The spirit of Solesmes - Prosper Guranger

The Abbey of Solesmes, in the Sarthe region of Western France, is famous above all for its plainchant and the contribution it has made to the liturgical renewal that has borne fruit in the present century. It has also been at the forefront of spiritual renewal in the 19th and 20th centuries. This book presents a selection of the writings - from letters, conferences, retreats and published works - of three major figures at the centre of this liturgical and spiritual renewal.;Prosper Gueranger (1805-75) was a major figure in the development of Solesmes and in many fields of 19th-century scholarship, and abbot for some 20 years. Cecile Bruyere (1845-1909) was appointed prioress of the new sister foundation, Sainte-Cecile, at the age of 22, then abbess, and was a spiritual adviser and writer. Paul Delatte (1848-1937) oversaw, as abbot, a huge expansion at Solesmes itself and was an equally influential writer.;Exiled under a hostile republican French government, the monks of Solesmes established a foundation on the Isle of Wight, where a community still thrives at Quarr Abbey. The nuns eventually settled at Ryde, the community to which the editor of the book belongs.