Olympe-Philippe Gerbet

Portrait of Monseigneur Gerbet.

Olympe-Philippe Gerbet (5 February 1798 – 7 August 1864) was a French writer and Catholic bishop.

Biography

Writer of philosophical essays

Gerbet was born at Poligny, Jura. He studied at the Académie and the Grand-Séminaire of Besançon, also at St-Sulpice and the Sorbonne. Ordained priest in 1822, he joined Félicité de La Mennais at "La Chesnaie" in 1825 to launch the Society of St Peter (Congrégation de Saint-Pierre), after a few years spent with Antoine de Salinis at the Lycée Henri IV. An admirer of Lamennais, he nevertheless accepted the papal encyclicals Mirari vos, of 15 August 1832, and Singulari nos, of 13 July 1834, which condemned the views of Lamennais. After fruitless efforts to convert Lamennais, who he considered his spiritual master, he withdrew to the Collège de Juilly (1836).[1][2]

The years 1839-49 he spent in Rome, gathering data for his Esquisse de Rome Chrétienne. Recalled by Monseigneur Sibour, he became professor of sacred eloquence at the Sorbonne.

Ecclesiastical functions

In April 1854, under the Second French Empire, he was elected Bishop of Perpignan and was consecrated on June 29 in Amiens Cathedral, where he was previously vicar-General. His episcopate was marked by the holding of a synod (1865), the reorganization of clerical studies, various religious foundations, and by the pastoral instruction of 1860 sur diverses erreurs du temps présent, which served as a model for the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX.[3]

Death

He died at Perpignan, Pyrénées Orientales, aged 66.

Works

Besides many articles in Le Mémorial catholique, L'Avenir, L'Université catholique [fr], and some philosophical writings such as Des doctrines philosophiques sur la certitude [Philosophical doctrines on truth] [4] Gerbet helped to develop Lamennais' thinking in 1831 in a work entitled A Look at the Christian Controversy from the First Centuries to the Present Day, where he theorizes Catholic science taking into account future and past.[5][6]

He also contributed to a Précis d'histoire de la philosophie [Summary of the history of philosophy].[7] All more or less tinctured with the thought of Lamennais, he wrote the following: Considérations sur le dogme générateur de la piété chrétienne [Considerations on the dogma that generates Christian piety] (Paris, 1829); Vues sur la Pénitence (Paris, 1836) — these two works are often published together; Esquisse de Rome Chrétienne (Paris, 1843), previously mentioned.

In the two former books, Gerbet views the dogmas of the Eucharist and Penance as admirably fitted to develop the affections — nourrir le coeur de sentiments — just as he uses the réalités visibles of Rome as symbols of her essence spirituelle. Sainte-Beuve (Causeries de lundi, VI, 316) says that certain passages of Gerbet's writings "are among the most beautiful and suave pages that ever honoured religious literature". Gerbet's Mandements et instructions pastorales were published at Paris in 1876.

References

  1. ^ Brémond 1907.
  2. ^ Ricard, Antoine (1886). "Gerbet - biographie". L'École menaisienne. Gerbet, Salinis et Rohrbacher. Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie. pp. 1 à 144.
  3. ^ Casimir de Ladoue (1870). Mgr Gerbet, sa vie, ses oeuvres et l'école menaisienne [Mgr Gerbet, his life, his works and the Menaisian school]. Paris: Tolra et Haton.
  4. ^ Des doctrines philosophiques sur la certitude, dans leurs rapports avec les fondements de la théologie [Philosophical doctrines on truth, in their relationship with the foundations of theology]. Paris: librairie classique. 1826.
  5. ^ Coup d'oeil sur la controverse chrétienne, depuis les premiers siècles jusqu'à nos jours [A look at the Christian controversy from the first centuries to the present day]. Paris: Bureau de l'Agence générale pour la défense de la liberté religieuse. 1831.
  6. ^ Langlois, Claude (2014). "La science catholique et l'histoire de l'exégèse contemporaine" [Catholic Science and the History of Contemporary Exegesis]. Archives de sciences sociales des religions. 167.
  7. ^ Précis d'histoire de la philosophie, publié par les directeurs du collège de Juilly [Summary of the history of philosophy, published by the directors of the College of Juilly]. Paris: Hachette. 1834.; written with and under the names of Antoine de Salinis and Casimir de Scorbiac

Sources

Further reading

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