Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Abbey of Notre-Dame du Pesquié is a Benedictine abbey founded in 1991 in Serres-sur-Arget, Ariège (Occitanie), by a community native to Dourge (Tarn). Directed by the Abbess Immaculata Astre, it hosts about 50 nuns and novices, dedicated to six daily hours of prayer and manual work, especially agricultural. The community gradually settled on an area of 80 hectares, completed in 1999, after stages in Madiran and Ozon.

Major constructions began in the 21st century: the bell tower, with five bells, was erected in 2002. The Abbatial Church, inspired by sober Cistercian architecture, sees its first stone blessed in 2010 by Bishop Philippe Mousset, Bishop of Pamiers. The work was completed in 2019, with a solemn signing in 2017. The organ, built in 1997 by Jean Daldosso, accompanies the services sung in Gregorian.

The economy of the abbey is based on agricultural production (fromage, honey, gingerbread) and artisanal (bindings, ceramics, liturgical ornaments), sold in a shop open to the public. Liturgical life, rhythmic by Latin Masses and Vespers, attracts faithful, while Gregorian chant records and books, such as Regards sur l'Invisible by Mother Immaculata (medal of Vermeil in 2007), bear witness to her cultural influence.

The abbey, mediated by a documentary broadcast on France 2 in 2011 and 2016 (The Mysteries of the Faith), is distinguished by its welcome of young vocations. Its history is part of the continuation of the Benedictine foundations of Pyrenean, linked to the abbey of Sainte-Scholastice in Dourge and the figure of Louis Blanquet, founder of En Calcat.

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