The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician (Souvenirs d'apprentissage)

Description

DjVu is the French original: Souvenirs d'apprentissage

Part on Bp. Des Lauriers (PDF p. 46, DjVu pp. 48-9):

A Rome se trouvait aussi un normalien comme moi, Guérard des Lauriers. Je crois qu'il avait, sur la recommandation de Vessiot, obtenu l'une des prestigieuses bourses de la Fondation Rockefeller. Nous fréquentions tous deux les églises de Rome, mais ne risquions guère de nous y rencontrer; j'y recherchais les chefs-d'œuvre du Moyen-Age et de la Renaissance tandis qu'il était en quête des indulgences qui, en cette année dite «jubilaire» de 1925, pouvaient,paraît-il, s'obtenir à des conditions exceptionnelles. Je lui disais par-fois: «Pries-tu pour moi, Guérard ?», à quoi il répondait très sérieusement: «Oui, Weil, je prie pour toi». Après Rome je n'entendis plus parler de lui pendant longtemps. Je sus plus tard qu'il s'était fait dominicain. Il a composé une réponse à la Lettre à un Religieux de ma sœur, où, fort de l'autorité de plusieurs conciles, il la querelle d’avoir osé suggérer que le sort éternel d'un bébé mort sans baptême ne doit pas différer beaucoup de celui d'un bébé baptisé. Hélas, le Concile de Vatican II a trouvé moins de faveur à ses yeux; on m'a dit qu'il était tombé dans l'intégrisme, et qu'il était mort excommunié.

In Rome at that time there was another Normalien , Guerard des Lauriers. I think Vessiot had recommended him for one of the prestigious fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation. Both of us regularly visited the churches of Rome, but there was little chance of our running into each other: I was after medieval and Renaissance masterpieces, whereas he was seeking indulgences, which in the so-called "jubilee" year of 1925 were apparently available on particularly advantageous terms. I sometimes asked him, "Do you pray for me, Guerard?" - to which he would answer in all seriousness, "Yes, Weil, I pray for you." For a long time after Rome, I had no news of him. I later learned that he had become a Dominican. In a response he has written to my sister's Lettre a un religieux, he takes her to task, on the authority of several ecumenical councils, for suggesting that the eternal fate of a baby who has died unbaptized cannot differ much from that of one who has been baptized. Alas, the second Vatican Council found less favor in his eyes. I was told that he had fallen into integrism, and that he had died excommunicated.

"Extremely readable recollections of the author... A rare testimony of a period of the history of 20th century mathematics. Includes very interesting recollections on the author's participation in the formation of the Bourbaki Group, tells of his meetings and conversations with leading mathematicians, reflects his views on mathematics. The book describes an extraordinary career of an exceptional man and mathematicians. Strongly recommended to specialists as well as to the general public."

EMS Newsletter (1992)

"This excellent book is the English edition of the author's autobiography. … This very enjoyable reading is recommended to all mathematicians."
Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum (1992)

mentions "another Normalien , [later Bp.] Guerard des Lauriers[, O.P.]" on PDF p. 46

His sister, Simone Weil (suicide by starvation at age 34), whom at age 15 the limitations of human knowledge drove to despair (like Maritain), was also a Normalien in philosophy (1931).

Simone Weil, André Weil's sister, visited Solesmes and was astonished by St. Thérèse's Histoire d'une Ame, although she seemed to blasphemously belittle the saint in her writings.