Where is abelard buried

Perhaps — in this time and day — there no longer exists such a thing as hopeless love, but only the regrets of divorcees.

After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in , the city bought the property and in it was converted into a cemetery. Now, forgotten, it was in fact Abelard and Heloise, who were the first incumbents of the new park. Among medievalists, the story of Abelard — and Heloise c. Abelard was the eldest son of a noble Breton family from Pallet: in his youth he was encouraged to study and around he arrived in Paris where he set up diverse schools teaching philosophy and logic.

In around he got the coveted position as Master of Notre Dame and canon of Sens. Full of himself at this point he gathered numerous pupils around him, among whom was Heloise, the niece of another canon, Fulbert. Arguably, she was at least as learned as him and the to ended up having an affair which led to her pregnancy.

She was sent packing to his family in Brittany, while Abelard continued teaching. To appease her uncle, Abelard proposed a secret marriage, but Fulbert disclosed the marriage publicly, which led Abelard to pack Heloise off to a convent in Argenteuill. Whether this drastic act was taken to protect her or his own career is disputed. Nonetheless, it led to Fulbert hiring a gang to attack Abelard and castrate him.

This led Abelard to become a monk, while forcing Heloise to take wovs as a nun. During the next ten years, Abelard and Heloise were apparently not in touch.

Abelard pursued his career as a scholar, now as a theologian; ultimately, this led to charges against him as a heretic as well as a number of other controversies with the religious communities he lived in. What gripped me as I read and re-read their epistolary exchange, which occurred more than two decades after their explosive affair, was precisely the effect that the passage of time and the intervention of physical and emotional distance had on their shared past.

These are not letters composed in the heat of passion, the glow of infatuation or even the venom of rejection, but rather contemplative letters looking back on a drama that changed both their lives forever. There has been time for reflection and personal integration — or its lack: for further self-destruction and rigid self-defence the sad fate of Abelard it seems. For the student of the lifelong relationship between these two complicated individuals, the mature letters present us with much more defined and seasoned personalities.

Essentially more themselves, they appear in some respects closer to each other and in others never more distant. A major attraction to their story for the creative writer is the amount of scholarly debate and contention that still burrows into the legend, leaving more and more openings for poetry or fiction. The provenance of certain passages is still questioned, particularly those of Abelard.

And with regard to those words deemed by most as authentic there are trenchant issues concerning the accuracy of translation from the Latin. We are reminded by such critics that translation is also interpretation and has everything to do with assumptions about character and plot. George Moore, the Irish fiction writer, who late in life wrote his own adaptation of the story, contributes aptly an epistolary foreword to the Moncrieff folio.

The nub of their differences largely comes down to their respective takes on the sex shared between the two spirited creatures. Moore accuses Moncrieff of ascribing nothing more than lust to Abelard. And Moore, who takes vigorous issue with this over-simplification, argues that true passion runs the gamut from lust to love, from the rush of hormones to the transport of the spirit. In a playful riff on what the sex was actually like between the two — who dominated whom, who initiated the action — Moore debates whether the title should refer to Abelard and Heloise or Heloise and Abelard.

In a flash, as you read Moore, you see that he is portraying his very own Heloise and Abelard. The author known for sexual frankness in Esther Waters is determined to see this bold possession of the body in Heloise.

The letters, however, can equally reveal the loss of Abelard, which she suffered by insisting that physical distance would yield greater physical intimacy. And with regard to Abelard, Moore — the eventual convert to Protestantism and author of The Untilled Field with its rampant anti-clericalism — is bound to see the disruptive monk as a nascent Luther.

It would appear that everyone writes their own version of the myth, and I am no exception. The two lovers kept in correspondence via letters and over time, these have become almost as famous as the affair itself. Well, the thing is, no one is actually sure if Heloise and Abelard actually lie in Pere Lachaise! The two lovers tragic tale has enthralled and enraptured the hearts of romantics for centuries.

The remains of both lovers have been moved more than once over time. Although Abelard was first laid to rest in St Marcel, they were later moved and entrusted to the care of Heloise. When Heloise passed away, she was buried next to her beloved Abelard.

Whatever the case, at least in theory the two fated lovers will lay side by side for all eternity and their forbidden love will continue to touch lives for centuries to come. Cover Image Source. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

What an incredible story, I wish I had known this prior to visiting Pere Lachaise! It is such a gorgeous and special place in the city The Good Life France. Abelard and Heloise — the French Romeo and Juliet. Guest writer Guest Blogs , Quirky. Notre Dame The thwarted couple first met on the Ile de la Cite. Quai aux Fleurs At Numbers 9 and 11, plaques and a pair of stone medallions commemorate the home of Canon Fulbert. Pere Lachaise Cemetery Heloise outlived her Abelard by twenty years, and in was buried in a tomb near the city of Troyes in Champagne.

Conciergerie Back on the Ile de la Cite, the former prison is now mostly used as law courts, but within the first room is a pillar, carved with scenes from the lives of Abelard and Heloise. Latest Posts. Recipe for savoury Pumpkin souffle Read More ». Culture of Brittany, France Read More ».