The College of Juilly ( French: ''Collège de Juilly'') was a Catholic private teaching establishment located in the commune of Juilly, in

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

(France). Directed by the French Oratorians, it was created in 1638 by the Congregationists headed by Father Charles de Condren. According to the legend, Saint Geneviève stopped in the village of Juilly in 470, and a water source suddenly emerged where she prayed. The spot quickly became a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

place, and the College was built around it. An

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

established itself there during the 12th century, while Blanche of Castile, the mother of Saint-Louis, decided in the 13th century to establish there an orphanage which hosted the children of those knights killed during the

Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

might have sojourned there while coming back from Orleans. The monks quit the abbey in 1637 and handed it out to the Oratorians, who created an internship for the education of the

French nobility The French nobility () was an Aristocracy, aristocratic social class in France from the France in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution. From 1808 to 1815 during the First French Empire, ...

. The abbey then became a Royal Academy, and retained the three

fleur-de-lys The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...

on its arm. The Juilly College also served many times as a war hospital. Its library notably contained a reproduction of the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

, which was offered to La Fayette, as well as

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during t ...

's original ''

Encyclopédie , better known as ''Encyclopédie'' (), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It had many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis ...

''. The school closed due to financial difficulties in 2012 and the property subjected to vandalism and decay. As of 2021 local interests proposed redevelopment of the school property into residential apartments.

Famous former students

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...

(1621–1695) * Richard Simon (1638–1712) * Henri de Boulainvilliers (1658–1722) * James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick (1660–1734) *

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principal so ...

(1689–1755) * Pierre Victor, baron Malouet (1740–1814) * Louis de Bonald (1754–1840) * Étienne-Denis Pasquier (1767–1862) * Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès (1767–1846) * Alexandre-Étienne Choron (1771–1834) * Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860) * Antoine Pierre Berryer (1790–1868) * Claude Sosthène Grasset d'Orcet (1828–1900) * Jean Fourastié (1907–1990) (inventor of the expression '' Trente Glorieuses'') * Claude Brasseur (1936–2020) *

Jacques Mesrine Jacques Mesrine (; 28 December 19362 November 1979) was a French criminal responsible for numerous murders, bank robberies, burglaries, and kidnappings in France, the US, and Canada. Mesrine repeatedly escaped from prison and made internation ...

(1936–1979) * Michel Polnareff (1958-1959) * Philippe Noiret

Former teachers

* Louis Eugène Marie Bautain (1796–1867) * Joseph Fouché (1763–1820)

References

{{Authority control Schools in France Educational institutions established in the 1630s 1638 establishments in France Montesquieu