Prouille or Prouilhe "cradle of the Dominicans", where the first Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 house, a convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

, was founded in late 1206 or early 1207, is a hamlet in Languedoc

Languedoc

Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...

, France, lying between Fanjeaux

Fanjeaux

Fanjeaux is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.Fanjeaux is located west of Carcassonne. Between 1206 and 1215, Fanjeaux was the home of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church's Dominican Order.-Population:-References:...

 and Bram

Bram, Aude

Bram is a commune in the Aude department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Bram is part of the old province of Lauragais, and is 790 km from Paris.-History:...

 (now in the département of Aude

Aude

Aude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...

), at the point where the road from Castelnaudary

Castelnaudary

Castelnaudary is a commune in the Aude department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in south France. It is in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world capital, and of which it is a major producer....

 to Limoux

Limoux

Limoux is a commune and subprefecture in the Aude department, a part of the ancient Languedoc province and the present-day Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France...

 crosses the road from Bram to Mirepoix

Mirepoix, Ariège

Mirepoix is a communes in the Ariège department in southwestern France.-History:The original town was virtually destroyed by flooding of the Hers-Vif river on 16 June 1289...

.

In the early 13th century Prouille was a decayed village, a fortified enclosure with a few buildings surrounding a crumbling church attached to the parish of Fanjeaux. Diego de Acebo

Diego de Acebo

Diego de Acebo was bishop of Osma from 1201 to 1207.Accompanied by his canon, the future Saint Dominic, he travelled ad Marchias Daciae in 1203 or 1204 to secure a bride for crown prince Ferdinand, son of Alfonso VIII of Castile. They made a second journey in 1204 or 1205 intending to bring the...

, bishop of Osma, and his canon, Dominic

Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...

, established themselves at Prouille, deep in Cathar

Cathar

Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...

 country, in late 1206. Bishop Foulques of Toulouse allowed them to use the church, and, more important, Guillaume and Raymonde Claret of Prouille gave themselves and their cottage. On 17 April 1207 — the first certain date in the history of Notre-Dame-de-Prouille — bishop Bérenger of Narbonne gave the new establishment the revenues of the church of Saint-Martin at Limoux, though this gift was destined to be disputed by the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire

Saint-Hilaire, Aude

Saint-Hilaire is a commune in the Aude department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France.-Geography:...

. In 1211 Foulques gave the revenues of Prouille itself, part of his own income as bishop, to the house. The most generous donor was Simon IV de Montfort, leader of the Albigensian Crusade

Albigensian Crusade

The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...

, and others followed his example.
The house thus established was intended partly as a refuge for women who had previously lived in Cathar religious houses but had formally converted to Catholicism

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

, and partly the first established base of operations for Dominic and his followers. About twelve women, including Raymonde Claret, were the first nuns of Prouille, under the Order of Augustine

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

: for several months some of them lodged at Fanjeaux, perhaps in the house of the first prioress of Prouille, Guillelmine de Fanjeaux, because the buildings at Prouille were scarcely habitable.

The house was governed, however, by men, initially Dominic himself — the first procurator or prior — and Guillaume Claret. Dominic was succeeded as prior by brother Noel and then by Guillaume Claret. Other men lived there too, because the second purpose of Prouille was to serve as a base for the itinerant preachers who conducted the work of conversion of the Cathars begun by Diego and Dominic. As such, the house is sometimes named Sacra Praedicatio, the "Sacred Preaching", in early documents. It has many other names, "church", "abbey", or (in a document of 1211) "the converted ladies living the religious life by the church of Sainte-Marie of Prouille".

Dominic himself placed a special importance on the enclosing of women, yet it was not until 1294, many years after his death, that Prouille became a fully enclosed house. From that date onwards its nuns are described in documents as sorores inclusae, "enclosed sisters".

The convent was so thoroughly razed during the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 that only one arch keystone

Keystone (architecture)

A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight. This makes a keystone very important structurally...

 remains. Its triumphal rebuilding was a personal project of Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, who was the catalyst of the return of the banned Dominicans to France under the French Second Empire;

Prouille and the origin of the Rosary

Histories of the Holy Rosary

Holy Rosary

Holy Rosary may refer to:*Rosary, a set of prayer beads used in a traditional Roman Catholic devotion*The Holy Rosary, a prayer based on the rosary-See also:*Holy Rosary Academy , one of several Roman Catholic schools with this name...

 often attribute its origin to Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...

, acting through the Blessed Virgin Mary at Prouille. Our Lady of the Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in relation to the rosary....

 is the title received by the reported Marian apparition

Marian apparitions

A Marian apparition is an event in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have supernaturally appeared to one or more people. They are often given names based on the town in which they were reported, or on the sobriquet which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition...

 to Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...

in 1208 in the church of Prouille, in which the Virgin Mary gave the Rosary to him.