Posted on 08/06/2021 6:32:21 PM PDT by marshmallow
On Aug. 1, Benedictine monks moved into the emblematic Solignac Abbey in west-central France after a 230-year absence.
It is the first time since the French Revolution that the Benedictines have returned to this historic Christian site, established by St. Eligius in the 7th century.
This event, regarded as providential by local Catholics, does indeed have a symbolic significance, especially at a time when many religious buildings in France are left to decay, condemned to disappear or be bought for secular purposes.
The monks’ return was recently announced by the Diocese of Limoges in a press release co-signed by local Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo and Dom Jean-Bernard Marie Bories, abbot of St. Joseph de Clairval Abbey in France’s Burgundy region, who has bought the abbey to establish a priory. The monks of Clairval approved the foundation project by a two-thirds majority.
After anti-clerical revolutionaries expelled the Benedictines in 1790, the abbey was used successively as a prison, a boarding school for girls, and a porcelain factory, until 1930.
It served as a refuge for Catholic teachers during World War II, before welcoming the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate from 1945. The community stayed until the 1990s, finally transferring the property to the diocese in 2011. The abbey had remained unoccupied for the past 17 years.
met with the abbot several times.
“I give thanks for this amazing news, because we’ve been searching for different solutions for this place for many years and eventually, the project that succeeded is the one that is the most consistent with the original purpose of this abbey built by St. Eligius — that is, to welcome communities of monks, especially Benedictine monks,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicworldreport.com ...
If walls could speak .....
Joe Biden can verify if this story is true. He was there when it happened.
Good news. May there be many more who join this community.
It’s beautiful.
Welcome home, guys.
Bread and beer bump.
5.56mm
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