Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists)

Armand-Jean   DE RANCÉ:      A Teacher Surpassed? "Let me imitate the passion of my God!" This phrase of Ignatius of Antioch expresses well the ardent spiritual search which marked the fruitful life of the Reformer of La Trappe,  Armand-Jean Le Bouthillier de Rancé, from the moment of his conversion in 1657 to his death on October 27, 1700.

Born on January 9, 1626, and presented in baptism by Armand-Jean du Plessis Cardinal de Richelieu and by the Marchioness d’Effiat, he would, even as a young man, show the strength of his personality.  De Rancé's loyalty and courage were incapable of putting any value on half measures. He could make himself loved and hated with equal intensity.

A concern for his family, above all the ambitions of his father, obliged young Armand-Jean, previously slated for a military carrier, to take up the ecclesiastical way of life without having any vocation to it.  "In the morning preach like an angel, in the afternoon go hunting as a demon," was how De Rancé described his own lifestyle while he was a handsome court ecclesiastic, rich, intelligent and praised by all.

Divine Providence, however, had other plans. The year 1657 marks the point at which he breaks with this way of life and begins a long search leading him to his final conversion six years later. It was in 1657 that the Countess of Montbazon, of whom De Rancé was very fond, died unexpectedly. In the same year the enmity of Prime Minister Mazzarin brought about De Rancé's fall into disgrace. 

The young court cleric withdraws from public life to his castle of Véretz, one of the most beautiful in France. It is here that he meditates, prays and seeks spiritual direction. Little by little he hands over to others the monasteries, five in all, which he held in commendam, that is, of which he was the legal, non-resident abbot entitled to his share of the revenues. He decides to restore and live in one of them, the Cistercian Abbey of La Trappe, even though he was still only its commendatory abbot.

It was six years later, on April 17, 1663, during the psalmody of the midday Office of Sext, that he was indelibly marked by the words of Psalm 124, "He who trusts in the Lord is like Mount Sion: he will last forever." At that moment De Rancé decides to become a monk. After a year of canonical novitiate at the monastery of Perseigne, he becomes Abbot of La Trappe on July 13, 1664. From then on he dedicates himself to the reform of that monastery with the enthusiasm of a neophyte. His fiery, loyal character seemed heedless of the failures and difficulties which he would have to overcome in the course of the last 37 years of his life. He inevitably became the object of calumnies and persecutions from those who judged his work to be the fruit of pride and presumption, but he refused to back down from his purpose. In fact the attacks made him more patient and more docile to the will of God, to such an extent that the motto of his life would seem to have been: "Love your enemies."

His work was clearly blessed by the Lord. Although he had begun with just a handful of disciples, at his death De Rancé left a flourishing community of about 90 monks. The fruitfulness of the Trappist reform was destined to last through the centuries, so that at the present time there are 100 monasteries of Trappist monks and 70 of Trappistine nuns spread throughout the world. They seek to become inculturated in the places where God has put them.

During the long years of his abbatial tenure De Rancé learned to submit to the school of the Holy Spirit, allowing himself to be transformed. The rough edges of his character were made gentle. Actually, he was deeply loved by his monks and became a true father in the Spirit, transmitting to them the passion for God which filled his heart. The unanimity in which abbot and monks continued together for years, each of them faithful to the decision made at the moment of religious profession, shows the importance given by them to fraternal life in common, based on the exercise of faith, hope and charity. A deep, objective sacramental life, above all the Eucharist,  and their personal prayer life are the places where the monks receive strength to help each other in the search for the face of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

One of the most beautiful chapters of De Rancé's principal work, The Holiness and Duties of Monastic Life, is the one in which he speaks of love for God and for the brothers. He there sets out the foundations of the common life, making his own the 17th chapter of the Gospel of Saint John and the First Letter of John. In this vision the community is the place where the sanctification of the monk occurs. The brothers are true friends of the Spouse, who bear witness to Christ and support each other in their fidelity to him, in whom they live as children of the Father. "Charity is the foundation and bond of monastic communities. It is charity that forms them and keeps them together. It is charity that makes it possible for the brothers to live according to the law of God in harmony and holy understanding. Thus they all bear the yoke of the Lord together, ‘humero uno’: with a single heart, a single spirit, a single will" (Sainteté et devoirs... I, p.322, Paris 1701).  That is how De Rancé outlines the foundations of the common life.

The other fundamental ingredient in his teaching is the "imitation of Christ". Today we would call it the "following of Christ." De Rancé puts the emphasis above all on filial obedience to the Father and on humility, of which Christ gave us the example during his entire earthly life. Through this imitation of the Master one reaches conformation to Christ, which is a deep transformation and purification of the heart rooted in simplicity, because God is simple. These truths are stated with great intensity. They draw our attention to the real moving force of the interior way taught by the Abbot of La Trappe. This interior way is the love of Christ. His teaching is austere but full of serenity, peace and balance. It is precisely in the realities of self-denial, humility and sacrifice that we can experience the radical nature of the following of Christ. Moreover the Church, through the leading spiritual directors of that time - especially the French school of spirituality - stressed the absolute necessity of self-denial, purification of heart and sacrifice for the following of Christ the Savior. Such a doctrine of radical conversion was needed in an age in which the exaltation of the "EGO" in its most corrupt expressions had become the soul of a society which was increasingly worldly and superficial.

The heroic faithfulness of the community of La Trappe made it and its Abbot famous, and their way of life legendary. We should not be surprised at this. De Rancé had taken as his spiritual masters the Fathers of the desert, the first Fathers of the Church, the founders of the Cistercian Order and St. Bernard, whom he loved to such a degree that he became known as "the new St. Bernard". With these teachers of the Church as his preferences, he had de facto chosen a specific type of spirituality, since these men had formed their theological teaching into a coherent whole incorporating Scriptural interpretation, dogmatics, moral theology and spirituality. They, and De Rancé with them, are not on the fringe of theological discourse as they pass on to us their experience of communion with God. On the contrary, they are at its very heart. 

De Rancé stayed anchored in their doctrine on Christ and the Holy Spirit. This meant making the holiness of God the central axis of all his spiritual reflections, basing himself on the mysterious inner life of the Incarnate Word and continually exploiting the relationship between the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.

The moral level, which is the central core of the following of Christ, is based on Jesus' act of obedient love to the Father. "Obedience makes the monk" (Sainteté et devoirs... I, p.132). The brothers are a community, of which the archetype and unifying dynamism is the living unity of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity (Fraternal Life in Common, 10). If there was one virtue evident in the life of La Trappe, it was charity lived in all its aspects.

So how should we answer the question expressed in the subtitle, above? Is De Rancé's teaching out of date?

Several recent documents from the Church's magisterium, especially Vita Consecrata (1996) and Fraternal Life in Community (1994) seem to give a surprising relevance to De Rancé's teaching. This is done both by the way these documents organize their theological reflection and by how they stress many themes which were operative in the abbot's reform of La Trappe.

In the daily living of monastic life according to the orientations of Vatican II, it is basic to return to the Fathers of the Church, the founders of the Order, to the study of Sacred Scripture and the inner theology only learned by a deep communion with God in a joyful sense of brotherhood. This basic thrust is hidden: a contemplative life faithful to the Rule of St. Benedict and to the Fathers of Cîteaux, through which one can become a living part of the mysterious marriage between Christ and his Church.

From La Trappe through the centuries there comes to us a message of fire.

Anna Maria Caneva
Monastery of Vitorchiano

See this article in its: - original Italian version.                                             Translated by Anscar Christensen
                                - French translation.                                                      Adapted by Augustine Roberts
- Spanish translation.                                                                                                 

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