How daily prayer in Latin has protected French monasteries from closing

(LifeSiteNews) — A study of contemplative monastic life in France shows that religious communities reciting the Divine Office exclusively in Latin have been spared the closures that have snuffed out a large number of monasteries in the country.

Contemplative life in France is in rapid decline. Over the past two decades, almost a third of French contemplative monasteries have been shuttered, InfoVaticana reported. However, remarkably, none of the monasteries that recite the Divine Office entirely in Latin have closed since 2007, the starting point of the study that published the findings.

The research of sociologist Isabelle Jonveaux, founded on data compiled by the Foundation of Monasteries in 2007 and published by The French magazine La Vie, examined what French monasteries existing in 2007 were closed or had announced their closure by 2026.

Among France’s contemplative monasteries, about 30% have closed or announced their closure during the approximately two decades from 2007 to 2026.

Women’s monasteries, which far outnumbered men’s monasteries at the time of the study — 249 compared with 56 for males in 2007 — were more severely affected: 32% of the female monasteries have dissolved versus 21% of the male monasteries during the last two decades. 

The rate of closures has reached a devastating pace. Until 2015, there were ordinarily fewer than four closures of contemplative monasteries per year. Now, about 10 are closed each year.

In 2026 alone, three major communities have announced their closure: the Trappist abbey of La Grande Trappe de Soligny; the Carmel of Compiègne; and the abbey of Notre-Dame du Port-du-Salut, InfoVaticana reported. 

Of the monasteries existing in 2007, the recitation of the Divine Office in Latin has, notably, predicted the probability of closure.

Among the 244 monasteries that prayed the office entirely in French, 84 (or 34%) have closed or announced their closure. Of the 36 communities that prayed the office in both French and Latin, seven (19%) disappeared.

However, none of the 23 monasteries that pray the office exclusively in Latin have shut down.

According to Jonveaux, abbots and abbesses have pithily summed up the powerful draw of tradition as the rule of the “three G’s”: grégorien, grille et guimpe — Gregorian chant, enclosure grille, and traditional wimple.

The sociologist has also noticed that many of the communities with the strictest enclosures have the most internet and social media presence, helping them to connect with young people who desire a robustly Catholic order.

Of the communities that have closed, Carmelites and Poor Clares have been the hardest hit, both having lost 40% of their communities since 2007. Trappists have lost 36.4% of their monasteries and the Visitandines have lost 30%.

The Benedictines have suffered a bit less, with a loss of about 18% of their monasteries, and the contemplative Dominicans have lost only 7.7%.

Jonveaux’s findings regarding the strength of communities that recite the Divine Office in Latin are consistent with other studies linking the loss of traditional liturgy and/or catechesis and practices to the decline in Catholic practice in France.

French historian Guillaume Cuchet has published an analysis of the “collapse of practice among Catholics in France,” hypothesizing that the cause of the collapse was the Second Vatican Council. Cuchet shows that 1965, the year the Second Vatican Council ended, marked the beginning of the “collapse” of the practice of Catholicism in France.