Camino V -IV- Boulaur (Abbatiale Sainte-Marie de Boulaur) - Tournay (Abbaye Notre-Dame de Tournay)

A Madiran, north of the Hautes-Pyrenees, bordering the Atlantic Pyrenees, the Gers and the Landes, a priory, dedicated to Our Lady, was founded in the eleventh century by the quercynoise Marcilhac Abbey, abandoned since the XVII century. In the early 1930s, sought by the owners of this priory, monks of the Abbey of Calcat, in the Tarn, to agree to revive the monastic life. From the priory, there remains only the Romanesque church became a parish church after the Revolution, and a ruined building that is renovated to accommodate the new community.

The first monks arrived in small groups in 1934. They remain dependent on Calcat until 2 October 1939, when a decree of the General Abbot Madiran gives the status of an autonomous Priory. Concretely this decision takes effect only two years later, when the little community, dispersed by war, can come together again. A novitiate was opened in July 1941. Soon the novices flocking, many. With great skill, all available space is invested, thirty cells are installed under the roof, no insulation ...; the small priory quickly becomes too small: the construction of a new monastery is envisaged. Madiran, country vineyards, lack of water at the time; the village is off, away from the means of communication ... The transfer is decided.


After much research, a field of five hectares, bordering the river Arros, is found at Tournay, about thirty kilometers from Lourdes. On 2 July 1951, the first sod of the new monastery was solemnly given by Bishop Theas, Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes. A year later, the first building, the west wing, welcomes the monks for the celebration of the conventual Mass Sunday, August 10, 1952.

After the first building, the hotel was completed in 1955, the abbey church dedicated Oct. 2, 1958, the wing was completed in 1964. But already the community has sent the brothers found a small community in Brazil, to the south, Curitiba; this foundation has moved, in 1977, in central Brazil, in Goiás, 250 kilometers west of Brasilia.

Life in the monastery today



The monastery is located in a loop of the Arros; Also, to access it, the visitor crosses the river on a wooden bridge, and operating a break, "go to the other side" asks the Lord to his disciples; this simple reality that wants to be told any Abbey: a place of communion and desert, a place of solidarity and solitude.

Five times a day the monks find themselves together in the church to pray the morning prayer (Lauds), the Eucharist, praying the midday, evening prayer "Vespers" and finally the Office readings (Vigils). The monks also have time for personal prayer in the day and a long reading time, they called Lectio Divina : tasty reading, pondering the Word of God drawn primarily in the Bible, but also through spiritual writers Christians, who have not failed in the two thousand years of Christianity.

Several times a week, the monks find themselves in the Chapter room, first to hear the teaching of the abbot, their superior, and also for fraternal exchanges, which may result in votes for to make community decisions.

The rest of the day, the brothers go about the different services required for the concrete life of the monastery (cooking, cleaning, accounting, training novices, infirmary), and working in the confectionery workshop (fruit pulp, pulp coated fruit, chocolate) and in religious bookshops. These products are sold in our store, with others from various monasteries.

The monks, "separate from all but united to all," welcome to the extent of their ability all those who come to the monastery gate "as if they were Christ himself." Thus, guests can stay one or several days, up to a week, participate in various common prayer, seek help from a brother. The monastery organizes every year retreats, sessions, recollections, initiations from reading the Bible according to different levels, as well as meetings "Oblates" monastic Third Order attached to a community.