Deep in Finistère, an abbey that has existed for 1000 years has aroused great curiosity among historians and archaeologists: Landévennec Abbey!
Excavations were carried out between 1978 and 2002, and more than fifty thousand objects were found on the site!
Seeing this, the monks opened a museum to share these treasures! And, not content with that, they made fruit jellies and salted butterscotch... The Lord's ways are impenetrable!
History in a minute...
Saint Guénolé, then a monk on the island of Lavret in Brittany, was sent with eleven brothers to found an abbey. After settling for a time on the island of Tibidy, they finally arrived in Landévennec in 485! But even if we have the date of the first trace of monastic life in Landévennec, it is only a few centuries later that the community became Benedictine. It was indeed in 1818 that Louis le Pieux, Charlemagne's son, imposed the rule of Saint Benedict. In 913, barely one hundred years after this new rule, Scandinavian Vikings plundered and destroyed the abbey, and the monks were exiled! Fortunately, the monks kept their cool: just before fleeing, they recovered the old manuscripts of the abbey and the relics of Saint Guénolé, the founder.
On their return to Landévennec, the monks had to rebuild everything
Little by little, they built a superb Romanesque style abbey, which quickly prospered. The monks even found themselves at the head of a lordship! But unsurprisingly, the Revolution destroyed Landévennec Abbey. The buildings were sold as national property and the monks were again exiled... A century later, in 1875, the Count of Chalus bought the ruins of Landévennec and the abbey was able to restart slowly.
Not far from there, the monks of the monastery of Kerbénéat have plans to restore the abbey of Landévennec. But unfortunately, everything became complicated: between their exile (1903-1922) and the Second World War, the monks did not have a simple life. It was only later that they decided to settle in Landévennec, when their community regained strength! And so, in 1958, Landévennec Abbey was reborn! And in 1981, Landévennec Abbey was even able to send monks to found a monastery in Haiti!
The current situation
Today, Landévennec Abbey has eighteen Benedictine friars, who live in community, pray and work according to the rule of Saint Benedict.
On the prayer side, they have seven offices a day, including Mass, and the first of them is early in the morning: at 5.20 am!
On the work side, the monks live from what they produce, and thus make wonderful products! Among them, fruit pastes and salted butterscotch!
They maintain a large orchard, and even write "Chronicles of Landévennec"!
Abbaye de Landévennec
Rue Gorrequer
29560 Landévennec
Tél. : 02 98 27 73 34
https://www.abbaye-landevennec.fr/
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