Joseph Pothier

[1] By founding, in the then derelict priory of Solesmes, the first new abbey of the Order of Saint Benedict in France, Dom Guéranger had re-established monastic life in the country after it had been wiped out by the French Revolution.

In 1895 he became superior of the colony of monks from Ligugé sent to repopulate the monastery of St Wandrille (Fontenelle), an ancient and abandoned Benedictine abbey - also suppressed during the French Revolution - in Saint-Wandrille-Rançon, Normandy.

Cardinal Guillaume Sourrieu, Archbishop of Rouen and Primate of Normandy, assisted by the abbots of Solesmes and Ligugé as co-consecrators, conferred the abbatial blessing upon him on 29 September 1898, in the presence of three other prelates and 150 priests.

Besides being the composer of many Gregorian songs (Officium Defunctorum, 1887) and the writer of a huge number of articles, Dom Pothier was also the head and editor of the Revue du Chant Grégorien (1892–1914) - supervising the publication of several works (Hymnes, Christmas office, Antifonario, Cantus mariales) -, the founder of the Paléographie Musicale publication for the dissemination of medieval liturgical manuscripts, and the author of a new edition of the choir books based on manuscripts of the Gregorian chant and of several studies on the plainchant, including Les mélodies grégoriennes d'après la tradition (Gregorian Melodies According to the Tradition), 1880, his chief work which became the standard work on the subject.

Dom Pothier was appointed president of the newly created Pontifical Commission on the Vatican Edition of the Gregorian Liturgical Books by Pope Pius X in 1904.