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Monastery / hospiceIlle-et-Vilaine

L'abbaye de Saint-Méen-le-Grand et le mal de saint Méen

Saint-Méen-le-Grand

Dimensions
In the centre of the small town of Saint-Méen-le-Grand, some forty kilometres west of Rennes, on the edge of the forest of Brocéliande; the abbey church has become the parish church
Period
Monastery of Gaël founded around 600 by Méen according to hagiography; retirement and death of King Judicaël between 648 and 652; destroyed in 799 or 811, rebuilt in 816; relics transferred to Saumur during the Viking invasion of 919; monastery rebuilt between 1024 and 1028; return of the relics in 1074; Life of Saint Méen by Ingomar around 1084; paintings in the Saint-Vincent chapel from the late 13th or early 14th century; pilgrims' register from February 1650 to April 1651; abbey secularised in favour of the Lazarists in the 17th century; conventual buildings rebuilt from 1698 to 1712; great nave demolished in 1771; national property in 1790; abbey church listed (inscrit) in 1930, listed (classé) in 1990
What stands there
The tomb of the monk whose name denoted a scabies of the hands, and the hospital where the pilgrims who came to show it to him were registered

According to Breton hagiography, Méen, a monk who came from the island of Britain with Samson of Dol, founded a monastery at Gaël around 600; King Judicaël retired there and died there between 648 and 652. His Life, written around 1084 by the monk Ingomar, makes him a wonder-worker, and people came from very far to show him the 'mal de saint Méen', a scabies or ringworm of the hands that was compared to leprosy. Destroyed in 799 or 811, rebuilt in 816, emptied of its relics in the face of the Vikings in 919, the monastery was rebuilt between 1024 and 1028 and recovered the saint's remains in 1074; the foundations of the abbey church date from this rebuilding. Around the tomb a whole hospital infrastructure grew up, and a unique document has survived: the register of pilgrims received between February 1650 and April 1651, studied by Jean-Christophe Brilloit, which shows where those who sought healing came from and who they were. After a long conflict with the bishop of Saint-Malo, the abbey was secularised in favour of the Lazarists; its buildings were rebuilt from 1698 to 1712, its great nave demolished in 1771, and the whole declared national property in 1790. The composite abbey church, listed (classé) in 1990, keeps the saint's tomb, fragments of stained glass among the oldest in Brittany and, in the Saint-Vincent chapel, a painted cycle of the life of Méen revealed by test soundings in 1986. The Saint-Méen fountain flows in the town.

Wikipédia — Abbaye de Saint-Méen ↗

Further reading

Getting there : Saint-Méen-le-Grand lies on the road from Rennes to Loudéac, some forty kilometres west of Rennes; the abbey church is in the heart of the town, with parking nearby. It is the parish church: it is open during the day outside services (to be checked) and can be visited freely; the Saint-Vincent chapel and its paintings may be closed outside guided tours, available on request (to be checked). The Saint-Méen fountain is in the town, a few minutes' walk away. Allow an hour.

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

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

L'abbaye de Saint-Méen-le-Grand et le mal de saint Méen
Pymouss · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Ille-et-Vilaine (31).