Cluny The Abbey of Cluny

Duke William of Aquitaine founded Cluny in 910 and placed it directly under the pope, free of any lord or bishop. Under a line of holy abbots, Odo, Mayeul, Odilo and Hugh among them, it led more than a thousand houses across Europe, and its third church, begun in 1088, was the largest in Christendom until the new Saint Peter’s in Rome.

The abbey was sold at the Revolution and its church pulled down for stone. One arm of the great transept still stands, with its bell tower, and gives an idea of the size of the whole. Saints Mayeul and Odilo are buried at Souvigny, on the road to the Auvergne.

Further reading: Paray-le-Monial: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Sacred Heart; Romanesque France: Cluny and the Churches of the Pilgrim Roads.

• The great transeptThe surviving arm of the great church, with the bell tower of the Holy Water.
• The farinierThe granary of the thirteenth century, where capitals from the choir of the great church are shown.

• May 11 for Saint Mayeul and January 1 for Saint Odilo, in the Roman MartyrologyFeast of Saints Mayeul and Odilo
• April 29, in the Roman MartyrologyFeast of Saint Hugh of Cluny
• July 15, in the Sisters of Saint Joseph of ClunyFeast of Blessed Anne-Marie Javouhey

• Saints Mayeul and OdiloFourth and fifth abbots of Cluny
• Saint Hugh of ClunySixth abbot of Cluny
• Blessed Anne-Marie JavouheyFounder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny

• Via RomanicaThe Romanesque Way, seven daysDay III, Cluny and Berzé-la-Ville

About thirty minutes by road from Mâcon, which is about an hour and a half from Paris by high-speed train.

• Berzé-la-VilleThe Monks’ Chapel, about 5 miles as the crow flies
• TournusThe Abbey of Saint-Philibert, about 15 miles as the crow flies
• Paray-le-MonialThe Shrine of the Sacred Heart, about 26 miles as the crow flies
• ArsThe Shrine of the Curé of Ars, about 31 miles as the crow flies