Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque

Founding of Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque by Cistercian monks who came from Mazan Abbey in the Vivarais. The building works last around a hundred years.

The church is consecrated by the Bishop of Cavaillon. In the Abbey, the church is the first place to be constructed after the temporary buildings.

The monastery reaches its apogee, with four mills, seven granges and large areas of land in Provence.

First Abbot is named.

Religious wars. The monastery is devastated, the lay-brothers' quarters are destroyed.

Revolution. The Abbey is sold off as State property.

Purchase and restoration of the Abbey by Dom Barnouin, a new community of Cistercian monks of the Immaculate Conception arrive.

New laws on religious congregations: The monks are expelled from the monastery.

Normal monastic life is re-established

The monks depart to their headquarters of St. Honorat on the island de Lerins, near Cannes. Sénanque becomes a cultural centre for almost twenty years.

A renewal in the number of vocations at Lerins Abbey which sends a very small community of monks to Senanque, thus renewing the centuries-old Cistercian tradition.