L’abbaye de Caunes-Minervois au sein de la congrégation de Saint-Maur : de l’installation à la dispersion

Abstract

The Caunes Minervois abbey is a typical example of a long and difficult adhesion to the movement of monastic reform initiated by the Congregation of St. Maur. Decided as early as 1659, it was effective in 1664 only after many vicissitudes and an obstinate resistance of local elites most abbey officers came from. The introduction of the reform provoked the dissolution of the ancient monastic community and its replacement by a new maurist community. The new community had to make its legitimacy accepted in its sometimes tense relations with the village community, the parochial clergy and the lords of the neighbourhood. Beyond the work of material and financial reconstruction, the maurist reform allowed the abbey to recover both spiritual and intellectual influence until the beginning of the French Revolution.