Benard, Laurent, chief founder of the Maurist Congregation of the Benedictine Order, b. at Nevers, 1573; d. at Paris, 1620. He joined the Cluniac Benedictines at Nevers, became a Doctor of the Sorbonne and later Prior of the Cluny College, Paris, which he reformed with the help of two monks of the recently established Congregation of St.-Vannes. Refusing the abbacy of St. Etienne, Caen, and the grand-priorship of Cluny, he passed through a second novitiate at St.-Vannes, and renewed his profession ~ there in 1615. At his suggestion the Congregation of St.-Maur was formed, eg 3 for France what that of St.-Vannes was for Lorraine. Royal letters patent were obtained for it in 1618 and the project was warmly supported by Cardinal de Retz and others. Bénard’s works include ‘ Parénéses”, “De l’esprit des ordres religieux”, ‘Instructions Monastiques”, “L’éloge Bénédictin”, and “Police réguliére”, all published in Paris between 1616 and 1619.
Tassin, Hist, Lit. Cong. S. Maur (Brussels, 1770); Sainte-Marthe, Gallia Christiana (Paris, 1744), VII, 474.
G.
G. Cyprian Alston.