Near Vendôme, what future in 2025 for the abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Bois?

Two years after the fire which destroyed a good part of the 700 m² of the roof and the oak frame 18^e of the main building of Saint-Georges Abbey in Saint-Martin-des-Bois, questions remain unanswered.

Questioned on Friday January 3, 2025, the diocese remains cautious in its responses, ensuring that the file has not progressed since the fire covered by the insurance and that no decision has been taken. “The reconstruction project is progressing as planned with a large part of the frame and roof being redone. Moreover, Monseigneur Francis Bestion, new bishop installed in Blois on 1^is December, will visit the site in mid-January to see the progress of the work and explore the site. »

In the meantime, since the total closure of the premises including the chapel used for worship and the small meeting room near the entrance, the rumor of a proposed sale is still circulating in the small town with the hypothesis of a future hotel. Or even selling to a religious community. “We don’t know anything more”regretfully confides Mayor David Corbeau.

Same expectation from the laity close to the diocese. Moreover, the association managing the Saint-Georges estate was dissolved in September 2024 and Jean-Baptiste Anginot, president of the association and member of the diocesan economic affairs council, is responsible for its liquidation.

“We note with satisfaction that the work is progressing, that the umbrella and the scaffolding should soon be removed but there will still be almost a year of restoration of the interior. It remains to be seen what the bishop’s decision will be. »

A delicate file for the new bishop

A year before the fire, the precise causes of which are still unknown, after the final departure of the last monks, the abbey which remained open to worship, had experienced a period of rebirth with the installation of Father Charles Lenoir and Patrick and Anne Valo, managers of the estate charged by Monseigneur Jean-Pierre Batut with enlivening the place, particularly through times of retreat.

Moreover, Cardinal Barbarin led one of these sessions there in June 2022 followed by around fifty believers, welcomed on site by Jean-Pierre Batut, the Bishop of Blois who left his functions on June 26, 2023.

Then, from December 2023, the plan for a sale was planned. “Given his great financial difficulties”, the diocese announced in a press release that it will no longer finance, beyond December 31, 2023, the activities of this spiritual center, “neither on its treasury, nor by selling part of the estate”.

We then learned that since 2020, the diocese had granted from its funds, “significant financial support” for three years for the spiritual center project desired by Monsignor Batut.

The Saint-Georges Abbey Estate Association which manages the estate received €100,000 per year from the diocese to ensure the operation of the place (salaries, taxes, insurance, etc.).

Legal pitfalls

Today, we are talking again about a possible sale of the abbey which has ceased all activity since the 1^is January 2024 but which still faces a number of legal pitfalls.

However, the place, on the borders of Indre-et-Loire and Loir-et-Cher, nestled between valleys and woods, breathes serenity, surrounded by 160 hectares of forests and land owned by the diocese which ensures it. management. To the point of imagining seeing the creation of a luxury hotel, a fitness center, or even the arrival of a religious community… At least once the decision has been made by the diocese and once the investor has been found.