Sénanque Abbey ( Occitan : abadiá de Senhanca , French : Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque ) is a Cistercian abbey near the village of Gordes in the département of the Vaucluse in Provence , France .
12-498: It was founded in 1148 under the patronage of Alfant , bishop of Cavaillon , and Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona , Count of Provence , by Cistercian monks who came from Mazan Abbey in the Ardèche . Temporary huts housed the first community of impoverished monks. By 1152 the community already had so many members that Sénanque was able to found Chambons Abbey , in the diocese of Viviers . The young community found patrons in
24-656: A new community of Cistercian monks of the Immaculate Conception, under a rule less stringent than that of the Trappists . The community was expelled in 1903 and departed to the Order's headquarters, Lérins Abbey on the island of St. Honorat, near Cannes . A small community returned in 1988 as a priory of Lérins. The monks who live at Sénanque grow lavender (visible in front of the abbey, illustration, right ) and tend honey bees for their livelihood. It
36-478: Is in the form of a tau cross with an apse projecting beyond the abbey's outer walls. Somewhat unusually, its liturgical east end faces north, as the narrow and secluded valley offered no space for the conventional arrangement. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Sénanque reached its apogee, operating four mills, seven granges and possessing large estates in Provence . In 1509, when the first abbot in commendam
48-583: Is possible for individuals to arrange to stay at the abbey for spiritual retreat. Two other early Cistercian abbeys in Provence are Silvacane Abbey and Le Thoronet Abbey ; with Sénanque, they are sometimes referred to as the "Three Sisters of Provence" ( "les trois soeurs provençales" ). 43°55′42″N 5°11′13″E / 43.92833°N 5.18694°E / 43.92833; 5.18694 Bishop of Cavaillon The former French diocese of Cavaillon ( Lat. dioecesis Caballicensis) existed until
60-761: The French Revolution as a diocese of the Comtat Venaissin , a fief of the Church of Rome. It was a member of the ecclesiastical province headed by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Avignon. Its seat was at Cavaillon , in the south-eastern part of what is now France, in the modern department of Vaucluse . The cathedral was officially dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Nôtre Dame), but popularly honored Saint Veranus,
72-760: The Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France . It is situated in the Durance Valley , at the foot of the Luberon mountains. Cavaillon was already a city in the Gallo-Roman period, and has several minor relics from that era, including a 1st century triumphal arch. Other minor relics of the Roman period have been found to the south of the town, on
84-479: The seigneurs of Simiane , whose support enabled them to build the abbey church, consecrated in 1178. Other structures at Sénanque followed, laid out according to the rule of Cîteaux Abbey , mother house of the Cistercians. Among its existing structures, famed examples of Romanesque architecture , are the abbey church, cloister , dormitory, chapter house and the small calefactory , the one heated space in
96-433: The austere surroundings, so that the monks could write, for this was their scriptorium . A refectory was added in the 17th century, when some minimal rebuilding of existing walls was undertaken, but the abbey is a remarkably untouched survival, of rare beauty and severity: the capitals of the paired columns in the cloister arcades are reduced to the simplest leaf forms, not to offer sensual distraction. The abbey church
108-604: The site of the ancient Cabellio . It was the seat of the bishops of Cavaillon from the 4th century until the French Revolution. Saint Veran was bishop here in the 6th century, and the 12th-century cathedral is dedicated to him. In the Middle Ages Cavaillon was part of the Comtat Venaissin . Cavaillon is part of the Regional and Natural Park of Luberon ( parc naturel régional du Luberon ) in
120-608: The sixth-century bishop of Cavaillon. In 1202 the cathedral had a Chapter composed of a Provost, a Precentor, and a Sacristan, to which were added the Archdeacon and 12 Canons. After the Concordat of 1801 , the territory of the diocese passed to the diocese of Avignon . In January 2009 the bishopric was revived by Pope Benedict XVI as a titular see, to provide the ever-increasing number of auxiliary bishops and Vatican bureaucrats with prelatial episcopal status. Theoretically,
132-406: The titular bishop of Cavaillon belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Marseille. The current incumbent since 2009 is Krzysztof Zadarko, Auxiliary Bishop of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg (Poland). 43°50′N 5°02′E / 43.84°N 5.04°E / 43.84; 5.04 Cavaillon Cavaillon ( French pronunciation: [kavajɔ̃] ; Occitan : Cavalhon ) is a commune in
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#1732801111100144-473: Was named, a sure sign of the decline of vocation, the community at Sénanque had shrunk to about a dozen. During the Wars of Religion the quarters for the lay brothers were destroyed and the abbey was ransacked by Huguenots . At the French Revolution the abbey's lands were nationalized , the one remaining monk was expelled and Sénanque itself was sold to a private individual. The site was repurchased in 1854 for
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