CONGRÉGATION, LA

A pious association of laymen that played a conspicuous part in the French-Catholic revival (1801–30). Initiated February 1801 by six Paris students under the guidance of Jean Baptiste Bourdier-Delpuits, a former Jesuit (1776–1811), it was, at first, merely a new version of those pious sodalities under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary that had flourished since the end of the 16th century in Jesuit colleges. By 1805 membership totaled 180. After the police discovered some young members disseminating Pius VII's document excommunicating napoleon i (1809), the society was suppressed. Revived after Napoleon's downfall under the leadership of Pierre Ronsin, SJ (1771–1846), its ranks enlisted not only students but also clerics and high-ranking lay aristocrats. Although the Congregation confined itself to purely religious activities, it gave birth through its members to a network of charitable, social, and educational organizations, thus anticipating modern catholic action. In some 60 other French towns similar bodies were founded, often by former Paris members. Among these grew practically independently the Congregation of Lyons, responsible for the creation of the Society for the propagation of the faith, and that of Bordeaux, founded by Guillaume chaminade. Around 1824 the Liberal press took to denouncing the Congregation as the tool of the Jesuits for infiltrating governmental administration. This onslaught was made more bitter and dangerous by the confusion arising from the existence of the secret society of the knights of the faith, which did aim at capturing political power. After the Jesuits were forbidden to teach in France (June 1828), the Congregation declined in activity, although one of its leaders, Prince Jules de Polignac, headed the government in August 1829. The revolution of 1830 ended the society, but some of its creations survived.

Bibliography: c. a. geoffroy de grandmaison, La Congrégation, 1801–1830 (Paris 1889). g. de bertier de sauvigny, Un Type d'ultra-royaliste: Le Comte Ferdinand de Bertier (1782–1864) et l'énigme de la Congrégation (Paris 1948). j. b. duroselle, "Les 'Filiales' de la Congrégation," Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 50 (1955) 867–891.

[g. de bertier de sauvigny]