Free institution of the Sacred Heart

The Free Institution of the Sacred Heart is oldest and most prestigious of the schools of mainstream education of Tourcoing. It originates in the College Saint Bonaventure, founded by the Reverends Pères Récollets in 1666, with the authorization of the king Philippe IV of Spain, of the duke of Ferdinand Harbor of Croy, lord of Tourcoing, and of Mgr François Villain of Ghent, bishop of Tournai. The school is currently a establishment private related to the State by contract of association.

" Free Institution of the Sacred Heart " is the official name of the establishment. Its usual name is the Sacré-coeur . By secular tradition, one still frequently gives him the name of Collège of Tourcoing .

It is installed since 1853 with 111, rue de Lille, in Tourcoing.

Foundation of the College of Tourcoing (17th century)

Context

When, in 1661, the Reverend Père Simon de Hennin, provincial superior of the Order of the Minor Brothers Récollets (a branch of the Franciscains), officially asked for to the duke of Harbor the authorization of open a college and a convent downtown its good of Tourcoing in the countryside of Lille, this one did not count whereas twelve thousand inhabitants. The Flanders, to which Tourcoing belongbelonged, although speaking French in the area inhabitant of Lille, was remained under the remote but uncontested authority of the king of Spain since more than one century and half.

The young duke of Harbor and lord of Tourcoing, Ferdinand de Croÿ, being old hardly nine years, it is his mother, Marie-Claire de Croÿ, who manages and manages the goods of her son. It is thus with it that the letter of Récollets is addressed: evoking the various services which its order already rendered in Tourquennois, Simon de Hennin explains the utility of a religious college because it is necessary “ to teach youth ” and to teach him “to Latin until rhetoric, while passing by mathematics and the history as well old as modern ”.

This proposal was well accommodated, as well by the lord as by the aldermen, and, with the autumn 1662, Récollets prepared already their bags to settle in Tourcoing.

At this point in time, without explanations, they accepted on behalf of the municipality of the city a missive informing them of the cancellation of all that had been envisaged and formal prohibition for Récollets to establish a college and a convent with Tourcoing.

Récollets against the Carmelite friars: 1661-1664

This reaction as astonishing as unjustified astounded Récollets; and they did not have to seek very a long time the cause of this refusal.

The Ordre of the Carmelite friars, rival of Récollets, had undergone material heavy losses at the time of the wars that Louis XIV of France had carried out in the area against his/her Spanish father-in-law. The Carmelite friars thus sought new establishments in the area, and they had thrown their reserved on Tourcoing. Why?

Quite simply because the uncle of the young person Ferdinand de Croÿ (duke of Harbor and lord of Tourcoing) was not other than the reverend father Philippe de Croÿ, provincial person in charge about the Carmelite friars.

The order of the Carmelite friars had thus suffered from the last wars. He thus sought him also to establish new convents and places of worship. Philippe de Croÿ proposed with his nephew, in the name of the Carmelite friars, to found a college with Tourcoing. The proposal was submitted to the aldermen, whom to like their lord, accepted without discussing.

The mother of the lord of Tourcoing (at the time minor), the duchess Marie d' Havré, made include/understand in Récollets not to more come to disturb her councils. At April 1664, Marie d' Havré sold to the Carmelite friars a great property at the exit of the borough of Tourcoing: the notarial act provided that the first draft would be versed on June 15th by the Fathers Carmelite friars, and that those could then build their convent and college. Later, in July 1664, the Carmelite friars had three months not poured a centime.

Marie d' Havré of it was largely dissatisfied, and ordered with her Baillif of Tourcoing “to seize the ground of the Carmelite friars, to prevent the aforementioned Carmelite friars from reaching this ground and to prohibit by all the means the construction of a convent or unspecified college. ”

One made understand with the aldermen that if the Carmelite friars did not pay, one would call upon communal finances to replace the failing monks. Tourquennois were opposed with virulence to that, considering that the town of Tourcoing could not allow “to spend its thin receipts for the establishment of monk of which the city had not required anything. ” notable Certains of the city moved to Lille to speak to the father Simon de Hennin, the provincial one of Récollets.

Récollets, moreover, had not remained inactive. Since the local authorities refused to grant the right to him to settle in Tourcoing, Simon de Hennin decided to call some directly with the king: Philippe IV, king d' Espagne, then count of Flanders and thus Suzerain of Tourcoing. The royal council answered Récollets in December 1664 and king Philippe sent officially his letters of granting to Simon de Hennin, authorizing it to build his convent and his college, with the proviso of getting along with the bishop of Turned (on which Tourcoing depended then) and with the tourquennoise municipality.

Marie d' Havré having died in September 1664, one could have believed that nobody any more opposed the arrival of Récollets. However, Tourquennois, which considered already that the local taxes were excessive, refused to spend a penny for the construction of the future college. Simon de Hennin moved then in person to try to convince the municipality. He went in Tourcoing on March 26th 1665, and took appointment with the town hall with the baillif and the aldermen; the scene which followed is enough cocasse to be retranscribed here:

“The reverend father Simon de Hennin, followed by his assistant the Grasi father, entered the meeting room of the échevinage: all the aldermen and the baillif of the duke of Harbor were present. After the courtesies of use, one came quickly to the facts; the baillif spoke, exposing the point of view of the others: the construction of a college would cost an unimaginable sum the city. Vis-a-vis the denials of Simon de Hennin, the baillif stiffens and added that he regarded the letters of granting as forgeries manufactured by Récollets. Simon de Hennin, furious, answered him:

- Eh well, Sirs, since you go there thus, in spite of the granting whom it rained with His Majesty to grant to us, I will take possession from this step of this place! says it by typing fist on the table.

It rose, and known as with its assistant, the Grasi father:

- I order to you, my brother, to return to you to the place chosen for the site of our college. ”

Grasi knelt and accepted the blessing of its superior. On this, they left both the room, leaving the amazed aldermen.

1665: the long lawsuit

The theatrical incident which had proceeded at the time of the visit of Simon de Hennin quickly made it tower of the city, which was divided into two camps (strong peaceful, it should be specified) of the pro-Récollets and the anti-monks. The opponents in Récollets had for principal reason the obsession to have to pay the construction of the college and the convent.

If the aldermen had remained dumb of amazement during the visit of Récollets, they reacted however promptly. The following day, they went to Lille to consult two famous lawyers in the area, which advised the three following points to them:

the taking possession per Simon de Hennin being juridically null, to send sergeants and gendarmes in order to prevent Récollets from building anything.
to convene the inhabitants who take party for Récollets and to threaten them of prison and other sanctions if they persevere.
to send a letter to the council of the king to ask for a certificate of nullity of the letters of granting, or at least to delay their implementation.

They sent the missive to the council of the king, who, undoubtedly taken by more urgent businesses, returned the payment of the conflict to the court of the Governorship of Lille, directed by the governor, the count de Bruay. Simon de Hennin carried felt sorry for at once and defended his position in front of the governor. The aldermen and the baillif de Tourcoing were assigned to appear before the lieutenant of the governor in order to justify their actions towards Récollets. Embarrassed, they asked the support of their lord, which this one granted without hesitating.

While the legal procedure followed its course, Simon de Hennin asked for the bishop Tournai to come to choose the site of the future convent-college. One sent, on July 22nd, 1665, the archdeacon of Bouloigne which discharged this mission by selecting the stronghold of the Mounds, to the periphery of the borough. Récollets immediately sent some brothers to keep the place. Rumors affirming that the duke of Harbor and the aldermen praised “ to drive out the monks of this convent by the force and to give them a good correction ”, a lieutenant of the king in Lille, Mister de Robiano, prohibit to them to use violence before the end of the lawsuit.

The creation of the College of Tourcoing: 1666

In January 1666, the Court of the Governorship of Lille declared the letters of granting authentic and authorized Récollets to apply them. The aldermen yielded with the verdict and, gladly badly liking, the duke of Harbor authorized the monks solemnly to be settled in Tourcoing and “14 ground taxable quotas located at the stronghold of the Mounds sold to them” on March 6th, 1666. April 8th of the same year, a convention was signed between the aldermen, the duke and Récollets was signed, instituting the rights and duties of each one.

The April 19th, 1666 , Récollets settled in Tourcoing and began the construction of their college, dedicated to Saint-Bonaventure, who remained at this place until in 1790 (of the vestiges of the old college of Récollets were still visible there is little with 76, rue Saint-Jacques, in Tourcoing).

This date, with the letters of granting of Philippe IV (dated December 3rd, 1664), is regarded as the official foundation of the College of Tourcoing, today Free Institution of the Sacred Heart.

The four official founders of the College are thus:

Philippe IV, King d' Espagne and Count de Flandre.
Ferdinand de Croÿ, Duke of Harbor and Lord of Tourcoing.
M {{gr.}} Unpleasant François of Ghent, bishop of Turned.
Simon de Hennin, Reverend Provincial Père of Récollets of Lille.

Récollets, after the construction of the convent and the college, also built in 1672 the Saint-Jacob church, rebuilt and re-elected in 1850 Notre-Dame church of the Angels (current street Nationale).

Old Mode: 1666-1789

Located with the stronghold of the Mounds, the Saint-Bonaventure College comprises a school convent and buildings. At his head the Guard of Récollets is, an ecclesiastical director; there are two professors, and those share the classes in “high sections” ( Classe Eloquentiae , Classe Parnasso , Classe Logicae , the equivalent of our current college) and in “low sections” ( Classe Humilium , the equivalent of the current college). Teaching is centered around the traditional studies, in the past named Humanités : the French, the Poetry, the Latin , the History, the Mathematical and the Rhétorique are taught with nearly 150 pupils.

The College of Récollets is impregnated of a true spirit of faith, simple and stripped, suitable for the humility and the wish of poverty of these monks. Teaching is entirely free there, and the soft and effective discipline.

The College crosses the wars of the Old Mode without much difficulty and prosperous: at each end of school year were organized contests of rhetoric, versions and proses Latin/Greek, poetry… etc after which the names of the prizes winner were retranscribed and safeguarded in a book held by the Higher Fathers, the Prize list of the College of Tourcoing (of the copies of this work exist still nowadays).

French revolution and closing

The disorders of the year 1789 cause a fall of manpower in the establishment: the number of pupils falls to sixty. That is explained by the fact why there was no boarding school at that time, and that all the students were thus of this fact external. Number of them came from sometimes distant communes (one finds in the registers of the places as moved away and surprising as Besancon, Paderborn, Paris or Brussels), even if the great majority came from the châtellenie inhabitant of Lille. These young people “placed at the middle-class man”, according to the expression of the time: they were accommodated free and with hospitality by the tourquennoises big families which offered to them the lodging and cover for all the duration of the school year. However, in September 1789, concern gaining the country, many more and more were the parents who considered that this kind of lodging became dangerous and thus withdrew their children of the school.

The days of the old Saint-Bonaventure College are counted: a wave of Déchristianisation shakes France during all the school year 1789-1790. The college just closes in August 1790 (in spite of the sharp opposition of the population and the petitions launched by the municipality, which remained without effects) after the official handing-over of the school prices, because of a law of the Constituent Assembly putting an end to the teaching directed by the religious congregations.

The departmental authorities did not reconsider their decision, in spite of a last very eulogistic letter of the Town of Tourcoing:

“ One can say to the praise of Récollets which it left their college much of great subjects. One requests to take into account the utility of this college, because of our large population and that of the villages of our canton which send to it their children, who attracts there also foreigners. ”

In 1792, the Récollets Fathers, recluse in their convent since the closing of the establishment, are driven out of Tourcoing by anticlericals Jacobins who had assembled the population against them. There in spite of the efforts of the municipality to protect them, the ecclesiastics prefer to leave the commune but hopes “to be able to return, when the disorders pass”.

While waiting for the happy day when the Institution will reappear of these ashes, the town of Tourcoing will not have any more secondary education during twelve years.

Consulate and reopening: 1802-1838

As of the signature of the Legal settlement between France and the Papacy, of the courses are again given (without official authorization but with the complicity of the inhabitants) in the buildings of the old College of Récollets. The father Louis Masquelier, the last director before the Revolution, puts an end to his exile and returns to direct the still clandestine school during the school year 1802 - 1803.

The 29 Nivôse Year XII (January 21st 1804), the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte regularizes the situation and authorizes officially the town of Tourcoing to reopen its “secondary council school”. Certains Récollets returns and the old convent is again attended by the Tourquennois young people, before moving with the presbytery of the church Saint-Christophe. The presbytery quickly appears too narrow (in spite of the low number of pupils) and especially completely decayed. Consequently, in 1814, the College is accommodated with the Old people's home of Harbor by the hospital administration which, on the authorities of the City, wants to prevent the closing of the establishment at all costs.

A little later the Old people's homes and Hospitals of Tourcoing rent with the College a building located street of the Orphans (current avenue Gustave Dron): quickly exiguous, the successive enlargings will not remove its precarious character. All the directors who will follow will try to move, but finances of the school did not allow it before the middle of the 19th century.

In spite of the devotion of the good fathers (Récollets, Carmes then Bénédictins) which directs the reappearing establishment, success is not with go. Untimely death of the first two directors, Louis Masquelier and Herménégilde Bourgois, and the discouragement of the third, François Débruyère, weaken a College which has only few pupils (around fifty approximately); the school discipline and results leave something to be desired. The Municipal council, which plans to remove it purely and simply, called upon an Artesian ecclesiastic in the hope to raise the establishment: the abbot Louis-Constantin Flajolet.

Of 1823 with 1831, the Flajolet abbot directs the College of Tourcoing with a paternal conservatism which enables him to give again confidence with the parents. It devotes the establishment to Saint Joseph. The college knows a certain prosperity again, reaching a hundred pupils. A boarding school is even created. However, the establishment undergoes a serious reverse when the Flajolet abbot, after the Revolution of 1830, is suspended without cares of his functions for Légitimisme. It is exiled with Mouscron, city Belgian close to Tourcoing, where it founds a new college.

The problem is that all its former boarders tourquennois, except one, follow it to Belgium.

The college is at the edge of the pit, and they are not the new laic directors, Sirs Duchâtelet and Nimal (the latter remains known in annals to have precipitated the forfeiture of its establishment), who can rectify the situation. Revealing fact, the number of pupils falls to 36 during the school year 1837-1838. One criticizes an establishment become " too expensive for the commune, taking into account its weak frequentation and of her mitigated school results " ; one also complains about a " indiscipline and of a constant relaxation at the little of pupils who remain ".

It is necessary to await the dismissal of Mr. Nimal in 1838 so that the destiny of the college changes, and in a radical way.

The closing of the establishment then is evoked. It was without counting the energy with which the Lecomte abbot was going to raise the Institution.

1838-1870: rectification of the College of Tourcoing

The rectification of the College is the work of four young people Ecclésiastique S: first of all the abbot Louis-Joseph Didier (1838), but especially the abbots Albert Lecomte (1838-1856), Augustin Lescouf (1856-1858) and Henri Leblanc (1858-1900), former student and successor of the two precedents.

In 1838 a new director, the Didier abbot arrives: its direction, although very short (he dies in November of the same year), brings a spiritual revival to the school. It adopts a new program which defines the paramount Christian values that the establishment hears, in addition to the studies, to teach with these pupils: faith, the tolerance and moderation.

It is replaced as a director by his assistant and friend, the Lecomte abbot, who will mark the history of the Institution. In less than ten years, the number of pupils passes from 36 (in 1838) to 360 (in 1845). The Lecomte abbot continues and perpetuates the spiritual project of his predecessor, by adding his remarkable talents of administrator and “schemer”: by all the means, it tries to direct its pupils towards the literary studies, which “open the spirit” according to him. It is him which manages to make triple in one year (1840) the budget that the municipality of Tourcoing allocates with its College, thus allowing a development of another width.

The development of the College of Tourcoing is thus due especially to the personality and the engagement of Mr. Lecomte: this one, convinced that “they are the men who make the institutions”, is given to body lost in its college, spending there most of its inheritance and of its incomes, and renonçant (temporarily) with a career among the regular religious orders.

Albert Lecomte founds, under the aegis of the College of Tourcoing, quantity of catholic schools in the area: with Roubaix, Solesmes, Bailleul, Douai, Valencian. The College becomes about it for a certain time the head office.

The growth of the establishment is hardly slowed down by the serious epidemic of Typhus which made rage in there 1852: the Lecomte abbot can prevent the death of eight pupils in spite of the fast evacuation only it ordered. Itself misses losing the life there. Following this sad event, he manages to decide the municipal council to authorize the college to leave his decayed buildings of the street of the Orphans.

In 1853, the Lecomte abbot acquires of a ground (of approximately two hectares) with 111, rue de Lille. It was at the time the last house of the city: all the remainder around was only fields and countryside. He undertakes a vast policy of construction, and the College of Tourcoing takes possession of the buildings where he is remained until today.

Having concluded the majority of the objectives which it had laid down, the Lecomte abbot leaves the College in 1856 to join the Ordre of the Carthusian monks and his life monacale, dream which it cherished for a long time. Installed in the Alps, it will continue, by correspondence, to enquérir itself to become Institution and will give to each year a money large sum (near total of its retirement pension) for the construction of the vault.

It was one of the most qualified directors and most appreciated that the College of Tourcoing counted.

From 1856 with 1858, year of its death, the abbot Lescouf, former assistant of Lecomte, directs the College with, as for him, leaning certain for the study of physics and chemistry. It is him which promotes sciences within the establishment, up to that point only famous for its formation of traditional letters. Moreover, Lescouf continues the construction of the large vault, financing it by means of the gifts of the former students, of which are first meetings take place as from September 1856. Unfortunately, its untimely death, the February 10th 1858, prevents it from carrying out the solemn inauguration of the beautiful building.

In 1859, the new director, the young abbot Leblanc, a preserving strong personality which will direct the establishment of an iron hand during more than forty years, inaugurates the finally finished vault, which it devotes to the Virgin Mary.

Industrial epopee: free Institution of the Sacred Heart (1882)

It is in 1870 that the Institution receives by message of the Pape Pie IX its currency: Timete Dominum and Nihil Aliud (“Fear the Lord and anything else”), is explained by the catholic vocation of the establishment and by the context of Laïcisation of the teaching, discusses which starts to develop in France and which will end in the Loi of December 9th, 1905 of Separation of the Church and the State. Pope held also by this gesture to thank devotion that him had testified large number of former students to College which had been committed in the pontifical troops defending Rome, which belonged to the pope then, against the invasion of the very young Kingdom of Italy which proceeded thus to the final stage of its unification. The former students of the Institution appeared burning combatants and couvrèrent themselves of glory on the Italian ground, while the Leblanc abbot obtained an interview deprived with the pope to ensure it of his fidelity and the will of the College to come to him to assistance. Pie IX was very touched of this solicitude.

Lastly, the October 5th 1882, after ten years of conflict relationships to the public authorities, and following dissensions between the vice-chancellorship and the superior in connection with the nomination of certain professors, the Town of Tourcoing ceases subsidizing the College. The Leblanc superior separates then from the supervision of the vice-chancellor of Douai, and renames the establishment: the Free Institution of the Sacred Heart . This one becomes a diocesan private establishment, released from the supervision of the Université, as recalled by a marble plate located in the hall: “ Countered omnium expectationem, Collegium, Deo sic disponente, libertate donatum ”.

In 1885, a fire devastator reduced of ashes buildings of the Institution: only the Large Vault is saved by the flames. Thanks to the devotion of the very young Association of the Former students (created in November 1882), the large frontage of the street of Lille is quickly rebuilt in a style much more beautiful and majestic that formerly. It will be necessary however fifteen years so that the damage of the fire is completely reabsorbed: in 1900, a great festival open to all Tourquennois is given at the time of the inauguration of new buildings and also to celebrate the departure of the Leblanc Superior, become meanwhile Mgr Leblanc following its nomination as a bishop, which leaves the Institution after having spent forty years with its direction.

One must with this just man and of a great intelligence, very preserving but penetrated of a true spirit of faith, to have known to direct and make thrive the establishment which had bequeathed to him its predecessors, the Lecomte abbots and Lescouf. Arrived young person at the head of " our house " , as he said, conscious of the importance of his mission to the service of education, this ecclesiastic equipped with a will and an iron authority under a simple and pleasing air, affirmed that the vocation of its Institution was not to inculcate a vague conglomerate of knowledge but to train cultivated men, worthy and pious.

Its death, one year hardly after its departure of the direction, endeuilla the Institution but its work survived to him; and the Sacred Heart knew a true golden age until the First World War.

First half of the 20th century

After the departure of Mgr Leblanc, it is Mgr Lecomte, the great nephew of Albert Lecomte, who becomes Supérieur of 1901 to 1907: " the age of or" institution. The Chanoine Leleu succeeds to him: it is with him that will fall the difficult responsibility to manage the institution during the years of wars and occupation.

Indeed, the ostentation of the Belle Time quickly leaves place to the pangs of the First World War. In October 1914, the town of Tourcoing is occupied by the Germans: the buildings of the Institution are requisitioned by the occupants and the courses take place in the voluntary houses of private individuals. Many incidents burst between the German soldiers stationed in the buildings and the pupils who narguent the Germans by frequently organizing kinds of “patriotic demonstrations” in the schoolyard.

The Leleu superior makes screen between the requirements of the occupant and his young pupils, in particular with regard to the requisitions for the forced labors. Thus, the relations with the Catholic University of Lille being crossed because of war, it created an appendix tourquennoise Faculties inhabitants of Lille of which it assumed the direction and the majority of the courses. The pupils of Terminale leaving the Institution could of this fact of becoming students with Tourcoing and of escaping the exactions from the occupant.

Its savage opposition to the enemy requirements is worth to him many concern: the January 6th 1918, the Leleu canon is off-set in Lithuania by the Germans; it has the same fate as approximately a hundred the notable ones and personalities tourquennoises.

The Leleu superior is slackened in July 1918, and, in October of the same year, Tourcoing is released by the French Armies. The Institution returns in its old buildings and finds its usual way of life.

170 former students and professors of the Sacred Heart died during the Great War.

In 1929 and 1931, under the direction of the canon Louis Liagre (1928-1931) who wishes to modernize the establishment, the two long parallel wings (currently sheltering one the college, the other the school) are built. They are financed mainly by the treasurer of the establishment, the abbot Joseph Flipo.

It is at that time that the College of Tourcoing counts among its pupils some Raymond Devos.

In 1939, a new world war bursts, which was to appear even more terrible than the first. Tourcoing is again occupied, and the city becomes the general headquarter of XVe armed German (in load of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Belgium). The threat Nazi thus weighs heavily on the city: the enemy is near. Moreover, Gestapo supervises closely the population. One day, in the small hour, the German soldiers unload with the Sacred Heart:

“ There was however a very hot alarm, the morning when the Germans came to the college, on denunciation, to stop there the young people refractory with the service of obligatory work (STO) in Germany and hidden among the members of the personnel. The catastrophe was avoided thanks to the Froidure abbot, professor and prefect of discipline: its calm, its relevance, its firmness, made it possible to the young people to flee by the gardens of the parish Holy-Jeanne-with Arc and to the remaining personnel not to betray them, at the time of the successive interrogations to which they were subjected. It is of this day that date set of table linen by the pupils themselves: it was necessary to replace with the foot raised the servants who were flee and to give the impression to the German investigators that the pupils had always done this work themselves; they drew some so that this service became a tradition which still currently remains. ”

Another memorable event also takes place at the same time: the German soldiers had taken the arrogant practice to make military operations inside the school thinking of intimidating this way the pupils and the personnel of the establishment. However, during a German operation in the large court, a pupil, Camille Verhelle, illustrated itself by making a splendid shot in a balloon of Football, which lands with force in behind of a German soldier who fell by ground with great crash. Camille Verhelle hid in the mass of the pupils, and the soldiers, furious, crossed crowd rifle to the shoulder and the step of goose, to terrorize young people. After this brilliance “act of patriotism”, the College will remain quiet until the Libération.

Contemporary time and its changes

The post-war period is one difficult period:

the return to the conditions of the time of peace quickly causes a fall of manpower of interns; the fall in the birth rate of the Inter-war period, worsened by the crisis of 1939-1945, added its effects to it so that in five years the number of pupils went down from 746 to 500 in 1950. It is only gradually that the population increase according to war made go up manpower with 617 in 1959.
the schoolings paid by the parents hardly suffiaient to ensure the survival of the College; to increase further was to prohibit the democratization of our free teaching while making more difficult the arrival of the pupils of families modest.
the College, like all the similar establishments, thus survived only by compressing to the maximum its expenditure: the laic professors were badly paids, and consequently did not recruit themselves any more, the personnel domesticates was insufficient of number, the maintenance of the buildings only aimed at avoiding the worst; school furniture and the teaching equipment were renewed only with difficulty. Only did an enormous sum of devotions of all kinds permetttait to hold, but for how long still? Closing appeared inevitable in the more or less short term. The freedom of teaching would have been but one nothing any more to remember, except in some schools " of luxe" reserved to the rich person.

It is the Loi Debré which arrives at point named to reinflate the Sacred Heart threatened of disappearance.

Into 1960, the Institution changes statute and becomes an private establishment under contract with the State, which enables him to reduce the school fees supported by the pupils and to open his teaching with new social classes. This decision precedes by little the economic crisis of the decade 1970, which will ruin Tourcoing and reduce almost to nothing old the customer-type of the Sacred Heart, the textile upper middle classes. The year 1966 sees the celebration of tercentenary of the institution, celebrates imposing which marked the memories.

The events of May 1968 also shake the old traditions of the school: end of the obligatory mass, suppression of the study halls… In 1973, the Sacred Heart (up to that point school of boys) amalgamates with the female college Notre-Dame of the Immaculate Conception. Co-education precedes by a little less than ten years the law by 1981 which obliges the old College of Tourcoing to be divided into three bodies: the elementary school, the college and the college, the whole always on the same site of 111, rue de Lille, and under the authority and the denomination of the free Institution of the Sacred Heart. The year 1982 sees the departure of the last ecclesiastical superior, Mr. the Coquant abbot. The superior is replaced by three laic directors, among whom one among them is named “coordinator of the Institution”.

The Années 1990 see the extension of the Sacred Heart towards the street of the Small village; constructions of new buildings or installation of old structures (old factory reconverted in sports hall, shaven church Holy-Jeanne-with Arc to leave room with a carpark and surfaces of sport): the Sacred Heart misses place then.

2005 sees the creation of an appendix in the city close to Roncq.

Side school activities, the creation of a quarterly newspaper interns and of a theater company (become since municipal troop of Neuville-in-Ferrain) prove the dynamism of the College of Tourcoing, old man 341 year old.

Rapid description of the Institution

Structure

The Free Institution of the Sacred Heart is composed now of a school (approximately 150 pupils), of a college (500 pupils) and of a college of mainstream education (800 pupils). Each one of these entities have their own existence within the Institution and have each one their director. On the level of the Institution is named among the three directors a coordinator.

2005 was also the year of an important innovation: it was created an appendix of the college with Roncq.

In September 2006 the councils of establishment (on the level of the college) and of house were restored (on the level of the Institution); they had been removed in the years 1980.

Formation suggested

By leaving side the courses of the school and college, which follow the common rules to all the schools of France, we will evoke the various courses in the college of mainstream education:

Rate of success the baccalaureat proof was of 94% for the session 2007.

Characteristic of the Institution: it is one of the rare schools of the area to preserve a class of Greek old.

Direction of the Institution

Guards of Récollets

1666-1790 : The Reverends Pères Récollets direct the establishment.

the loss of most of the files covering the period 1666-1725 is the cause of our ignorance as for the identity of the superiors of the time; from 1725 to 1778, we know the names of certain directors thanks to signatures of official documents, the such annual handing-over of the prices (but we do not know the exact duration of their direction). The following dates, until the direction of Louis Masquelier, thus are only given as an indication.

1731 : Father Ferdinand Warnier.
1740-1745: Father Jean-François Lecomte.
1749-1751: Fortunate father Biston.
1773: Father Albin.
1778-1790: Father Louis Masquelier.

(Closing of the college of 1790 to 1802)

Principal ecclesiastics and laic

1802-1804 : Father Louis Masquelier (Récollet) .
1804-1810: Father Herménégilde Bourgois (Carmelite friar) .
1811-1823: Father François Débruyère.
1823-1831: Abbot Louis-Constantin Flajolet.

1831-1833: Mr Duchâtelet.
1833-1838: Mr Nimal.

Ecclesiastical superiors

1838 : Abbot Louis-Joseph Didier.
1838-1856: Abbot Albert Lecomte.
1856-1858: Abbot Augustin Lescouf.
1858-1901: Monseigneur Henri Leblanc.
1901-1908: Monseigneur Charles Lecomte.
1908-1926: Canon Achilles Leleu.
1926-1928: Canon Henri Lemaître.
1928-1931: Monseigneur Louis Liagre.
1931-1947: Canon Joseph Turcq.
1947-1950: Abbot Georges Leclercq.
1950-1959: Abbot Jean-Marie Clabaut.
1959-1971: Abbot Jean-Marie Lezaire.
1971-1982: Abbot Jean Coquant.

Directors (or coordinators) laic

to supplement

Mr Jacques Siuda.
19. - 2006: Mr Louis-Marie Tanghe.
Since 2006: Mr Bertrand Van Nedervelde.

School prize list

Of 1725 until 1968 took place each year of the school contests which rewarded the best pupils. At the origin, the matters of the contest were limited to the Rhétorique, the Poésie, the Histoire and the Mathématiques. The handing-over of the prices took place in the presence of the municipal authorities (under the Ancien Mode, the aldermen; after the French revolution, the municipal council) then it is the Association of the Former students which replaces the official ones when the College separates from the City in 1882.

The rare prizes winner of the Outstanding commendation award which gained this price during six consecutive years (of the class of Fifth to Final) received the Gold medal of the Institution (starting from 1845). In 1912 was created the Medal of Vermeil, for the unlucky persons who had missed the “large slam”: it was delivered with the pupils who had gained “only” five consecutive outstanding commendation awards).

After the First World War was also created prices éponymes with the memory of former students died in the field of honor: in particular the Price Joseph Masquilier, titular former student of the Gold medal in 1915, which, just after the end of its schooling to the Sacred Heart, managed to join the French troops after a true tour through Belgium then Holland. Joseph Masquilier died heroically in the combat in 1917.

All these school rewards gradually fell in disuse and are not any more of use nowadays.

Famous former students of the College of Tourcoing

Louis Destombes (1793-1863): promotion 1811 .
Raymond Devos (1922-2006): raises with the college until its thirteenth year .
Its Eminence Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre (1892-1973): promotion 1910 .
Mgr Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991): promotion 1922 .
Victor Moriamé (1888-1961): promotion 1906 .
Albert Roussel (1869-1937): promotion 1887 .
R.P. Jacques Sevin, one of the founders of the French Scouting.
Jules Watteeuw (1849-1847): promotion 1867 .

Of 1838 with 1966, one estimates that more than five hundred former students became ecclesiastics.

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