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Origin and history

The ancient chapel of the Ladies of the Faith, also called the chapel of the Mirepois, was built at the beginning of the eighteenth century in Sarlat-la-Canéda to house the nuns of the Faith. This order, founded in the 17th century at the request of Monsignor François de Salignac Fénelon, Bishop of Sarlat, had the mission of ensuring the religious education of young Protestant women converted to Catholicism. The Ladies of Faith, initially led by a widow named Baillot de Lagadou, disappeared during the French Revolution, causing the chapel to be decommissioned.

The building, marked by its religious and educational history, was classified as Historic Monument by decree of 29 July 1963. Despite this protection, it was destroyed by fire in 1964. The chapel was located at 15 Fénelon Street, in a district of Sarlat-la-Canéda where its heritage persists through toponymic traces, like the impasse of the Mirepois.

The Order of the Ladies of the Faith reflected the religious tensions of the time, especially in a region such as the Périgord, where Catholics and Protestants lived together. Their chapel symbolized the efforts of the local Church to convert and integrate under the impulse of figures like Fénelon, before the Revolution upset these traditional structures.

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