Closer to God for the salvation of men
Documents on recluseries are rare and the institution itself is one of the most curious of the Middle Ages . The recluseries were small boxes located at the entrances to villages or towns outside the enclosure and often on bridges. The person who agreed to confine them, lived alone and did not leave only a corpse. The Recluse (or the Recluse) function was to pray to God to spare the city the evils of the time (disturbances, wars, famines, epidemics ...).
Aspiration sacrifice, the value of suffering for the heavenly rewards were germinated recluseries. Their rationale seems to be the special need for cities to have supernatural protection against the dangers surrounded them. As the outpost pray in the cell, near the city, it can not perish.
Solitaire is closer to God. The reclusive were but a variety of hermits but what a difference! The hermit is not reduced to converse through a grid with those who want to do him the charity of speech. He goes when he pleases, go where it should go.
What is harder sequestration in a cube of masonry few square feet, and exercises no hope of getting out alive. The cold which invades we can not defend themselves, members stiff, unable to move in, the humidity and the narrowness of the place are the daily lives of the Recluse.
The Recluse, struck a sudden illness, waiting for the end of long nights in her box. It will be found dead the morning without assistance possible so his complaints have been covered by the shrieks of the storm.
It has food that they like to wear it well. The slow torture of solitary confinement requires above all a deep faith and austere to go until full retirement self to death, holy and wanted.
in Saint-Flour's customer Reclusages Bridge St. Christine is among the people and especially among the middle class.
The reclusive reclusive were highly revered. The Recluse is the flower of holiness. Respect they were surrounded was done to encourage vocations.
The recluserie was often located at the entrance of the bridge on the bridge or near it.
Bridge thrown over the river Ande's was the first obstacle faced by the traveler of the fourteenth century from the North-east, at the foot of Saint-Flour.
A tower astride the bridge defended the entrance. On the opposite side, a solid pore bar and two doors, closed the night at any time and day at the slightest alarm, preventing access. A position of archers or crossbowmen municipal occupied the tower when the enemy was near. A family whose home was bordered on the door of the hereditary custody and maintenance.
The Reclusages built on the bridge between the tower and the door, above the second stack, was well guarded.
His neighborhood religious left nothing to be desired either. To the right of the barrier of the bridge, coming from the city, was the church dedicated to Saint Christopher, patron of the suburb. Nearby, on the church square, was the "House of the Holy Spirit." For its tiny barred window opening onto the deck, the Recluse could hear the singing of the offices.
If the situation of the cell was not too bad in terms of safety, it was hygienically deplorable in a country where winter lasts six months, are marked temperature drops as low as 30 ° degrees below freezing and thawing followed endless day alternating with night frosts.
The Recluse, contained in that box, in turn was prisoner of fog at mid-season, stunned by the roar of rain and gusts of wind that descended and the Plomb du Cantal swept into the corridor of Ander deeply cashed. The cell was then seized by a chill wind up in bed, wardrobe. She made the candles flicker, the windows shook and the shutters closed and pierced the damp walls.
During thaws and heavy floods, inundating the Ander often suburb. Become a torrent, he faced with crashing the foundation of the bridge and climbed almost to the top of its arches. The Recluse was thus cut off from all sides during the flooding. Sometimes chilled by the wind, sometimes asleep and curled up by the cold of the night, shivering with fever, she remained there, motionless, waiting for the end.
Inside the shed could measure seven square meters . A room with a fireplace the ground floor and an attic, consisted housing.
The Recluse is usually heated with coal, some stuffed fagotage or the residue of oven, placed in a brazier stone or copper. A small bay with no windows, closed a few scraps of leather or fabric as a curtain, lined with iron bars, closed by a flap inside, brought some light to the east. It was wide enough to get food, clothing, utensils. The doorway was blocked by a building with lime and sand.
withdrawal, on one side of the wall, formed a wooded alcove for the bed where the Recluse kept his clothes and used them as a stepladder to climb. The box was covered with hollow tiles in the country.
The recluseries received indiscriminately men and women carrying the most deserving. Most often, these were women. She seemed to be more resistant and yet they do last long. It is therefore not surprising that the host of this tomb lived there shortly.
Inaction combined with the humidity was quick to dissolve temperaments best-tempered and reclusive while entering into this place, knowingly devoted himself to an early death.
Almost all recluses reclusive Saint-Flour were widows or widowers with adult children. The lodge was always taking!
The exact date of the founding of St. Christine Reclusages still unknown but it reasonable to think that its origin does not go back much beyond the middle of the eleventh century. Bishop Pierre d'Estaing, lord of the city, mentioned in an order dated 24 March 1371, the existence of the house of the Recluse, on deck Sainte-Christine. The property was therefore probably founded during the twelfth century.
The "Recluse" from Saint-Flour belonged to the municipality. You had to be from Saint-Flour Reclusages to be admitted to the bridge.
Religious wars destroyed the recluserie.
Courtesy of Glibert Claville
MEL Haute-Auvergne - Saint-Flour
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