CHAUTARD, JEAN-BAPTISTE-GUSTAVE. - Cistercian abbot of the strict observance (Trappists), born at Briançon on 12 March 1858, died at Sept-Fonds (diocese of Moulins) on 29 Sept. 1935. At the age of nineteen he entered the monastery of Aiguebelle, which he later saved from ruin. A practical man and a great organizer, he recovered the arch-abbey of Cîteaux, motherhouse and cradle of the Cistercian reform. He energetically defended his Order against the machinations of the anti-religious politics of his time, and by his eloquence convinced Clemenceau in favour of the contemplative Orders. In 1897 he was elected abbot of Chambard and in 1899 abbot of Sept-Fonds. From 1914 to 1917 he opened the doors of his monastery to war refugees and visited the front to console all his sons in the trenches or wounded in hospitals. The general chapter of his Order entrusted him with the task of visiting the Cistercian abbeys in the Holy Land, China, Japan, and the United States.
He was a great champion of devotion to the Madonna. A profound connoisseur of the human heart, his words and his spiritual direction were sought by a great number of souls, especially priests, for whom he wrote Prêtre et apôtre and L'âme de tout apostolat, a book that had wide repercussions. His book L'esprit de simplicité is a vibrant appeal to follow the example of the first fathers. His motto was: « Vivamus et moriamur in simplicitate nostra ».