SOLESMES, ABBEY OF SAINT PETER OF. - Monastery founded in 1010 in Maine (in France), by Geoffrey of Sablé, with the assistance of Benedictine monks sent by the abbey of "la Couture du Mans".
At the beginning 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 remained. Once the priory was rebuilt, it enjoyed great prosperity during the 15th-16th centuries. Its priors, especially dom Bougler (d. 1556), enlarged the church, adorning it with precious works, among which the so-called sepulchres of Our Lord and of the Virgin, by unknown authors, among whom some Italian hand can be recognized (1475-1553). Shortly afterwards the priory passed into commendam: one of the best commendatory priors was the Italian Tommaso Bonzi, an emulator of St. Charles Borromeo. In 1664 S. entered the Congregation of St. Maur, which in 1723 had the monastic buildings rebuilt, except for the church. In 1791 the Revolution dispersed the monks: the prior dom De Sageon and the subprior dom Papion were put in prison. The monastery passed through various owners, the last of whom in 1832 began its demolition. Then dom Guéranger (v.) took it on lease, then bought it and in 1833 re-established Benedictine life there. In 1837 Gregory XVI raised the priory to an abbey and dom Guéranger was its first abbot. S. was not long in becoming a center of spiritual life and the starting point of a renewal of liturgical piety that then spread throughout the whole Church. The successors of dom Guéranger (d. 1875), dom Couturier (d. 1890), dom Delatte (abbot until 1921, d. 1937) and the present dom Coxien had to endure the persecutions of a secularizing government, then exile, expulsions from 1880 to 1882, exile in England from 1901 to 1922. But such trials did not hinder 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. Besides dom Guéranger, the abbey has numbered distinguished monks in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as dom Pitra (v.) later cardinal and librarian of Holy Church; dom Cagin, a noted liturgist; dom Piolin, historian of the church of Le Mans; dom Quentin, reviser of the Vulgate and first abbot of St. Jerome in Urbe; dom Pothier and dom Mocquereau, restorers of Gregorian chant; finally dom Delatte, author of the well-known commentaries on the Gospels, the epistles of St. Paul and the Rule of St. Benedict.
Bibliography
Leone Robert
THE RESTORATION OF GREGORIAN CHANT
Dom P. Guéranger (v.), restorer of the Roman liturgy in France, understood that the restoration of genuine Gregorian chant must also be a necessary complement. Guided by his natural taste and by the advice of Canon Gontier of Le Mans, who had devoted himself to the study of the historical foundations of traditional ecclesiastical chant and had published (1859) an important Méthode raisonnée du plain-chant, he knew how to give to the performance 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 necessity of proposing, by working back methodically to the manuscripts, a text that reproduced the original melodies as faithfully as possible. In 1860 he entrusted the research to Dom Paolo Jaussions, to whom he soon added Dom Joseph Pothier (v.), still a novice. Their studies and their 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 keep in mind for the publication of the Roman Gradual (1907) and the Roman Antiphonary (1912) of the Vatican edition. The preparation of these editions was entrusted by the same Pontiff to the monks of S., with the motu proprio of 25 April and with the brief of 22 May 1904. A commission called "Vatican," presided over by Dom Pothier, who had become abbot of S. Wandrille, was charged with the revision of the text proposed by the editorial board. This text was to have as its basis the work done at S., where an important collection of photographic documents had been prepared, especially through the efforts of Dom P. Mocquereau (v.), a disciple of Pothier, and by a group of monks specialized in these studies. The collaboration between the Commission and the editorial board ordered by Pius X was hampered by serious disagreements, and the responsibility for the Gradual and even more for the Antiphonary fell solely on Pothier.
Once the Vatican Commission was dissolved, scientific research continued nonetheless at S. under the direction of Dom Mocquereau, who in 1887 began the publication of the Paléographie musicale, and in 1911 of the Revue grégorienne, published at Tournai. The Solesmes rhythmic editions should also be noted, which, despite the discussions they raised, were of great utility and are still very widespread.
Under the direction of Dom J. Cajard, who succeeded Dom Mocquereau at the paleographic school, S. continues its scientific research in order to make the Gregorian editions ever better. The Antiphonarium monasticum (1934) gives a particular idea of the progress achieved. - See plate LX.
