Congregation of St. Vanne

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The Congregation of St. Vanne or Congregation of St. Vanne and St. Hydulphe (French: Congrégation de Saint-Vanne et Saint-Hydulphe^[1]), sometimes also known as the Vannists (Vannistes) was a Benedictine reform movement centred on Lorraine. It was formally established in 1604 on the initiative of Dom Didier de La Cour, prior of St. Vanne's Abbey near Verdun, a reformer of the Benedictine Order after the Council of Trent. St. Hydulphe's Abbey at Moyenmoutier was a secondary centre of the reform.

The response to the attempts to return the Benedictine houses to a more rigorous way of life in accordance with the Rule, combined with serious study and scholarship, was very positive, but Lorraine was not at that time under the French crown. A parallel movement specifically for the French Benedictine houses, on the same principles as those of the Congregation of St. Vanne, was therefore launched from Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1621, and gave rise to the Congregation of St. Maur, which in the event became far better known than the Vannists.

The Congregation of St. Vanne continued however in Lorraine in parallel to that of St. Maur until the French Revolution, when both were abolished.

Distinguished Vannist scholars included Dom Antoine Calmet, Dom Rémy Ceillier, Dom Jean François, Dom Nicolas Tabouillot and Dom Ambroise Pelletier.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Congregation of St. Maur

[edit] Sources

• Michaux, Gérard Michaux, 1998: Dom Didier de La Cour et la réforme des Bénédictins de Saint-Vanne in: Les Prémontrés et la Lorraine XIIe - XVIIIe siècle, pp. 125-144 (XXIIIe colloque du Centre d'études et de recherches prémontrées, under the direction of Dominique-Marie Dauzet and Martine Plouvier). Paris: Beauchesne.