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Showing posts with label Fanjeaux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fanjeaux. Show all posts

Monday, March 21, 2016

Visiting Fanjeaux (Languedoc, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget




Visiting Fanjeaux (Languedoc, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget



Fanjeaux is a logical if low-key place to begin a visit of France’s Languedoc-Rousillon region, which shares a mountainous border with Spain and lies along the Mediterranean Sea.

The Spaniard Dominic de Guzman (1170 – 1221), later Saint Dominic, stayed in Fanjeaux during his tours in the region.  Fanjeaux is also the site of one of Dominic’s famous miracles that was replicated throughout Languedoc-Rousillon; this miracle was the ability of Dominic’s writings denouncing the Cathar heresy to withstand fire against Catholic holy books.

Catharism was the French offshoot of the heresy known as Bogomolism, which was founded in Bulgaria in the 10th century.  It spread throughout the northern Mediterranean.  Bogomilism rejected many of the tenets of Catholicism, and its followers often refused to tithe to the church.  Tithing was the practice of giving 10% of one’s goods to the Church as set out in the Bible.

Suppressing Catharism was the impetus behind starting the Albigensian Crusade (1209 – 1229) against heretics in the south of France.  Saint Dominic became involved in this Crusade.  He founded the Order of Preachers (OP) in Toulouse, France in 1216.  This order later became known as the Dominican Order.

According to Michelin’s Guide Vert Rousillon Pays Cathar, Dominic’s home in Fanjeaux was the saddlery (horse gear room) of the castle (now gone).  Today Saint Dominic’s home is a private religious institution.  You cannot visit it, but the Dominican nuns from the nearby Prouille convent (set up by Saint Dominic in 1206) sing prayers in perpetual devotion to their Order’s founder.

As I stood listening to the nuns’ sung prayers, I smiled and figured out angles to shoot photos on a crooked street.  I appreciated the nuns’ life, but was happy to take photos with my husband, glimpse at the pretty church in town, and enjoy the contemplative silence away from Saint Dominic’s home.


By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books



Photo by Laurent Paget