Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the congregation founded in 1889 by Katherine Drexel, see Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament is an enclosed congregation and a reform of the Dominican Order devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament[1]. The Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament (Sacramentines) are a Roman Catholic female religious congregation.

Contents

[edit] Foundation

Antoine Le Quien (1601-1676), established a religious house for women, exclusively devoted to the practice of Perpetual Adoration. He entered the Dominican Order, and after ordination was named master of novices at Avignon, and later prior of the convent at Paris. In 1639 Père Antoine founded his house at Marseille.[2]

Sister Anne Negrel was named the first superior. The definitive establishment took place in 1659-60, when Etienne de Puget, Bishop of Marseille, erected them into a congregation under the title of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. The final formalities for the approval of the order having been concluded in Rome (1680), Pope Innocent XI expedited a Brief, which could not be put in execution because of a change of bishop. Pope Innocent XII issued a new Brief the same year in which the Apostolic Process was opened for the canonization of its founder.

[edit] French Revolution period

The only foundation of the order in the eighteenth century was made at Bollène (Vaucluse) in 1725.

Sixty years later, under the government of Mère de La Fare, the Couvent du Saint-Sacrement had 13 of its members executed[3], from 5 to 26 July, 1794, among them Andrée Minutte[4][5], and Marie-Marguerite Bonnet[6]. The process for the canonization of these martyrs was opened at Rome, January, 1907.

Mère de La Fare, having escaped the guillotine, gathered together her community in 1802, and made a foundation at Avignon in 1807. The same year a Sacramentine of Marseille founded a convent at Aix-en-Provence.

[edit] Nineteenth century

In 1816 the convent of Marseille was reopened, and Mère de La Fare made a new foundation at Carpentras. In 1859 six religious of Aix founded a house at Bernay, Normandy, and in 1863 some sisters from Bollène founded a convent of Perpetual Adoration at Taunton, England. Oxford also had a foundation.

All the houses of this order are autonomous and dependent on the ordinary of the diocese, who is their superior. In consequence of the legal position of religious congregations in France, the Sacramentines of Marseille were obliged to abandon their convent. The four other houses of Southern France were authorized by the Government.

[edit] Twentieth century

The Sacramentines of Bernay at the time of the expulsion, July, 1903, were compelled to close their boarding-school and go into exile. Thirteen of the sisters retired to Belgium, and founded a house at Hal. The rest of their community settled in England at Whitson Court, Newport, Monmouthshire; they had left by the 1930s[7].

In March, 1911, the Sacramentines were permitted by Archbishop Farley to open a house in Holy Trinity parish, Yonkers, New York.

[edit] References

  • Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, IV, 421 sq.;
  • Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen, s.v. Sakramentinerinnen.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
  2. ^ Nathan Mitchell, Cult and Controversy: The Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass (1982), p. 207.
  3. ^ Les Martyrs Xii
  4. ^ Andrée Minutte
  5. ^ Les 32 Bienheureuses Martyres d'Orange
  6. ^ Marie-Marguerite Bonnet
  7. ^ Welsh Icons - Whitson

This article incorporates text from the entry Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.