Léonce Crenier
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Léonce Crenier (1888 – May 10, 1963) was a
.Early years
Léonce Crenier was born in Ceton, a small village of the diocese of Séez, in Savoie, France, July 31, 1888. According to his "Autobiographical Notes", his father was made bankrupt and consequently reduced to the condition of a day labourer, living in a tiny room. His mother "was a woman full of idealism and hope, energetic and of excellent heart". Léonce much admired her and inherited many of her characteristics. There was little discussion of religion in the home. Although baby Léonce was baptized, his parents were not church goers. His mother "fell out with the priest and vowed not to set the foot in the church again". She continually and enthusiastically evoked "Our Lord and his Mother" as evocative of a "life of love".
Léonce received his first
In Versailles and
Conversion to Catholicism
In 1913, he felt obliged to join his sister and brother-in-law in
This embrace of
From Cogullada to Abbey of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac
Brother Crenier quickly realised that he could not adopt the usual life of a Benedictine monk in this
Precarity
The most serious problem facing the new priory was the impending threat of bankruptcy. This problem had haunted all the superiors since its foundation in 1912. Expenditure was greater than income receipts, with the deficit made up with loans. Over the years the debt had considerably increased, particularly under Dom Lohier, and had reached the sum of $29,500. Father Crenier, then sub-prior, did what he could to stop any expenditure which he considered unnecessary: e.g. he blocked the purchase of an expensive car for $800. He saw it as his duty to alert the abbot and provided a very gloomy description of the state of affairs: "Our financial standing is exceedingly serious, not to say desperate. If there is not stroke of luck, we are lost. Bankruptcy is but a few weeks off, perhaps... In eight month, our debt will have increased by $4 000." (May 24, 1931)
When he became prior, he had to effect this "stroke of luck", charged by the abbot with clearing the debt. By no means a specialist in administration, Dom Crenier had gained some experience from his time with Crédit Franco-Portugais and the Burnay Bank in Portugal. The first remedy had been to increase the income generated by the work of the monks, but in practice this failed. The farm, where so many of the monks worked, "does not bring back absolutely any money for us, but it provides us milk, butter and meat". The pastoral ministry preaching in the local parish was profitable but few ordained monks could do it as their absence was completely prejudicial to the liturgical and Community life. The only other alternative was to turn to the outside and to request the generosity of the laymen despite the unfavourable economic situation following the financial crash of 1929. However, Father Crenier reasoned that no one would be interested in giving money to pay off old debts, but rather adopted an audacious policy of saying they would start a building programme to which people could contribute, as with the basilica of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré. The abbot was not convinced by this strategy: to contemplate new constructions when one is overwhelmed by debt would be a serious imprudence. The project was abandoned. However some faithful friends in Montreal, became aware of the situation. An uncle of the Brother Roméo Thibodeau, Mr Jean Daoust, "one of two or three principal members of the Company of the Craftsmen of Quebec", obtained from this Company a loan of $11,000 at favourable terms. Working with Mr. Beaudry Leman, he also formed a committee, recruited mainly among the "Craftsmen", who committed themselves to "pay our interests during the first few years". However a Mr Mathys also intervened with a generous but unacceptable offer: he promised to pay all the debts of the monastery provided that he was incorporated the Belgian congregation. The Prior, generally supportive of Brother Mathys, made an outright refusal.
Embracing austerity
The community functioned in these difficult times with the most strict economy. The Prior suggested: "we seek to save on everything", he wrote, "except on food, as we simply eat what remains". Outside purchases were reduced; the bread was henceforth baked in the monastery. The orchard and the kitchen garden provided fruit and vegetables and, during autumn, everyone helped in jam making. "We already have 700 - 800 boxes of tomatoes". These efforts and sacrifices were not in vain. The situation slowly improved as the ruinous practice loans was brought to an end. However, on April 21, 1934, Father Crenier wrote "that does not me from being blocked and even frustrated from time to time.. The Lord punishes me for my iniquities, while sending me what I need at the critical moment, but no more. I find that good. Poverty obliges me to hang with God, so to speak. I certainly would not ask for as much I do, if we were comfortable." His firmness in the exercise of his authority was combined with a paternalistic kindness, sensitive to the needs for each one of his monks. But it was that everyone should reach a healthy level of austerity. Amongst his immediate entourage, there were those who would allow the use of tobacco in order to gain recruits, "Me, never... I hold good on this point ". The rocking chair, another Canadian passion was also prohibited... "Life passes by as one sits there smoking and reading a breviary, etc." His decisive argument was, "the
Prior of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac
Under the Priorate of Father Léonce Crenier, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac gradually developed. Many new noviates came forward in the first five years (1931 to 1935) – 49 applicants were accepted. In 1932, the facilities had to be expanded to build a further twenty cells. The financial position had been stabilized and the budget was balanced without resorting to loans. At this time the issue of the canonical status of the house resurfaced. In 1929, it had been set up as a simple priory. Nothing had changed in relation to the mother-abbey of Saint-Wandrille (France). For several years, the superiors of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac felt irked by the need to refer any important problem to an abbot and a chapter over six thousand kilometers away. The abbot of Saint-Wandrille, Dom
Crenier was entrusted by the Religious of Jesus and Mary with the publication the autobiography of Dina Bélanger, Une vie dans le Christ: Marie Sainte-Cécile de Rome (Dina Bélanger), religieuse de Jésus-Marie (1897–1929); autobiographie et témoignages. 1934., which became very popular.[1]
In the 1930s and 40s, Crenier was associated with Onésime Lacouture in advocating for emphasis on the Sermon on the Mount, a controversial topic within Catholicism at the time.[2][3] Crenier claimed that the Sermon on the Mount, which he regarded as the essence of Christianity, had been forgotten to such an extent that it seemed revolutionary and heretical.[4]
Martinique
When he retired as Prior at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, first he went to
Works
- — (29 September 1941). "English translation of "Grâce et Nature"". Bulletin de Saint Benoît. BANQ [P9/D4].
Citations
- ^ Boucher, Ghislaine. "Bélanger, Dina, named Marie Sainte-Cécile-de-Rome". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 15. University of Toronto/Université Laval.
- ^ Downey 2012.
- ^ Crenier 1941.
- ^ Crenier (1941), qtd. in Downey (2012, p. 170)
References
- Downey, Jack (2012). "A return to the Gospel": The Lacouture retreat and American Catholic revivalism, 1931–1985 (PhD thesis). ProQuest 1355213251.
- Friends of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac. "Stabilité et essor sous le priorat de dom Crenier" [Stability and growth under Father Crenier]. Archived from the original on 2007-07-03.
Further reading
- Bergeron, C.; Simmins, G.; Rochon, J. (1997). L'Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac et ses bâtisseurs [The Abbey of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac and its builders] (in French). Vol. 4. ISBN 978-2-7637-7527-2.
- Casilli, Antonio A. (2015). "Le wikipédien, le chercheur et le vandale" [The Wikipedian, the researcher, and the vandal]. In Barbe, Lionel; Merzeau, Louise; Schafer, Valérie (eds.). Wikipédia, objet scientifique non identifié [Wikipedia, an unidentified scientific object] (in French). Nanterre: HAL 01163041.
- Cayli, Baris; Hodgson, Philip; Walsh, Dave (4 April 2018). "Social Unrest in the UK and Turkey: Rethinking Police Violence against Dissident Communities". Comparative Sociology. 17 (2). ISSN 1569-1322.
- Drolet, Jean-Claude (1973). "Un mouvement de spiritualité sacerdotale au Québec au XX siècle (1931-1965): le Lacouturisme" [A movement of priestly spirituality in Quebec in the 20th century (1931-1965): Lacouturism]. Sessions d'Étude - Société Canadienne d'Histoire de l'Église Catholique (in French). 40. ISSN 0318-6172.
- Gagnon, Claude-Marie (1983). "Autobiographie religieuse et roman sentimental québécois" [List of manuscripts containing synodal statutes of ancient France classified by diocese]. Études littéraires (in French). 16 (3). ISSN 0014-214X.
- Gilbert, Gaelan (2015). "Martianus Capella and Saint Benedict: The critical arts of encyclopedic satire and new-old forms-of-life". Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies. 6 (4). Springer Nature: 406–416. S2CID 151916531.
- Herod, Andrew; Lambert, Rob (2016). Neoliberal Capitalism and Precarious Work: Ethnographies of Accommodation and Resistance. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 1–42, at p. 4. ISBN 978-1-78195-495-9.
- LaperriÈRE, G. (1990). "Biographies et mémoires: le Québec du XXe siècle (à suivre)". Biographies and Memoirs of Twentieth Century Québec. Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique (in French). 85 (1). ProQuest 1302420833.
- Ouellette, F.; Bélanger, D. (1998). Dina Bélanger. L'expérience de Dieu (in French). Fides. ISBN 978-2-7621-2028-8.
- Pontal, Odette (1963). "Liste des manuscrits contenant des statuts synodaux de l'ancienne France classés par diocèses" [List of manuscripts containing synodal statutes of ancient France classified by diocese]. Bulletin d'information de l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (in French). 11 (1962). PERSEE Program: 79–107. ISSN 0073-8204.
- van der Linden, M. (1 February 2014). "San Precario: A New Inspiration for Labor Historians" (PDF). Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 11 (1). Duke University Press: 9–21. ISSN 1547-6715.
- Walker, V. E. (2008). Pacifism's precarity (Thesis). State University of New York at Binghamton.