Saint-Gildas-en-Rhuys Monastery
The place Saint-Gildas-en-Rhuys is located on the Rhuys peninsula on the Gulf of Morbihan , it is one of the most popular summer resorts in western France. In the middle of the holiday colonies is the small town center with its lovely Romanesque church. It is the only remnant of the former Benedictine abbey of Saint-Gildas .
history
Saint-Gildas is considered the oldest and most venerable monastery in Brittany. According to tradition, Gildas (494-570) from the Scottish Arcluid - today Dumbarton - founded the monastery in 528 or 536. Back then - from the 4th to 6th centuries - many island Bretons settled on the Aremorica peninsula after being driven by the Saxons from their ancestral home in Cornwall, Devon, Scotland and Wales.
The abbey is said to have been built on the remains of a Roman oppidum. It experienced rapid growth and adopted the Benedictine rule in 818 . As early as the 10th century, the convent is said to have comprised a few hundred monks.
However, during the Norman invasion, the monastic community was badly hit. The convent buildings were destroyed and the monks evicted. Kaoc, Abbot of Rhuys, fled in 919 with the relics of Saint Gildas as far as Berry , where he founded a daughter abbey.
At the request of Duke Gottfried I of Brittany, a monk from the Abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire named Felix and six companions began the reconstruction. From 1008 to 1032 the new monastery was built. On September 30, 1032 the solemn inauguration took place by Judicaël, Bishop of Vannes and brother of the Breton duke.
Abbot Felix had the relics of Saint Gildas brought back from the Berry before he died around 1038. The Romanesque components of the church that still exist today, however, are most likely not part of Felix's building. They date a little later, from the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century.
In 1128, after a temporary decline, the famous philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard was elected Abbot of Saint-Gildas. One can only speculate about the circumstances of his choice: Abbot Heribert died around 1128. The monastery reform of the 11th and 12th centuries had not yet reached the monastery. With the consent of Duke Conan III. , the Fat, 1112–1148, the monks chose Abelard as Heribert's successor. Presumably the prince gave his support in order to restore the damaged reputation of the monastery by repatriating the now famous cleric.
Although Abelard had spent several years in the wasteland of Paraklet, he was still formally a member of the convent of Saint-Denis near Paris. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis must have released Abelard from the prohibition to enter another monastery - under what circumstances and on what kind of people's influence is unknown, but at least it is certain that Abbot Suger and Duke Conan met each other when a French forces against Emperor Henry V met personally in 1124 and thus had the opportunity to discuss the Abelard case personally. Abelard was chosen as abbot of Saint-Gildas certainly not because of his reputation as a teacher. It has been proven that he did not speak the national language, the ancient idiom of the former island Bretons, which differed fundamentally from the Romance-influenced Poitevin dialect of his homeland Le Pallet south of the Loire. His strict monasticism was also unlikely to have been decisive for the choice, because his previous love affair with Heloisa should not have escaped even the Bretons of Saint-Gildas. Perhaps he was even deliberately chosen by the chapter of the convent because it was hoped that under an abbot Abelard, who had seduced his pupil as a cleric, he could continue to lead the usual loose and promiscuous life.
Abelard was unsuccessful with the Saint-Gildas brothers. He failed because of the practical management of the monastery and only barely escaped several assassinations. Around 1132/1133 he had to leave Saint-Gildas for good. A little later he appeared again as a teacher on the Genovevaberg in Paris.
Abelard's successor Wilhelm was only ordained after his death in 1142, as the philosopher in monk's robe had not previously given up his title. This is supported by a calendar entry in the Chronicon Ruyensis - a chronicle written around 1179, which was found again in the modern times in the cathedral library of Nantes:
"MCXLI: Petrus Abelardus abbas S. Gildasii Ruyensis moritur. Ordinatio Guillelmi abbatis. "
“Year 1141 (old calendar): Peter Abelard, the abbot of Saint-Gildas-en-Rhuys, dies. Ordination of Abbot Wilhelm. "
Little is known of the centuries that followed. In 1506 the abbey became a commodity , i.e. H. the income went to a lay abbot who was rarely present in the abbey and who otherwise cared little about religious life. Saint-Gildas came down again.
In 1668 a lightning strike destroyed the bell tower and the roof of the monastery and the abbey fell into disrepair.
At the end of the 17th century, monks of the Maurinian congregation came to Saint-Gildas, restored the Romanesque choir and built a new nave in the classical style. But Pope Clement XIV withdrew the title of “Abbey” from the monastery in 1773, and no more than five monks remained. This was the death knell for a convent which had established twenty-five priories in its history.
In 1796 the entire monastery property was sold as a national property, and in 1802 the church was declared the parish church of the village.
As early as 1825 religious settled again - now nuns, the "Soeurs de la Charité de Saint-Louis" - after Madame Molé de Champlatreux had acquired the convent for 55,000 francs the year before. The sisters opened a school and an orphanage; Tourism was even promoted to raise income. In 1960 the school buildings were converted into a secularly operated home for the handicapped, which existed until the 1990s. After that, the buildings were taken over by the nuns.
Monastery church
The church floor plan has the shape of a Latin cross due to its two-armed transept. In its old parts, the church of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys is made of gneiss filling stones. On the outside of the southern small apse, the oldest component, you can see small blocks and herringbone patterns, as well as on the two transept arms and on the wall of the choir, below the roof. The buttresses in large ashlar made of granite extend to the roof, which ends on carved corbels. Many of them date from the Romanesque period. One recognizes a frieze with expressive masks and a bear leader. A carved stone above a window in the central apse shows a fight between two knights.
The building is made up of two stylistically different structures: While the nave dates from the late 17th century (1699 to be precise) and is of little art historical importance, the Romanesque choir and the transept are impressive. This most important area is divided into three construction-historical construction phases:
- The outer part of the ambulatory, which borders the south wing of the transept, and the south apse chapel are the only parts that had been built by Abbot Felix until 1032.
- With the exception of the radial chapels and most of the transept, the choir dates from the end of the 11th century.
- In the second half of the 12th century, after devastating storms in 1118 and 1178 - in the latter case the entire roof was covered - improvements and repairs were carried out on the apse chapels. This work began about half a century after Abelard's departure, probably around 1184, in connection with the exhumation of the body of Saint Gildas.
The preserved southern apse chapel shows that the style of the Loire Valley churches had been adopted on Rhuys since the beginning of the 11th century.
At the western entrance to the church there was once a narthex that bears a striking resemblance to Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. The foundations of this narthex had been shown during field work.
A small apse with a semi-dome lies on the north transept arm. Next to this small apse are the tombs of Saint Felix and Abbot Riocus in two interconnected niches separated by an arch supporting pillars. An inscription from the 11th century enables their identification. The stone on the grave of Saint Goustan , who died two years after Felix, also dates from the 11th century . This stone is located on the east wall of the north transept arm.
The choir comprises two rectangular bays with arched arcades that rest on cross-shaped pillars. The yokes are followed by a semicircular choir head, which is formed by four pillars that are connected by highly elevated arches. A series of seven simply incised blind arcades runs over this arch.
The choir has a gallery that allows access to three apse chapels. This semicircular Romanesque choir with its impressive capitals is still as Abelard himself once saw it. Remember the scene when he was supposed to be poisoned by poisoned mass wine at high mass (see Peter Abelard : Historia Calamitatum). The stylish ambulatory is one of the greatest Romanesque art treasures in Brittany. The belt arches, which structure the groin vault in the ambulatory, rest on the side opening to the choir on the capitals of the round pillars of the choir head or on the cross-shaped pillars of the choir bays and on the side of the eaves side wall on wall services. Each yoke is illuminated by a rounded arched window with a double archivolt, with no cornice or corner pillars.
Behind the ambulatory are three radial chapels, consecrated to Saint Joseph, Mother Mary and the Sorrowful Virgin. These ambulatory chapels have semi-domes. The middle chapel is extended by a straight yoke with a barrel vault. Each of these chapels has three simple windows, one in the middle and two on the side.
The sculptural jewelry comes from different epochs. The two capitals, which accommodate the belt arches of the ambulatory on either side of the southern chapel, show an archaic bas-relief that bears a certain resemblance to the engravings on the megalithic monuments in the area. These capitals could date back to the 11th century, as could two others that were converted into holy water stoups. They show crooks and fern leaves emerging from a wreath of leaves.
The two almost cubic capitals near the entrance and some column bases in the form of inverted capitals can be assigned to the construction phase that followed the destruction in 1118, i.e. the first quarter of the 12th century. After all, the capitals of the choir and the ambulatory probably date from the end of the 12th century, with the exception of the four capitals of the semicircle.
Various motifs of the flora dominate the decoration. Crooked bars emphasize the corners, repeating themselves regularly without appearing monotonous. The astralgals and the abaki remained undecorated. Masks appear here and there on some capitals. All of these sculptures are neatly crafted and represent a mature, significant work of art.
The capital above the grave of Saint Felix is made of probably imported limestone. The decoration of the bases is as varied as their shape. Mostly geometric motifs were used.
A large 17th century retable made of white stone occupies the gable wall of the south transept arm.
Numerous graves with and without inscriptions can be found in the church. Most of them are the graves of abbots or simple monks, the latter remaining nameless.
The church's greatest treasure, however, is its valuable reliquaries , which can be admired in the sacristy for an entrance fee. Due to the cunning of the local farmers and seafarers, this church treasure escaped all looting of earlier times. The inquisitors of the revolution did not find him: he remained undiscovered in a granary in the village. You can see a richly chased arm reliquary from the 13th century with the arm bones of Saint Gildas, a head reliquary with his skull, a leg reliquary from the 15th century with his thigh and knee. There is also a valuable chalice and miter from the 16th century and a wooden shrine with a leather cover. The emblem of the Breton dukes on these masterpieces attests to the constant connection between the Breton ruling house and this once proud abbey.
Quote
The loneliness that Abelard lamented so much is hard to imagine today in the summer because of the tourist crowds. You have to wait for the cloudy rainy days or the autumn and winter storms to gain that impression of being entranced, of exile, in this flat, barely forested landscape with its isolated rocks or on the sometimes steeply rising sea cliffs suffered so much.
“The country was alien to me, the national language unknown, the shameful and indecent way of life of the local monks was well known to almost everyone, the rest of the population raw and uncultivated [...] There, by the thundering waves of the ocean, where the end of the earth is no further escape for me granted [...] My walks lead to the impassable shore of a stormy sea. "
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Coordinates: 47 ° 30 ′ 0 " N , 2 ° 50 ′ 23" W.