Suñol, Ramon Gregorio Maria

SUÑOL, RAMON GREGORIO MARIA. - Benedictine abbot and Gregorianist, b. in Barcelona on 7 Sept. 1879, d. in Rome on 26 Oct. 1946.

The motu proprio of Bl. Pius X (22 Nov. 1903) directed his activity toward Gregorian chant, under the guidance of Fr. Mauro Sablayrolles. In 1915 he was appointed prior of Montserrat, and he had already published numerous articles on Gregorian chant and on the liturgy in the Rivista Montserratina, in the Vida cristiana and in other Spanish journals. For the organization of the Gregorian movement he visited many Spanish seminaries and convents, and in 1905 he published a Method of Gregorian Chant that went through many editions and translations into foreign languages. A disciple of Mocquereau (v.), he wrote in Catalan the Introduction to Gregorian Musical Paleography (1925), in which he set out the principles necessary for the study of the manuscripts. This work was greatly expanded and brought up to date in the French translation of 1935.

In 1931 he was called by Card. Schuster to direct the newly founded Higher School of Sacred Music in Milan, and during the seven years he remained there he labored indefatigably for the restoration and diffusion of Ambrosian chant, seeking out its manuscripts, photographing them and accompanying them with extensive critical studies. In 1934 he published the Ambrosian Exultet, in 1935 the Mass for the Dead and the Antiphonale missarum, in 1939 the Vesperale. In 1938, on the death of Abbot Ferretti (v.), he was called to the direction of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome and devoted himself to a more scientific and modern organization of the Institute and of the library, also writing numerous articles on the history of Gregorian chant. He collaborated on the first 4 vols. of this Enc. Catt. On 14 Sept. 1942 he had been appointed titular abbot of St. Cecilia of Montserrat.

Eugenio Cardine