For the Renaissance de La Crête association, the Saint Bernard festival at the Grange d’Outre-Aube was an opportunity to present its revamped show “Une vie cistercienne”.
According to a well-established tradition, on August 20, the association of the Grange Saint Bernard celebrated its patron saint during a mass celebrated by Mgr de Metz-Noblat, Bishop of Langres, in front of many faithful to the Cistercian world. This grange, founded in the 12th century by the abbey of Clairvaux located one kilometer away, is the seat of a community of lay Cistercian people who own it and ensure its spiritual life, animation and restoration. Pierre-Alban Delannoy, guardian of the spirit of the Rule (of Saint Benedict), ensures a permanent presence in this place as well as the daily management.
Educational tool
This meeting was an opportunity for him and the other members of the association to show visitors around the cloister garden and the buildings listed as historic monuments. It was once the home of the master of the lay brothers, the monks who were responsible for manual work, particularly agricultural work carried out in barns located more or less far from the mother abbey.
On this subject, an exhibition on these annexed monastic establishments dedicated to agriculture was visible in the vast barn, in the current sense of the term, that is to say the building used to shelter the harvests.
After a buffet, convivial by definition, the Renaissance de La Crête association, whose headquarters are in Bourdons-sur-Rognon and chaired by Jean Febvre, was invited to present its audio-visual show entitled ‘Une vie cistercienne’. This “sound and light” had been designed more than twenty years ago by Jacques Charlier who was then in charge of the association.
What a gear!
It was a set with a metal frame supporting an electric blind, a screen and a large model representing a typical Cistercian abbey with its various buildings, gardens and river. Added to this was the control equipment (DVD player, video projector, amplifiers, speakers), but also aluminium supporting structures and a set of stands with stairs and guardrails. It was planned that this educational tool would be mobile to be shown anywhere on demand.
For this purpose a van and a trailer were purchased. It is easy to imagine that moving all this gear quickly became tedious and time-consuming. In 2014, the hospitality typical of the Cistercians allowed the show, freed from its cumbersome accessories, to be hosted at the Grange Saint Bernard.
Renaissance
After a restoration that had become necessary and a modernisation that is still in progress, it was taken down from the floor where it was initially placed to be installed in the exhibition barn. At 9pm, on this Saint Bernard’s Day, it was presented to the forty or so spectators present. No more canvas screen or video projector, but a large TV screen. A thirty-minute film summarises the history of the Cistercian world from its origins in Citeaux to the Revolution. We follow in the footsteps of the founding monks and their installation and discover their laborious existence punctuated by prayers. The organisation of an abbey, which could be that of La Crête, is detailed on the various elements of the model using selective lighting synchronised with the film’s soundtrack.
Eric Maréchal, who has always been responsible for maintaining the system, recalled its genesis with the collaboration of Jacques Charlier and Isabelle Jacquin from the company Étoile 27 in Langres. Pierre Alban Delannoy and Jean Febvre welcomed the partnership between the two associations, which are working towards the same objective: “to make the Cistercians known and pay tribute to them“.
Practical group visits: contact@laicscisterciensgrangeclairvaux.fr
