Ruins of the Saint-Mathieu abbey, and the lighthouse

The abbaye Saint-Mathieu-de-Fine-Terre is a Breton abbey, whose ruins are to be found in the territory of what is now the commune of Plougonvelin on pointe Saint-Mathieu (Beg Lokmazhe in Breton), in the département of Finistère. It gives the cape its name. It was dedicated to Matthew the Evangelist, whose skull it contained.


History

Notre-Dame des Grâces chapel, near the Saint-Mathieu abbey

According to legend the first abbey here was founded in the 6th century by saint Tanguy, chosen as an isolated point on the lands he had inherited, extending from the river of Caprel (haven of Brest) to Penn ar Bed, cut off from the world but close to the sea.

Bibliography

All (in French) unless otherwise noted.

R. Largillière « Les saints dans l'organisation chrétienne primitive dans l'Armorique bretonne, Crozon, 1995

Coordinates: 48°19′48″N 4°46′17″W / 48.33000°N 4.77139°W / 48.33000; -4.77139


This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Abbaye Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.