Holy Cross Abbey

The Abbey of the Holy Cross was a French Benedictine monastery of nuns founded in the 6th century. Destroyed during the French Revolution, a new monastery with the same name was built in a nearby location during the 19th century for a community of Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.
The abbey was founded in 552 by the Frankish queen, Radegund as the first monastery for women in the Frankish Empire in what is now the village of Saint-Benoît, Vienne. It was founded due to a threat of excommunication of her husband, King Chlothar I, King of the Franks, by Germain, the Bishop of Paris. To avoid this penalty, the king provided the bishop with the funds to acquire lands near the episcopal palace to construct the Abbey of St. Mary , as it was originally called . As his third wife had failed to provide him an heir, the king allowed Radegund to become a nun in the new monastery.

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