The Académie Cor Iesu (ACI) exists to provide a window into the broad and deep Catholic Intellectual Tradition and to serve as a bridge to the Christian tradition as it is lived today in the town where the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is so well-known and beloved through the world, began following the apparitions of Jesus to a nun of the Visitation Monastery, St Marguerite Marie Alacoque, nearly four hundred years ago. As such, the Académie’s home, Paray-le-Monial is a truly unique place to promote academic formation and professional development deeply rooted in Christian humanism and an openness to transcendent truth revealed in the Person of Christ.  

In keeping with the original meaning of the Greek word academy, as a gathering of learned persons, the ACI exists in partnership and collaboration with Catholic Universities and Institutes from around the world, the ACI is a center where students and scholars of all cultures, ethnicities and creeds can come together to engage collaboratively and creatively in interdisciplinary research, dialogue and cultural exchange.

The primary mission of the ACI is to organize and run study programs for undergraduate and graduate level students and faculty. Our study programs transform the city of Paray-le-Monial and the surrounding Burgundy region into a “classroom” which immerse university students and faculty in the rich cultural, historical, religious, literary, scientific and artistic heritage of the region which continue to shape and form the complex tapestry of social, political, economic and academic realities of France, Europe and our world today.