Sept-Fons Abbey - Trappist Reform

Trappist Reform

In 1656 Eustache de Beaufort, at the age of 20 years, was made abbot. For the first seven years there was no improvement; but after that time he resolved on a complete change and decided to join the abbey to the Trappist reform. There were then only four monks, who refused to accept the new rule; he therefore granted each of them a pension and dismissed them. It was not long before a number of novices presented themselves for admission. They were sent to the abbey of La Trappe, to make their novitiate under the Abbé de Rancé, whom Dom Eustache also visited for advice in 1667.

After this, with royal aid, Sept-Fons was rebuilt on a grander scale, and continued in prosperity until the abbey was suppressed in 1791 in the French Revolution.