Abbaye Sainte-Marie de la Pierre-qui-Vire

If you follow the Trinquelin, that mountain stream which tumbles down the Morvan massif (to the west of Burgundy), you will arrive, shortly after the Lake of Saint-Agnan, at a widening of the valley, forming a kind of jewel box in the dense forest. It is here that the Abbey of Saint Mary of La Pierre-qui-Vire rises, home to a community of about thirty Benedictine monks. In silence and fraternal life, these men seek God, following the Gospel and the Rule of Saint Benedict. Their days are structured by prayer, manual work, and hospitality.

Founded by Father Jean-Baptiste Muard in 1850, the abbey developed rapidly, thanks to the influence of this diocesan priest with a strong ideal, combining Benedictine life and mission work in the dechristianized countryside of Yonne. After the premature death of the founder (1854), the community joined the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance (today, the Subiaco-Monte Cassino Congregation). The expulsions of the religious in 1880, and especially in 1903, caused difficult exiles for the community. From 1903 to 1921, La Pierre-qui-Vire was deprived of its monks, who took refuge in Kain-la-Tombe, Belgium. After their return and a spiritual renewal, marked by the figure of Abbot Dom Fulbert Gloriès, the years 1940-60 were a time of founding monasteries abroad (first in Vietnam, then in Cambodia, Madagascar, and Congo-Brazzaville). At the same time, financial necessities led the community to maximize work: the farm, printing house, and Zodiaque publishing on Romanesque art helped restore economic balance and, just as importantly, spiritual momentum. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, the community renewed its liturgy, developed new ways of living fraternal life, refreshed its theological and spiritual references, and opened itself to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. In 1980, the Saint-Benoît de Chauveroche priory was founded, now run by a small community of laypeople, in contact with our Protestant brothers and sisters.