Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille

Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. Second foundation: George Stanislaus, 3rd Duke de Stacpoole, who had become a priest and a domestic prelate of the pope, and who lived at Fontenelle until his death in 1896, restored the entire property to the French Benedictines (Solesmes congregation), and a colony of monks from Ligugé Abbey settled there in 1893, under Dom Joseph Pothier as superior. Dom Joseph Pothier, O.S.B. (1835-1923) was a worldwide known French prelate, liturgist and scholar. A musicologist, disciple and collaborator of Solesmes Abbot Dom Prosper Guéranger, Dom Pothier contributed to the reconstitution, the restoration and the renewal of the Gregorian chant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. He was later, 1904 by Pope St. Pius X, appointed president of the Pontifical Commission on the Vatican Edition of the Gregorian Liturgical Books. As chairman of this commission for the reconstitution of the music of the Roman Catholic Mass, Dom Pothier lived in Rome from 1904 till 1913. Besides being the composer of many Gregorian songs (Officium Defunctorum, 1887) and the writer of a huge amount of articles, Dom Pothier was also the head and editor of the Revue du Chant Grégorien (1892-1914) - supervising the publication of several works (Hymnes, Christmas office, Antifonario, Cantus mariales) -, the founder of the Paléographie Musicale publication for the dissemination of medieval liturgical manuscripts, and the author of a new edition of the choir books based on manuscripts of the Gregorian chant and of several studies on the plainchant, including Les mélodies grégoriennes d'après la tradition (Gregorian Melodies According to the Tradition), 1880, which became the standard work on the subject. His Liber Gradualis, 1883, marked the beginning of a reform in liturgical chant and was used as a basis for the Gradual Vatican which was published, under his responsibility, in 1908. Dom Pothier died at the Priory of Conques, Belgium in 1923. In 1912, he had founded with his exiled community of St. Wandrille a new priory in Canada, Saint Benedict Abbey, Quebec, which later became independent within the Solesmes Congregation. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.