CHAUTARD, JEAN-BAPTISTE-GUSTAVE. – Cistercian abbot of the Strict Observance (Trappist), born at Briançon on 12 March 1858, died at Sept-Fonds (diocese of Moulins) on 29 September 1935. At the age of nineteen he entered the monastery of Aiguebelle, which he later rescued from ruin. A practical man and a great organiser, he restored the archicenobium of Cîteaux, the mother-house and cradle of the Cistercian reform. He vigorously defended his Order against the machinations of the anti-religious politics of his time, and by his eloquence he won Clemenceau over to the cause of the contemplative Orders. In 1897 he was elected abbot of Chambarand 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 his sons in the trenches or the wounded in hospitals. From the general chapter of his Order he received the mandate to visit 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 word and 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 early Fathers. His motto was: «Vivamus et moriamur in simplicitate nostra».