Louismet, Savinien
LOUISMET, SAVINIEN
Missionary, mystical writer; b. Sens, France, April 4, 1858; d. buckfast abbey, Jan. 19, 1926. Louismet came from a devout Catholic family and attended choir school at Sens and the Petit Séminaire at Auxerre. He was professed as Dom Savinien at the Benedictine Abbey of La Pierrequi-Vire, Yonne, on Nov. 13, 1877, and ordained at Quimper, Brittany, in 1882. As a young priest he was sent to the Benedictine mission in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) where he labored for 13 years. Ill health brought him back to Europe, and in 1902 he was temporary superior at Buckfast Abbey. There he spent the rest of his life as a simple monk, engaged in preaching missions and retreats, and writing articles for various periodicals. Six or seven short treatises on the mystical life followed each other at short intervals, the most popular of which were: The Mystical Knowledge of God (1917); Mystical Initiation (1924); Divine Contemplation for All (1922); and The Mystery of Jesus (1922). Dom Louismet was well read in his special subject, but his judgment was not always well-balanced and lent itself to justifiable criticism.
[j. stÉphan]