12 mai 1802
21 novembre 1861
Lacordaire, Enrique Domingo
Lacordaire, Henricus Dominicus
Lacordaire, Henri
Lacordaire, Henri-Dominique (1802-1861)
Né le 12 mai 1802 à Recey-sur-Ource (Côte-d'Or), Henri-Dominique Lacordaire est le fils de Nicolas Lacordaire, médecin de la marine française pendant la guerre d'indépendance aux États-Unis et d'Anne Dugied, fille d'un avocat au parlement de Bourgogne. Il a trois frères : Théodore Lacordaire, entomologiste, Adrien-Léon, ingénieur des mines de Saint-Étienne et directeur de la Manufacture des Gobelins de 1850 à 1860, et Télèphe, chef d'escadron du 6e Hussard de l'armée française. Orphelin de père à 4 ans, il est élevé par sa mère à Dijon. Il fait ses études au lycée de Dijon. Il étudie ensuite le droit, se destinant à la carrière d'avocat, et se signale par ses qualités d'orateur au sein de la Société d'études de Dijon, un cercle politique et littéraire réunissant la jeunesse royaliste de la ville, où il découvre les théories ultramontaines de Louis de Bonald, Joseph de Maistre, et Félicité de Lamennais. En 1822, il part pour Paris afin d'effectuer son stage d'avocat. Il plaide avec succès à plusieurs reprises en cour d'assises, suscitant l'intérêt du grand avocat libéral Berryer.
À l'issue d'une longue période de doutes et d'interrogations, il se convertit au printemps 1824, et décide d'être prêtre. Grâce au soutien de Mgr de Quélen, archevêque de Paris, qui lui accorde une bourse, et malgré les fortes réticences de sa mère et de ses amis, il entre le 12 mai 1824 au séminaire Saint-Sulpice, à Issy, puis, à partir de 1826, à Paris, où l'enseignement, d'une qualité généralement médiocre, ne convient pas à sa formation antérieure, à son caractère et à ses idées libérales. Ordonné prêtre le 22 septembre 1827 par Mgr de Quélen, il est nommé chapelain d'un couvent de visitandines, et, l'année suivante, second aumônier du lycée Henri-IV. Cette expérience confirme à ses yeux la déchristianisation de la jeunesse française confiée à l'enseignement public, dont lui-même a fait partie. En mai 1830, il est invité par l'abbé Félicité de Lamennais, alors l'un des maîtres à penser de la jeunesse catholique française, dans sa propriété bretonne de la Chênaie (Saint-Malo).
À cette époque, Lacordaire songe à partir aux États-Unis comme missionnaire mais les événements de 1830 le retiennent en France. Avec Lamennais et le jeune vicomte Charles de Montalembert, il choisit de se rallier à la révolution de Juillet, en exigeant l'application intégrale de la Charte de 1830 et le soutien des révolutions étrangères (en Pologne, en Belgique, en Italie). Ils lancent, le 16 octobre 1830, le journal l' Avenir, dont la devise est « Dieu et la liberté ! ». Lacordaire se signale en particulier par des articles demandant la liberté d'expression et la liberté de la presse, la liberté d'enseignement, contre le monopole de l'Université, s'opposant à Montalivet, le ministre de l'Instruction publique et des cultes. Il exige aussi la séparation de l'Église et de l'État. Les rédacteurs de l ’Avenir fondent en décembre 1830 l’Agence générale pour la défense de la liberté religieuse, et, le 9 mai 1831, Lacordaire, Montalembert et de Coux ouvrent une école libre, rue des Beaux-Arts, qui est fermée par la police deux jours plus tard. S'ensuit un procès retentissant devant la Chambre des pairs, où Lacordaire se défend lui-même, mais qui s’achève par la condamnation de cette initiative et la fermeture définitive de l’école. Le journal l’ Avenir est suspendu par ses fondateurs le 15 novembre 1831. Le 30 décembre, Lacordaire, Lamennais et Montalembert, les « pèlerins de la liberté », se rendent à Rome, afin d'en appeler au jugement du pape Grégoire XVI, auquel ils présentent un Mémoire rédigé par Lacordaire. Mais le 15 août 1832, le pape condamne leurs idées par l'encyclique Mirari Vos, notamment les revendications portant sur la liberté de conscience et la liberté de la presse. Lacordaire reprend alors ses fonctions d'aumônier des visitandines et publie le 11 septembre une lettre de soumission au jugement du pape.
En janvier 1833, il rencontre pour la première fois Sophie Swetchine, femme de lettres russe convertie au catholicisme, tenant un salon célèbre à Paris, que fréquentent aussi Montalembert, le comte de Falloux, ou l'abbé Félix Dupanloup. Il développe avec elle une relation à la fois filiale et amicale, à travers une correspondance considérable. En 1835, il fait également la connaissance de la baronne de Prailly avec qui il engage aussi une longue correspondance et dont il devient le directeur de conscience.
En janvier 1834, sur la proposition du jeune Frédéric Ozanam, le fondateur de l'œuvre charitable de la Société de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, l'abbé Lacordaire commence une série de conférences au collège Stanislas, qui rencontrent un très grand succès, au-delà même des étudiants. En 1835 il prêche pour le Carême à la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, dans le cadre des Conférences de Notre-Dame, spécialement destinées à l'initiation de la jeunesse au christianisme.
En 1837 Lacordaire entre chez les Dominicains, dont il décide de rétablir l'ordre en France. Le maître général des dominicains, le père Ancarani, lui offre l'usage du couvent romain de Sainte-Sabine à Rome, pour établir le premier noviciat des dominicains français. Le 9 avril 1839, Henri Lacordaire prend l'habit dominicain au couvent de la Minerve, à Rome, et reçoit alors le nom de Dominique. Un an plus tard, le 12 avril 1840, après une année de noviciat à La Quercia, près de Viterbe, durant laquelle il écrit sa Vie de saint Dominique, il prononce ses vœux à la Minerve. Il poursuit ensuite ses études de théologie à Sainte-Sabine.
Il rentre en France en 1841 et prêche à Notre-Dame et dans toute la France et fonde plusieurs couvents à Nancy (1843), à Chalais dans l'Isère (1844) et à Paris (1849). En 1848, il se rend à la grotte de la Sainte-Baume et il décide sa restauration. Il rachète le couvent de Saint-Maximin pour y réinstaller les frères prêcheurs ; et avec l’aide de « l'œuvre pour la restauration des lieux saints de Provence » qu'il a fondée, il réinstalle en 1859, les frères dans le monastère de la Sainte-Baume à l'entrée de la grotte ; il fait construire l’hôtellerie dans la plaine pour l'accueil des pèlerins. En 1850, sous la seconde république, la province dominicaine de France est officiellement rétablie, sous la direction du Père Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, élu supérieur provincial.
Lacoordaire soutient avec enthousiasme la révolution de 1848, se rallie au régime républicain, et lance avec Frédéric Ozanam et l'abbé Maret un nouveau journal, l 'Ère nouvelle, où il développe un programme mêlant le catholicisme libéral traditionnel (défense de la liberté de conscience et d'enseignement), et le catholicisme social défendu par Frédéric Ozanam. Opposé à l'élection de Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (11 décembre 1848), Lacordaire condamne sans réserve le coup d'État du 2 décembre 1851, qui lui semble une atteinte insupportable à la liberté, et choisit alors de se retirer de la vie publique.
Il se consacre jusqu'à sa mort à l'éducation de la jeunesse, dans le cadre nouveau offert par la loi Falloux. Il accepte, en juillet 1852 la direction du collège Saint-Thomas d'Aquin-Veritas à Oullins près de Lyon, puis celle de l'École militaire de Sorèze, dans le Tarn. En février 1860, il est élu à l'Académie française. Il décède le 21 novembre 1861 à Sorèze, où il est inhumé.
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