Gérard Calvet

Dom Gérard Calvet (November 18, 1927 – February 28, 2008) was a French Roman Catholic abbot and founder of the Sainte Madeleine du Barroux abbey in Le Barroux, France. He was considered to be an important figure in contemporary Catholic traditionalism.

Calvet was born in Bordeaux, Gironde on November 18, 1927. He took his vows to become a Benedictine monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Madiran on February 4, 1951. Calvet was ordained a Catholic priest on May 13, 1956. In 1963 he was sent to help with the foundation of a daughterhouse of his abbey in Tournay, Brazil.

Upon returning from Brazil in 1968 he found the religious life in the abbey completely changed in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. Feeling unable to live with those changes he asked for and received the permission to leave the abbey for some time. After having spent some time at Fontgombault Abbey and Montrieux Charterhouse, he settled down as a hermit in Bédoin 1970, again with the permission of his superiors.

Shortly after beginning life as a hermit he was contacted by young men who aspired to become traditional Benedictine monks, but could not find the traditional life in the postconciliar monasteries. He accepted them as postulant, who still made their first vows into the hands of the abbot of Tournay. In 1974 he invited Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to confer minor orders on the aspirants, for which he and his foundation were excluded from the Subiaco Congregation.

After acquiring land near Le Barroux (Provence), France, construction of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux Abbey began in 1980. The construction was completed during the 1980s. During the 1980s, Gérard Calvet was, together with Archbishop Lefebvre, one of the focal persons of the Traditional Catholic movement.

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