SOLESMES, ABBEY OF SAN PIETRO. — Monastery founded in 1010 in Maine (France) by Goffredo di Sablé, with the assistance of Benedictine monks sent from the abbey of «la Couture du Mans».
At first it was a small priory whose history remains obscure until the Hundred Years’ War, during which the monastery was destroyed by the English, while the Romanesque church survived. Once rebuilt, the priory enjoyed great prosperity during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its priors, especially dom Bougler (d. 1556), enlarged the church, adorning it with precious works, among them the so-called tombs of Our Lord and the Virgin, by unknown artists, among whom some Italian hand can be recognized (1475-1553). Shortly thereafter the priory passed into commendam: one of the best commendatory priors was the Italian Tommaso Bonzi, an emulator of St. Carlo Borromeo. In 1664 S. entered the Congregation of St. Maur, which in 1723 had the monastic buildings rebuilt, leaving the church untouched. In 1791 the Revolution dispersed the monks: the prior, dom De Sageon, and the subprior, dom Papion, were imprisoned. The monastery passed through various owners, the last of whom began its demolition in 1832. Guéranger (v.) took it on lease, then purchased it, and in 1833 restored Benedictine life there. In 1837 Gregory XVI raised the priory to the status of an abbey, and dom Guéranger became its first abbot. S. soon became a center of spiritual life and the starting point of a renewal of liturgical devotion, which subsequently spread throughout the Church. The successors of dom Guéranger (d. 1875)—dom Couturier (d. 1890), dom Felatte (abbot until 1921, d. 1937), and the current dom Coxien—had to endure the persecutions of a secularizing government, followed by exile and expulsions from 1880 to 1882, and exile in England from 1901 to 1922. Yet these trials did not impede the vitality of the monastery. New buildings were erected in 1895-1900 and in 1936.
The imposing building on the banks of the Sarthe is an architectural marvel. In addition to dom Guéranger, the abbey counted among its members distinguished monks in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, PETRA (v.), later a cardinal and librarian of the Holy Church; dom Cagin, a noted liturgist; dom Piolin, historian of the Church of Le Mans; dom Quentin, a reviser of the Vulgate and the first abbot of S. Girolamo in Urbe; dom Pothier and dom Mocquereau, restorers of Gregorian chant; and finally dom Delatte, author of the well-known commentaries on the Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul, and the Rule of St. Benedict.
of the Gregorian melodies in his monastery an artistic and religious character in open contrast with the complete decadence according to which they had long been performed. And since the editions then in use were very defective, Dom Guéranger understood the need to propose, by tracing the melodies methodically back to the manuscripts, a text that would reproduce the original melodies as faithfully as possible. In 1860 he entrusted the research to Dom Paolo Jaussions, to whom POTHIER, JOSEPH (v.), then still a novice. Their studies and publications definitively opened the way to the reform of Gregorian chant, repeatedly and effectively encouraged by Leo XIII at the end of his pontificate, who also withdrew the privilege of the typical editions previously granted to others and which Blessed Pius X had to take into account for the publication of the Graduale romano (1907) and the Antifonario romano (1912) of the Vatican edition. The preparation of these editions was entrusted by the same Pontiff to the monks of S. by the motu proprio of 25 April and the brief of 22 May 1904. A commission known as the “Vatican” commission, presided over by Dom Pothier, who had become abbot of S. Wandrille, was charged with revising the text proposed by the editorial committee. This text was to be based on the work carried out at S., where an important collection of photographic documents had been prepared, chiefly through the efforts of Dom P. Mocquereau (v.), a disciple of Pothier, and of a group of monks specializing in these studies. Collaboration between the Commission and the editorial committee established by Pius X was hampered by serious disagreements, and responsibility for the Graduale, and even more for the Antifonario, fell solely upon Pothier.
After the dissolution of the Vatican Commission, scientific research continued at S. under the direction of Dom Mocquereau, who began publishing the Paléographie musicale in 1887 and the Revue grégorienne, published at Tournai, in 1911. The Solesmes rhythmic editions should also be mentioned; despite the discussions they provoked, they were of great usefulness and remain very widely circulated.
Under the direction of Dom J. Cajard, who succeeded Dom Mocquereau at the palaeographic school, S. continues its scientific research in order to make the Gregorian editions ever better. The Antiphonarium monasticum (1934) gives a particularly clear idea of the progress achieved. — Vedi tav. LX.
#### SOLETTA, SOLOTHURN : V. BRASILE.