Marie-Joseph Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (1881 - 1955)

Born 1 May 1881 in Chateau Sarcenet, Orcines, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France

Ancestors

Died 10 Apr 1955 at age 73 in New York City, New York, United States of America

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Biography

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ a des origines françaises.

Marie-Joseph Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was born on 1 May 1881 in Chateau Sarcenet, Orcines, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France, son of Alexandre Victor Emmanuel Teilhard de Chardin (1844 - 1932) and Berthe-Adele (de Dompierre d'Hornoy) Teilhard de Chardin (~1853 - 1936). Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a great evolutionary thinker, a scientist, philosopher, theologian, teacher and at the same time a mystic. His thought, which was on a vast scale, has caught the imagination of millions. He was concerned with problems that are of interest to all. A Jesuit and palaeontologist, his expeditions took him to many parts of the world. His ten siblings were:

1. Alberic Citrice Marie Joseph Teilhard de Chardin (1876 - 1902)
2. Marie Gabrielle Josephe Teilhard de Chardin (1877 - 1881)
3. Françoise Teilhard de Chardin (1879 - 1911)
4. Marguerite-Marie Teilhard de Chardin (~1883 - 1936)
5. Gonzague Marie Joseph Teilhard de Chardin (1883 - 1914)
6. Gabriel Teilhard de Chardin (1885 - 1941)
7. Olivier Marie Joseph Teilhard de Chardin (1887 - 1918)
8. Astorg Marie Joseph Teilhard de Chardin (1889 - 1978)
9. Marie-Louise Teilhard de Chardin (1891 - 1904)
10. Victor Marie Joseph Teilhard de Chardin (1896 - 1934)

Marie-Joseph died on 10 Apr 1955 in New York City, New York, United States of America aged 73. Family

Of eleven children born to Berthe-Adele and Emmanuel Teilhard de Chardin, a gentleman farmer, Pierre was the fourth child and second of seven sons, born in the Parish of Orcines, Puy de Dome, Clermont-Ferrand. The second child, Marielle died in infancy. The family lived in the Chateau of Sarcenat. They spent the summer at The Chateau Murol and Chateau Sarcenat and the winter at their town house in Clermont-Ferrand. The motto on the Coat of Arms of the Teilhard de Chardin family is "Fiery is their vigour and of heaven their source." Pierre's earliest memory when he was three or four years old was "at a fancy dress party that my parents gave in our house in Clermont, an old seventeenth mansion. These old houses, with their cellar-like entrances, their huge staircases, cold and damp and their sombre, lofty rooms, were a grim setting for our childhood. But they never stopped us from playing - "

Boarding School For five years, beginning in 1892 when Pierre was 11 years old, he was a boarder at the Jesuit School of Notre Dame de Mongre in Villefranche-sur-Saone. Pierre took a lively interest in both science and religion and at age 16 years he decided to join Religious life as a Jesuit.

Jesuit Novitiate Pierre entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Aix-En-Provence 20 March 1899. His training was to last thirteen years. Two books of his letters to his parents give insight into Pierre's experiences during those years - "Letters from Egypt" and "Letters from Hastings". Pierre made his first vows at Laval 25 March 1901.

Jesuit Scholasticate Because of legislation in France directed against Religious Orders, the Jesuits withdrew to the Channel Islands and Pierre spent his time in the Scholasticate in Jersey. From there he was sent in September 1905 to Cairo to teach physics and chemistry for three years. His eldest brother, Alberic had died at Sarcenet 27 September 1902 and his youngest sister, Louise, aged 12 years, had died of meningitis in August 1904. A younger sister, Marguerite-Marie became seriously ill with pleurisy in 1900 and was permanently bedridden.

Scientist During his studies in philosophy and theology, Pierre spent his leisure and holiday times in scientific excursions and research. He wrote to his parents about what he found as in a letter 6 December 1907, A.M. Priem in Paris, to whom I sent all my harvests of fish-teeth, has told me that he is giving a note about them to the Geological Society of France. They include a new species and three new varieties, one of them "Teilhardi"! It was during these years that Pierre began to see the universe in its oneness.

Ordination Two months before his ordination as a Jesuit priest 24 August 1911, his sister, Francoise, Superior of the Convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Shanghai, died of smallpox at the age of 32. His parents and three brothers were able to attend Pierre's ordination at Ore Place, Hastings in England. From 1912 until war broke out in 1914, Pierre studied science in Paris.

World War I Stretcher Bearer Although he was priest, Teilhard chose to be a stretcher bearer rather than a chaplain in World War I; his courage on the battle lines earned him a military medal and the Legion of Honour. Pierre's brother, Gonzague, was killed in action 12 November 1914 and Olivier was killed at Mount Kemmel, Belgium 03 May 1918. Half of his ten siblings were thus deceased by the time Pierre was 37 years old.

First Scientific Mission to China In 1923, after teaching at the Catholic Institute of Paris, Pierre made the first of his paleontological and geological missions to China, where he was involved in the discovery (1929) of Peking man’s skull. Further travels in the 1930s took him to the Gobi (desert), Sinkiang, Kashmir, Java, and Burma (Myanmar). Teilhard enlarged the field of knowledge on Asia’s sedimentary deposits and stratigraphic correlations and on the dates of its fossils.

Family Deaths While Pierre was in Peking, his father, Emmanuel Teilhard de Chardin, died 11 February 1932, his brother, Victor, 28 October 1934, and his mother 07 February 1936 followed a few months later by the death of his sister, Marguerite-Marie 17 August. He spent the years 1939–45 at Beijing in a state of near-captivity on account of World War II. In October 1941, Pierre's brother, Gabriel died. Of eleven children in the family only Pierre and Joseph remained. While he was in Paris, Pierre suffered a heart attack 01 June 1947 after which he returned to the USA, but by August 1948 he stayed with Joseph at his home the Chateau of Les Moulins. It was there that he completed "Comment Je Vois" (How I See) and in 1950,"Le Coeur de la Matière" (The Heart of Matter).

Correspondence Over the years Pierre's correspondence to his family, friends and colleagues was prolific. He was aclose friend of at least six women to whom he wrote, in particular Lucile Swan who loved each other deeply and who corresponded with each other from 1932 until 1955 and Rhoda de Terra who took care of hs needs when he was on some expeditions and when he was ill and frail during his final years. The corresponded from 1938 to 1950 after which time they lived not far from each other in Manhatten, New York. Other women with whom he had significant correspondence were his second cousin Marguerite Teillard-Chambon in earlier years, Ida Treat, who had strong view about Marxism, from 1926 to 1952 and Leontine Zanta, who lectured in philosophy and played a leading a part in the French feminist movement leading from 1923 to 1939.

Anxiety and Depression In his letters to Rhoda de Terra, Pierre often mentioned his long-standing anxiety and "nervous" depression, increasingly so after his first severe heart attack. I have not seen this fact included or commented on in any writings about Pierre. It stands to reason that such a brilliant and sensitive man would probably have suffered from PTSD after his service as a stretcher bearer in the army during WWI and was profoundly affected by the deaths of his brothers killed in action, of his sisters and parents all within a relatively short space of time. Also, he lived in constant uncertainty about the publication or not of the works into which he constantly poured his energy and thinking, the whole purpose, for him, of his life. The powers that be in Rome never allowed those works to be formally published in his lifetime. it was Rhoda de Terra who seems to have given him the psychological and practical support that he needed during the times of physical illness, anxiety and "nervous" depression that he experienced in the 1950s before his death in 1955.

Authorities in Rome Pierre is known for his theory that man is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity. Blending science and Christianity, he declared that the human epic resembles “nothing so much as a way of the Cross.” Various theories of his brought reservations and objections from within the Roman Catholic Church and from the Jesuit order, of which he was a member. In 1947, Rome forbade Teilhard to publish. He wrote to the Abbe Breuil, 23 September 1947, " A week ago I had a letter from my General (Jesuits in Rome) forbidding me (in a perfectly courteous way) from publishing anything that involved philosophy or theology. And that neatly cuts out a large part of the activity still left open to me .... All this isn't making life any brighter. Still, it is forcing me back upon 'the one thing that is necessary'. ' Everything that happens is worthy of worship', Termier used to say". In 1948, Pierre went to Rome to make a final attempt to obtain permission to publish his book, "The Human Phenomenon".

France and USA Teilhard returned to France in frustrated in his desire to teach at the Collège de France and publish philosophy (all his major works were published by friends posthumously) and he moved to the United States, spending the last years of his life at the Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York City, for which he made two paleontological and archaeological expeditions to South Africa, the second in 1953. He made his last visit to France where he lectured on Africa and the origins of the human species, in the summer of 1954. He visited Lascaux, then Sarcenet the place of his birth.

Death He returned to Manhatten, New York in August 1954 and died a few months later on Easter Sunday 10 April, 1955. Pierre Teilhard had attended High Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in Manhatten in the morning and enjoyed a concert in the afternoon. He went to for a cup of tea to the flat of a friend (Rhoda de Terra) where, at age 73 years, he died of a heart attack.

Burial Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is buried in the cemetery of what was once a Jesuit Novitiate in Poughkeepsie, beside the Hudson River, north of Manhatten, and is now the Culinary Institute of America.

Sources

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Teilhard-de-Chardin

Books

• ALBUM. Designed and Edited by Jeanne Mortier and Marie-Louise Aboux. Collins, St James Place, London, 1966
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Letters from Egypt 1905 -1908". Herder and Herder , NY, 1965.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Letters from Hastings 1908 -1912". Herder and Herder , NY, 1968.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Letters from Paris 1912 -1914". Herder and Herder, NY, 1965.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier Priest". Collins, St James Place, London, 1965.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Letters to Leontine Zonta". Collins, St James Place, London, 1969.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Letters from a Traveller 1923 -1955". Collins Fontana Books, London,1956.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "The Future of Man", translated from the French by Norman Denny, Harper & Row, New York, 1959.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "The Divine Milieu". Collins Fontana Books, London,1960.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Science and Christ". Collins, St James Place, London, 1965.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "The Appearance of Man". Collins, St James Place, London, 1965.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Letters to Leontine Zonta". Collins, St James Place, London, 1969.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Human Energy". Collins, St James Place, London, 1969.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Christianity & Evolution". Collins, St James Place, London, 1969.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "How I Believe". Perennial Library, Harper & Row, New York, 1969.
• Teilhard de Chardin, " Toward the Future", translated by Rene Hague. A Harvest Book, Harcourt Inc, London, 1973.
• Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, "Let Me Explain". Collins Fontana Books, London,1974.
• Teilhard de Chardin, " Activation of Energy", translated by Rene Hague. A Harvest Book, Harcourt Inc, London, 1976.
• Teilhard de Chardin, " The Heart of Matter", translated by Rene Hague. A Harvest Book, Harcourt Inc, London, 1978.
• King, Thomas M. and Gilbert, Mary Wood, Edited by, " The Letters to Teilhard de Chardin & Lucille Swan 1926 - 1952". Georgetown University Press, Washington D.C., 1993.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "The Human Phenomenon", translated by Sarah Appleton-Weber, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, Portland, 1999.
• "Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Writings Selected with an Introduction by Ursula King". Orbis books, Maryknoll, New York, 1999.
• Tucker, Mary Evelyn, "The Ecological Spirituality of Teilhard", Teilhard Studies Number 51, Fall 2005. American Teilhard Association 1985. Revised 2005.
• Fabel, Arthur; St John, Donald; Editors, "Teilhard in the 21st Century. The Emerging Spirit of Earth", Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2007.
• Duffy, Kathleen, S.S.J. Edited by, " Rediscovering Teilhard's Fire". St Joseph,s University Press, Philadelphia, 2010.
• Delio, Ilia, Editor, "From Teilhard to Omega. Creating an Unfinished Universe", Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2014.

Family Trees

• Geneanet.org: Pierre Marie JosephTeilhard de Chardin