Saint-Marcel-lès-Chalon, où meurt Abélard

Saint-Marcel

The monastery of Saint-Marcel, at the gates of Chalon, was considerable enough for there to be held in 999, before King Robert the Pious and the duke of Burgundy, the ceremony in which the count-bishop Hugues de Chalon handed over the priory of Paray-le-Monial to Abbot Odilo. Rebuilt in the Middle Ages and attached to Cluny, it was no more than a priory of the order when, in 1141, Peter the Venerable sent there a cumbersome invalid. Abelard, the dialectician of Paris, the man of Héloïse, had just been condemned as a heretic on the denunciation of Bernard of Clairvaux; the abbot of Cluny had taken him in on his way to Rome, had made him a monk of his house, then, as scabies and other ills ate away at him, had sent him to rest here, near Chalon, on the banks of the Saône, for the mildness of the climate — he says so himself in writing to Héloïse. Abelard died there on 21 April 1142. A monumental tomb was raised for him; at All Saints 1144 Peter the Venerable had the body removed and carried it himself to Héloïse, abbess of the Paraclete, with an absolution written in his own hand which the abbess had engraved above the burial place. Of the priory nothing remains but the church, restored in 2003: the only stone that saw Abelard die.

Wikipédia — Saint-Marcel (Saône-et-Loire) ↗

Getting there : From Chalon-sur-Saône by the D 978 then the local roads; the church is signposted in the centre of Saint-Marcel, parking on the square. A parish building open during the day; a plaque and an information panel recall the death of Abelard.

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

Ambient sound