Maurist Mas-Garnier

No surviving document fixes a year of foundation for the monastery of Saint-Pierre du Mas-Garnier — also called the Mas de Verdun: the inventory of the departmental archives of Tarn-et-Garonne records only that it “would have been founded in the ninth century”, while the commune places it around 940. Its earliest secure attestation is a bull of Pope John XV of 993, confirming Garin, abbot of Lézat and of Saint-Michel de Cuxa, in the government of five monasteries, Mas-Grenier among them. The house was ruined by the Wars of Religion: in 1574 the monks were driven out and the abbey plundered and burned. Their return, in the following century, came under the sign of reform. The Congregation of Saint-Maur introduced its observance here in 1645 and attached the house to its province of Toulouse.

A house of the province of Toulouse

The province of Toulouse, sometimes called the province of Gascony, gathered some thirty houses from Bordeaux to Provence: Sainte-Croix at Bordeaux, where dom Bédos built one of his organs, La Daurade at Toulouse, Sorèze and its school, La Sauve-Majeure, La Réole, Saint-Sever, Lagrasse, Caunes, Aniane, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Montmajour. Mas-Garnier holds its place among them, on the bank of the Garonne.

The buildings

The Maurists raised a new church, then in the eighteenth century began a great scheme to rebuild the monastic quarters in Toulouse brick, which the Revolution interrupted. In 1790 the community was dissolved, the church demolished and part of the cloister destroyed. The ranges, the arcaded gallery and the grand staircase with its wrought-iron balustrade survive; they house the Conservatoire today.

The recovered plans

The plans drawn by the Congregation’s brother architects, seized in 1790, are held by the French National Archives. They make it possible to recover the demolished church and the vanished cloister.

All the maps and plans

The Maurist priors, 1645-1788

The general chapter appointed the priors for three years at a time. “P. S. G.” marks an appointment reserved to the Father Superior General; “Contin.” a prior continued in office.

1. 1645 P. S. G.
2. 1648 P. S. G.
3. 1651 Dom Mathieu Solabel
4. 1654 Dom Callixte Adam (adm.)
5. 1657 Dom Raymond Pradeilles
6. 1660 Dom Luc Bertrandie
7. 1663 Dom Ambroise Fauchier
8. 1666 Dom Pierre Ponthelier
9. 1669 Dom J. François La Blanche
10. 1672 Dom Michel Geoffroy
11. 1675 Dom André Genest
12. 1678 Contin.
13. 1681 Dom Pierre Justes
14. 1684 Dom Gabriel Bellordeau
15. 1687 Dom Michel Geoffroy
16. 1690 Contin.
17. 1693 P. S. G.
18. 1696 Dom Michel Geoffroy
19. 1699 Dom André Genest
20. 1702 Dom Paul Saporta
21. 1705 Contin.
22. 1708 Dom Jérôme La Févrière
23. 1711 Contin.
24. 1714 Dom Pierre Dordé
25. 1717 Dom Claude Brun (adm.)
26. 1720 Dom Marc Chalvet
27. 1723 Dom Pierre Dordé
28. 1726 Dom Étienne Verdeille
29. 1729 Contin.
30. 1733 P. S. G.
31. 1736 Dom Étienne Verdeille
32. 1739 Dom Pierre Aliquot
33. 1742 Dom Jacques Roubian
34. 1745 Dom Jean Bapt. Amoureux
35. 1748 Dom Jos. Antoine Solabel
36. 1751 Dom François Bernard
37. 1754 Dom Paul Castel
38. 1757 Dom Jos. Antoine Solabel
39. 1760 Dom Théodore Banières
40. 1763 Dom Jean Bapt. Bartet
41. 1766 Dom J. Jacques Thomas
42. 1769 Dom Jean Joseph Favier
43. 1772 Contin.
44. 1775 Contin.
45. 1778 Dom François Duffault
46. 1781 Dom Joseph Teurle
47. 1783 Contin.
48. 1788 Dom J. Joseph Bardet

The research programme