day). It is an occasion for residents of Issy-les-Moulineaux and the region of Paris to come and get acquainted with this historic seminary and its current residents, the seminarians and formators.
April 2, 2017 is the 360th anniversary of the death of Father Jean-Jacques OLIER, founder of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice (Sulpicians), and remarkable mystic and reformer from the seventeenth century.
A Sulpician, Father Bernard PITAUD, has just published in French another book on one of his preferred topics, Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964), the French author, poet, and mystic, whose cause for sainthood is underway. The title is Madeleine Delbrêl, des rencontres décisives, Bruyères-le-Châtel, Nouvelle Cité, 2017 (273 pp.). It assembles previously published articles, revised and augmented, for the present publication.
During a pilgrimage to Rome in mid-February, seminarians from the Sulpician major seminary at Issy-les-Moulineaux were able to meet the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
On Tuesday 31 January 2017, a group of Sulpicians gathered at “the Solitude” in Issy-les-Moulineaux to formally bring to a close this historic house that has served for many years as the retirement home for Sulpicians from the French Province.
After lengthy time of cleaning and restoration, three famous paintings from the great nineteenth-century French artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) are again available for public viewing at the Church of Saint Sulpice in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
On 22 January 2017 the parish of Saint Sulpice in the heart of downtown Paris inaugurated the “Year of Olier,” a year-long celebration of the 375th anniversary of the founding of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice at the parish that bears this name.
The year 2016 marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of a document by the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice, “For the Sake of the Kingdom: A Sulpician Approach to Formation in Priestly Celibacy” (2006). The document was the result of an international meeting of the four Councils of the Society of Saint Sulpice (the General Council and the Provincial Councils of France, Canada, and the U.S.A.), held at Le Grand Séminaire in Montreal (Quebec), Canada in July 2005. The goal of the meeting was to refine our reflection on the meaning of priestly celibacy in the 21st century and to explore the topic from the viewpoint of Sulpician history and practice.
Professor Mariel MAZZOCCO, who is a specialist in the mystical literature of the seventeenth century, has just published another book of writings of Sulpician founder, Father Jean-Jacques OLIER.
From July 25-27, 2016 the first-ever “regional meeting” of Sulpicians was held for a group of Sulpicians who live and work in Asia. Nearly thirty Sulpicians from Vietnam, Japan, and China gathered at the Sulpician Major Seminary of Hue for the three-day meeting, which was sponsored by the Generalate of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice.
The oldest Roman Catholic bishop in the world is Archbishop Peter Leo GERETY, Archbishop Emeritus of Newark (New Jersey, USA). Next month (19 July 2016) he will celebrate his 104th birthday!
Many Sulpicians have published innumerable works over the years. Some continue to publish works even in retirement.
Arrival in 1791 in Baltimore
On Friday April 22, 2016, the members of the General Council and the three Provincials of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice gathered at the chapel of St. Mary’s Spiritual Center & Historic Site on Paca Street to inaugurate festivities to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the arrival of the first Sulpicians in the United States.
From April 18-21, 2016, the members of the General Council and the three Provincials of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice gathered in Washington, D.C. for their regular spring meeting.
Father Jean TREFFORT, PSS, who is the “dean” of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice, turned one hundred years old on March 9, 2016. On Saturday March 12th, he gathered with some 40 family members, friends, and fellow Sulpicians at the Sulpician headquarters in downtown Paris to celebrate this milestone.
Just a few weeks before the 50th anniversary of the closing of Vatican Council II, the Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of one its most profound documents, Dei Verbum, the Constitution on Divine Revelation. Pope Paul VI promulgated this remarkable document on November 18, 1965. Many scholars consider it the greatest achievement of the Council because it addresses the foundational concept of divine revelation, and its preface (DV, 1) is considered virtually an introduction to all sixteen document issues by the Council.
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