ABBEY OF SAINTE-MARIE-DE-LA-RÉSURRECTION

The present site was built in 1143 by the Knights of the Order of St. John the Hospitaller. It was abandoned after the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. In 1873, the Ottoman Empire made a gift of the site to France. It was not until 1900 that a monastery was built there by the Benedictine monks of Belloc Abbey. The Benedictine monks stayed until 1953, when they were replaced by the Lazarist fathers. Finally, in 1976, the Benedictine monks moved back in. In 1999, the site was elevated to abbey status and renamed Sainte-Marie-de-la-Résurrection. Next to the abbey, on the same site, is the Sainte-Françoise-Romaine monastery, home to the sisters. The ^12th-century Romanesque church (l'église des Croisés) features magnificent, fully restored Byzantine wall paintings. You can also visit the crypt. In the store, you'll find products made by the community. Monastic services are held in public, mostly in French, but also in Latin (Gregorian chants) and Hebrew. If you'd like to spend a few days on retreat, at the pace of a monastic community, the monastery can welcome and accommodate you. You'll take part in the life of the sisters and brothers, with community prayer at services, meals in silence in the monastic refectory or guesthouse, and voluntary participation in communal chores such as gardening.