Dom Paul Bellot, OSB: a study of propos d'un Bâtisseur du Bon Dieu (1949)

Abstract

PAUL BELLOT, OSB (1876-1944) was an architect and Benedictine monk whose contribution to 20th-century architecture has yet to be fully explored. Trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he designed monastic buildings in France, Holland, Belgium and England before moving to Canada in 1937 where he was trapped with the onset of the Second World War. In 1934 he had given a series of nine public lectures in Canada and in 1949, five years after he died. Editions Fides in Montreal published these as a book with the title Propos d'un Bâtisseur du Bon Dieu. It was illustrated by a portrait of Bellot and fifteen photographs of his buildings. The Propos contains many references to other writers and it is Bellot's observations on three of these - Violet-le-Duc, Le Corbusier and Maritain- which form the basis of this thesis. Apart from published material, sources used include the Bellot archives at Quarr, at the abbeys of Solesmes and Wisques in France, and in Canada those at Saint-Benoit-du-Lac and at the Oratoire Saint-Joseph in Montreal. The thesis comprises a volume of text and illustrations, and an appendix consisting of a boxed copy of the Propos.