Rules for Students of the Assumptionists’ Notre Dame des Vocations School in 19th Century France

On offer is an interesting manuscript that details the rules students had to follow at a Catholic school run by a Catholic society called Notre Dame des Vocations (Our Lady of Vocations) in mid-19th century France.  

This document appears to serve as an information piece that was used by Notre Dame des Vocations in admitting students. They state the Society’s purpose at the outset:

But...Les Alumnats de l'Assomption sont destines exclusivement a enlever et a instruire les enfants qui ont le desir bien forme de devenire pretres et dont les parents sont trop pauvres pour faire les frais de leur education ecclesiastique...

[Translation: Purpose ... The Alumnae of the Assumption are destined exclusively to take in and instruct children who have a well-formed desire to become priests and whose parents are too poor to pay for their ecclesiastical education…]. 

The document goes on to outline how their work is carried out and includes the following topics:

Formation Religieouse (Religious Formation) wherein they describe the work done to promote the student’s religious growth; Formation Intellectuelle (Intellectual Formation) where they describe the academic activities that students pursue to develop their intellectual capabilities and sections that address admission requirements, a section devoted to Parents and an outline of the dress code.

The document is meant to be signed and dated, but it is not. While undated, the document references the date 1849 which puts its publication after 1850.

Notre Dame des Vocations (Our Lady of Vocations), the Catholic society that printed this document, was established by Emmanuel d’Alzon, the founder of the Catholic religious order called the Assumptionists. The purpose of the Society was to support the Order’s efforts to supply education to poor children who had been called to the Catholic priesthood.

The Assumptionists opened fifteen of these houses, which also acted as schools. Over 25 yearse these schools provided more than 500 priests to the secular clergy. Not all students who attended these schools went on to join the Catholic clery. However, having been raised and educated in this system, they certainly advocated for the role of the church in society. This was a direct challenge to the French government which maintained a monopoly over education in the country. The Assomptionists were eventually suppressed by the French government in 1900 and forced to flee the country.

For a historian or educator, this document gives an excellent look at the private religious schools set up to run apart from the state-run, non-religious ‘public’ schools that arose after the Revolution.

The document measures 8.75 inches by 6.25 inches. It is a folded, 4 page document that is printed with a script font. The paper is in very good condition with only a hint of discolouration along the edges. The printing, though faint in places, is quite legible.