Village of Saine Enimie, Lozère, Gorges du Tarn, France
Sainte-Enimie is a former commune in the Lozère department in southern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Gorges du Tarn Causses. It was founded in the 7th century by Énimie, who started a convent there after being cured of leprosy in the surrounding waters. Located in the Gorges du Tarn, it is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association. The town is named after Énimie, who, according to a 13th-century poem by Bertran Carbonel troubadour of Marseille, was a daughter of the Merovingian king Clothar II. When she reached marriageable age, she did not want to marry, preferring to care for lepers instead. According to Bertran, she asked God to help her avoid marriage; she was then infected with leprosy. Her father wished for her to be cured and had her taken to be bathed in the waters of Gévaudan, to no avail. An attempt at Bagnols-les-Bains was also unsuccessful, but a river in Burlats near the Tarn miraculously cured her disease. However, when she returned home to marry her noble suitor, she was once again infected with leprosy and returned to Burlats, where she was cured once more. This process was repeated a third time, after which it was decided that she must remain in that area. She briefly lived in a cave before starting a convent and becoming a nun and eventually died there. When her brother Dagobert I came to look for relics buried with her to decorate his Basilica of Saint-Denis, the nuns tricked him, and he ended up finding the relics of Énimie's niece instead. Two monasteries, one male and one female, were built in the area but destroyed by invasions. Stephen, Bishop of Mende, requested that a Benedictine monastery be built there, it was completed in became a popular pilgrimage destination due to the miraculous story surrounding its founding. During the French Revolution in 1798, the monastery was destroyed and the town renamed "Puy Roc".
Size: 6960px × 4640px
Location: Ste Enimie, Gorges du Tarn, Lozère,France
Photo credit: © DV TRAVEL / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: causses, du, enimie, france, gorges, lozè, medieval, ste, tarn, village
