Vocation et famille : l’exemple de la Lorraine aux xviie et xviiie siècles

• Main Author: Jean-Marc Lejuste
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhône-Alpes (LARHRA UMR 5190) 2012-05-01
• Series: Chrétiens et Sociétés
• Subjects: Vocation; Novice; Novitiate; Religious Orders; Monastic Wows; Family
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/chretienssocietes/2975

The birth of a vocation obeys many factors, some of which may find their origins within the family unit. But it is difficult to know the exact involvement of the family in the entry to religious life. Historians of the vocation are often confronted to such difficulty merely because of a problem of sources. However, it is not impossible to discover the real motives of a novice and decrypt the process that brings a young woman or young man to open the doors of the novitiate. Some documents can help a little lift the veil on the mystery of entering the religious life and notably in Lorraine, where coexist many convents and monasteries derived either from ancient orders or new orders. Through the examination of novices, the minutes of the Officiality and records of guardianships and trusteeships, this article proposes to study the implications of the family in the entry into religion in the 17th and 18th centuries within the context of the Lorraine dioceses.