Priory of Saint-Eutrope de Saintes
Prieuré Saint-Eutrope / S Utropii / S Eutropius
(Saintes, Charente-Maritime)
The crypt
Traditionally, the martyr Saint Eutropius is considered the first bishop of Saintes; some accounts place him in the early days of Christianity, as an evangelizer of Gaul in the 1st century. Other versions place him in the 3rd century, in connection with Saint Denis of Paris.
It was one of his successors at the head of the diocese, Saint Palladius (573–596), who discovered his tomb at the end of the 6th century and had his relics transferred to a church he founded and dedicated to the saintly bishop, which became a place of pilgrimage. An earlier monastery is also mentioned, for which there is some record from the year 1056, when it was held by lay lords. In 1081, William VIII of Aquitaine, Count of Poitiers, gave the site to the Abbey of Cluny after taking possession of it.
The Burgundian abbey established a priory there, which involved rebuilding the church. It was consecrated in 1096 in the presence of Pope Urban II. Saint-Eutrope then came to house the relics of its patron saint, became a major pilgrimage site and experienced significant development. Two superimposed spaces were built: a crypt for the veneration of the relics, allowing pilgrims to circulate, and above it, the priory church, of nearly identical dimensions but with an additional nave.
Illustration from Catalogus Sanctorum (1543)
Schematic plan of the upper church
The church was modified in later periods, especially due to the damage caused during the Wars of Religion (1568). The monastic community was dissolved during the Revolution, and shortly afterward, in 1803, due to the risk of collapse, the main nave was closed off from the transept onwards and was eventually lost. The church and crypt were built between the 11th and 12th centuries. The crypt features an ambulatory and three radiating apses, with the central apse later rebuilt and enlarged. Both levels include a transept.
Detail of a map of Saintes in 1560
Histoire de l'église santone et aunisienne (1843)
The crypt
The crypt
The crypt. Sepulchre of Saint Eutropius
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- CROZET, René (1956). Saint-Eutrope de Saintes. Congrès archéologique de France, 114 ss. Société française d'archéologie
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- EYGUN, François (1979). Saintogne romane. La nuit des temps, 33. Zodiaque
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- GUÉRIN, Paul (1888). Les Petits Bollandistes. Vies des saints. Vol. 5. París: Bloud et Barral
- GUÉRIN, Raphaël (2018). Reliques, sanctuaire et hagiographie : le renouveau du culte de saint Eutrope de Saintes aux XIe et XIIe siècles. Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 53. Toulouse: Privat
- RHEIN, André (1913). Saintes. Congrès archéologique de France, 79 ss. Société Française d’Archéologie
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1720). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 2. París: Typographia Regia
The current Basilica of Saint-Eutrope is located to the west of the historic centre of Saintes