Lacordaire, Henri

(1802-1861)

   cleric

   Henri Lacordaire, a Dominican priest who led the Roman Catholic revival in France following the revolution of 1789, was born in Recey-sur-Ource, Côte d'Or. He was ordained a priest in 1827, after practicing law in Paris, and soon joined the small group of intellectuals under the influence of félicité robert de Lamennais, the philosopher, political writer, and priest who was one of the founders of L'Avenir. After that journal's condemnation (1832), however, Lacordaire separated from this group and, submitting to the papal decree, turned his energies to preaching. His sermons at the Collège Stanislaus, and especially at Notre-Dame de Paris (1835-36), were considered literary and social events. He entered the Dominican order in Rome in 1839, and was a major force in the order's reestablishment in France (1848). Lacordaire served as the order's provincial (1850-54 and 1858-61) and also as director of the seminary at Sorèze, Tarn (1854). Elected deputy for Marseille in 1848, Lacordaire worked in support of the Christian democratic movement for which he also served as an editor for the journal L'Ère nouvelle. He was elected to the académie FRANÇAISE in 1860.