Saint-Georges-du-Bois Abbey
S Georgius de Nemore / S Georgius in Bosco
(Saint-Martin-des-Bois, Loir-et-Cher)
The foundation of the monastery of Saint-Georges-du-Bois was promoted by Saint Innocentius, bishop of Le Mans between 532 and 543, with the support of the Merovingian king Childebert I (c. 496-558) and his wife Ultrogotha († a. 567). The queen encouraged its construction and donated several relics of Saint George, to whom the monastery was dedicated. According to tradition, these included one of the saint's arms.
The monastery was already inhabited by monks by the middle of the sixth century. Innocentius was familiar with the Rule of Saint Benedict and is believed to have introduced it into this monastery. Tradition also records his relationship with Benedict of Nursia (480-547), from whom he is said to have requested monks trained under his guidance to populate monastic foundations within his diocese. Dom Piolin relates that Bishop Aiglibert (670-705) restored the monastery after it had fallen into the hands of laymen and established there a Benedictine community of sixty monks. This first monastery disappeared during the ninth century as a result of Viking raids, and the site remained abandoned for many years.
In 1045, Geoffrey II Martel (1006-1060), Count of Anjou, restored monastic life to the site and established an Augustinian community of Canons there. To ensure its future, he endowed it with various properties, parishes and other rights. Around the same time, the comital house also founded the secular collegiate church of Saint-Georges at Vendôme (Loir-et-Cher). The two institutions maintained close ties and, during the last quarter of the eleventh century, several canons from Vendôme moved to Saint-Georges-du-Bois as Augustinian canons regular.
Within a short time, the house had seven dependent priories. Nevertheless, it gradually declined and, in 1725, its incorporation into the Order of Prémontré was requested. When the Premonstratensians arrived from the nearby Abbey of l'Étoile (Loir-et-Cher), only a single canon remained. Their arrival did not reverse the decline, although the abbey survived until the French Revolution. Afterwards, the property passed into private hands and was converted into a residence.
The adaptation of the complex to its new use involved shortening the church by demolishing the first two bays of the nave, which had fallen into ruin, and building a new façade, although the church was never restored to worship. At the end of the twentieth century, the property returned to the Church and, between 2001 and 2021, monastic life was re-established with the arrival of a new Benedictine community. Afterwards, the site came under the responsibility of the Diocese of Blois. Part of the church, which still preserves medieval features, as well as the chapter house, have survived. The complex was damaged by a fire in 2022.
Old postcard, private collection
Detail of the portal of the cathedral of Le Mans (Sarthe)
Bibliothèque nationale de France
- ARDURA, Bernard (1993). Abbayes, prieurés et monastères de l'ordre de Prémontré. Nancy: Presses U. De Nancy
- BESSE, Jean-Martial (1920). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France, vol. 8, Tours. París : Picard
- GUÉRIN, Paul (1888). Les Petits Bollandistes. Vies des saints. Vol. 7. París: Bloud et Barral
- GUYARD DE LA FOSSE, Jean-Baptiste (1837). Histoire des évêques du Mans. Le Mans: Piété et Éducation
- PIOLIN, Dom Paul (1851-56). Histoire de l’Église du Mans. Vols. I i III. París: Julien, Lanier et Cie. Ed.
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1856). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 14. París: Typographia Regia
- SAINT-VENANT, R. de (1896). Une excursion a Authon, St. Arnoult, Montoire & St-Georges-des-Bois. Bulletin de la Société Archéologique Scientifique et Littéraire du Vendomois. Vol. XXXV. Vendôme
The monastery is located in the commune of Saint-Martin-des-Bois (Loir-et-Cher), near Vendôme, between Blois and Le Mans