Community of Saint Martin

The priests Community Saint Martin (French communauté Saint- Martin) is a public Klerikalverein pontifical right. It was founded in 1976 by ​​Jean -François Guérin, a priest of the Archdiocese of Tours (France), established under the protection of Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, Archbishop of Genoa ( Italy ).

History

Between 1965 and 1976, Abbé Guérin worked in Paris. As a chaplain in the Sacre Coeur Basilica, he was a youth of very sought spiritual advisor. Many of them came later in religious communities, especially in Benedictine or in Karmelitinnenklöster. Others, however, wanted to dedicate the World priesthood. Their intention was to live together as a diocesan priest or maintain the liturgical spirit they had met with Abbé Guérin, ie at the same time rely on the Latin and Gregorian tradition of the Roman rite and the liturgical movement, which has found its expression in the synthetic Vatican II.

As Cardinal Siri would promote the renewal of priestly training in France, he appointed 1976 Jean -François Guérin and its first candidates for the priesthood in his archdiocese. The Community Sankt Martin was founded in Italy in order to make the Catholic Church in France priests available. Abbé Guérin and candidates to the priesthood settled in the Capuchin monastery Genoa Voltri. The academic training received seminarians in the seminary of Genoa, while Abbe Guerin dealt with their human, spiritual and pastoral formation.

In 1983, the community got its first apostolic ministry in the diocese of Fréjus -Toulon in southeastern France. In the following years, her other parishes were entrusted by the French bishops. 1993 offered the opportunity to leave Italy and move the training center in the French village of Cande -sur -Beuvron at Blois (about 190 km south of Paris ).

Today the community of priests Sankt Martin has about eighty priests and deacons and about forty priesthood and Diakonatskandidaten. It operates in nine French dioceses and in Cuba. In addition, priests are in the service of the Holy See in Rome or in Nunciatures.

Spirituality

The " marti African " spirituality emphasizes in particular the importance of community life and the liturgy. Its roots are found in Abbé Guérins spiritual kinship with the Benedictine Order and the Congregation of Solesmes, as he was Oblat in Fontgombault Monastery (central France). Therefore, the Lectio divina is the foundation of spiritual formation. In addition, the Gregorian chant is maintained particularly intense.