From luxury to silence and self-flagellation

Forced silence, hard stone floors and paltry food. Does that sound like a combination that the rich and privileged pursue? What if you add waking up at 2 in the night in an environment characterized by self-effacement, bodily exercise and occasional self-flagellation? Today, most would answer no, but in the latter half of the 17th century, parts of the otherwise life-loving upper class flocked to such a place: the La Trappe monastery in Normandy. The monastery housed a radical version of the already ascetic and retrenched Cistercian monastery , and although the whole point was humility, being at La Trappe became a kind of cultural fashion phenomenon that the upper class wrote poems and letters about.

The Danish Church historian and professor at The Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen Mette Birkedal Bruun has just defended her nearly 900 pages doctoral dissertation, which gives a unique insight into the culture in and around this paradoxical monastery. The dissertation 'The Unfamiliar Familiar: Armand-Jean de Rancé (1626-1700) between Withdrawal and Engagement' is based on the influential Abbot Armand-Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé.

"Rancé reformed the monastery and the strict branch of the Cistercian order, now known as the Trappists. The monks lived a secluded life in silence and prayer, and the goal was to turn away from the world to sanctify God. At the same time, hundreds of visitors flowed to the remote monastery every year to attend the convent life on shorter or longer retreats, and Rancé had extensive correspondence with both men and women outside the walls of the monastery, "says Mette Birkedal Bruun.

"The stranger history is, the more interesting is it too. The idea of the good life is not constant, and new ideas can come surging in a very short time.”

- professor Mette Birkedal Bruun

Born into a family of civic officials close to the crown, Rancé himself came from the upper class and lived for years a life in the world on a path to an ecclesiastical career, but also with a mistress and a great social circle before he became an abbot. After becomming an abbot, he kept in touch with parts of his former circle of wards through letters and visits to the monastery. According to Mette Birkedal Bruun, Rancé's connections to leading circles in the upper class were probably one of the reasons why the monastery became so famous in the present time. But the success of the monastery is mainly due to La Trappe's incarnation of the time's piety ideals.

Whips and Rumours

"To be pious at that time, one should withdraw from the world in prayer and turn to God. The ideal was ultimately to wipe out the self-will, so that instead we could follow God's will. Rancé is at the forefront as an example of discipline of the body and the spirit through physical work, strict diet and intense prayer. He inserts a monastic programme in the thoughts of the times and puts practice behind the ideas of humility and submission. This means, on the one hand, a strict daily schedule of work and prayer, but it also means that the monks whipped themselves and that the abbot regularly scolds them to teach them humility", says Mette Birkedal Bruun.

Although the form of asceticism was relatively common among monks and nuns during the 17th century, the radical monastic life at La Trappe was also the talk of the wider society. Mette Birkedal Bruun reviews in her dissertation a large amount of correspondence, satire, pamphlets and other material that shows how the public related to the phenomenon.

”Some thought it was too much. To inhumane or ascetic. But it was also largely a fashion phenomenon that people were fascinated with. People are keen on what is going on at La Trappe, and the monastery is represented in many satires. It is even in a parlour game, I've encountered that the guests should write a verse about La Trappe, "says Mette Birkedal Bruun.

According to the professor, the rumors and the presentation of La Trappe in the public have probably been wilder than reality, but it is precisely the community's stories and mythology about La Trappe, the researcher is interested in.

Religious "elite troops"

"It is interesting to investigate what was written and told about the monastery because the community's fascination and cultivation of the monastery was an indication that Rancé's influence reaced far beyond the walls of the monastery. For example, one of the discussions about La Trappe is on how unfair it was that Rancé scolded the monks when they have not done anything wrong. Rancé's answer was that if you think carefully, there is always a reason why people deserve to be blamed, "says the professor.

The many visitors to the monastery lived side by side with the monks and ate the same food as them. But they were not expected to be included in the same activities. Neither hard work, the same day rhythm, nor self-flaggelation or reproaches.

"Religiously, the monks were regarded as a kind of elite soldier who, of course, could not or should not live up to ordinary monasteries. They were capable of a degree of humility and religious submission that ordinary believers should only be inspired by. In the accounts, it may seem that guests have perceived the witness of the hard-ascetic life as a form of religious experience, and they speak of it as a spectacle, "says Mette Birkedal Bruun.

The idea of ​​good life changes

The fascinating stories about La Trappe add important church historical knowledge about the time period. A knowledge wich Mette Birkedal Bruun sees as an important perspective to our own time:

”The stranger history is, the more interesting is it too. The study of La Trappe helps us understand how the idea of good life is always historically determined. The idea of the good life is not constant, and new ideas can come surging in a very short time. Today, for example, it can be about living healthy. At Rancé's time it was about being so humble and self-destructive that you could come to heaven. The good life was regarded as the life that led to salvation when you died.

"Mette Birkedal Bruun's disputation The Unfamiliar Familiar: Armand-Jean de Rancé (1626-1700) between Withdrawal and Engagement was defended at the University of Copenhagen on 30/6 2017 and Mette Birkedal Bruun is negotiating with an international publishing house to publish the dissertation as a book.