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Chavagnes International College
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Chavagnes International College
Chavagnes International College is an independent Catholic secondary school for boys, located in Chavagnes-en-Paillers, France. Founded in 1802 by Louis-Marie Baudouin the school was re-fashioned an "international college" in 2002. The school's language of instruction is English, and it prepares pupils for British GCSEs and A-levels, with the French Brevet and Baccalauréat as options.
The College claims to be a traditional English school in France. Although pupils come from Britain and other English-speaking countries there are also more and more pupils from France. In this international environment, modern languages are particularly strong, with many boys taking GCSE languages (French, German, Spanish, English) one or two years early. Older boys often speak several languages fluently.
Chavagnes en Paillers has a long history of association with England, and with a general attitude of welcoming outsiders. The motto on the official arms of the village comes from the 133rd Psalm (Ecce Quam Bonum): 'Habitare fratres in unum' (Behold how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.)
The land on which the college is built, near the site of a Roman villa, was given to a community of Benedictine monks in the thirteenth century by the Anglo-French family Harpedan de Belleville, who then ruled the area. The monastery built at that time was dedicated to St Anthony of Egypt (also called St Anthony the Great), the founder of monasticism. The monastery received a canonical visitation from a Papal Legate, Bertrand de Got in the late 12th century. He subsequently became the first Pope at Avignon, Clement V.
In the years that followed, Chavagnes saw many changes and much upheaval. In the nineteenth century, its walls housed the first junior seminary in France after the Revolution, founded by the Venerable Louis-Marie Baudouin in 1802. Father Baudouin recounted a prophecy whispered to him by a dying priest, renowned for his sanctity: "Il y aura toujours un séminaire à Chavagnes" ("There will always be a seminary in Chavagnes"). This legend would later inspire several successful attempts to keep the seminary open against the will of the Emperor Napoleon, the Fourth Republic and the Nazis.
Already recognised by Napoleon, and under the authority of the diocesan bishop, it received a royal charter from Charles X in 1825, as the ‘Ecclesiastical School of Chavagnes’, during the brief period of the restored Bourbon monarchy (1824–30).
The buildings were confiscated from the Church in 1905 as part of the anti-clerical crackdown throughout France. The priests then involved with educating the boys at Chavagnes were exiled to Shaftesbury in Dorset. In 1912 the buildings were bought back by a local aristocrat, the Comte de Suzannet, and reopened as a junior seminary, much to the chagrin of the Paris authorities.
The college was shared between German soldiers and junior seminarians during World War II, housing a small garrison and a military hospital. A machine-gun was placed in the clock tower, dominating the village, but the Nazi soldiers turned a blind eye to more than 50 Jewish children sheltered by local families until the liberation. The villagers were so good at keeping a secret regarding the hidden Jewish children that the information only emerged in the 1990s.
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Chavagnes International College
Chavagnes International College is an independent Catholic secondary school for boys, located in Chavagnes-en-Paillers, France. Founded in 1802 by Louis-Marie Baudouin the school was re-fashioned an "international college" in 2002. The school's language of instruction is English, and it prepares pupils for British GCSEs and A-levels, with the French Brevet and Baccalauréat as options.
The College claims to be a traditional English school in France. Although pupils come from Britain and other English-speaking countries there are also more and more pupils from France. In this international environment, modern languages are particularly strong, with many boys taking GCSE languages (French, German, Spanish, English) one or two years early. Older boys often speak several languages fluently.
Chavagnes en Paillers has a long history of association with England, and with a general attitude of welcoming outsiders. The motto on the official arms of the village comes from the 133rd Psalm (Ecce Quam Bonum): 'Habitare fratres in unum' (Behold how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.)
The land on which the college is built, near the site of a Roman villa, was given to a community of Benedictine monks in the thirteenth century by the Anglo-French family Harpedan de Belleville, who then ruled the area. The monastery built at that time was dedicated to St Anthony of Egypt (also called St Anthony the Great), the founder of monasticism. The monastery received a canonical visitation from a Papal Legate, Bertrand de Got in the late 12th century. He subsequently became the first Pope at Avignon, Clement V.
In the years that followed, Chavagnes saw many changes and much upheaval. In the nineteenth century, its walls housed the first junior seminary in France after the Revolution, founded by the Venerable Louis-Marie Baudouin in 1802. Father Baudouin recounted a prophecy whispered to him by a dying priest, renowned for his sanctity: "Il y aura toujours un séminaire à Chavagnes" ("There will always be a seminary in Chavagnes"). This legend would later inspire several successful attempts to keep the seminary open against the will of the Emperor Napoleon, the Fourth Republic and the Nazis.
Already recognised by Napoleon, and under the authority of the diocesan bishop, it received a royal charter from Charles X in 1825, as the ‘Ecclesiastical School of Chavagnes’, during the brief period of the restored Bourbon monarchy (1824–30).
The buildings were confiscated from the Church in 1905 as part of the anti-clerical crackdown throughout France. The priests then involved with educating the boys at Chavagnes were exiled to Shaftesbury in Dorset. In 1912 the buildings were bought back by a local aristocrat, the Comte de Suzannet, and reopened as a junior seminary, much to the chagrin of the Paris authorities.
The college was shared between German soldiers and junior seminarians during World War II, housing a small garrison and a military hospital. A machine-gun was placed in the clock tower, dominating the village, but the Nazi soldiers turned a blind eye to more than 50 Jewish children sheltered by local families until the liberation. The villagers were so good at keeping a secret regarding the hidden Jewish children that the information only emerged in the 1990s.
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