Fascinated by monastic wisdom, author of a noted essay on
France in the time of the cathedrals
(Armand Colin, 2022), Romain Sardou decided to embark for a year for
Le Figaro Magazine
on a journey on the roads of Europe and of Egypt in order to understand in situ what the epic of the monasteries was from the 4th to the 16th century.
And understand how Benedictines, Cistercians, Dominicans or Carmelites, through their rules of life, their values and their practices, have always been, since late Antiquity, the contemporaries of their time.
Including ours.
In astronomy, looking far is looking early.
What is true for the cosmos is true for the human heart.
Every morning, the monk, after singing the praises of a new day, meditates on the texts during
a time of contemplative reading, lectio divina.
He rereads Irenaeus of Lyon, Augustine, Saint Bernard, Saint Thomas, like many other authors, often before the 12th century... he goes back through the ages, he looks far away.
What does he see ?
For my first trip, I arrive at the center of the Seuil du Poitou, in the small Clain valley, at the place where, according to traditional historiography, Saint Martin of Tours is said to have founded the very first monastery in Gaul, and from there even from the West, around the year 361. Martin, you know him, and you do not know him.
You know him because his name is everywhere.
Thousands of streets and villages pay homage to him, like thousands of churches in France and around the world.
You don't know him because... his name is everywhere!
Too many surnames, too many first names.
To use a notion in vogue today, the omnipresence of Saint Martin ended up making him invisible.
I enter Ligugé on the first Sunday of Advent, the start of the liturgical year, an auspicious time for taking vows and becoming a monk, they say;
the few days preceding the birth of Jesus at Christmas renew the long tradition of waiting and hoping for a messiah of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament.
It is also a beautiful vision of monastic life: patiently bringing Heaven down to Earth through a silent presence, through prayer, work and fraternal life.
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