Institution Saint-Michel

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 and placed under its aegis. It was formerly known as the Little Religious Seminary . 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.
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:
Bombing of May 1944.
Each year, Saint-Michel’s students commemorate the Armistice of May 8, 1945 but also the bombing of Solesmes on May 9, 1944 which greatly impacted the institution. From February to June 1944, the Allies intensified their destructive efforts on roads and rails to isolate the Normandy landings and to dupe the Germans into believing that this landing would take place in the nearer Pas-de-Calais. General Eisenhower encapsulated those successful bombings ""as the greatest contribution to the success of Overlord”" (June 6, 44). On May 9, 1944; the 416th Bomb Group successfully destroyed the Aarschot railway station between Brussels and Antwerp with several Douglas Boston III Havocs each carrying four 250-kg bombs and the 409th Bomb Group caused death and destruction in Solesmes with the same equipment. On May 9, at around 8:15 am, the air alert loud sirens prompted all children who went to school to go back home and around 10:15, two explosions were heard as four bombs were accidentally detached from the freight deck of an aircraft and landed on the Chemin de of the Institution Saint-Michel causing the first victims. A fifth bomb will not explode and will be destroyed a few days later by the Germans, near Chant des Oiseaux. Seventy bombs exploded in the city-center killing fifty-eight people including twenty-two children and the destruction of ninety-seven buildings while the wounded were transferred to the hospital of Le Cateau. The town of Solesmes received the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France). Historians revealed that it was the train station that was targeted with its ramifications to the sugar refinery and the electro-tubes. The American airmen had orders; when they were not carrying out their mission; to drop their bombs on secondary targets. Moreover, at 3500 m altitude the accuracy of a shot was 1 km but there was barely 500 meters between the station and the city-center.""
International.
Twinning Arrangements.
The Institution Saint-Michel has long established exchange partnerships with education centers from across the Western world including with the: