ORIGINS OF THE ABBEY

A hermit who came to settle here was the first inhabitant of what was to become the village of Conques. A few existing texts actually mention a certain Datus (Dadon in French), who retired to this wild area to dedicate his life to contemplation, at the end of the 8^th century. Datus, abbreviation from Deodatus in Latin (Déodat or Dieudonné in French), is a name which is certainly related to his religious vocation: "one who gave his life to God". It is even possible to locate his hermitage. Without a doubt, the actual Plô fountain running at the foot of the church, below its front square, was a vital element in the anchorite's choice. However, right after he settled here and according to a royal charter from 819, "a man full of devotion, named Medraldus, came to retire in the same place and lived with Dadon. Their famous holiness spread to the neighbouring lands. Consequently, many others, who found the contemplative life appealing, decided to join them. Little by little, the pious community grew in number and built a church dedicated to Saint Savour, in the same location". Dadon, probably considering his mission accomplished and faithful to his ideal of solitude, chose the "desert" for the second time and founded another hermitage in Grand-Vabre, a few kilometres downstream of Conques, in the Dourdou Valley. Before he retired, he left the direction of the monastery, which had already adopted the rule of Saint Benedict, to his first disciple Medraldus.

This was the time when the Carolingian sovereigns chose to favour and shower with benefits the monasteries within their empire, for political as much as religious reasons. The expansion of the abbey of Conques would have been hindered and even definitively compromised without such favour, because the poverty of the site meant that it was unable to support a large community of monks. Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, under Charlemagne's reign, would have paid many visits to Medraldus and placed the monastery under his powerful influence, officially naming it "Conques". In 819, he donated no less than ten pieces of lands in its favour. Twenty years later, Pepin the 2^nd, king of Aquitaine, gifted Figeac to Conques, where many monks took residence. Gold and silver were added to this donation, as well as precious clothes, intaglios and antique cameos. They are the origins of Conques' Treasure. These generous imperial and royal gifts, taken over later by the provincial patrician families, had a deep influence in the region. But the collective memory would only remember the name of Charlemagne, the benefactor par excellence, forgetting his other family members. Furthermore, of course, centuries later he would get his own spot on the Tympanum of the Last Judgement of the Romanesque abbey-church, among the procession of the elected. However, the favours given by an emperor, being Charlemagne or not, were not comparable to the ones soon to be given, in the spiritual dimension, by a little saintly girl forever associated with Conques.

The curious destiny of Conques was seemingly forever sealed during the Roman empire of Diocletian, at the time of the big persecutions, in the twilight of the 4^th century. Faraway from here, a young girl living in Agen named Foy (Fides in Latin, Faith in English), who was converted to Christianity by Caprais, the town bishop, refused to sacrifice to pagan gods and, consequently, endured martyrdom at the young age of twelve.