Léon Harmel, Manuel d'une corporation chrétienne (Handbook of a Christian Corporation), title page · 1877
The texts, to read and download
The writings of Léon Harmel and the testimonies of his time, republished from the original documents and free of copyright. Each text is given in full, as a PDF.
How these editions are made
Each text has been transcribed word for word from a copy digitised by a library (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, Google Books, Internet Archive) or kept in a private collection, then checked page by page against the images. The spelling and punctuation of the period are preserved; only the printer's obvious misprints have been corrected, and they are counted in each PDF.
The books have been reset in their original spirit: title pages, headings, restored ornaments and footnotes. The tables of contents refer to the pages of the edition. The texts are offered in English translations made for this website; the French original can be downloaded alongside. The articles by Virginia M. Crawford are given in their original English.
Writings by Léon Harmel
His books, speeches and letters, from his first account in 1873 to his last advice to his family, in 1911: the Good Father's thought, in his own hand.
Léon Harmel · 1867
Lettres à Louis Veuillot
Four handwritten letters of April and May 1867 to Louis and Eugène Veuillot, at the time L'Univers was revived: they show his concern for the “huit cents personnes que nous nourrissons”.
7 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1873-1874
Organisation chrétienne de l'usine
His reports to the congresses of Nantes (1873) and Lyon (1874), published without the author's name: the first overall account of the work at Val-des-Bois, before the Manuel. With the account of a visit to the mill just after the fire of 1874.
124 pages1.2 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1876
Manuel de la corporation chrétienne, sixième partie
The first version of one part of the Manuel: how to establish a Christian corporation in a town. The text was recast the following year.
43 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1877
Manuel d'une corporation chrétienne
His great book: the organisation of Val-des-Bois explained step by step, from the associations to the economic institutions, with the mill's own documents.
424 pages2.4 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1881
Conférence au Cercle catholique de Séez
Before the clergy and Catholics of the Orne, Léon Harmel sets out the two levers of his work, Christian patronage and association, illustrated by life at Val-des-Bois. The brochure adds the model statutes of the men's confraternity, the Christian mothers and the Children of Mary issued by the diocese of Séez.
29 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1887
Discours à l'assemblée générale du comité de Lyon
Before the Lyon committee of the Catholic Workers' Circles, he describes what has been achieved at Val-des-Bois and in seventy factories that followed his example.
18 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1887
Exposé sommaire de l'Œuvre des cercles catholiques d'ouvriers
The same Lyon speech, revised and published by the Catholic Workers' Circles as an exposition, from doctrine to conclusion.
15 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1889
Discours de Senlis
A former pupil of the Institution Saint-Vincent, he returns to preside over the prize-giving and speaks to the young men about his life devoted to the workers.
12 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel (éd.) · 1889
Catéchisme du patron
The duties of the Christian employer, in questions and answers, drawn up with many theologians and published under his direction.
141 pages0.9 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1894
Conseil d'usine du Val-des-Bois. Lettre à un industriel
A letter to a fellow industrialist explaining, with examples, how the factory council elected by the workers operates.
9 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1896
Le Val-des-Bois
His report to the Christian democracy congress in Lyon: the apostolate, the factory council, public life and the family at Val-des-Bois.
24 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1897
La Démocratie chrétienne
At the workers' congress in Tours, he sets out what Christian democracy should be and the action of the workers themselves.
24 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1897
L'Église et le commerce
At the congress of the Union fraternelle, he recalls what the Church has done for commerce and tells of the resistance of Warmeriville in 1870-1871.
15 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1898
L'Apostolat ouvrier
For the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Vaugirard circle: faith, study and action, and this advice to activists: “Bonté pour les adversaires”.
21 pages0.5 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1899
Lettres de Léon Harmel à ses enfants. Voyage à Rome
The letters written to his children during his journey to Rome in February and March 1899: audiences, meetings and daily life.
68 pages0.6 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1900
Souvenir de Félix Harmel
A year after the death of his son Félix, he gathers his memories and his letters: a portrait of great tenderness.
29 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1884-1904
Lettres et discours
Ten texts from 1884 to 1904: the Fribourg speech on Val-des-Bois, the family wage, the pilgrimage of the Ten Thousand and the addresses to Popes Leo XIII and Pius X.
58 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1906
Vœux du Bon Père Léon Harmel à ses petits-enfants
The address he gave to his grandchildren on Low Sunday 1906, for his name day and his 77th birthday: will and duty, the Christian life, the life of business. Followed by the “Aphorisms of the Good Father”.
11 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel · 1911
Réunion générale des vacances au Val-des-Bois
The booklet of the family gathering of 9 September 1911, at the age of 82: his letter inviting the whole family, the list of “our departed” over five generations and his last advice: “Union is the work of life, disunion the work of death”.
15 pages1.6 MBTranslation
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Léon Harmel et sa famille · 1915
Souvenir de famille. Léon Harmel, « le Bon Père » du Val-des-Bois
The collection published by his family after his death in Nice on 25 November 1915: his letters on the last moments of his wife (1870) and of his daughter Gabrielle (1888), the wills of his father and of his brother Ernest, the family gathering of September 1913, the account of his last moments, the address of the Bishop of Nice at his funeral and his last recommendations, recorded on a phonograph in 1914.
88 pages1.0 MBIn French
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The family and Val-des-Bois
The founders' wills, the statutes of the Corporation, the great visits and the first studies devoted to the mill.
Jacques-Joseph Harmel · 1884
Testament du bon père Jacques-Joseph Harmel
The will of his father, the first “Bon Père” (Good Father), written at Val-des-Bois on 28 July 1864 and printed after his death, in 1884: “Aimez nos chers ouvriers; ils étaient mes enfants; vous reprendrez ma paternité”.
7 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Corporation chrétienne du Val-des-Bois · 1885
Statuts de la Corporation chrétienne du Val-des-Bois
The statutes of the mixed union of employers and workers of Val-des-Bois, adopted on 2 August 1885: a joint council and a corporate bonus.
18 pages0.7 MBTranslation
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Jacques-Ernest Harmel · 1886
Extraits du testament de Jacques-Ernest Harmel
The pages that Ernest Harmel, Léon's brother, addresses to his family and to the people of Val-des-Bois.
12 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Anonyme · 1887
Visite au Val-des-Bois du cardinal-archevêque de Reims
The account of the visit of 23 July 1887, with Léon Harmel's toast, the nuncio's tribute to “l'apôtre des ouvriers”, and the statutes and regulations of the mill.
90 pages0.7 MBTranslation
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Anonyme · 1890
Le Val-des-Bois et ses institutions ouvrières
The complete description of the workers' institutions of Val-des-Bois in 1890, with their tables and accounts.
126 pages1.2 MBTranslation
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Anonyme · 1895
Le Val-des-Bois. Situation actuelle
A factual account of the mill in March 1895: wages, the family fund, savings, the factory council and the mixed union, with the Company of Veterans and eight tables drawn from the firm's books.
39 pages0.5 MBTranslation
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Cousin-Henrat · 1900
Étude historique sur Warmeriville
The chapter of the history of Warmeriville devoted to the Val-des-Bois mill and the Harmel family.
34 pages3.9 MBTranslation
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Harmel frères · 1901
Harmel frères, filateurs
The firm's own brochure of 1901: its origins since 1797, the workers' institutions of Val-des-Bois founded year after year, and the awards won by the firm and by its workers, with nine photographs of the mill, the housing estate and its people.
12 pages7.0 MBTranslation
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Usine du Val-des-Bois · 1909
Usine du Val-des-Bois. Règlements et statuts divers
The workshop rules, the accident prevention measures and the statutes of the mutual aid society and of the workers' union, preceded by a short account of Val-des-Bois: the mill as employers and workers organised it together in 1909.
54 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Anonyme · 1913
Notice sur Jacques-Ernest Harmel, 1830-1885
A portrait of Ernest, Léon's favourite brother, read at Val-des-Bois in 1913: his cure at Liesse, his part in the mill, his sacred music, with a tribute from the choirmaster of Reims Cathedral and a list of his compositions.
9 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Joseph Dassonville · 1914
La « Famille ouvrière » du Val-des-Bois
A study by Joseph Dassonville on popular education at Val-des-Bois and the “famille ouvrière” that grew up there.
45 pages1.1 MBTranslation
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They saw him at work
Pilgrims, prelates, employers and foreign visitors describe Léon Harmel and Val-des-Bois, from 1887 to 1929.
Joseph Aninard · 1887
Sept jours à Rome
The account of the first workers' pilgrimage to Rome by a priest from Aix: Léon Harmel, relegated to the back row to make room for the workers, acclaimed as “le bon Père” (the Good Father).
36 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Section de Roubaix des patrons du Nord · 1888
Rapport sur la visite de M. Léon Harmel
Three days of meetings in Roubaix, before nine audiences: Léon Harmel in action, hailed as “le meilleur de ses amis”.
16 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Amédée Prouvost · 1889
Rapport sur le pèlerinage du premier groupe d'ouvriers français à Rome
The pilgrimage of October 1889, “suscité par Léon Harmel, le bon Père de tous les ouvriers de France”, told by a Roubaix employer.
16 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Abbé Fichaux · 1889
Le Pèlerinage du travail à Rome en 1889 et le Discours du Pape
At the Lille Congress in November 1889, Abbé Fichaux, president of the Catholic employers of the Nord, reflects on the workers' pilgrimage to Rome led in the footsteps of Léon Harmel and on Leo XIII's address to the pilgrims: the dignity of labour, charity and the guilds.
16 pages1.2 MBTranslation
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William Henry Hurlbert · 1890
Le Val-des-Bois et les corporations d'ouvriers
An American journalist visits Val-des-Bois and reports what he saw and heard, down to the words of an old woman worker: “Le papa Harmel est un brave homme”.
24 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Cardinal Langénieux · 1892
Les pèlerinages des ouvriers français à Rome et la question sociale
The Archbishop of Reims traces the pilgrimages of French workers to Rome, from 1885 to 1891, and their link with the encyclical Rerum Novarum.
20 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Compte rendu sténographié · 1894
Congrès des patrons du Nord à Mouveaux
The shorthand record of a debate among Christian employers of the Nord on study circles, in which Léon Harmel takes the floor; it was published in reply to the attacks made against him.
15 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Alphonse Villeneuve · 1894
Lettre à M. Léon Harmel
A Canadian priest, twice welcomed at Val-des-Bois, writes to Léon Harmel: “Je vous ai regardé vivre”.
16 pages0.2 MBTranslation
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Un ami du Bon Père ; Mgr Chapon · 1915
Le « Bon Père » Léon Harmel
A family friend's account of the Good Father's last days in Nice in November 1915: his blessing to his family, his death, the telegram from Benedict XV and the funeral. With the address given by Bishop Chapon of Nice.
17 pages0.4 MBTranslation
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Mgr Tissier · 1929
Léon Harmel. Les trois grands amours d'une grande vie sociale
The address given at Montmartre by the Bishop of Châlons for the centenary of Léon Harmel: the man of the workers, the man of the Pope and the man of Christ, his three great loves.
31 pages0.3 MBTranslation
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Virginia M. Crawford · 1896-1929
Léon Harmel and Val-des-Bois: Three Articles
Three articles in English by Virginia M. Crawford, who visited Val-des-Bois in 1895 and made him known to English and Irish readers.
37 pages0.3 MB
More texts are in preparation. A mistake, a document to point out? This site is meant to grow: see also the sources and bibliography.