Montmajour Abbey - Chronology

Chronology

943 - A Frankish noblewoman, Teucinde, acquires the island from the Church of St. Trophime in Arles, and leaves it in her will to a group of monks, with instructions to create an Abbey following the Rule of St. Benedict.

11th Century - St. Peter's Chapel is constructed into the rock on the south side of the hill, near the cemetery.

1030 - The Abbey acquires what is believed to be a fragment of the True Cross. A chapel of the Abbey church is dedicated to the relic, and the church becomes a major pilgrimage site. Absolution for their sins is given to all who come there on May 3, feast day for the Discovery of the True Cross, and leave a donation for the completion of the Abbey. By the 12th century the pilgrimage had become so popular that the Abbey had to build a separate church, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, for the relic.

12th Century - The Abbey is at the peak of its influence and wealth. It possesses vineyards, cornfields, olive groves, waterways, mills, fisheries and forests, and has dependent priories and land all over Provence, and as far away as Frejus, Sisteron and Grenoble. The rulers of Provence give the Abbey land, castles, and even entire towns, such as Pertuis.

Construction of the Abbey Church of Our Lady is begun, but because of a shortage of money, only the first two bays are completed.

13th Century - The Abbey has sixty resident monks, a large number for the Middle Ages.

1357 - The Grandes Compagnies, armies of French soldiers left unpaid after the French defeat by the English at Poitiers during the Hundred Years War, ravage the countryside. The countryside was pillaged again by marauders in 1357, and by the soldiers of Raimond de Turenne of Les Baux, who waged war against Arles from 1386 to 1398. The Abbot of Montmajour, Pons de L'Orme, fortifies the monastery with a massive tower. Widespread starvation and destruction in Provence.

1593 - During the Wars of Religion, the Abbey is occupied by soldiers of the Catholic League, and the monks are forced to move to Arles for two years. When they return, they find the monastery ruined.

1639 - Against the wishes of the majority of monks, the Abbey is given to a new order, the Maurists, a reformed Benedictine order based at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. Despite the hostility of the "old" monks, and of the Abbot, Charles Bichi, whose family had purchased his title from the King, who did not reside at the Abbey and refused to pay for its upkeep, the Maurists began a program of restoration and construction.

Though the Maurists monks numbered only thirty, their construction program was grandiose - they began a classical building designed to have twenty-five bays along its north and south facades. Sixteen bays were completed by the time of the French Revolution.

1786 - The titular Abbot, Cardinal Louis de Rohan, refuses to pay for any more upkeep of the Abbey. The Abbey is officially secularized.

1789 - At the time of the French Revolution, only nine monks remain at Montmajour.

1791-1793 - The monastery is sold for 62,000 livres to Elizabeth Roux-Chatelard, who strips the Maurist building and leaves it in ruins. The property is then resold to twenty different owners. The medieval part is used for a sheep farm and haylofts.

1797 - The painter Jacques Réattu buys the Pons de l'Orme tower, saving it from destruction.

1822 - The city of Arles buys the Chapel of the Holy Cross from a fisherman, and preserves it.

1840 - The writer Prosper Mérimée, inspector of ancient monuments, puts the Abbey on the first list of French historical monuments which should be preserved. Restoration begins on some of the buildings in 1862, and continues for decades.

1859 - The last of the romanesque and gothic properties are purchased by the state. The Maurist building is not purchased until 1921.

1944 - A major fire breaks out inside the abbey church, which is being used by the German Army as an arms depot.

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