Sept-Fons Abbey

 monastery, Order of Cistercians

It was founded in 1132 as a Cistercian monastery.They were much encouraged by a visit from Saint Bernard in 1138. Pope Adrian III took the monastery under his protection in 1158; and Pope Alexander III ratified the foundation by bull in 1164.n 1656 Eustache de Beaufort, at the age of 20 years, was made abbot,he resolved on a complete change and decided to join the abbey to the Trappist reform.The abbey was suppressed in 1791 in the French Revolution. In 1845, when the Trappists of the Abbaye du Gard were obliged to abandon their monastery, their abbot, Dom Stanislaus, purchased the ruins of Sept-Fons, where he installed his community and rebuilt the church and regular structures.Today (2009) there are 77 monks in the community.
Recently the community at Sept-Fons has settled a daughter house at Novy Dvur in the Czech Republic, the first monastic foundation since the fall of the Communist government. www.abbayedeseptfons.com/