SAINT-ÉTIENNE-DE-BASSAC ABBEY

The abbey no longer welcomes retreatants, but its history is worth a visit. Guided tours are organized by the tourist office. Events take place there and services are held irregularly throughout the year. Finally, several associations have been created to give it a future, some with the participation of the diocese.

In the diocese of Saintes, Wardrade, lord of Jarnac, and Rixendis, his wife, founded an abbey on the banks of the Charente in the early 11th century. The first Benedictine monks to take possession of the place came from the great abbey of Saint-Cybard of Angoulême. The church is dedicated to Our Lady, Saint Stephen, martyr, and the apostles Peter and Paul. In the 13th century, the church was enlarged. A succession of four curved vaults in the Angevin or Plantagenet Gothic style opened onto a magnificent poly-lobed portal set in a Romanesque façade. In 1434, the Anglo-Gascons pillaged the abbey and ruined the conventual buildings. It was the abbot Henri de Courbon who restored the abbey and fortified it. In 1516, like all the abbeys, Bassac came under the Commende system. During the Wars of Religion, the abbey was again pillaged and destroyed, and several monks were killed. In 1666, the abbey of Bassac is affiliated to the new Benedictine congregation of Saint-Maur. Extensive reconstruction work was undertaken, including the present conventual buildings and the superb decoration of the monks' choir. During the Revolution, the few monks were expelled, the buildings were sold as national property and the cloister was destroyed. In 1820, the abbey church became a parish church, classified as a historical monument in 1880. In 1947, the Missionary Brothers of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus bought the conventual buildings and restored them. The Missionary Brothers of Saint Theresa are religious of apostolic life, who live their vocation according to the spirit of Saint Theresa, in fraternity. They participate in the life of the neighborhoods and formerly in the reception and animation of the abbey of Bassac and exercise a professional activity. They are at the service of young people, of those wounded by life, of those who are looking for a place to meet. The abbey of Bassac was their mother house. Today, several associations, including Les Amis de l'Abbaye de Bassac, are involved in cultural activities as well as in the restoration of the buildings and gardens.