Claude Poullart des Places:
Birth of the Spiritans
From Spiritan Missionary News,
Vol. 25 # 2.
They said he
should have gone to the Sorbonne, where his exceptional academic
abilities would have enabled him to get an honours degree in
theology. Coupled with his public speaking gifts, this would assure
Claude Poullart des Places from Brittany of a brilliant career in the
Church. Instead he went to the seminary of Saint Louis Le Grand,
where the poorer seminarians studied and where they gave no degrees.
Claude came from a well-off family. He could have inherited their
wealth and become a nobleman. He finished high school at the age of
fifteen, and then graduated first in his class from a two-year course
in philosophy. He had a rare talent for acting and loved ballet. He
travelled, rode horses, became an accomplished marksman, hunted and
danced. The world awaited this talented eighteen-year-old. At his
father's urging he studied law and after three years was called to
the bar. But he never practised. Much to his parents' disappointment,
he opted to become a priest.
The street kids from Savoy - the chimney sweeps of Paris - were
lonely and homesick in this faceless city. While a seminarian, Claude
became their friend, taught them to read and write, gave them some
basic religious education and looked after them as best he could.
It struck him that many of the seminarians were not much better off.
In order to pay for their accommodation they had to get minimum wage,
part time jobs. Claude shared his father's allowance with four or
five of the poor students and prevailed on the Jesuits to give them
any leftover food. Eventually he was able to rent a house for about
twelve seminarians. On Pentecost Sunday 1703 he began the community
and seminary consecrated to the Holy Spirit and dedicated to the
Immaculate Conception of Mary. See
Paris 1703
The Seminary of the Holy Spirit
Only poor seminarians were accepted. Claude did not want those who
chose the priesthood as a career. There was one rule for everybody,
staff and seminarians, including Claude: he washed dishes, cleaned
shoes, ran messages and did the shopping just like everyone else. He
expected everyone to "eat with gratitude what was placed before
them and not go looking for something better." In addition to
being poor, the seminarians had to be willing to work in the most
difficult and impoverished parishes, and as hospital chaplains.
Bishops would later seek them for overseas work in the French
colonies. They were trained to be both competent and caring. "A
dedicated priest who lacks learning is blind," said Claude.
"A learned priest who lacks dedication is in danger of falling
into heresy." He gave these penniless future priests a training
that was better and longer than that of most of their contemporaries.
It soon became apparent that he could not do it all by himself. He
gathered a small community of formators who together would shoulder
the responsibility for these young men. This marked the real
beginning of the Spiritans.
Claude himself was ordained in 1707 and less than two years later he
was dead. The severe winter of 1709 proved too much for him. They
cared for him in his seminary as no bed was available in the local
hospital. They buried him in a pauper's plot in the nearby churchyard
of St Etienne - in a common ditch, to be covered over with earth and
used again as needed. An unmarked grave. No monument. But an enduring legacy.
Welcome
to the site of the TransCanada Province of the Spiritans. We are a
Roman Catholic Religious Congregation of over three thousand members,
founded in 1703. Our missions are spread worldwide. While we may be
found involved in many diverse ministries, we have dedicated
ourselves to working with the poor and in those situations where the
Church has difficulty in finding ministers. We hope you enjoy your
visit to our site and that while browsing you will keep us in your
prayers. May God bless you.
