Herzstein, Rafael. “The ‘New Mission of Syria’ and Its Jesuit Education System (1875–1914).” In “Renovatio Mundi: The Jesuits as Educators in History (Proceedings of the Symposium held at Boston College, June 11–13, 2024),” ed. Cristiano Casalini, Alessandro Corsi, and A. Taiga Guterres, special issue, International Symposia on Jesuit Studies 4, no. 1 (2026): e07. https://doi.org/10.51238/ISJS.2024.07.
Research Article
Renovatio Mundi: The Jesuits as Educators in History
Part 2
The “New Mission of Syria” and Its Jesuit Education System (1875–1914)
Herzstein, Rafael. “The ‘New Mission of Syria’ and Its Jesuit Education System (1875–1914).” In “Renovatio Mundi: The Jesuits as Educators in History (Proceedings of the Symposium held at Boston College, June 11–13, 2024),” ed. Cristiano Casalini, Alessandro Corsi, and A. Taiga Guterres, special issue, International Symposia on Jesuit Studies 4, no. 1 (2026): e07. https://doi.org/10.51238/ISJS.2024.07.
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Abstract
In this article, we trace the history of the “New Mission of Syria,” created by the Jesuit Fathers in 1831. The main work of the “New Mission of Syria” is the creation of St. Joseph’s University in Beirut (1875–1914). We will set out to answer the question of whether this Jesuit education system was applied by the “New Mission of Syria” after studying in detail the principles and functioning of the Jesuit education system. Is this an example of cultural propagation?
Keywords:
New Mission of Syria; Jesuit education system; St. Joseph’s University; Beirut
Full Article
The influence of external events on St. Joseph’s University in Beirut (USJ), which is the main work of the “new mission of Syria,” has led me to limit the period studied in this article. The French Mandate began from 1920 and shifted the political, cultural, and ideological priorities, as well as the balance of power, among the local communities and authorities. As these changes were in addition to the political, economic, and social upheavals resulting from the First World War, which diametrically changed the influence of the various actors in the region (the Jesuits, the Vatican, France, and the Maronite community), this article is therefore limited to the time of the new mission of Syria, during the first decades of the existence of the USJ in Beirut from 1875 to 1914, during which time the Maronites were a political, social, and religious minority in the Levant region. Indeed, as early as 1920, the Maronite community could no longer be considered the spearhead of France, which went from playing a role as a community guardian tolerated by the Sublime Porte to that of the guardian of the whole of the “Greater Syria” mandated by the League of Nations.[1]
If we were to update the subject of the article and focus on the present situation, is the USJ in Beirut an example of cultural propagation today? Although the USJ is now autonomous from the Society of Jesus as an institution, organic ties remain particularly strong. Statutorily, the university’s rector is a Jesuit. More than a dozen Jesuits—teachers, researchers, administrators, and chaplains—also work and participate in the university’s mission.
As for its links with France, the USJ is one of the main centers of Francophonie in Lebanon and the Arab world. A Chair of Francophonie was created in 2003, which is a place of knowledge and reflection on Francophonie as a whole but more specifically focused on the Middle East and the Arab world.
The conclusions remain the same. The educational mission did not produce an antagonistic confrontation between French/Catholic values and the local Maronite society; rather, the Jesuits adapted to the local environment, allowing for a harmonious cultural transmission and reception. Today’s missionaries (albeit in small numbers) continue to provide quality education, and today’s USJ in Beirut is an example of cultural propagation.
History of the New Mission of Syria
Throughout eighteenth-century Europe, there was a severe struggle against the Society of Jesus in which many of Europe’s “enlightened” rulers drove the order from their territories. This was the case in 1759 in Portugal, under the marquis of Pombal; in 1764 in France, under Louis XV (r. 1715–74) (who condemned the order as “contrary to natural law”); and in Spain in 1767, under Charles III (r. 1759–88).[2] Finally, in 1773 Pope Clement XIV (r. 1769–74) himself pronounced the dissolution of the Society of Jesus throughout the church by the brief Dominus ac Redemptor.[3]
At that time, the Jesuits were conducting a (first) “mission of Syria,”[4] which began in 1625 and ended in 1774, notably creating a post in Cairo and Syria between 1696 and 1774.[5] This mission disappeared when the Society of Jesus was banished from the Kingdom of France in 1774.[6]
In 1814, a bull of Pius VII (r. 1800–23) restored the Jesuits of the entire church (they had mainly taken refuge in Russia, under Catherine II [r. 1762–96]) and fully rehabilitated the Society of Jesus: “The Catholic Church could thus once again benefit from the experience of educators”[7] that the Jesuits possess, according to this pope.[8]
By the end of 1814, Father Pierre-Joseph Picot de Clorivière (1735–1820) had gathered more than seventy Jesuits in the “mission of France” (elevated to a province in 1820).[9]
In 1833, Superior General Jan-Philipp Roothaan (g. 1829–53) revived the missionary impulse. More and more Jesuits left different European countries for traditional missionary areas, always adapting to local circumstances, which is an example of cultural propagation. In 1831, the new mission of Syria[10] revived the Jesuit missionary presence in the Levant with Fathers Paul-Marie Riccadonna and Benoît Planchet as well as Brother Henri Henze.[11]
From the resignation of President Patrice de Mac-Mahon (r. 1873–79) at the end of the nineteenth century, France would see the development of secular legislation. The first of the great secular laws was the law devoted to the freedom of higher education, the draft of which was presented to the Chamber of Deputies in March 1879 by Jules Ferry. The law was finally adopted in March 1880, after the Senate had removed article 7 of the draft, which severely restricted the right of religious educational institutions to operate, a measure specifically aimed at the Jesuits. Yet the enactment of the law was soon followed by a series of decrees bypassing parliament that ordered the dissolution and expulsion of unauthorized religious orders—specifically targeting the Jesuits.
In 1880, the Society was given three months to leave France. Jesuit houses were “stolen,” twenty-nine colleges were abandoned, and scholasticates were closed. In 1881, out of a total of 2,780 French Jesuits, 920 young Jesuits were in exile, 730 Jesuits were in the missions, and the rest were scattered in France or abroad. The Jesuits expelled from France came to reinforce the missions. In the Middle East, these were mainly Jesuits from Lyon—the “Lyonnais”[12]—who were more or less spared this wave of French anticlericalism. Indeed, in 1912, Raymond Poincaré, then president of the Council of Ministers, declared to Father Claudius Chanteur, provincial of Lyon, about the Beirut mission: “Father, we are doing a common work there.”[13]
The Jesuit missionaries in the Levant were overwhelmingly French. It was in Paris that the L’Œuvre des Écoles d’Orient was founded in 1865. Two years later, Father Charles Martial Lavigerie (1825–92) became its director. The purpose of the organization was to assist Catholic religious communities in the Middle East, particularly in their contribution to the teaching of the language and spreading the influence of French culture.
In 1900, Jesuits and Lazarists of the mission of Syria educated twelve thousand boys, while nuns from various congregations educated five thousand girls, not to mention the burgeoning activity of the USJ in Beirut.[14] Through them, French was spread, which became the language of studies. France, through religion, was then the only foreign power to offer “modern” teaching. It was in its interest to pass on its culture in this way.
Let us now focus on the main work of the new mission of Syria: the creation of the USJ in Beirut.
The Main Work of the New Mission of Syria: The Creation of the USJ in Beirut; Propagating Culture through Education
In 1843, the Jesuits founded a seminary in Ghazir to train the local clergy.[15] Lay students were welcomed there as early as 1849 in the new French section. In 1855, a college was also established, and by 1859 the number of lay students exceeded that of the seminarians. According to archival documents, Ghazir College was transferred to Beirut in 1875.[16]
During the eight years from 1866 to 1874, the seminary welcomed 1,046 students. The number of lay students was greater than that of the seminary attended by students destined for the priesthood.[17] After the transfer to Beirut, this gap only widened.
But despite its prosperity, the “College of St. Joseph” was not important enough to thwart the influence of the American Protestant mission; for this, it needed a real university. It was also necessary to open up opportunities for Catholic youth.
It was for this purpose that the new Jesuit mission of Syria decided, as a first step, to relocate the College of Ghazir to Beirut. Father Ambrose Monnot (1831–98) was sent as superior of the mission in 1869, but they lacked the money to open a university. The pope authorized Fathers Monnot and François-Xavier Pailloux to embark on a fundraising tour with Catholics in England and America, which brought in three hundred thousand francs in six months. Although this was still not enough, it allowed the Jesuits to buy a plot of land of seventeen thousand square meters in Achrafieh. This transaction (eighty thousand francs) was made thanks to Mr. Derwich Tyon, a great friend and procurator (representative) of the Jesuits. The loan was repaid by Monnot.[18]
Construction of the university began in October 1874, without an official permit (Constantinople refused). The large two- and three-story building was completed after two years. To the north, facing the sea, it has a long building with three raised pavilions. The middle wing is formed by the church. The façade is sober, unadorned, but the protrusion and niches provide the building with an understated elegance.[19]
In November 1875, Ghazir’s students moved to their new school premises. By Christmas 1875, the church was already in operation.[20] Father Rémi Normand (Monnot’s successor) was in Rome in January 1881, where he obtained from Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–1903) the canonical confirmation of the title of university for the USJ, the ability to confer academic titles, and the right to confer doctoral degrees in philosophy (papal audience of February 25, 1881).[21] For the awarding of these degrees, it was decided that the university would comply with the practices of the Gregorian University in Rome.[22]
Since this study focuses on the propagation of culture through education by evoking the main work of the new mission of Syria—the creation of the USJ in Beirut—it is essential to first explain the Jesuit education system.
The Jesuit Education System
This article is concerned with a defined segment of the education system, namely colleges, and more specifically the USJ in Beirut. The terminology has evolved over the past decades, but at the end of the nineteenth century the term college was considered synonymous with university.
In the various documents consulted for the purposes of this research, the University of Beirut often appears as the Jesuit College of Syria or Lebanon.[23]
It is important to once again emphasize the primacy of teaching in the vision of Jesuit ideology, if only to be better able to appreciate the specificity of their apostolate. Diego Laínez (1512–65), the first successor of the founder of the order (g. 1558–65), professed that “it is in the distant home of the natives that the vocation of the Jesuit is most fully realized.”[24]
Does this mean that there was a discordance between the missionary vocation and the educational mission? Is it necessary to conclude that the subordination of the missionary to the educational hindered the development of missions in the strictest sense of the word?
This would be to embrace an approach that would certainly awaken many thorny theological questions that have lingered over the centuries with no other answer than those brought pragmatically by teachers in different continents.
Many popes have given their opinions on the benefits of the colleges of the Society for Christian youth. Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572–85) stated that “the work of the colleges, so included, dates from the first foundation of the Society of Jesus; that it is due to a divine vocation; that it is a great blessing from God, and, for the Church, a spiritual treasure.”[25] Pius VII (r. 1800–23) wrote that “the urgent requests he had received to restore the order were all inspired by the very keen desire that was everywhere to see the youth educated and trained Christianly by the Jesuits.”[26] The pope added that he understood this important reason. He approved, he encouraged, and he bestowed numerous favors upon them.[27]
The Holy See, which appreciated the crucial role played by the colleges, was quick to promote the educational activity of the Jesuits. More than ever after the restoration of the order, the needs of the church, the demands of governments, the intentions of superiors, and the pope himself, testify that God’s will was for the Society of Jesus to devote itself to the Christian education of youth. In the words of Leo XII (r. 1823–29): “In the nineteenth century, we see Christian education as the perfect way to make the human race easier.”[28]
The papacy’s recognition that education was a fundamental activity of the Jesuits was not only a question of supporting the thesis that education was in itself a vital work but also served to highlight that the Society should see itself as specifically created, organized, and promoted by the Holy See for this kind of apostolate.[29] It had to spread a certain culture.
At the end of the nineteenth century, when France wanted to reclaim the Jesuit educators and use them as a propaganda tool in this part of the world (i.e., Syria), its views differed from those of the Holy See.
It is essential to underline the difference between the Holy See, for whom the order represented a religious influence in the region, and France, which saw the Jesuits through a political prism. France’s specific interests differed categorically from those of the Holy See.
It is also important to emphasize one of the basic values that characterized the Society’s educational action: “humanism.”[30] However, there was only one “humanism” in their colleges—Christian humanism.
Admittedly, humanism was a doctrine rather than a method. It became a method only to the extent that the doctrine of the faith was applied to education. For despite being a doctrinal synthesis, “Christian humanism” aspired to respond fully and harmoniously to the essential aspirations of “humanism.”
For a Jesuit, the first question to ask was: Could one think that an educator would know humanity in all its true dimensions if he had not studied Catholic theology?
François Charmot added: “What did we mean by this word: to think? To think is to transform, by personal activity of the mind, the common and formulated knowledge, into truths recognized as such, understood and organized.”[31]
In other words, learning to think as a true Catholic embodied a basic value of Jesuit education. In the Jesuits’ eyes, one of the benefits of “humanist education” was to form righteous judgment and enlightened consciousness. How did the professor achieve this result?[32]
The Jesuit teachers were essentially apostles. They tended to use the strength of culture in education. They did not want their students to pursue learning that did not actively serve to spread the truth through an educated Christian elite. It was a question of borrowing from the ancients all that gave their literature such great prestige among Eastern civilizations.[33]
It was through writing that the Jesuits spread their knowledge. At the same time, writing was an instrument of synthesis, for in order to compose, it was necessary, between the elements of thought, to state the relationships that bound them and to establish a distinct order that revealed its meaning and value. Finally, the pen was an incomparable instrument of control: “Not only did we measure our intellectual strengths, but we had the advantage of being corrected by better judges than ourselves; thought incorporated into words. Through composition, we wanted to get students used to not only active but personal work, that is to say, not only reservoirs but sources.”[34]
The Jesuits’ educational method was thus based on an active collaborative relationship that rejected passivity as harmful. The Jesuit pedagogy was above all a pedagogy of effort, much more than a competition in effort between the students. That culture had to be propagated. It was still a pedagogy of total self-giving at work. No teaching was completed if it was not assimilated and reproduced.
The teacher was a generator of personal thoughts: students became his disciples at a time when their intelligence, fertilized by his own, produced living works in imitation of the masterpieces of antiquity.
Such pedagogy was a vain dream if the students were not driven by genuine enthusiasm. The intimate effort, and especially the creative effort, were absolutely not commanded. The rigorous discipline of a leader did not bring souls out of their passivity. Students had to be passionate about beautiful letters or the method remained a dead letter.
Another aspect was the need for enthusiasm, and Jesuit pedagogy was a psychological pedagogy, that is, based on the psychology of childhood and adolescence. Therefore, it was necessary to consider the needs of youth in order for them to do something serious and difficult, to be captivated by imagination and driven by joy.[35]
Also, on the activity of teachers, Joseph de Jouvancy claimed that Jesuits were there not to observe laws but to give suggestions. Through practical examples, Jouvancy sought to demonstrate how teachers could tailor their instruction to the nature of their students. It is up to them to imagine, according to the interests specific to each era, according to the varying tastes of the generations, novelties suitable for learners. Teachers had to retrain to be at the forefront of change.[36]
Being a religious teacher at the time meant constant questioning. According to Georg Pachtler, the question did not arise of whether the religious could and should teach sciences such as philosophy, literature, history, languages, mathematics. He had to transmit a certain culture. To deny him this right and to relieve him of this duty was to prevent him from practicing education. Yet as a religious educator, he could not adopt a puritanical stance that shunned secular learning, recognizing that divine wisdom governs the entire created world.[37]
Hence the importance that the missionary order gave to the training of its teachers. This, however, could not serve as an escape, and if life on earth was governed by the precepts of Christ, so was the training of Jesuit teachers.
However, this long training was too extensive for the specific needs of their mission to the Maronite community. But when asked by the Holy See, the Society of Jesus had to spread the faith and teach the basic subjects to the Maronites of “Syria,” so they had to adapt their missionary vision.[38] Hence, it was a cultural interaction. According to Father Pierre Favre their ten years of preliminary studies were not superfluous when it was up to them to make secular authors speak as “messengers of Christ.”[39]
In science education, the same method as for literature was followed as far as possible.
Jesuit teaching remained close to “humanist values.” The order had always proposed this pedagogical doctrine: that education be the same from generation to generation, of a more or less intense spread of an enthusiastic life full of dynamism and vitality. What mattered was the value of men much more than the supposed efficiency of the systems. The professor was supposed to have in-depth knowledge of the human being, his faults, and, through his personal experience, be able to avoid all conflicts.[40]
Every priest teacher of the order was therefore prepared to form a social elite. To this end, this meant that each college was equipped with several “career” teachers, that is, men whose unique (or at least principal) apostolate was to teach the same subject to successive generations throughout their lives. [41] They had to pass on that culture.
According to the Jesuit method, it was necessary above all else to train the pupils to practice learning, to think, to reflect, to reason, to compose, to experience all the work of the mind. The teacher’s role was not to produce a course but to “give birth to spirits.”[42] What mattered in this approach to teaching was “awakening, effort, surprise, discovery, assimilation and production.”[43]
Because the class was a community, the students were also part of an inseparable group. The individual was treated as a social being who was made to act in society and who progressed well only in groups. The Jesuit design demonstrated a remarkable modernism in recognizing the need to provide for the individual needs of its flocks while respecting the unity of the social framework.
Jesuit doctrine treated students according to all the requirements of their personality; every child had in Jesus Christ such an eminent value and a vocation so important that he was worthy in the eyes of the Christian masters of all respect and devotion.[44]
To return to the question asked at the beginning of the article: Was the Jesuit education system followed by the new mission of Syria? Was this an example of cultural propagation?
My conclusion is that while keeping certain principles, the Jesuits did not put into practice the theory of the Society’s thought in “Syria” at the end of the nineteenth century. There was indeed a marked difference between theory and practice. The men in black adapted their methods and culture to the Maronite population. These missionaries succeeded in restricting their ideological aims by demonstrating an unparalleled capacity for adaptation, namely practicing their priesthood in the local vernacular, Arabic (as the Maronite liturgical language is Syriac).[45]
The means implemented by the French-language education system (teaching methods, way of speaking, programs, criteria of appreciation, organization of the progression of studies, exams and competitions, teacher training) facilitated the emergence of a Maronite “elite,” fostered by this precious capital of knowledge. This position leads to the admission that, in addition to its pedagogical ambition, the French-language school system fulfilled a latent function of selecting the dominant social order.[46]
The professional future thus offered to the new Maronite generation through the creation of the USJ in Beirut opened up new cultural horizons for this community. This new “bourgeoisie” managed to forge a place in the world of commerce thanks to its practice of French, one of the main languages in the field of business.
Thus, the training of Maronite youth was provided by France through its education system. It succeeded in spreading its national culture, as well as a coherent frame of reference, nourished by the love of France. As Jean-Pierre Mounier and Jean-Pierre Cot remind us, “what makes a culture original is the particular arrangement of the elements that make it up. Each culture forms a coherent whole and each of its elements can only be understood in reference to this whole.”[47]
The dissemination of French was the essential mission entrusted to the college by the French authorities. Documents from the Vatican Apostolic Archive show that the French consul general in Beirut was responsible for ensuring that the schools of the missions promoted the use of French and developed “the cult of France,”[48] thus joining the previous objective.
Thanks to its missionaries/educators, France was the only country to offer a “modern” form of teaching, that is to say in accordance with the needs of the time.
However, the missionaries did not resign themselves to ignoring their immediate objective, namely both to ensure quality education and to train the elites in accordance with Jesuit ideology.
As per the title of this article, I therefore affirm that the new mission of Syria and its Jesuit education system is an example of cultural propagation.
The analysis of the Jesuits’ educational projects highlights the purpose of their approach to the USJ, which was intended as “a community of teaching and culture.”[49] So there was a spread of culture.
Notes:
[1] During this period, “Syria” was used to refer to a region that also encompasses today’s Lebanon, which does not appear in the sources until the end of the Ottoman period. This article also uses “Syria” in this broader sense of the term.
[2] For more information on the notion of “cultural propagation,” see: Martine Abdallah-Pretceille, Vers une pédagogie interculturelle (Éditions Anthropos, 1996); Kristen D. Burton and Isabelle Rispler, “Introduction: What Is Transatlantic History?,” Traversea 1 (2011): 1–4; Carmel Camilleri and Geneviève Vinsonneau, Psychologie et culture: Concepts et méthodes (Armand Colin, 1996); Carmel Camilleri, “Stratégies identitaires: Les voies de la complexification,” in Identité collective et altérité, ed. Marie-Antoinette Hily and Marie-Louise Lefebvre (L’Harmattan, 1999); Claude Clanet, L’interculturel (Pum, 1990); Denys Cuche, La notion de culture en sciences sociales (Éditions La Découverte, 1996); Cuche, “Nouveaux regards sur la culture: L’évolution d’une notion en anthropologie,” in La culture, ed. Nicolas Journet (Sciences humaines, 2002), 203–12; Patrick Denoux, “L’identité interculturelle,” Bulletin de psychologie 48, no. 419 (1995): 264–70; Geneviève Vinsonneau, L’identité culturelle (Armand Colin, 2002). Alain Guillermou, Les Jésuites (PUF, 1963), 72–73.
[3] Henri Jallabert, S.J., “Compagnie de Jésus,” Al-Manarat 12 (1989): 5.
[4] For more information on the first mission of Syria, see: Gérard Levenq, S.J., La première mission de la Compagnie de Jésus en Syrie: 1625/1774 (Imprimerie Catholique, 1925).
[5] The Jesuits settled in Aleppo in 1625, Damascus in 1643, Tripoli and Saida in 1644, and Antoura (’Ayn Tura on Mount Lebanon) in 1657.
[6] For more information on the suppression of the Society of Jesus, see: Jeffrey D. Burson and Jonathan Wright, eds., The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context: Causes, Events, and Consequences (Cambridge University Press, 2015); Joseph de Guibert, S.J., The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice; A Historical Study (Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1972), chapter 11, “During the Suppression 1773–1814,” 444–61; Sabina Pavone, Una strana alleanza: La Compagnia di Gesù in Russia (1772–1820) (Bibliopolis, 2010); Pavone, I gesuiti dalle origini alla soppressione (Laterza, 2021); Paul J. Shore, The Years of Jesuit Suppression, 1773–1814: Survival, Setbacks, and Transformation (Brill, 2019).
[7] Simon Decloux, “La pédagogie des Jésuites et son inspiration ignatienne,” Revue lumen vitae 45, no. 2 (1990): 127–40, here 131.
[8] For more information about the Jesuits, see: James William Bernauer and Robert A. Maryks, eds., “The Tragic Couple”: Encounters between Jews and Jesuits (Brill, 2014); Jocelyn M. Boryczka and Elizabeth A. Petrino, Jesuit and Feminist Education: Intersections in Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century (Fordham University Press, 2012); Thomas E. Clarke, Jesuit Commitment, Fraternal Covenant? (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1971); Roger Duchêne, L’imposture littéraire dans les Provinciales de Pascal (Presses universitaires de Provence, 2013); Robert J. Kaslyn, The Jesuit Ministry of Publishing Overview of Guidelines and Praxis (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 2008); Edward Kinerk, When Jesuits Pray: A Perspective on the Prayer of Apostolic Persons (American Assistancy Seminar, 1985); Emmanuel Kreis, Les puissances de l’ombre: Juifs, jésuites, francs-maçons, réactionnaires [ . . . ] La théorie du complot dans les textes (CNRS éditions, 2009); Thomas M. Landy, Myths That Shape Us: Jesuit Beliefs about the Value of Institutions (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1994); Bernard J. F. Lonergan, The Response of the Jesuit, as Priest and Apostle in the Modern World (American Assistancy Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1970); Gerdenio M. Manuel, Living Chastity: Psychosexual Well-Being in Jesuit Life (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 2009); Robert A. Maryks, The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews: Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry and Purity-of-Blood Laws in the Early Society of Jesus (Brill, 2010); Peter McDonough, Clenched Fist or Open Palm? Five Jesuit Perspectives on Pluralism (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 2005); David E. Nantais, “Whatever!” Is Not Ignatian Indifference: Jesuits and the Ministry to Young Adults (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 2004); Bernt Torvild Oftestad, “Jesuittparagraff og antikatolisisme,” Teologisk Tidsskrift 3 (2014): 408–30; John W. O’Malley, Saints or Devils Incarnate? Studies in Jesuit History (Brill, 2013); Charles M. Shelton, Toward Healthy Jesuit Community Living: Some Psychological Reflections (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1992); Shelton, Friendship in Jesuit Life: The Joys, the Struggles, the Possibilities (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1995); Carl F. Starkloff, Pilgrimage Re-envisioned: Mission and Culture in the Last Five General Congregations (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 2000); Mark Waddell, Jesuit Science and the End of Nature’s Secrets (Ashgate, 2015).
[9] On the history of the Society of Jesus, in France, see: Joseph Burnichon, S.J., La Compagnie de Jésus en France: Histoire d’un siècle, 1814–1914, 4 vols. (Gabriel Beauchesne, 1914–22).
[10] For more information on the “New Mission of Syria,” see: Révérend Père Michel Jullien, La Nouvelle Mission de la Compagnie de Jésus en Syrie (1831–1895), tomes 1 and 2 (Imprimerie A. Manne et Fils, 1898). See also the in-depth analysis of the Jesuit presence in Lebanon by Chantal Verdeil, La mission jésuite du Mont-Liban et de Syrie (1830–1864) (Les Indes Savantes, 2011); Verdeil, ed., Missions chrétiennes en terre d’islam (XVIIe–XXe siècle): Anthologie de textes missionnaires (Brepols, 2013).
[11] “Jésuites,” in Gaston and Monique Duchet-Suchaux, Les ordres religieux: Guide historique (Flammarion, 1993), 182.
[12] Yves-Marie Hilaire and Jean-Marie Mayeur, Dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine, tome 1 (Editeur Beauchesne, 1985), 8.
[13] Quote from Poincaré cited by Hilaire and Mayeur, Dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine, tome 1, 9.
[14] Denise Bouche, Histoire de la colonisation française, tome 2, Flux et reflux (1815–1962) (Fayard, 1991), 272.
[15] For more information on the training of indigenous clergy at the Ghazir seminary see: Les Archives Jésuites de Vanves (hereafter AJV), Carton RPO 85: Ghazīr, Différentes lettres.
[16] Les Archives romaines de la Compagnie de Jésus (hereafter ARSI), Carton 1005: 1869–90, Mission Syria, Farde Syria 1005-I, Lettre numéro 35 du Père Monnot datant de 1875, ARSI, Carton 1005: 1869–90, Mission Syria, Farde Syria 1005-VI, Différentes lettres sur le passage de Ghazīr à Beyrouth, ARSI, Carton 1005: 1869–90, Mission Syria, Farde Syria 1005-XII, Différentes lettres sur le passage de Ghazīr à Beyrouth; Les Archives de la “Sacra Congregatio De Propaganda Fide” à Rome (hereafter APF), Carton 2: 1874–80: Scritture Riferite nei Congressi Siria, Lettre: “Apperçu du R.P. Monnot, Supérieur Général de la Mission”; AJV, Carton RPO 21: Histoire et présentation de la Mission de Syrie, Chemise 1: Documents anciens, no. 11: “Missions des Jésuites en Syrie, vue d’ensemble des œuvres entre 1875 et 1880.”
[17] ARSI, Carton 1005: 1869–90, Mission Syria, Farde Syria 1005-I, Lettre du Père Ambroise Monnot.
[18] ACG Beyrouth (Les Archives du Consulat général de Beyrouth conservées au Centre des archives diplomatiques de Nantes), Carton: A107, 1873/74, Différentes lettres.
[19] AJV, Collection PRAT, tome 26: Mission de Syrie 1875–1905, Université.
[20] ARSI, Carton 1005: 1869–90, Mission Syria, Farde Syria 1005-I, Différentes lettres du Père Ambroise Monnot.
[21] AJV, Carton RPO 21: Histoire et présentation de la Mission de Syrie, Chemise 2 : avant 1914, lettre: “La Compagnie de Jésus en Orient: Prospectus”; ARSI, Carton 1005: 1869–90, Mission Syria, Farde Syria 1005-II, letter no. 26, February 1881.
[22] For more details on the reasons for the founding of the USJ, see: Rafael Herzstein, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth: Fondation et fonctionnement de 1875 à 1914 (Le Cri édition, 2008); Herzstein, “Une réconciliation entre Paris et La Compagnie de Jésus au Levant (1875–1914): Faux-fuyant ou nécessité ponctuelle?,” Mémoire spiritaine: Histoire, mission, spiritualité 22 (2005): 99–113; Herzstein, “La France et le retour des jésuites au Levant au sein de la communauté maronite: Un nouveau modèle de compromis pédagogique,” Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal 2, no. 1 (2007): 95–105; Herzstein, “The Foundation of the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut: The Teaching of the Maronites by the Second Jesuit Mission in the Levant,” Middle Eastern Studies 43, no. 5 (2007): 749–59; Herzstein, “Saint-Joseph University of Beirut: An Enclave of the French-Speaking Communities in the Levant, 1875–1914,” Itinerario 32, no. 2 (2008): 67–82; Herzstein, “Les pères jésuites et les Maronites du Mont Liban: l’Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth,” Histoire & Missions Chrétiennes 9 (March 2009): 149–75; Herzstein, “Une présence française en Méditerranée orientale: La fondation de L’Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth (1875–1914),” Matériaux pour l’histoire de Notre temps 99 (July–September 2010): 4–11; Herzstein, “Les phases de l’évolution de l’Université Saint-Joseph à Beyrouth: Les premières décennies (1875–1914),” Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation 24, no. 1 (2012): 21–41; Herzstein, “Un apostolat en Orient: La France et la Compagnie de Jésus auprès de la communauté Maronite,” Archiv Orientální 82, no. 2 (2014): 247–62; Herzstein, “French Colonial Ambitions in the Levant: The Creation of Saint Joseph University in Beirut (1875–1914),” Journal of Mediterranean Studies 29, no. 1 (2020): 19–33; Herzstein, “St. Joseph’s University in Beirut and Its Institutions: Places of Knowledge of the Orient in the Christian East,” Catholic Historical Review 110, no. 3 (2024): 514–34.
[23] See the numerous archives consulted: ACG de Beyrouth à Nantes, AE at Paris, AJV at Vanves, ARSI at Rome, and VAA at Rome.
[24] Diego Laínez quoted by Jean Lacouture, Jésuites: Une multibiographie, tome 2, Les revenants (Editions du Seuil, 1992), 285.
[25] Institutum Societatis Jesu, Bullarium, 332, 333.
[26] Institutum Societatis Jesu, Bullarium, 332, 333.
[27] Institutum Societatis Jesu, Bullarium, 334.
[28] Institutum Societatis Jesu, Bullarium, 335.
[29] François Charmot, S.J., La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité (Editions SPES, 1951), 22.
[30] For more details on the Society’s educational method, see: Cristiano Casalini, “Rise, Character, and Development of Jesuit Education: Teaching the World,” in The Oxford Handbook of Jesuits, ed. Ines G. Županov (Oxford University Press, 2018), 153–76; Mary Beth Combs, Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World: Justice in Jesuit Higher Education (Fordham University Press, 2013); John W. Donohue, S.J., Jesuit Education: An Essay on the Foundations of Its Idea (Fordham University Press, 1963); J. William Harmless and Donald L. Gelpi, Priesthood Today and the Jesuit Vocation (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1987); Arthur F. McGovern, Jesuit Education and Jesuit Spirituality (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 1998); David J. O’Brien, The Jesuits and Catholic Higher Education (American Assistancy, 1981); John O’Malley, “Jesuit Schools and the Humanities Yesterday and Today,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 47, no. 1 (2015): 1–34; John W. Padberg, Colleges & Controversy (Harvard University Press, 1969); Thomas P. Rausch, Christian Life Communities for Jesuit University Students? (Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality, 2004); Joseph A. Tetlow, The Jesuits’ Mission in Higher Education: Perspectives and Contexts (American Assistancy Seminar, 1983, 1984).
[31] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 243.
[32] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 245.
[33] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 285.
[34] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 286.
[35] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 320.
[36] Joseph de Jouvancy, S.J., Ratio discendi et docendi (Paris, 1809).
[37] Georg Pachtler, S.J., Ratio studiorum et Institutiones Scholasticae Societatis Jesu per Germaniam olim vigentes collectae, concinnatae, dilucidatae, tome 4 (Berlin, 1887), 2.
[38] For more details on the Jesuit paradigm, see: Herzstein, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth: Fondation et fonctionnement de 1875 à 1914, 117–27.
[39] Pierre Favre (Saint Peter Faber), Mémorial du Bienheureux: Pierre Le Fèvre, ed. Marcel Bouix, S.J. (Paris, 1874), 5.
[40] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 492.
[41] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 494.
[42] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 498.
[43] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 498.
[44] Charmot, La pédagogie des Jésuites: Ses principes; Son actualité, 500.
[45] The Jesuits seemed to have abided by local rules and customs in Syria. Many photographs show them with long beards, for example. See the numerous archives consulted: ACG from Beirut in Nantes, AE in Paris, AJV in Vanves, ARSI in Rome, and VAA in Rome. “During this period the Jesuits, to be accepted, learned and spoke the Arabic language, dressed in the same way as the Maronite monks” (Maurice Barrès, Une enquête aux Pays du Levant [Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1923/24], 36); “In 1833, Father Riccadonna wrote that the missionary needed only mediocre science, but had to show great virtue and know Arabic” (Dominique Chevallier, La Société du Mont Liban à l’époque de la Révolution industrielle en Europe [Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1971], 265).
[46] Jean Brun, L’école catholique au Liban et ses contradictions, Publications du Centre Culturel Universitaire, Collection Hommes et Sociétés du Proche-Orient, no. 5 (Dar El-Machreq Editeurs, 1973), 13–14.
[47] Jean-Pierre Mounier and Jean-Pierre Cot, Pour une sociologie politique, tome 1 (Le Seuil, 1974), 79.
[48] Vatican Apostolic Archive, Carton 218, 1870–1914, Relazioni con i vari consolati francesi.
[49] Expression by Jean-Marie Delobel, “Une approche de la pédagogie dans les collèges jésuites: De l’idéal aux pratiques,” Lumen vitae 45, no. 2 (1990): 153–64, here 155.
Metadata
Title: The “New Mission of Syria” and Its Jesuit Education System (1875–1914)
Author: Rafael Herzstein 
Article Type: Research Article
DOI: 10.51238/ISJS.2024.07
Language: English
Article number: e07
Pages: 1–14
Keywords: New Mission of Syria; Jesuit education system; St. Joseph’s University; Beirut
Volume: 4
Issue: 1, special issue
In: Renovatio Mundi: The Jesuits as Educators in History
Editors: Cristiano Casalini ; Alessandro Corsi ; A. Taiga Guterres
In: International Symposia on Jesuit Studies
Publication Date: 30 October 2026
Last Updated: 30 October 2026
Publisher: Institute of Jesuit Sources
E-ISSN: 2766-0644
ISBN: 979-8-90493-018-9
Cite
APA
Herzstein, R. (2026). The “new mission of Syria” and its Jesuit education system (1875–1914). In C. Casalini, A. Corsi, & A. T. Guterres (Eds.), Renovatio mundi: The Jesuits as educators in history (Proceedings of the symposium held at Boston College, June 11–13, 2024) [Special issue]. International Symposia on Jesuit Studies, 4(1), Article e07. https://doi.org/10.51238/ISJS.2024.07
CMOS
Herzstein, Rafael. “The ‘New Mission of Syria’ and Its Jesuit Education System (1875–1914).” In “Renovatio Mundi: The Jesuits as Educators in History (Proceedings of the Symposium held at Boston College, June 11–13, 2024),” ed. Cristiano Casalini, Alessandro Corsi, and A. Taiga Guterres, special issue, International Symposia on Jesuit Studies 4, no. 1 (2026): e07. https://doi.org/10.51238/ISJS.2024.07.
MLA
Herzstein, Rafael. “The ‘New Mission of Syria’ and Its Jesuit Education System (1875–1914).” Renovatio Mundi: The Jesuits as Educators in History (Proceedings of the Symposium held at Boston College, June 11–13, 2024), edited by Cristiano Casalini, Alessandro Corsi, and A. Taiga Guterres, special issue of International Symposia on Jesuit Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2026, article e07. https://doi.org/10.51238/ISJS.2024.07.