Abbey of Saint-Barthélémy de Bénévent
Abbaye de Bénévent / Segondelas / Beneventum
(Bénévent-l'Abbaye, Creuse)
The Augustinian priory of Bénévent may have been founded in 1028, or perhaps earlier, by Humbert, a canon of Limoges, on the site of an earlier church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene. The first canons who occupied it received from the Bishop of Limoges, Jourdain de Laron, the estate of Segondelas, where by 1080 a monastery and its outbuildings had already been established.
The community had acquired relics of Saint Bartholomew, brought from Benevento (Campania), and from then on, the house would be known as monasterium Beneventi from at least 1105. In the mid-12th century, the current church was built, and several chapels were later added, which were removed in the 19th century. In 1458, a papal bull from Pope Pius II granted it the status of an abbey. The monastery suffered during the Wars of Religion: it was looted in 1569 and set on fire in 1608. In the early 16th century, the community came under the rule of commendatory abbots. One of them, Jean-Baptiste de La Croix, also served as Bishop of Quebec (Canada) between 1687 and 1727, and in 1688 he formally attached Bénévent to that diocese.
The church, now restored, consists of a single nave divided into five bays, with very narrow side aisles, almost like a series of intercommunicating chapels. It features a transept with a polygonal apse at the end of each arm. The presbytery is crowned by a central apse that includes an ambulatory and three radial chapels. The building was restored in the 19th century, at which time various additions made throughout its history, especially the chapels built in the 16th century, were removed.
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- CONQUET, Jean (1975). L'abbaye de Bénévent, étape sur un des chemins de Compostelle. Mémoires de la société des sciences naturelles et archéologiques de la Creuse, vol. 39
- LACROCQ, Louis (1928). Bénévent. Mémoires de la société des sciences naturelles et archéologiques de la Creuse, vol. XXIV
- LEFÈVRE-PONTALIS, Eugène (1923). Bénévent-l’Abbaye. Congrès archéologique de France, 84 ss.
- MAURY, Jean (1960). Limousin roman. La Nuit des temps, 11. Zodiaque
- ROY DE PIERREFITTE, J.-B. L. (1857-63). Études historiques sur les monastères du Limousin & de la Marche, vol. 1. Guêret: Betoulle
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1720). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 2. París: Typographia Regia
The former abbey is located in Bénévent-l'Abbaye, west of Guéret