Pax (peace) in Montfaucon

It’s a notable discovery when a single nugget of information ‘suddenly’ transforms a place. This summer I found a new connection to an old story. Turns out there was a Benedictine monastery in Montfaucon, France. It was destroyed in World War I although some church ruins remain.

There would have been a main entrance to the grounds of the former Benedictine monastery founded in the 6th century. Over the archway would have been the message: Pax intrantibus—Peace to those who enter here. (Or perhaps just Pax.)

When it was active, the monastery would have been a place where anyone could come and there would have been someone to welcome them, to take them in, and accept them. This was the ground of peace making.

Somewhere on the ground in Montfaucon there was an entrance to the monastery. Where could it have been?

The day I visited Cote 304, my guide took me to Montfaucon. He opened many doors that day. I visited the former grounds of the monastery without even knowing it. We climbed the stairs of the Montfaucon American Monument to the observation platform and looked out on the countryside that once was a battlefield. I never dreamed that nearly 25 years later, I would discover a new story and remember them.

Read more about the visit to Montfaucon: Opening Doors (from the book “Resurgam – Standing on the Ground of Remembrance”).