On Saturday July 29, 2023, the church of Notre-Dame in Lencloître was the target of vandalism. Tabernacles broken open, ciborium and hosts thrown on the floor, candles broken… The parish priest filed a complaint with the gendarmerie.
One or more people certainly took advantage of the closure of the previous evening just before 8pm to enter this 12th century Romanesque church (which belonged to Fontevraud Abbey) and go on the rampage.
The wooden door of the tabernacle was broken open. From this broken cabinet on the altar, the ciborium was taken and thrown into the back of the church (…).
Tendentious drawings were also discovered on the dusty chairs.
(…) Traces were secured by the gendarmes in the church, which has been classified as a historical monument since March 19, 1908.
Due to these acts of vandalism, the parish priest and the episcopal vicar will celebrate a so-called Mass of Atonement on Monday, July 31, 2023 (…) La Nouvelle République
(…) Lencloître, population (2020) : 2,474 (…) Insee