In this article, Claire Landry shares her testimony of a pilgrimage experienced in the monasteries of Southern France with Spiritours in 2005.
“Beauty acts even upon those who do not notice it.” -Cocteau
My spouse and I chose this trip because of the attraction we felt toward the possibility of staying in the great monasteries and abbeys of France. We were already familiar with the simplicity of monastic guesthouses and, without issue, accepted their frugality in advance.
Definitions of Religious Edifice Terms
To navigate the jumble of all these buildings and monuments, let us define a few terms:
– Monastery: The set of buildings inhabited by monks or nuns.
– Abbey: A convent, generally of the Benedictine rule, housing at least twelve monks or nuns. The Abbot or Abbess is the superior of an abbey.
– Convent: A religious house.
– Priory: A religious community placed under the authority of a Prior. Under the Benedictine rule, the prior is the superior of fewer than twelve monks.
– Benedictine Order: Christian monks who have taken the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia (6th century) as their fundamental law—a model of clarity, moderation, and a perfect balance between spirituality and manual labor.
– Cistercian Order:** The branch of Benedictine monasticism reformed by Robert of Molesme (1098).
Appreciating the Beauty of a Pilgrimage Beyond Faith
I would like to add that, in my opinion, one does not need to be a believer to bear witness to the faith of another. It is enough to have sufficient spiritual empathy to grasp the depth of belief held by another person, a people, or an artist. One can therefore profoundly benefit from such a trip to enrich their spiritual life, simply by admiring and drinking in the creative expression generated by faith—in architecture, art objects, music, and the consecrated persons themselves—throughout the ages.
Music, silence, and time are the guiding threads in the fabric of this journey:
– Music: The life of nuns and monks is punctuated by chanted offices, according to the culture from which their history draws. These offices are, along with the Mass, the highlights of monastic life: Vigils, Lauds, Matins, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline.
– Silence: An essential tool for meditation and prayer; it is favored and sought after.
– Time: The monasteries visited have, for the most part, existed for a thousand years!
We had exceptional guides:
– Jacques Morin: A free man, respectful of everyone, who gave the best of his knowledge to build an immensely rich and unforgettable trip.
– Marie-Hélène Doucet: An intense and tender woman who offered the warmth of her presence to protect the quality of life of this trip. The result: a fabulous and striking experience, unique for every traveler.
The Weather:
It must be recognized that when Quebecers arrive in Provence at the end of April, they are thawing out from their harsh winter… every blade of grass, every leafy bush seems delectable! So, the palm trees, the cypresses, the umbrella pines—it’s overwhelming! Strange, these conifers that coexist with tropical trees. And what can be said of the fury of the colors… reds, purples, mauves, bright yellows, oranges… it is unsettling!
The Abbey of Lérins on the Island of St-Honorat
Opposite Cannes, on the small island of St-Honorat, there still exists an important monastic and theological center dating back to the 5th century. On the south side, a fortified monastery protected the monks from pirates and the Spanish. In the center, we see the abbey buildings which were constructed in the 19th century. Seven chapels line the perimeter of the island, where a Provençal pilgrimage used to take place between Ascension and Pentecost.
The Abbey of Lérins is the seat of a Cistercian congregation belonging to the Order of Cîteaux and remains faithful to the tradition of hospitality, welcoming anyone in search of silence, prayer, and peace.
Alas, for technical reasons, we only spent one day at Lérins, like tourists. We now know that there is a clear difference between visiting an abbey for a few hours and staying there. The attitude of the monks or nuns is remarkably different.
In the former case (visit), your presence is perceived as a piggy bank that must be minimally satisfied by giving explanations about the monument to be visited, then by selling “souvenirs” that contribute to the financial survival of the place.
In the case of a prolonged stay, you become a pilgrim received within the walls of the Abbey for a few days. You become part of the great tradition of welcome and monastic hospitality where you are offered the best, provided you are the least bit interested: food, offices, explanations of symbols, revelations of hidden treasures (there are always some, as monasteries have, since the dawn of time, held the people’s trust to protect masterpieces and people in peril), and confidences about life in the monastic community. You then represent the person of Christ, come from afar, to whom arms are opened, who is listened to, and whom they truly want to please.
The Thoronet
“Light and shadow are the loudspeakers of this architecture of truth, of calm, and of strength. And nothing more would add to it.” – Le Corbusier
40 km from St-Tropez, this abbey is the eldest Provençal sister of the three Cistercian abbeys of Cîteaux. It fascinated Le Corbusier and continues to exert an immense attraction on today’s architects, who discover a continuity between the master builders of Cistercian functionality and modern builders—at least those who impose the same level of rigor upon themselves.
The church and cloister date from the years 1160–1180. This monastery began its degradation in the 15th century: cracks, collapse of roofs, dilapidated windows… Fortunately, Prosper Mérimée saved it in the 17th century by reporting it to the architect of historical monuments. Viollet-le-Duc was also among those who initiated the restoration that began in 1873. Le Thoronet remains a heritage asset of France, thus protected and preserved… but these are now “dead stones.”
The Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon therefore asked “living stones,” the community of the Sisters of Bethlehem and the Assumption of the Virgin, to come and settle on the immense grounds adjacent to Le Thoronet. Their monastery is called Notre-Dame du Torrent de Vie (Our Lady of the Torrent of Life).
The welcome offered by these nuns is total. Everything is put at our disposal to be as comfortable as possible.
Two forms of lodging are offered: in hermitages, which half of our group took advantage of, and in a house for the other half. The person in the hermitage is alone in their small house, eats alone; everything is in silence. We were in the house, so we ate in community. The offices take place in the church that the Nuns built for themselves; we attended from the rood screen with a view of the entire choir. They wear a white linen tunic with a hood; we saw a very old nun who wore their winter garment, a similar tunic, but entirely in white wool.
The voices of the Nuns of Bethlehem: crystal… if that is what paradise is, I will make a great effort to go there! The polyphonic choir interprets the offices in French, joined by melodies often of Oriental influence.
Notre-Dame de Montrieux
St. Bruno is the founder of the Carthusian Order (1084).
They are contemplatives in the strongest sense of the term—those who have a role of intercession, reparation, and communication of divine life to the world. They use withdrawal to be in as much contact as possible with their God. Montrieux is chronologically the eighth House of the Order and the fourth of the Charterhouses that still exist.
I had never been so close to a Charterhouse, the object of a lifelong dream. Our traveling companions were able to enter the interior of this monastery and described to us the universe of a hermit: his house, his workshop, his solitary meals, his small garden, his prayer in complete isolation, in order to be closer to his Creator. We, the women, always remained outside the Enclosure, though welcomed very warmly in the “family house” that accommodates visitors.
It was an extraordinary stroke of luck to live for 24 hours at Notre-Dame de Montrieux, and to converse open-heartedly with a Quebecer Carthusian monk…
I brought back to my loved ones a small bottle of the precious green elixir of the Grande Chartreuse, which is 71% alcohol and contains the famous 130 herbs that compose it. The monk who served me told me that with three drops on a sugar cube, one feels completely regenerated!
The Abbey of Sénanque
This abbey in the commune of Gordes (Vaucluse) was built by the Cistercians in the second half of the 12th century, on marshy gorges, in a very secluded place. Legend has it that Petrarch wrote his *Treatise on the Solitary Life* (1356) following stays at this high place of spirituality. The abbey was able to maintain a happier vocational activity than many other monasteries, but its buildings were also destined for other purposes. During the French Revolution, an old royalist officer bought it and transformed it into a farm, which saved it from destruction. Since 1988, it has housed a priory of Benedictine monks, dependent on Lérins.
It is beauty, solidity, balance, the state of grace of Romanesque architecture.
A monk gave us a tour of the depths and treasures of the abbey, starting with the cloister—the most beautiful in Provence, whose column capitals are decorated solely with plants. A single mask, that of the devil (a tarasque), reminds us that evil prowls and must be constantly fought. The church itself is a masterpiece in its proportions and of extreme simplicity… nothing should disturb prayer and recollection.
This abbey is in a state of perfect conservation. The roofs are surprising, made of lauze (flat stones), which gives an impression of incredible strength.
It was my favorite stay. The welcome reserved for guests is enveloping, while leaving as much freedom as possible.
The silence, that of the beautiful library, is a refuge and a comfort; the windows open onto the fields—one thinks of the famous advertising image of flaming violets running toward the gray Sénanque. At the end of April, the fourteen hectares of lavender were not yet in bloom, but we had the chance to witness the Rogations, a religious ceremony in the form of a procession, which implores the Heavens to favor the fruits of the sowing.
Meals are taken in silence. The cuisine in France, even in community, is delicious, well-seasoned, abundant, and appetizing.
As for music, for the offices, they sing a cappella in French to melodies of Slavic and Byzantine origin. The acoustics are fabulous. Many records are recorded there that carry the recollection of this extraordinary temple.
The Abbey of St-Martin du Canigou
My first contact with this monastery was terrifying! I had the impression of touching death, in a sensation of total loss of control…
The abbey is located at 1400 meters, and the only way to access it is a small path that winds between the mountain rock and the abyss. Fearing the effort of the ascent, I asked for a seat in what is called a “taxi,” which is a jeep that mainly transports luggage. At every 45-degree curve of the path, the jeep would stop, and upon restarting, would slide backward a few meters into what appeared to me to be the void… the precipice! I observed myself: silence, tension of all the muscles, frantic thoughts, an extreme feeling of powerlessness… solidarity with the anxiety of the other passengers.
The night that followed brought back fear, the horror of death… not easy! I had to face it; the next morning, alone, without speaking to anyone, I went down on foot, along the edge of the void, then climbed back up, step by step… I had cut the monster’s throat! And to think that the abbey receives forty thousand visitors each year who simply walk along the abysses toward St-Martin du Canigou, which is the highest massif in the Pyrenees.
This is, moreover, the community’s main source of income: giving tours, day after day, of this thousand-year-old monastery in which they live.
I am opening a parenthesis to explain why one always sees St. Martin tearing his soldier’s cloak in two to cover a wretched person. We might say that this Martin was a bit stingy to keep half for himself… well, we are wrong. His cloak only belonged to him by half; the other half belonged to the army. He therefore gave the poor man what he possessed.
The Community of the Beatitudes is very touching; very demanding too, because it is mixed. It represents for me the new gatherings of consecrated believers, carriers of tolerance and a very particular richness of spiritual life.
One is inclined to think of a cult at first, but poverty, without ostentation, is evident; there is no sordid sexuality, on the contrary, a pure and solid society in human relationships where families with children, single brothers and sisters, and members of the clergy coexist. It is truly a fraternity in the most spiritual sense of the term, where each person gives a personal treatment to their calling from God.
I asked, like many other guests, to participate in the community’s work. I was assigned to the kitchens and learned a lot while cutting my fruits and vegetables, surrounded by joyful songs intoned by the brothers and sisters.
A beautiful library looked out over ravishing terraces isolated from the world, facing the mountain ravines… elevation of the soul, sweetness of the perfectly human temperature.
Regarding music, it accompanies all activities. It is often punctuated by Catalan instruments. The chants are in French.
We had the chance to attend the Shabbat ceremony on Friday evening. It is a community supper in which members and guests participate. The Community of the Beatitudes has a privileged link with the Jewish religion, based on the principle that Christ was Jewish. On Saturday evening, we participated in the weekly evening of Israeli dances, which were lively!
We had the chance to attend the Shabbat ceremony on Friday evening. It is a community supper in which members and guests participate. The Community of the Beatitudes has a privileged link with the Jewish religion, based on the principle that Christ was Jewish.
On Saturday evening, we participated in the weekly evening of Israeli dances, which were lively!
The Abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa
This thousand-year-old Benedictine abbey is today one of the most important religious monuments in the south of France, with its pre-Romanesque church with Byzantine-style horseshoe arches, the bell tower and the wonderful crypt of the early 11th-century Romanesque art, the remains of a grandiose cloister, and a 12th-century tribune.
We know that it went through very critical moments that culminated in the French Revolution, when the last monk was expelled and the abbey devastated. Its treasures were squandered in the surrounding villages. In the 19th century, the Americans, through a greedy sculptor who had bought magnificent capitals from the cloister and other treasures at a low price, acquired these marvels on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of NY and Philadelphia. This individual eventually built a museum in New York that Rockefeller bought and which one can still visit today (The Cloisters). Fortunately, this merchant dared to try to buy complete cloisters from other abbeys, which had the effect of waking up the French government, which forbade the sale of these stones.
The return to monastic life is due to the intervention of talented architects (Puig i Cadalfach, in particular) joined by that of Pablo Casals, the genius cellist. This artist, who had taken refuge in the monastery during the Spanish Civil War, collected large sums of money for its reconstruction through concerts in the open-air church, since the roof was demolished. The work was carried out from 1953 to 1970.
Now, every summer, Prades, the small neighboring town with pink marble sidewalks, organizes the Pablo Casals festival, a series of concerts at Saint-Michel and other churches in the region.
St-Michel has now regained its Benedictine community, which came from Montserrat. We are in Catalonia and the monks sing their offices in Catalan and French; these celebrations take place, given the small number of monks, in a modest oratory. We had, however, the privilege of attending a mass in the abbey church of St-Michel. The acoustics are extraordinary.
The monks have a sheepfold and produce divine sheep’s cheese, own a vineyard (so, good wine), and run a very well-known ceramics workshop. They also cultivate irises and raise shepherd dogs. Obviously, these are farmers who perform the heavy tasks, for the lay brothers are very few now.
The welcome from the Abbot was very Catalan—that is to say, warm and demonstrative; he answered all our questions with effusion and added historical, artistic, and political details that marvelously situated this high place of spirituality that is Saint-Michel.
There is a cultural association of Cuxa composed of friends of the abbey. Each year, it offers, among other things, the *Journées Romanes* (Romanesque Days), a week of study on pre-Romanesque art.
We left St-Michel at night because we had a three-hour drive to Toulouse, from where we returned by plane to Montreal.
All is said, and the essence is not truly expressed. We, the travelers, have garnered, each in our own way, spiritual riches that time will help us process.
For… abroad, there is too much or too little; it is only in our own country that we find the right measure. (Goethe)
By Claire Landry, member of RIAQ-FORUM and RIAQ-VOYAGES
N.B.: Discover our upcoming pilgrimages in France by [clicking here]!
