Le Bec-Hellouin The Abbey of Notre-Dame du Bec

Herluin, a knight, founded a small monastery beside the Bec stream around 1034 and was its first abbot. Within a generation the Italian Lanfranc, and after him Anselm of Aosta, made its school one of the best known in Europe, and both left Bec to become archbishops of Canterbury.

Saint Anselm, prior and then abbot of Bec, wrote there the Proslogion, with its argument for the existence of God. Olivetan Benedictines have lived in the abbey since 1948. Of the medieval church little more than the tower of Saint-Nicolas remains, and the monks pray in the vaulted refectory of the eighteenth century.

Further reading: Gregorian Chant in France: Monasteries Open to Pilgrims.

• The tower of Saint-NicolasBuilt in the fifteenth century, standing alone above the ruins of the old church.
• The abbey churchThe former refectory, with the tomb of Herluin.

• April 21Feast of Saint Anselm

• Saint AnselmMonk of Le Bec, archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church

• Via ArchangeliThe Archangel’s Way, six daysDay II, Saint-Wandrille to Le Bec-Hellouin · Day III, Le Bec-Hellouin to Coutances

About forty minutes by road from Rouen.

• Saint-WandrilleThe Abbey of Saint-Wandrille, about 21 miles as the crow flies
• RouenThe Cathedral and the Old Market Square, about 23 miles as the crow flies
• LisieuxThe Shrine of Saint Thérèse, about 23 miles as the crow flies
• CaenThe City of Saint John Eudes, about 49 miles as the crow flies