The Incredible Story of Cistercian Abbey of Boulaur
In the 1980s, the convent was on the verge of being closed due to a lack of vocations. There were only five sisters left.
The Abbot General of the Cistercians visited Boulaur in June 1981 to decide whether to close the convent.
The prioress gave him a book about Claire de Castelbajac, who lived just 25 kilometres from the convent and who had died of meningoencephalitis in 1975 at the age of 21.
Claire was well known in the area. Her mother had even written a book about her.
The Abbot General was not enthusiastic about another pious book and reluctantly began to read it that evening. But Claire impressed him.
The next day, he went to the prioress and told her that he was convinced that Claire was a saint and should be canonised. He suggested that a positive future for Boulaur Abbey could be a sign to open her cause for beatification.
The Abbot General asked the nuns to pray for five vocations through her intercession that year. The nuns did not believe it was possible, but they prayed and, indeed, five new nuns joined the abbey that year.
Not only that. To bring about this great change, the Cistercian nuns returned to their ancient rule and liturgy.
There are now more than thirty of them. Every year there is at least one vocation, and in recent years there have been six or seven, forcing the community to move to another convent. The average age is now just over 40.
They take care of cows, calves, pigs and other animals and cultivate 45 hectares.
It was the "5 vocations" that led to the opening of the process for Claire's beatification.
In 2004, the Archbishop of Auch asked the sisters to keep the body of Clare of Castelbajac in the abbey church.
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