Abbaye d'Étival-en-Charnie

About

Notre Dame d'Etival-en-Charnie Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine nuns, located in Chemiré-en-Charnie in the Sarthe, on the edge of the department of Mayenne, founded in 1109 thanks to the meeting of the hermit Saint Alleaume, disciple of Robert d'Arbrissel, and Raoul VII de Beaumont, Viscount of Beaumont.

Raoul VII de Beaumont, son of Hubert II de Beaumont, had several strongholds in the region: Beaumont, Fresnay and Sainte-Suzanne. It was about twenty kilometers from this last castle (which had victoriously resisted the Anglo-Norman troops of William the Conqueror twenty-two years earlier), in the heart of the forest of Charnie, that Raoul provided financial for the building of the abbey. The limestone stones of the mancelle Champagne and the very hard granite rocks, a little reddish, of the surroundings (russard sandstone) provide the material necessary for the construction, giving it a dark shade that adds to the austerity of the place. The bishop of Le Mans, Hildebert de Lavardin, came to consecrate the church and wanted the order of Saint-Benoît to be followed, to the equal of the Community of the Pre, established on the tomb of Bishop Saint Julien du Mans in Le Mans.