Gueranger Prosper Louis Pascal

Gueranger Prosper Louis Pascal a French ecclesiastic, was born April 4, 1805, at Sable-sur-Sarthe, in Le Mans. He studied at Angers and Le Mans, and received holy orders in 1827. For some time he was professor at Le Mans, and at the same time secretary to the bishop of De la Myre. With a view to restoring the order of the Benedictines in France, he retired in 1833 to the Benedictine abbey at Solesmes, where, with a number of friends, he commenced a monastic life according to the rules of St. Benedict. In 1836 he went to Rome, made his profession in 1837, and was appointed by Gregory XVI, abbot of Solesmes and president of the Benedictine congregation of France. He was opposed to the Gallican Church and her liturgies. In the spirit of his motto he published, Institutions Liturgiques (1840-52, 3 volumes): — L'Anne Liturgique (1844-66, 9 volumes; translated also into German at Mayence, 1875): — Essais sur le Naturalisme Contemporain (1856, written against prince Albert de Broglie). When the Vatican council was opened, and the adherents of the Gallican Church insisted upon their privileges, Gudranger published De la Monarchie Pontificale, which was highly praised by pope Pius IX. At the time of his death, January 30, 1875, Gueranger was dean of Le Mans, Nantes and St. Denis. Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote, Origines de. Eglise Romaine (1836): — Histoire de Sainte Cecile (1848; 2d ed. 1853; translated also into German, Ratisbon, 1851): — Memoire sur la Question de l'Immacule: — Conception (1850): — Enchiridion Benedictinum, Complectens Regulam Vitam et Laudes, etc. (1862): — Les Exercises de Sainte Gertrude (2d ed. eod.): — Essai sur la Medaille de St. Benoit (4th ed. 1865; Germ. transl. Einsiedeln, 1863): — La Regle de Sainte Benoit (1868): — Sainte Cecile et la Societe Romaine aux deux Premiers Siecles (1873). See Literarischer Handweiser fur das Katholische Deutschland, 1875, col. 355, sq.; 1882, col. 323; Lichteinberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religienses, s.v. (B.P.).