Oratory of the Paraclete

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The Oratory of the Paraclete is a Benedictine monastery founded by Peter Abelard in Ferreux-Quincey, France (about five miles southeast of Nogent-sur-Seine, and some twenty-five miles northwest of Troyes) after he left the Abbey of St. Denis about 1121.

In 1125 he was elected by the monks of the Abbey of St. Gildas, near Vannes, Brittany, to be their abbot, so he turned the Paraclete over to Heloise, his love, who had been in a convent in Argenteuil since taking the veil. She became the Paraclete's abbess and spent the rest of her life there. She and Abelard were buried together there from 1142 to 1792, when their remains were transferred to the church of Nogent-sur-Seine.

Paraclete comes from the Greek word meaning "one who consoles" and is found in the Gospel of John (16:7) as a name for the Holy Spirit, the name of the third person of the Trinity.

[edit] External links

• Webpage about the Abbaye du Paraclet (in French)
• The successive tombs of Abélard and Héloïse (in French)