Présence et intervention des laïcs auprès de l'abbaye de Conques (Xe–XIIe siècles)

Although a Benedictine monastery was not supposed to entertain any relationship with laypeople, it was quite impossible to avoid these contacts. Conques Abbey, through the sources written mainly during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, offers a rich case study to understand these unavoidable relations between laypersons and monks. The Book of Miracles of Sainte Foy and the monastic cartulary suggest that monks were indeed not as separate from the lay people as one can imagine. The entry into the monastery, often decided by the family and linked to a gift, did not mean the end of personal property, nor of contact with one's family and relatives. Donors kept an eye on what they had given. Most monastic properties had lay neighbors. Pilgrims came for the relics of St Foy and were hosted in the monastery. So, if monks had their own role, as prayers and intercessors with God, they were different from laypeople, but not really separate.