Église Saint-Lucien de Montmille

About

Saint Lucien de Montmille is a Catholic parish church located in the hamlet of Montmille, Fouquenies, France. Placed at the top of a hill overlooking the valley of Therain, Mount Mille, it perpetuates the memory of the martyrdom of Saint Lucien, patron of Beauvais, who was tortured by Roman soldiers near the present church because he did not want to deny his God. Previously, his two disciples Saint Maxien and Saint Julien had been beheaded at the site of the crypt of the church, and they were buried there, before later joining the burial of Saint Lucien at Saint Lucian Abbey in Beauvais.

Relics remain nevertheless in Montmille, and a Benedictine priory is founded at the beginning of the tenth century at the latest. Indeed, the parish of Fouquenies has been attested since 922, and the prior appoints to the cure, which proves the priory's anteriority. This one and the church of Montmille are under the title of Saint-Maxien, and it was not until the twentieth century that this term disappeared in favour of Saint Lucien.

The present church, which is expected to succeed a first chapel, is linked to the architecture of Carolingian tradition, and is generally dated the eleventh century.