Institution Saint Michel: Collège and Lycée is a Catholic secondary school with boarding facilities located in Solesmes (Picard: Solinmes), France. Founded in 1924 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai constituted in 580, it is now also contractually regulated by the Academy of Lille, a ramification of the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research. As of 2018, it welcomes within centuries-old châteauesque edifices around a thousand students from nearly a hundred municipalities within a radius extending twenty kilometers.
History
The Institution was first established on 13 May 1924 by Archbishop Jean-Arthur Chollet (21 November 1913 – 2 December 1952) as a ramification of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai itself erected in the late 6th century (Latin: Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: Archidiocèse de Cambrai) and placed under its aegis. It was formerly known as the Little Religious Seminary (French: Petit Séminaire Saint-Michel de Solesmes). In the early Middle Ages, the Diocese of Cambrai (Lotharingia) was first ruled by West Frankish sovereign Charles the Bald in accordance with the implementation of the Treaty of Meerssen (870). Throughout History, it has been governed and regimented by such figures as the German king Henry the Fowler (925) or the Duke Gilbert of Lorraine (939). All immunities that had so far been granted to the Bishops of Cambrai were ratified by King Otto the Great (23 November 912 – 7 May 973). In the early 1000s, this Bishopric was elevated to Imperial State by Emperor Henry II, to protectorate by Maximilian I of Habsburg in the late 15th century, was united to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle in 1512 and integrated into the See of Mechelen in 1559 by Philip II of Spain. It was finally declared French under the Roi Soleil under the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678) following the Siege of Cambrai the preceding year. It was affiliated to the Nord through the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801. Among, the plethora of Diocese of Cambrai' most conspicuous individuals are found Charles the Good (1084–1127); poet and author François de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651–1715); French Academy philosopher Gratry (1805–1872) and composer Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474). The Institution remained called the Little Religious Seminary up until 1965 when the boarding school opened its doors to external boys and subsequently to girls in 1968. The institution's eponymous Patron is Saint Michael known in the Old Testament as chief opponent of Satan and commander of the Army of God who is alone mentioned in the Litany of the Saints which omitted Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael.
Celebrations
The Russian Orthodox community established in Le Cateau-Cambresis was yearly invited to celebrate a mass of Byzantine Rite which differed with the Roman Rite in that they were two-hour-long services with songs in Russian without organ accompaniment, the consuming oscillating censers were held at the end of imposing chains and communion was under both species, bread and wine. From the 1940s to the 1960s, on 24 December, students would be waking up to canticles and hymns through loud-speakers and would be treated to an ameliorated breakfast with brioche and hot chocolate. Carols such as Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht! or classics from German musicologist Michael Praetorius' (1571–1621) Syntagma Musicum (1614-1620) and Hymnodia Sionia (1611; Advent: 5. Alvus tumescit virginis & Christmas: 26. A solis ortus cardine; 27. Summo Parenti gloria), would be sang during the Midnight Mass. The Christmas Day was really a holiday. After the Low Mass and the Solemn Mass, students were gifted an improved meal with baptized wine.
Declamations
From the 1940s to the 1970s, students were alternately required to chant or read aloud from the official academic corpora unanimously agreed upon by the institution's on-site officiating abbots and priests. They were standing in front of a lectern in the small refectory and the dining hall on which books were placed following liturgical traditions. Being designated cantor or precentor was also used as punishment for misbehaving pupils. Main works were: General Baron de Marbot's Memoirs (1891) by Jean-Baptiste Antoine Marcellin Marbot (18 August 1782 – 16 November 1854).