100 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT territories, Roger welcomed many refugees, including Jews fleeing the Nazis. His sister Geneviève joined him in Taizé to assist in matters of hospitality. They urged their guests, among whom were Christians, Jews, and atheists, to pray in the seclusion of their own quarters so that no-one would feel ill-at-ease.245 In 1942, Roger was warned that the Germans had learned about his activities. In fear of raids, he left for Geneva. It was in Geneva that several others joined him to form a community. By the end of the war in 1944, they returned to Taizé. The early history of the community already shows some fundamental characteristics of Taizé. First of all, the centrality of the person of Roger Schutz is apparent. Symbolically, Taizé has adopted 1940 as its founding date even though one cannot yet really speak of a community at that point since Roger lived in solitude, nurturing his intuitions, ideas, and plans for a future monastic community. He thought and wrote about this idea as the “Communauté de Cluny,”246 a community dwelling in the spiritual treasures and reform zeal of the famous and influential Benedictine Cluny Abbey, the ruins of which remain just ten kilometers from the village of Taizé. Brother Roger remained the spiritual and practical driving force behind the community for the rest of his life. However, the community has grown to maturity and not only survived Brother Roger’s violent death – he was attacked with a knife by a mentally ill woman during the evening prayer on 16 August 2005 – but still thrives and dares to take new initiatives. Secondly, Brother Roger’s way is marked by a combination of a profound idealism and a deeply lived concern for the ordinary. This attitude is still characteristic for the community’s lifestyle – including its ecumenical commitment and Eucharistic practice. Thirdly, Brother Roger never chose the easy way. He actively sought the most difficult of circumstances when he left the safety of Switzerland. During the war, he hosted political refugees and Jews. Yet, after the war, he once again asked himself who were the most vulnerable of his time. As a result, he agreed to take care of war orphans (assisted by his sister Geneviève) but at the same time he visited German prisoners of war incarcerated in a nearby concentration camp. Understandably, this sparked mixed reactions in his surroundings. It once more shows that Brother Roger was prepared to do what he believed to be right and, if necessary, to swim against the stream. 245 Taizé, “A Bit of History: The Beginnings,” accessed February 15, 2019, https://www.taize.fr/en_article6526.html. 246 Laplane, Frère Roger de Taizé, 122.
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