Récollets

Former Récollets monastery in Saverne

The Récollets (English: Recollects) were a French branch of the Roman Catholic order, the Franciscans (Latin: Ordo Fratrum Minorum), which developed out of a reform movement that began in the 15th century in Spain and established itself in France in Tulle in 1585, at Nevers in 1592, at Limoges in 1596 and in Paris in 1603. According to one historian, "Recollection-houses are, strictly speaking, those monasteries to which friars desirous of devoting themselves to prayer and penance can withdraw to consecrate their lives to spiritual recollection". The French Récollets had 11 provinces with 2534 cloisters by the late 18th century. The order was suppressed during the French Revolution.

Another reform of the Friars Minor that took the name "Recollect" existed in the countries of the German-Belgian Nation of the Order of Friars Minor. By the end of the 17th century all the provinces of the German-Belgian Nation of the Order of Friars Minor were Recollect. This branch of the Recollects did not die out with the French Revolution but survived and was reinvigorated in the 19th century. It was one of the four branches of the Order of Friars Minor that united in the Leonine Union of 1897.

Canada

The Récollets were important as early missionaries to the French colonies in Canada, although they were later displaced there by the Jesuits. The first Récollet missionaries sailed with Samuel de Champlain, embarking from Rouen and arriving at Quebec City on June 2, 1615. The Récollet fathers are said to have brewed the first beer in New France in 1620. They left New France in 1629 but returned in 1670. After the British conquest, the order was prohibited from recruiting new members but continued to do so, with the connivance of the British authorities, until the friary in Montreal burned down and the Bishop of Quebec refused to allow them to establish a new one. The last Canadian Récollet, Brother Louis, died in 1848 at Quebec City.

In Newfoundland, Récollets established in 1689 a monastery at Plaisance (Placentia), which was staffed until 1701 by Récollets from St. Denis. In 1701 they were replaced by Récollets from Brittany until the relocation of the French from Newfoundland in 1714 after the Treaty of Utrecht. In English-speaking Newfoundland, Recollect priests from Ireland played a significant role in the introduction and early leadership of Roman Catholicism on the island, following the public announcement of religious liberty to Roman Catholics by Governor John Campbell (Royal Navy officer) in 1784.

Guatemala

The Recollects established a monastery in Antigua, Guatemala that was destroyed by the Santa Marta earthquakes of 1773 and today is preserved as a national monument, - La Recolección Architectural Complex.

Famous "Récollets"

• Louis Hennepin
• Gabriel Sagard
• Christopher Maspara

References

• Jouve, Odoric-Marie (1996) (in French). Dictionnaire biographique des Récollets missionaires en Nouvelle-France, 1615-1645, 1670-1849, province franciscaine Saint-Joseph du Canada. Saint Laurent, Quebec: Bellarmin. pp. 903. ISBN 2-89007-815-9. 
• Taylor-Hood, Victoria (1999) (in English). "Religious Life in French Newfoundland to 1714" (Thesis). St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador: Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland. pp. xii, 339. 

External links

• Order of Friars Minor - see General History of the Order Second Period (1517-1909) (3) The Recollects
• Black Robes from Library and Archives Canada
• (French) Rue des Récollets, Quebec City & Montreal