Monastery of Poor Clairs at Voreppe

Posted in Diocese of Grenoble-Vienne, Ecclesiastical province of Lyon, Poor Clairs

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The History of our Monastery

The first monastery of Poor Clares in the Dauphiné province goes back to 1342. It disappeared after a few years at the time of the terrible black plague epidemic. In 1478, the monastery was reborn in Grenoble. For three turbulent centuries (religious wars, multiple ordeals), the “Poor Ladies” assured their mission of prayer, praise and intercession following St Clare and St Francis of Assisi. In 1792, time of the revolutionary upheaval, the sisters were either expelled, dispersed or imprisoned (four of them would die in prison at Ste Marie d’En-Haut). In 1830, the monastery was razed to the ground. In 1878, responding to the call of the local Church, the Monastery of Romans once again made present the presence of St Clare. But Grenoble spread out and surrounded the monastery, necessitating a transfer in 1964. The sisters went to the Voreppe valley, tucked in between the mountain chains of the Vercors and the Chartreuse.

The monastery today

We are situated on the side of the mountain near to Voreppe (10 000 ha, 15 km North West of Grenoble). SNCF station : Voiron or Grenoble : then the bus from Voreppe.

The community of the Monastery of Poor Clares at Voreppe, which numbers ten sisters, is present at the heart of the local Church and offers those who seek God a place of peace cadenced by the daily liturgical celebration and adoration.

A place of welcome allows us to receive all those in search of silence and prayer and groups who wish to deepen their faith in the light of the Gospel.

The privileged moments of our fraternal life where each gesture would wish to be an act of thanksgiving, an act of supplication for a world thirsting for love and truth are also realised through the “grace of work” (remunerated or not) and through the varied activities of hospitality, our small printing workshop and the usual work of the house.