The Carmes Seminary (''séminaire des Carmes'') is a Catholic

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

within the

Institut Catholique de Paris The Institut catholique de Paris (, abbr. ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France. History: 1875–present The Institut ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It was founded in 1919 and now houses more than fifty seminarians from several French

dioceses In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

Monastery

It is sited at 21 rue d'Assas in the

6th arrondissement of Paris The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in ...

on the site of a former

Discalced Carmelite The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catholic mendicant ...

monastery built in 1613. This monastery was the result of two Carmelite monks who were sent to

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

Paul V Pope Paul V (; ) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a mem ...

in 1610. They only arrived in France shortly after Henry's assassination and

Marie de Medici Marie de' Medici (; ; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent ...

welcomed them and authorized them to set up a monastery not far from her court at the

Palais du Luxembourg The Luxembourg Palace (, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the regent Marie de' Med ...

. They first set up a monastery in a house at the corner of rue Cassette and chemin de Vaugirard gifted to them by Nicolas Vivien, master of the accounts, but this soon proved too small and they soon moved to the rue d'Assas site, where they built a new chapel and monastery in 1613. This chapel was the first domed building in Paris. That monastery was taken over to become

Carmes Prison Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes (''Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes'') is a Catholic church located at 70 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built as the chapel of a convent of the mendicant order of Discalced Carmelites. It is ...

during the French Revolution and was partially destroyed in the

September Massacres The September Massacres were a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792 from 2 September to 6 September during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by ''sans-culottes'' ...

. After the worst of the upheavals had subsided, the wealthy heiress and Carmelite nun

Camille de Soyécourt Camille de Soyécourt (1757–1849) or Thérèse Camille de l'Enfant-Jésus was a French Discalced Carmelite nun who restored the order in France after the French Revolution. Camille de Soyécourt was the daughter of the Marquis de Soyécourt. ...

bought and restored the buildings of the seminary in a series of purchases starting on 8 August 1797. Having at first bought only a part of the buildings, she took advantage of an opportunity on 8 November 1801 to buy another part of the original Carmelite convent. She completed her acquisitions on 22 August 1807 by buying the third part of the buildings, thus obtaining a property far too important for the nuns' own needs. In 1819 she finished restoration of the portal of the church. Finally, on 23 July 1841, she gave the buildings unconditionally to

Denis Auguste Affre Denis-Auguste Affre (; 27 September 179327 June 1848) was a French clergyman who served as Archbishop of Paris from 1840 to 1848. He was killed while trying to negotiate peace during the June Days uprising of 1848. His cause for beatification ha ...

, Archbishop of Paris. He used them for a new School of high ecclesiastical studies, the Institut Catholique de Paris, which was founded in 1875. The Carmelites did not leave the convent until 23 April 1845 to settle in the Avenue de Saxe in Paris, where mother Camille had built a new convent.

References

Sources

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External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20170527033341/http://sem-carmes.com/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20050610090726/http://www.icp.fr/icp/index.php {{authority control 1919 establishments in France Catholic University of Paris Catholic seminaries in France Buildings and structures in the 6th arrondissement of Paris Educational institutions established in 1919