In 1974 the city of Poitiers inaugurated the Musée Sainte-Croix, restoring to visibility one of the most important places in the city’s history, indeed of the history of religion in France. The new and excellent museum is on the west side of the site occupied for over 1,000 years by the former Abbey of Sainte-Croix (Abbey of the Holy Cross). This Abbey achieved great fame in the Middle Ages for several reasons, including a couple of interesting tales.
A key part of the Abbey’s fame derives from its foundation, way back in the year 552, under the Merovingian dynasty. It was founded, originally under the name Sainte-Marie, by Radegonde, the now-separated Queen of King Chlotar, or Clotaire, II (see “From Thuringia with Love” for the story of this fascinating and independent woman). The Abbey’s founding was momentous, as it was the first Monastery for women to be established anywhere in France. Radegonde, while initially a refugee from the royal husband she evidently could not stand, proved to be a remarkable and yet understated leader. She declined to take the position of Abbess of Sainte-Marie, conveying the honor instead to one of her former ladies-in-waiting from the royal court who had joined her at Poitiers, by the name of Agnes. Radegonde succeeded in convincing the Bishop of Paris, the Germain who would before long become Saint Germain, to travel to Poitiers for the installation of Agnes, and in the year 567 succeeded in requesting a piece of no less than “the True Cross” from no less than the Holy Roman Emperor in Constantinople, Justinian. The arrival of the holy relic in Poitiers led to a change in name of the Abbey, henceforth to be known as Sainte-Croix, and to widespread fame for the Abbey. Radegonde was buried in 587 near the Abbey (but outside the Gallo-Roman city walls, as was the custom) in a small church which took her name and still stands, the Church of Sainte Radegonde; she was afterwards canonized as a saint, as was the Abbess Agnes.
With the star power of the Abbey (and the relative scarcity of similar houses), daughters and widows of royal and noble families flocked to Sainte-Croix. For centuries, the female leaders of the Abbey successfully maintained their independence from their male rivals, including the Bishops of Poitiers and the Abbots of the monasteries in the region, as well as from various counts, princes and other nobles who coveted their wealth or their power. More than two centuries after the founding of the Abbey, it was here that King Pippin of Aquitaine chose to imprison his stepmother, the Empress Judith, captured during one of the internecine wars between Charlemagne’s descendants. The Empress spent over a year in Sainte-Croix before being released.
One of the more curious (and fully historical) tales concerning the Abbey is an episode known as “the Revolt of the Nuns.” Perhaps appropriately for an Abbey founded by a rebellious Queen, it soon had rebel princesses. In 589, an insurrection broke out in the community of nuns which became a scandal throughout the empire. Basina, a daughter of the Merovingian King Chilperic I, and her cousin Clotilda or Chrodiele, daughter of another Merovingian King, Charibert, were unhappy with the election of Sainte-Croix’ new Abbess, Leubovère. The two princesses claimed that they could no longer endure the “hunger and ill-treatment” to which they were reportedly subjected, and that Leubovère was a poor leader who exercised excessive rigor in her treatment of the nuns under her charge. The Abbess responded that the princesses had never experienced fasting and had “more than enough clothes.” As true as these rejoinders may have been, the two unhappy princesses left the abbey and moved to the church of St Hilaire, a mile or so away. Then things took a strange turn: the two princess-nuns recruited a large group of men to seize the abbess and confine her. Intense fighting took place in the abbey which lasted for days. A commission of bishops from across Aquitaine then travelled to Poitiers to try and bring an end to the conflict, but found themselves attacked and beaten with sticks by the princesses’ mercenaries. It took several months, a shortage of food, and the arrival of the exasperated King Childebert’s troops to bring closure (the troops massacred Chrodiele’s henchmen – Merovingian solutions to complex problems tended to be simple). Basina returned to the Abbey, while Chrodiele was exiled to someplace in the countryside. Sainte-Croix went on.
The second curious (and less historical) tale concerning the Abbey is one of Poitiers’ most enduring and popular legends. The Sainte-Croix Abbey was built up against the defensive walls of Gallo-Roman Limonum: portions of this 3rd Century wall can be seen in the Museum today. Under these old walls, and under the nearby Rue Carolus and Rue de la Psalette-Sainte-Radegonde, apparently ran a network of underground passages. Over time the legend grew that young nuns from the abbey who were imprudent enough to venture into these passageways would disappear. Not only would they disappear, but they would be devoured by the “Grand’ Goule” (roughly translating into the “Great Mouth”), a monstrous winged dragon who lived underground here. Perhaps this harked back to the episode of the Revolt of the Nuns, and was a subtle way for abbesses to encourage their young (and often royal or noble) charges to obey the rules?
The fame of the Abbey has dwindled in recent centuries, eclipsed to some degree by its legendary underground neighbor. On the annual day of the Feast of Ste Radegone (August 13), a replica of the Grand’ Goule would be carried aloft throughout Poitiers in popular procession. Small cakes would be thrown by people as the “monster” passed by, accompanied by chanted popular requests of “Saint Vermin, pray for us.” The latest version of the Grand’ Goule is a green-painted wooden statue made in 1677, which today resides, appropriately, in the collections of the Sainte-Croix museum. The processions through the streets of the city ended in the 19th Century, but the Grand’ Goule lives on as the emblem of Poitiers’ soccer stadium, and the name of a nightclub across the street from Sainte Radegonde’s church. No word on any disappearing late-night dancers.
The nuns of the Abbey of Sainte-Croix have moved on, to a new site just south of Poitiers, in St Benoit. Their ranks don’t include princesses any more, for better or for worse, but they retain the relic of the cross, obtained almost 1500 years ago by their remarkable founder.
