Historical and legendary figures

Legend has it that the foundation of Pommiers Priory is linked to Saint Prève. She was one of the supposed daughters of Gérard II, an 11^th century Count of Forez. She took a vow of chastity and devoted herself to God at the Château de Pommiers to which she had retreated, and founded a monastery. A lord was courting her, seeking her hand in marriage, but Prève rejected his advances. He was furious and started spreading slanderous, defamatory rumours accusing her of engaging in relations which prevented her from entering into a legitimate marriage. Her two brothers were told of this and came to see Prève to talk things over with her. Feeling themselves dishonoured, they decided to take their revenge by killing her. They decapitated her and, so the story goes, threw her body either into a well in Pommiers or across the Valla bridge into the Aix. However, they each suffered a violent death and, once Prève’s innocence had been proven, tradition has it that many miracles took place in Pommiers. Saint Prève’s tomb is supposed to be the one with an ancient sarcophagus lid which was used as an altar at the church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul up until 1888. Nevertheless, an inscription on its upper edge, stating that this is the tomb of Saint Prève has been dated to the 16^th century, just when the legend of the foundation of the monastery was starting to take shape.

If we are to believe the legend, the priory was founded in the 11^th century, in other words two hundred years after it has been proven that the monks actually built Nantua Abbey. This legend helped to increase the monastery’s fame.

The King of France Charles VII (1403-1461) is still associated with winning back land in the kingdom of France, to the north of the Loire, from the English. The Hundred Years’ War ended during his reign in 1453. We have proof that he visited Pommiers in 1452.

King Charles VII later engaged in an armed conflict against his own son the Dauphin (the future Louis XI) and the Duke of Savoy who were plotting against him. However, the military expedition did not come off, and a treaty was signed in Cleppé, near Pommiers, on 27th October 1452, where the King accepted the Dauphin’s submission - whereas the latter had married the Duke of Savoy’s daughter without the King’s consent, the marriage between children of France and of Savoy was recognised, a non-aggression pact was signed, and the Duke had to provide the King with an army. Wishing to celebrate All Saints’ Day, the King stayed in Pommiers before setting off to win back Guyenne and Bordeaux. In Pommiers he also recognised that the University of Caen, founded by King Henry VI of England, should continue, along with the work of its five faculties. The old village gate includes an inscription offering a reminder of this order. Finally, as the priory’s roof with rafters forming the truss dates back to the mid 15th century, it is said to have been financed by the King when he visited Pommiers.

François de Beaumont, Baron des Adrets (1506-1586/1587), took part in a number of military campaigns at the beginning of his career, particularly in Italy (Italian wars). He supported Reform at the start of the Wars of Religion and became a formidable military leader at the head of the Protestant troops from Provence and the Dauphiné. He was known for cruelty in his military actions, including when he sacked the Grande Chartreuse, Lyons, Feurs and Montbrison in 1562, where he committed a massacre. Some of his troops attacked a number of local priories such as Saint-Romain-le-Puy and Pommiers Priory. The troops, who may have been commanded by Captain de Poncenat, got inside the priory by making a breach in the western wall (the present day monks’ door) and damaged both the church and its paintings along with the south-western corner of the priory. The priory was to be “raised up again” by the prior Jacques de Rostaing aided by a member of his family and Marshal Honorat de Savoie-Villars[1].

[1] Translator’s note: this is spelt “Villard” in a couple of places but research suggests “Villars” is the correct spelling so I have used that throughout.

Before the commendatory system was made official by the Concordat of Bologna in 1516, Pommiers Priory was managed by commendatory priors from the final third of the 15th century onwards. Among them were two members of the d’Hostun family who built the prior’s quarters in the early 16th century, although as many as seven members of the Rostaing family, uncles and nephews, were to hold the position of commendatory prior one after another at the head of the priory between 1562 and 1703.

After the attack by the Baron des Adrets’s Protestant troops, the prior Jacques de Rostaing took care of major restoration work between 1562 and 1565 - the work was carried out on western wall of the priory, some of the cloister buildings and the priory church, and especially the murals in the church’s northern absidiole. This restoration work was partly financed by another member of the family, Tristan de Rostaing, governor of the Angoumois region and the Basse-Marche, Marshal of France, as well as Marquis and Marshal Honorat de Savoie-Villars.

It was also with the de Rostaing commendatory priors that the monks gradually came into conflict in the 16th and 17th centuries when they seized various monastic spaces for themselves. This conflict culminated in the legal action taken against the prior Gilbert de Rostaing in 1680, when the monks won the case and got their buildings back.

The Bourganel family came originally from the commune of Grézolles which stands in the foothills of the Monts du Forez. This family of merchants and landowners moved to Pommiers in the mid 18^th century. The Bourganels bought the priory from the estate of the Sauzeat-Chassain family in the early 19^th century (in the 1820s) and made it their private residence. A number of family members became mayors of the commune of Pommiers in the 19^th century. One of them, Pierre Bourganel (1850-1926), Mayor of Pommiers in 1876 and general councillor in 1877, got involved in local and national political life by becoming MP for the Loire from 1885 to 1889, then Senator for the Loire from 1895 to 1920. Amongst other things he was involved in the development of education and communications in his department. He was probably responsible for placing the plaque commemorating Charles VII's visit to Pommiers over the gate to the village.

Mademoiselle Marie-Thérèse de Chambrun d’Uxeloup de Rosemont (1892-1957) came from a notable family from the Nivernais and Forez regions. In 1946, this oblate (a person added to a religious community, usually after having donated his or her property to it, who observe its rules but does not make any vows or renounce wearing secular clothes) decided to buy Pommiers Priory from the Bourganel family and wanted to restore the site’s religious vocation. In 1950, she set up the Forez retirement and education association which established a retirement and rest home for members of the clergy which remained in operation until 1988. Almost a thousand religious people stayed in Pommiers at that time.