Abbey of Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre

The Abbey of Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre is a former Breton monastery, whose ruins are found in the territory of what is now the commune of Plougonvelin on Pointe Saint-Mathieu, in the département of Finistère. The Abbey gives the cape its name. It was dedicated to Saint Matthew the Evangelist, whose skull it housed. It was a Benedictine abbey, and was revived and reformed by the Maurists in the mid-17th century.

History

According to legend the first abbey here was founded in the 6th century by Saint Tanguy, chosen for its isolated location among the lands he had inherited, extending from the river of Caprel to Penn ar Bed. This allowed the Abbey to be generally cut off from the world but still traversable via being close to the sea.