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Origin and history

The abbey of Sainte-Marie du Désert finds its roots in an oral tradition dating back to 1099, when a young nobleman, Marie Desclassan, retired to the valley of the Herm after the death of her close crusade parties. She lived there as a hermit until her death in 1117, and her tomb became a place of pilgrimage under the name of Saint Mary of Herm. The chapel built on site, spared by the Hundred Years' War, was destroyed during the French Revolution. In 1819, Abbé Lasserre rebuilt the chapel, relaunching the pilgrimages.

In 1849, Abbé d'Avignon proposed to establish a contemplative community, a project made possible by the donation of land by Marie-Josephine Guyon. On December 21, 1852, monks of the abbey of Aiguebelle officially founded the abbey of Desert, erected as an autonomous abbey in 1861. In the 20th century, it swarmed in Spain with the foundations of the abbeys of San Isidro de Dueñas (1891) and Viaceli (1903). The abbey, a place of artisanal production and pilgrimage, flourished until the beginning of the 21st century.

In the face of the ageing of the community (8 monks in 2020), they gave up the abbey to the association Le Village de François, a mixed life project welcoming disabled, homeless and elderly people in an integral ecological approach (permaculture, organic farming). The abbey becomes a parish church, while the site, inscribed in the historical monuments in 2022, perpetuates its spiritual and social vocation, inspired by the encyclical Laudato si.

The architecture of the abbey, partially protected, includes the abbey church, the pilgrimage chapel, and 19th century convent buildings. The cloister, the former cemetery of the monks, and the capitular hall bear witness to its Cistercian heritage. The refectory (2003) and the entrance porch, excluded from protection, illustrate the contemporary adaptations of the site.

The list of abbots, from Bernard Raymond (1852) to Pierre-André Burton (2013-2020), reflects nearly 170 years of monastic life. The departure of monks in 2020 marks a turning point: the place, now secular but carrying the Gospel values of fraternity and simplicity, innovates by combining heritage, ecology and social inclusion.

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