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Origin and history

The Abbey of Saint-Genou is the only remaining vestige of the Benedictine Abbey founded in 828 by Wilfred, Count of Bourges, and his wife Ode, in the hamlet of Strada (now Estrées). Confirmed by Pépin I of Aquitaine in 830, the abbey was first led by Dodon, Abbé de Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, before being destroyed by the Normans and Hungarians. Reconstructed near its original location, it had since an indefinite date sheltered the relics of Saint Genou, an evangelizer of Gaul in the third century, whose body was transferred to the new abbey in 868, accompanied by a diploma awarded to Pépin the Brief (whose authenticity is doubtful).

The reconstruction of the Abbey began around 994, according to the sources, and was consecrated in 1066 by the Archbishop of Bourges, Aymon de Bourbon. However, the archives of the abbey, destroyed in 1580 by the abbot Gilles Quinault, limit the precise knowledge of this period. The architectural analysis reveals that the current choir, influenced by the abbatiales of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (1080-1110) and Plampied (early 12th century), dates from the early 12th century. The act of consecration of 1066 would thus concern a provisional altar in a nave today disappeared.

In the 17th century, the abbey, poorly maintained, saw its nave demolished in 1676 by the merchant abbot Louis Smokee, who preferred this solution to a restoration. A century later, in 1776, Abbé Claude de Bonnal handed over the remaining buildings to the diocese of Bourges, retaining only the estate's income. Ranked a historic monument in 1862, the abbey now depends on the archdiocese of Bourges and the parish of Buzançais, bearing witness to a rich religious and architectural past, despite the destructions and transformations suffered over the centuries.

The Vita Sancti Genulphi evokes the sending of Saint Genou (or Genulpha) by Pope Sixtus IV to evangelize Gaul in the third century. Consecrated bishop of Cahors, he died in Selles-sur-Nahon (formerly Selles-sur-le-Diable), where he performed miracles. The monks of Estrées received his body in circumstances that remained obscure, strengthening the spiritual prestige of the abbey. The relics, transferred to the abbey with other objects donated by Pépin the Brief, made this place a centre of pilgrimage and medieval devotion.

The Abbey is located in the natural region of North Boischaut, west of the Indre department. Its architecture, marked by Romanesque influences, reflects the artistic exchanges of the period between the great monastic centres of the region, such as Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. Despite the loss of its nave and archives, it remains a significant example of the religious heritage of the Centre-Val de Loire, illustrating both the historical vicissitudes and the persistence of the Christian faith in this rural area.

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