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On the Colettines from Ghent to their asylum at Poligny and the translation of the relics of St. Colette

HAREL, Maximilian M. (Le père Elie Harel).
Histoire de l'émigration des religieuses supprimées dans les Pays-Bas, & conduites en France par M. l'Abbé  de Saint-Sulpice, envoyé de Madame Louise de France & du Prince-Evêquede de Gand, pour la translation des Reliques de Sainte Collette à Poligny en Franche-Comté; rédigée d'après les mémoires de l'Abbé de Saint-Sulpice.


With 4 full-page engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail pieces.

With 4 full-page engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail pieces.

With 4 full-page engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail pieces.

With 4 full-page engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail pieces.

With 4 full-page engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail pieces.



Bruxelles, (B. le Franq), 1784; for sale: Paris, Guillot, & Verdun, Guillot, 8vo. Later half calf, spine lettered in gold, marbled covers and edges. With 4 full-page engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail pieces. (4), 134, (4) pp.

First and only edition of this very rare account of the emigration of the Congregation of St. Colette from Ghent to the Sister-Convent at Poligny in France, after the suppression of the religious orders in the Austrian Empire in 1782. The sisters got permission of asylum in France through the intercession of the aunt of the French King, Madame Louise de France, and were accompanied on their voyage to their new residence by the abbot Raymond of St. Sulpice and the Archbishop of Ghent.

Saint Colette (1381- 6 March 1447), born Nicolette Boylet or Boellet, was the founder of the order of Colettine Poor Clares (the Clarisses), a reformation of the Urbanist Poor Clares. Born at Calcye near Corbie in Picardy in January 1381, her father, Robert Boellet, was the carpenter of the famous Benedictine Abbey of Corbie. After her parents died in 1398, Colette became a hermit under the direction of the Abbot of Corbie, living near the abbey church. Gaining a reputation for holiness, she became a tertiary of the Franciscan order. She joined the Beguines and the Benedictines. Following several dreams and visions, she believed that she was being called to reform the Urbanist Poor Clares, and return the order to its original Franciscan ideals of absolute poverty and austerity. She turned to the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII who was recognized in France as the rightful pope. Benedict allowed her to enter the Franciscan order of Poor Clares and empowered her by several Bulls, dated 1406, 1407, 1408, and 1412, to found new convents and complete the reform of the order. With the approval of the Countess of Geneva and the aid of the Franciscan itinerant preacher, Henri de la Beaume, her confessor and spiritual guide, Colette began her work at Beaume, in the diocese of Geneva. She remained there but a short time and soon opened at Besançon her first convent. Thence her reform spread to Auxonne (1410), to Poligny, to Ghent (1412), to Heidelberg (1444), to Amiens, and to other communities of Poor Clares. For the convents reformed by her she prescribed extreme poverty, to go barefooted, and the observance of perpetual fast and abstinence.
Colette died at Ghent in 1447. She was beatified 23 January 1740, and canonized 24 May 1807. The Colettine Sisters are found today, outside of France, in Belgium, Germany, Spain, England, and the United States.
Colette had intended to be buried in Poligny (and had prophesied it), but the weariness of a long life devoted to her sisters, travelling from house to house, wore her out finally at Ghent, in Belgium. She died there on 6th March 1447. However, 'God uses even political chaos to fulfil the words of his saints': as is described in our book, the sister took Colette's relics with them to bring them 'home' to Poligny, in Savoy, where they are cherished and venerated to this day.
At the end (pp. 75-134) some official  documents, the life of St. Colette from the Vie des saints, traduite de'l'Anglois par l'Abbé Godescard (vol. 2, p. 497), several songs composed for the occasion on popular tunes - one by the Marquis d'Astorgues, and a 'Copie du discours prononcé par Dom. D'Epermont. The plates show 'Madame Louise prie le Roy d'accorder un azile au Coletines de Gand', the departure of the sisters from Ghent, their arrival at St. Denis, and their arrival at Poligny with the 'Céremonie de la translation des reliques de St. Colette'.
A stocklist of the book sellers Guillot at the end.

Good copy.- (Old ownership's entry in ink on title).

Related Subjects: 18th Century  France  Religious Orders 

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