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Origin and history

The chapel of the Black Penitents of Avignon, located on Rue de la Banasterie, was built to house a brotherhood founded in 1586 by Pompey Catilina, an Italian soldier sent by Rome. Originally installed in the chapel of the Hospital Notre-Dame de Fenouillet, the brotherhood, named Black Penitents of Mercy, had the mission to assist the prisoners and the condemned to death. His first rector, Catilina, died in 1615 and was buried in the collegiate Saint-Agricol, where his tomb, carved by Simone Bartolacci, still remains.

Between 1591 and the 17th century the brotherhood acquired and transformed the chapel, adding a sacristy (1620) and an anti-chapel (1631). The decoration works were multiplied, with richly worked woodwork and canvases commissioned by the great painters of Avignon. At the beginning of the 18th century, under the impulse of the Rector Manne, the chapel was embellished by architect Thomas Lainée, then by Jean-Baptiste Franque after his sudden death in 1739. The facade, considered a masterpiece, and the ceiling adorned with an Apotheosis of Saint John the Baptist (1739) by Peter Courtois bear witness to this.

The fraternity enjoyed exceptional privileges, such as the Ceremonial of the Issuance: as early as 1596, it obtained the grace of one sentenced to death each year, led in procession to the chapel, dressed in red and crowned olive tree. Richelieu participated during his exile from Avignon (1618–19). The Revolution ended these practices, but the brotherhood, dissolved in 1948, was reborn in 1983. Today, the chapel, classified in 1906, retains major works by Nicolas Mignard, Reynaud Levieux or Pierre Parrocel, despite the revolutionary dispersions.

Inside, structured around the Passion of Christ and the life of Saint John the Baptist (called the brotherhood), alternate large curved canvases and circular medallions. Among the remarkable pieces are a dying Christ by Nicolas Mignard, a retable by Domenico Borboni, and paintings such as La Visitation (1648) or L-Assumption of the Virgin. The restored ceiling and the facade carved by Pierre Bondon (glorifying the take-off of Saint John the Baptist) illustrate the artistic climax of the brotherhood.

Since 1983, the chapel has been entrusted to the association Saint-Jean-Baptiste, whose offices are celebrated by priests of the Society of Saint-Pie-X. A communal property, it remains a unique testimony of the Avignon Penitent Brotherhood, of which only the Grey and Black Penitents remain today. Its architecture and decor, preserved despite historical vicissitudes, make it an emblematic monument of Provencal Baroque.

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