Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault et Notre-Dame du Bien-Mourir

Fontgombault

It all begins with a spring and a hermit. On the banks of the Creuse, the "fountain of Gombaud" keeps the name of the solitary who lived there in the caves of the hillside and who died in 1023 in the odour of sanctity. In 1091 his successor Pierre de l'Étoile founded an abbey on the right bank under the Rule of Saint Benedict: Fontgombault. The Romanesque abbey church, one of the finest in Berry, has housed since the 12th century a limestone Virgin barely a metre high, seated, holding the Child on her knees; Mother and Son each hold a fruit, symbol of grace restored. Tradition relates that at the Revolution a workman charged with taking the statue down to destroy it suffered a fatal fall — and died, it is said, reconciled. Hence her title, unique in France: Notre-Dame du Bien-Mourir, Our Lady of a Good Death, invoked to obtain a peaceful and Christian end. The graces reported have sustained for two centuries a discreet and poignant pilgrimage, that of the sick, the dying and those who accompany them, with an annual gathering on 7 and 8 October. After the Trappists in the 19th century, the Benedictines of Solesmes refounded the community in 1948: some hundred monks keep up the office sung entirely in Gregorian chant, which draws music lovers and seekers of silence. One comes to Fontgombault for the pale golden stone, for the Creuse flowing beneath the walls, and for this little Virgin before whom burn the candles of life's great crossings.

Getting there : Village of Fontgombault, Creuse valley (D950 between Le Blanc and Tournon-Saint-Martin). Abbey church open to visitors; offices sung in Gregorian chant open to all (daily Mass and Vespers); monastic enclosure not open to visitors. Coordinates given for the abbey.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound