Lacordaire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JEAN BAPTISTE HENRI (lä-kôr-dar) (FATHER LA- CORDAIRE), a distinguished French preacher; born near Dijon, France, May 12, 1802. He studied at Dijon, and became an advocate, settling at Paris in 1821. He was at that time a believer in Voltaire, but soon studied theology at the seminary of St. Sulpice and was ordained priest in 1827. He became joint editor, with M. de Montalembert and Lamennais, of a new journal entitled "The Future" (1830), suppressed in 1832 by Pope Gregory XVI. He soon after began to distinguish himself as a preacher, and the pulpit of Notre Dame was opened to him. In 1839 he entered the Dominican order at Rome; and immense excitement was produced by his reappearance at Notre Dame in 1841, in the white dress of his order and with the shaven head. His eloquence attracted and charmed crowds at Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux. He was chosen member of the Constituent Assembly of March, 1848, and appeared there in his Dominican habit. He preached his last great sermon in Paris in 1853, and was soon after appointed director of the college of Sorrèze. His reception at the French Academy took place in 1860. The writings of Father Lacordaire consist chiefly of a "Life of St. Dominick"; "Debates"; and "Funeral Eulogies." He died in Sorrèze, Nov. 22, 1861. LACQUER or LACKER, primarily, a varnish composed of shellac dissolved in alcohol and colored. It is applied to wood, to papier-maché, and to metals to protect them from rust and improve their color. The term is also applied to compositions containing turpentine, resin, etc. Turmeric, dragon's blood, gum sandarach and red sanders are frequently employed in red and gold-colored lacquers.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The factual outline Collier's gave in 1921 still stands: Lacordaire was born at Recey-sur-Ource near Dijon in 1802, restored the Dominican order to France after the Revolution had swept it away, and preached his famous conferences at Notre-Dame in the white habit of his order. What has moved is his reputation. His liberal Catholicism, still faintly suspect in 1921 because of his association with Lamennais and the suppressed journal L'Avenir, was largely vindicated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), which embraced the religious liberty he had argued for; and the Dominicans opened a cause for his beatification. His Notre-Dame Conferences are now read more as documents in the history of church-state relations than as models of pulpit eloquence.
Written for this edition, 2026.