Dom Pothier

Dom Joseph Pothier, O.S.B. (1835–1923) was a worldwide known French prelate, liturgist and scholar who reconstituted the Gregorian chant.

Born in 1835 at Bouzemont, France, Dom Joseph Pothier was ordained a priest in the diocese of Saint-Dié in 1858, before immediately joining St Peter's Abbey, Solesmes under Abbot Dom Prosper Guéranger.

By founding in the then derelict priory of Solesmes the first new abbey of the Order of Saint Benedict in France, Dom Guéranger had re-established monastic life in the country after it had been wiped out by the French Revolution.

Dom Pothier later was made subprior (1862-1863 and 1866-1893) of Solesmes, then claustral prior (1893-1894) of St Martin's Abbey, Ligugé, a former deserted priory which had been resettled by Solesmes, and superior (1895-1898) of the colony of monks from Ligugé being in turn repeopling the monastery of St Wandrille (Fontenelle), an ancient and abandoned Benedictine abbey - also suppressed during the French Revolution - in Saint-Wandrille-Rançon, Normandy.

Pope Leo XIII having restored the abbatial title of Fontenelle specially for him, Dom Pothier was eventually raised to the dignity of Abbot of St Wandrille's Abbey (installed on 24 July 1898) - becoming the first abbot of the monastery since the French Revolution and its first regular abbot since the 16th century - and the Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen (primate of Normandy), assisted by the abbots of Solesmes and Ligugé as co-consecrators, conferred the abbatial blessing upon him on 29 September 1898, in the presence of three other prelates and 150 priests.

Dom Pothier moved from France to Belgium with his exiled community in 1901, following the French "Association Laws" against religious congregations passed by Minister Waldeck-Rousseau.

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