Blog by Louis Savary
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#1 What school helped shape young Teilhard’s intellect and outlook?
“…all abstract knowledge is only a faded reality, because to understand the world knowledge is not enough, you must see it, touch it, live in its presence and drink the vital heat of existence in the heart of reality.”
The Heart of Matter, 71
It was the Jesuit Collège de Notre-Dame de Mongré. For over three hundred years, Jesuit schools had shaped many of the finest minds in Europe. In France, the Jesuits were known as confessors of kings and educators of royalty. Even after Frenchmen overthrew the monarchy in 1789 and France became a republic, Jesuit high schools, known as collèges in France, were forced to adapt. They not only adapted, but also flourished. When young Teilhard entered high school, he had at least a dozen schools in France run by Jesuits to choose from. These schools continued training the youth of the elite: the young men who would become France’s military officers, higher clergy, government leaders, lawyers, university professors, and outstanding businessmen. Following a family tradition, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin entered the Jesuit high school Notre-Dame de Mongré in 1892 at age eleven. His older brother Alberic had just graduated Mongré and entered the French Navy. Pierre’s father and his uncles had attended the same school in their youth. The curriculum at Mongré would be intense: Latin, Greek, German, mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, philosophy, and religion. Classes were designed to develop a classical mindset and an intellectual methodology. Students learned to decline Latin nouns for the same reason musicians practice their scales, to cultivate discipline and maintain proficiency. Life in the dorms at Mongré would be Spartan, food in the cafeteria plentiful but simple. Early rising, daily mass, and a regimen of classes defined the life of the student. Perhaps more importantly, during their five-year program of study at Mongré, students formed lifetime friendships and alliances. Such camaraderie, fostered also through school sports and weekend outings, likely played a more significant role in the long run in their careers than getting a high grade in second year Latin class. Unlike his brother Alberic, who delighted in sports, fun, and exciting outings with his friends during weekend breaks, Pierre preferred to walk alone along a nearby river, looking for unusual stones. A few of the friends he made there would, like him, elect to join the Society of Jesus after they finished at Mongré. During summer vacations, Pierre rejoined his family at Sarcenat, their summer home. There, he eagerly resumed his rock-picking with his father in the nearby mountains.“Even if my passion for stones, and even more for antiquities, has not completely flared up again, I shall rekindle it during the summer holidays, for the fire is still in me, more active than ever.”
Letter to his Parents from Mongré (Spirit of Fire, 10)
[Mongré was located about ten miles from the city of Lyons, on the outskirts of a small town called Villefranche-sur-Saône. Villefranche borders the Saône River.] Reflection: Did your years in high school help shape your mind and outlook on life?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#2 Did young Teilhard have a spiritual crisis during high school?
” . . . mysticism (even Christian mysticism) has never doubted but that God must be looked for only ‘in heaven’ . . . Yet all the time . . . the natural movement of my thought had been . . . counter to this traditional orientation . . . I can look back and distinguish the first traces of this opposition in my years at school, when I remember my pathetic attempts to reconcile the evangelism . . . of the Imitation of Christ on which I drew for my morning prayers, with the attraction I found in Nature.”
The Heart of Matter, 45-46.
Yes. When Pierre Teilhard de Chardin entered the Jesuit high school Notre-Dame de Mongré in France, traditional spirituality—love of God and hatred of the World—dominated religious life throughout France and Europe. Typical of teenagers, who often wish to explore other interests than those of their parents, Pierre began to read spiritual books referred to him by his teachers. Among books recommended to Pierre was The Imitation of Christ, a book whose spirituality was very prominent among many Jesuits of that era. The advice in its pages caused confusion in Pierre’s soul. The Imitation told him to despise things of the earth for they would keep him from union with God. Pierre passionately loved the earth, especially searching for fossils and other treasures hidden in matter. If he wanted to love God, would he have to give up his love of rocks? Unable to resolve his dilemma, he sought the counsel of one of his teachers. The priest to whom he confided his spiritual dilemma assured Pierre that his geological enjoyment would not hinder his spiritual life. However, we know from Teilhard’s later writings about his inner life that he did not resolved this dilemma for many years, even well after his priestly ordination. Again and again, he was tempted to abandon his love for geology in order to devote himself entirely to God. Yet, again and again, his passion for rocks reasserted itself. His spiritual pendulum continued to swing from one side to the other. It was at the Jesuit school Notre-Dame de Mongré where Pierre, at age eleven, received his First Holy Communion. More than a decade would pass before the church allowed young children to receive the Eucharist. At Mongré, Pierre was also introduced to devotion to the Blessed Virgin. During his senior year, he was elected president of the Sodality of Our Lady. During his final year at Mongré, he decided to enter the Jesuit Order. As a Jesuit novice, he would continue to hear his Jesuit mentors extol a spirituality based on hatred of the world.“It does seem to me as though God is offering me a vocation to leave the world. You can well imagine that once I’m certain that I’m not mistaken, I shall answer this call; and I know too that you will be the last to raise any difficulties. All I now need is for our Lord to make me feel unmistakably what he wants of me and to give me the generosity of spirit that is needed.” Letter to his Parents from Mongré
Reflection: Did you ever have a crisis of faith in your life? How would you describe it?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#3 Where did young Teilhard develop his deep interest in philosophical thinking?
“Father Bonner, the philosophy teacher . . . showed us how we can attain holiness by the practice of the least showy virtues and by the simple performance of everyday duties just as well as by undergoing martyrdom or by miracles.”
Letter to His Parents (Spirit of Fire, 11)
During fifth year of high school, every student in France was required to take the baccalaureate exam. According to historians, the Baccalaureate was started by Napoleon in order to promote the study of philosophy among French youth. The famous general saw philosophy as a pursuit very natural to the French. France had already produced many great philosophers in its history—Abelard, Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu. Napoleon wanted that tradition to continue. It is perhaps why, when someone receives a doctorate today, even in mathematics or physics or sociology, he or she is called a Ph.D., a doctor of philosophy. To this day, young people in France must take courses in philosophy during their high school years and sit for the “Bac,” as they call it today. This four-hour exam requires students to write an extensive essay on a philosophical theme assigned that morning. The theme is chosen by a national committee. It is based on a perennial philosophical theme, such as justice, conscience, freedom, duty, desire, existence. Students are expected to explore the assigned theme from the perspective of ancient as well as contemporary philosophers. Imagine American high school students taking courses in Aristotle, Plato, Voltaire, Hegel, Kant, Camus, and the like! Scores achieved in the two-tier Baccalaureate determine whether or not a student can (1) graduate and (2) go on to university studies. However, if one wanted to pursue a higher degree in a scientific field, there was also a separate qualifying baccalaureate exam in mathematics to endure. Over the years, students at the Jesuit school would have collected and saved baccalaureate exam questions. Using past-years’ questions, Jesuit teachers would coach their students on how to write successful essays. Students would rehearse taking the exam again and again in their classrooms. Tradition has it that students at Mongré never failed a Baccalaureate. During Pierre’s final years at Mongré, he became deeply physically and mentally exhausted, and spiritually troubled. After passing both tiers of his baccalaureate exam, he returned home for a year to rest and recuperate. In his favorite room at Sarcenat, he studied for the mathematical exams. He was given a private exam in Clermont, evaluated by a private jury. He passed, qualifying him to pursue a university degree as well as a science doctorate. After his priestly ordination and a stint in military service as a stretcher-bearer during World War I, he would return to Paris to earn his doctorate in geology.
“. . . one of my classical pupils was a little fellow from Auvergne, very intelligent, first in every subject, but disconcertingly well behaved. . . . it was only long afterwards that I learned the secret of his seeming indifference. Transporting his mind far away from us was another love, a jealous and absorbing passion—stones.”
Letter from a Jesuit teacher at Mongré
Reflection: Did anyone ever inspire you to begin thinking about the meaning of life in general and the purpose of your life in particular?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#4 What was life like for a young man who entered the Society of Jesus early in the 20th century?
“When I was seventeen, the desire for the ‘most perfect’ determined my vocation to the Jesuits . . . The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would be psychologically incapable of making the least effort, if I were unable to believe in the absolute value of something in that effort.” Spirit of Fire, 16
Just a few months before his 18th birthday, Teilhard began his Jesuit life at the Jesuit novitiate in Aix-en-Provence. In a Jesuit novitiate anywhere in Europe and America, life would have been the same. Teilhard spent his first few weeks as a “postulant,” growing accustomed to Jesuit daily life—rising at 5:30 am, donning and belting an unfamiliar Jesuit cassock, meditating privately for an hour on one’s knees, attending community mass at seven, and finally enjoying a hearty breakfast, in silence, at eight. Daily life in a two-year Jesuit novitiate excluded the “world” as much as possible. A novitiate library held only books on spirituality, histories of the church, and lives of the saints, especially Jesuit saints. There were no newspapers or magazines. No novels or books that might “upset” the mind of a young man destined to spend his life serving God. Any mail sent or received might be checked by the novicemaster or his associate. A daily schedule was posted on a bulletin board each morning by the Manuductor, a second-year novice, appointed by the novicemaster. Besides keeping a daily log of all novitiate events (in Latin), the Manuductor arranged each novice’s indoor housework assignments—cleaning toilets, mopping halls, setting tables in the refectory, working with the cook, washing dishes, etc. Silence reigned in novitiate rooms, corridors, dining hall, and kitchen. If someone needed to say a few words, one spoke quietly and only in Latin. When outdoors, during recreation or doing yard work, French was permitted. Learning to converse in Latin was essential, because during the rest of Jesuit training all courses in philosophy and theology would be conducted in Latin. Oral exams were also conducted in Latin. We can assume that Teilhard adapted well to the strict discipline of novitiate life. Its peaceful atmosphere nurtured his quiet and devout personality. We have no extant letters to his parents or anyone else during his novitiate. Jesuit indoctrination was very thorough—unquestioned obedience to a command of a superior. Strict punctuality to any assignment or event was essential. Ignatius had said that if a bell rang to call you to an assignment, you were to stop whatever you were doing instantly and obey the call of the bell. If you had been writing a sentence and had just begun writing a word, you were to stop in the middle of that word, get up and go to where the bell called you. You were not even to cross a “t” or dot an “i.” Once you were accepted as a novice, your fellow Jesuits became your true family. There was no returning home for summer vacation. A novice did not get permission for a home visit, even for a family wedding or a funeral. During Teilhard’s novitiate, he was reborn as a Jesuit. He learned to think like a Jesuit and act like a Jesuit. His biological family, with permission, might visit with him on a Sunday afternoon, a few times a year. Some young men could not deal with such physical, emotional, and psychological indoctrination, so they quietly left the novitiate. Some left during the first months. A few left later in the year, since Christmas holidays away from family were too much to bear. After two years, novices pronounced their first religious vows. They became Jesuits forever.“At the novitiate, he was a model novice, modest and apparently shy, but always ready to oblige others . . . He was simple and unassuming, anxious not to appear in any way different from others, joyful and lively, and a great walker . . . ” Teilhard de Chardin Album
Reflection: Did you ever experience anything like Teilhard’s novitiate, where you were strongly impacted physically, emotionally, and intellectually?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#5 What kinds of spirituality was Teilhard taught in a Jesuit novitiate?
“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.” Principle and Foundation Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises
Soon after the new novices became accustomed to novitiate life, they underwent a 30-day retreat based on St Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. Stages of the retreat followed the four “weeks” of the Exercises. Each retreat day included as many as five hours of prayer, according to the activities prescribed by Ignatius.
Perhaps most difficult for many was its 30 days of almost total silence. Even outdoor work had to be done in silence. There was no recreation time. The only time a retreatant got to use his voice was in private conference with the novicemaster or in hymns and responses during liturgical events. Although Ignatian spirituality in the Spiritual Exercises promoted “finding God in all things,” much of the spiritual literature assigned to be read and studied during the novitiate contradicted this fundamental Jesuit attitude. Spiritual writing produced during the centuries after the council of Trent was typically written by men living protected lives in monastic abbeys. They emphasized keeping distance from the wiles of the world and other people. In this spirituality, human accomplishments held no spiritual value or purpose. Prayer alone had value. One’s life was to be focused not on Earth but on Heaven and attaining heavenly bliss. This proved confusing to Teilhard, the young novice, because, in contrast, fully formed Jesuits were expected to live and function immersed in the world. It was also confusing because he continued to feel his passion for exploring rocks and the mysteries of matter. A Jesuit was to choose “only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created,” namely, the salvation of one’s soul.“For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.”
Principle and Foundation Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises
Reflection: Later in his life, Teilhard recognized that this Ignatian Principle and Foundation was based on a fixed universe, not an evolving one. In a fixed universe, saving one’s soul is most important. Would saving your soul still be your most important goal, knowing that you live in an evolving universe and have responsibility for the future?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#6 How did the first stage of Jesuit academic training shape Teilhard?
“I am at last entirely at the disposition of the Blessed Virgin . . . completely attached, forever, to the Society at the very moment when it is being so severely persecuted . . . I shall never forget all you have done to foster my vocation. But keep on praying that I may continue to be equal to whatever God asks of me.” Teilhard’s letter to his parent after taking his first vows in the Society of Jesus.
When Pierre finished his novitiate in Aix-en-Provence in south-central France, he moved with his classmates to the Jesuit Juniorate in Laval. Laval was a very old city in the northwest corner of France. Here Pierre took his first religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and thereby became a full-fledged member of the Society of Jesus. He could now write S.J. after his name. Although these vows were called “first vows,” they were not temporary vows meant to last only a period of years; they were permanent. In Laval, Teilhard and his classmates, about 15 of them, entered into the period of formal Jesuit educational training. The Jesuit Juniorate, a two-year process immediately following the novitiate, focused on the study of poetry and drama during the first year, and rhetoric during the second. Poetry year covered not merely French poetry and drama, but the poetry and drama of the ancient Greeks in Greek—Homer, Aeschylus, Demosthenes, Euripides; and ancient Romans in Latin—Horace, Ovid, Catullus. In French Juniorates, young Jesuits would also study German poetry (in German), Shakespeare, and other classical works of drama. The second juniorate year focused on the art of public speaking. Every Jesuit would become a teacher, a professor, a philosopher, a scientist, a parish priest, or a missionary. They would all have to know how to speak in public and explain things clearly and convincingly. Jesuits turned to the elite of Greek and Roman oratory—Thucydides, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Cicero—for their lessons. They learned how to use symbol, metaphor, imagery, parable, example, logic, history, and story-telling to captivate and convince their listeners. The juniorate was a very heady and challenging intellectual time. Teilhard’s juniorate was broken up by a French law that forbade the church and religious orders from running educational institutions in France. This law, commonly referred to as the Combes Law, separated activities of church and state. (Religious congregations may establish a private school, as long as it was not administered or run by priests or nuns.) Combes Law affected all Jesuit schools in France as well as its seminaries. Teilhard’s class had to move from Laval in France to a Jesuit school on the English-speaking Isle of Jersey, in the English Channel, about 14 miles from the French coast. It was Teilhard’s first encounter with a new culture and a new language. In France at this time, there was a growing hatred of Catholic clerics because of their association with royalty. So, to remain inconspicuous leaving France, the young Jesuits decided to make the trip in nonclerical clothing. Teilhard and his classmates, with only religious outfits to their names, wrote to parents to send lay clothing for them to wear for the journey. Unfortunately, since it was already wintertime, much of the clothing that came in packages from home was outdated or appropriate for summer wear, too big or too small. Pierre’s family sent him personal clothing he had left at home when he entered the Jesuits; Pierre had outgrown all of it. Apparently, one young Jesuit from a wealthy family received a package containing a tuxedo complete with top hat. Naturally, the young Jesuits were humorously and totally conspicuous. The Isle of Jersey was Teilhard’s first encounter with a new culture and a new language. As he and his classmates got off the boat on the Isle of Jersey, in October, 1901, dressed as if going to a masquerade party, it is difficult to imagine what the local Protestant fishermen on the dock thought of these men.“The sudden emptying of so many seminaries at once had, as a side effect, the tossing of many young men with minds of real distinction all together on a foreign beach. Since they inevitably sought friends of their own intellectual level, circles formed where the thought and conversation were of an unusually high order. In Jersey, little companionable groups came into being that were not unlike the small community of devoted brothers Ignatius Loyola had envisioned for his Society . . . “
Teilhard: A Biography. Mary and Ellen Lucas, 32
Reflection: How did your academic training shape you for the challenges of life? Who were some of the great minds that influenced your life and career?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#7 How did Teilhard resolve his inner debate between love of God and love of Earth?
“Soon he was spellbound by the magic appeal of the wide, open sea, the wind and waves, the lonely rock-strewn shores. These captured his senses and imagination. Here was nature in the raw, untamed and wild, full of grandeur and overwhelmingly powerful forces.”
Spirit and Fire, 18.
As the boat with a group of young Jesuit “juniors” approached the Isle of Jersey, Pierre Teilhard’s eyes were captivated by the most stunning rock formations he had ever seen. Once he settled into his room at the Jesuit residence, he strolled around the island and was awed by the natural beauty of the place.
“Rocks and sea surrounded him,” wrote Ursula King, his biographer, “conveying majestic solidity. They made him inquire into their nature, search more deeply into the stuff of matter” (Spirit of Fire, 20-21). The study of rocks became his absorbing passion.
However, while on Jersey, four family events occurred that interrupted his preoccupation with exploring the geology and mineralogy of the island. His elder brother Alberic, the naval officer, died of tuberculosis. His older sister Francois entered the convent and was assigned to work in China. His closest younger sister Marguerite Marie (Gigi) was stricken with an incurable illness that kept her mostly bedridden for the rest of her short life. And another, even younger sister, Marie Louise died of meningitis at the age of thirteen. These four close family events shook Teilhard to the core, and made him question the purpose of his life as a Jesuit and his fascination with rocks.
The old dilemma, that he first experienced in high school and again in the novitiate, reared its head for a third time. Did God really want him to pursue his scientific explorations, or were these four family-shattering events clear signs from God that he was called to a life of prayer and contemplation. His heart was torn.
Fortunately, the priest who had been his novice master in France had also moved to Jersey. Teilhard went to see him, and poured out his dilemma: Shall I commit myself to the love of Earth and discovering its story or shall I leave that pursuit and commit myself exclusively to the love of God and my spiritual perfection?
The novice master Fr. Troussard gave him a nondual answer to his either/or question.
“I seriously considered the possibility of completely giving up “the Science of Rocks” which I find so exciting . . . And if I did not run off the rails this time, it is to the robust common sense of Father Troussard that I owe it. He assured me that what the God of the Cross was looking for from me was the natural expansion of my being as well as its sanctification. But he did not explain how I could accomplish this, or why. What he said, however, was enough to leave me with a firm grasp of both ends of the challenge. And so, I emerged from that trial unscathed.”
Teilhard’s personal journal while on the isle of Jersey
Reflection: Have you ever found a nondual answer to one of your either/or questions? Did someone ever help you find a nondual answer?
Getting to Know Teilhard: Early Jesuit Influence
#8 How did Teilhard’s three years in Egypt affect his interest in geology and in the East?
“The East flowed over me in a first wave of exoticism. I gazed at it and drank it eagerly —the country itself, not its peoples or its history (which as yet held no interest for me), but its light, its vegetation, its fauna, its deserts.”
The Teilhard Album
After the first seven years of Jesuit life in the quiet seclusion of academia, every Jesuit is given a three-year teaching assignment in a Jesuit school. This period of training is called regency, where young Jesuits get a chance to apply some of the teaching skills they learned in classes or observed in their own professors. Some of his classmates were assigned to schools in Europe, Africa, or the mid-East. Teilhard was assigned to teach physics and chemistry at a Jesuit high school in Cairo, Egypt. He was also to look after the school’s “museum,” which he found in total disarray when he arrived. His many, many letters written to family and friends during this period have been gathered and assembled in a book called Letters from Egypt 1905-1908. Some of these letters are as long as six or seven pages, full of great detail, forming a rich memoir of an observant traveler. Religiously, Egypt houses many churches, synagogues, and mosques. Teilhard became acquainted with many different Christian denominations functioning there: Orthodox, Coptic, Maronite, as well as Roman Catholic. Teilhard got to experience their various liturgies and met with their dignitaries. During summer vacations, he took excursions on the Nile, visited pyramids, and the major cities of Egypt, especially where archaeological excavations were happening. He also spent weekend with his hammer and chisel excavating nearby geological sites. His lesser discoveries he placed in the school’s museum. Others, more significant, he took to the museum in Cairo or to the Institute of Egyptology, where he became friends with curators. In turn, they suggested other rich geological sites nearby that he could explore on weekends. They kept some of his finds in their museums and even published a few of his observations and discoveries in their bulletin. They invited him to scholarly meetings as well. In a letter to his father and sister, he reported finding species of butterflies and insects that people in France had only read about. His invalid sister Marguerite Marie (Gigi) had become a collector of butterflies, so he delighted in sending her samples through the post. Sadly, he never learned to speak Arabic, which he regretted. He wrote home once, telling his parent he wished they had provided an Arabic-speaking governess during his childhood summers at Sarcenat, rather than the German-speaking one he had had. He wrote to his sister Françoise, then superior of a convent in China, that after ordination, his greatest dream was to return to Egypt, because he found much happiness there.“A week ago we had a very violent storm: that is how the summer usually ends. The clouds banked up in the evening, moving up the Nile, and from our school’s terrace the sight was remarkable. Half the sky was black, all fissured with such beautiful flashes that I had my science students leave their work to show them this display of electricity; the other half, above the desert, was without a vapor, and the full moon was rising. The storm began with an avalanche of hailstones, many of which were as big as nuts. Then there was a little rain; and fifteen minutes later, the sky was studded with stars. What was most typical was the joy of the Arabs, who all ran into the streets to pick up the hailstones and eat them.”
Letters from Egypt, 201-2.
Reflection: Is there somewhere in the world that you once experienced so powerfully that you longed to return there to recapture the same experience?