Follow the narrow country road winding past pastures and vineyards in southern Burgundy, some ten kilometers north of the ruined medieval abbey of Cluny, and you will climb the limestone ridge of the small village of Taizé. High on the windswept hill overlooking the valley of the Grosne River, peals of bells ring out from an open-air belfry, calling thousands of young people from every continent into the Church of Reconciliation. Inside the vast carpeted nave without raised pews, worshippers sit quietly on the floor or on low wooden meditation stools, facing a sanctuary aglow with warm orange sails and hundreds of small oil lamps set upon low brick walls.
This is the Taizé Community (Communauté de Taizé), the international ecumenical Christian monastic community founded in August 1940 by the Swiss Reformed pastor and theologian Brother Roger (Roger Schutz, 1915 to 2005). Growing from a lonely house that sheltered wartime refugees into a brotherhood whose first seven members took lifelong vows at Easter 1949, the community today numbers around one hundred brothers from both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds across nearly thirty countries, sharing a life of celibacy, common ownership and hospitality to tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.
IAn ecumenical vocation and a parable of communion
In the history of Western Christianity, the sixteenth-century Reformation brought monastic life to an end within Protestant churches as the reformers sought to root Christian discipleship in family and civic life. Four centuries later, Roger Schutz, the son of a Swiss Reformed pastor and a mother from a French Protestant family in Burgundy, conceived the desire to restore a community life of daily prayer and manual work within the Reformed tradition while opening its doors to communion with all Christian traditions.
Brother Roger called his community a little parable of communion (parabole de communauté). The brothers of Taizé do not form a new denomination, nor do they ask pilgrims to leave their own churches. Instead, young visitors who climb the hill of Taizé are encouraged to rediscover the contemplative roots of faith so that, upon returning home, they may take a fuller and more active part in their local parishes, congregations and neighborhoods.
The spiritual foundation of Taizé was set down by Brother Roger in the Rule of Taizé (Règle de Taizé), written during the winter of 1952 to 1953. In making his lifelong profession, each brother commits himself to celibacy, to the sharing of all material and spiritual goods, and to the acceptance of the ministry entrusted by the prior in a spirit of service. Three qualities run through the Rule as its inner heartbeat: joy, simplicity and mercy.
One distinctive rule observed strictly since the founding of the community is complete self-reliance through the brothers' own labor. The Taizé Community accepts no financial donations or gifts from outside. Even when a brother inherits family property, the community does not keep the inheritance for itself but gives it entirely to the poor. The livelihood of roughly one hundred brothers comes solely from their pottery and enamel workshops, publishing house, theological writings, musical editions and handicrafts made on site.
The ecumenical character of Taizé is reflected in the composition of the brotherhood and in the succession of its priors. Whereas the first seven brothers who took vows in 1949 all came from Reformed churches, in 1969 the community welcomed its first Catholic brother, a young Belgian physician, with the blessing of his archbishop. Over more than eight decades, the office of prior has passed across three distinct Christian traditions: Brother Roger Schutz (prior from 1940 to 2005) was a Swiss Reformed pastor, Brother Alois Löser (prior from 2005 to December 2023) is a German Catholic, and Brother Matthew, born Andrew Thorpe (who became prior in December 2023), comes from the Anglican tradition in England.
Many first-time visitors hearing the name Taizé assume it refers to a medieval religious order or a theological term. In fact, Taizé is simply the name of the tiny rural village beside the Grosne River in the department of Saône-et-Loire, about twenty-five kilometers northwest of Mâcon. It was precisely the remoteness and poverty of this hamlet near the old Abbey of Cluny that led Roger Schutz to settle here in the summer of 1940, turning the name of a quiet Burgundian village into a worldwide synonym for contemplative prayer and meditative liturgical chant.
IIFrom a wartime house of refuge in 1940 to a global hill of reconciliation
The history of the Taizé Community began during the darkest months of the Second World War, when the twenty-five-year-old theology student Roger Schutz decided to leave neutral Switzerland for France, his mother's homeland, to establish a place of prayer and shelter for people uprooted by war.
- August 1940Roger Schutz arrives in the village of TaizéCycling from Geneva across the Jura into France, Roger Schutz stopped at Taizé, a hamlet lying just inside the unoccupied zone near the demarcation line, ten kilometers from Cluny. He bought an old stone house with outbuildings to pray and, joined by his sister Geneviève Schutz, sheltered war refugees, including Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.
- 1942 to 1944First community life in Geneva and return to TaizéIn November 1942, after the Gestapo searched the house at Taizé while Roger Schutz was in Switzerland, he had to remain in Geneva, where he began a common life with his first three companions: Max Thurian, Pierre Souvairan and Daniel de Montmollin. In the autumn of 1944, following the Liberation of France, the four returned to Taizé, caring for war orphans and offering spiritual support to German prisoners of war held in nearby camps.
- 17 April 1949Lifelong profession of the first seven brothersOn Easter Sunday 1949, the first seven brothers took lifelong vows of celibacy, community of goods and acceptance of the prior's ministry inside the small Romanesque village church of Taizé, founding the first men's monastic community in the Reformed tradition since the sixteenth century.
- 1952 to 1953Drafting of the Rule of TaizéDuring a silent retreat in the winter of 1952 to 1953, Brother Roger wrote the Rule of Taizé (Règle de Taizé), setting out the rhythm of three common prayers each day, self-supporting labor and the vocation of visible reconciliation among Christians.
- 6 August 1962Inauguration of the Church of ReconciliationAs international youth arrived in growing numbers, the Church of Reconciliation (Église de la Réconciliation) was begun in April 1961 to designs by the architect Brother Denis Aubert and built by young German volunteers from Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, opening on the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1962.
- 1962 to 1965Presence at the Second Vatican Council and first Catholic brotherAt the invitation of Pope John XXIII, Brother Roger and Brother Max Thurian attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome as non-Catholic observers. In 1969, the first Catholic brother formally entered the community.
- 1978Launch of the Pilgrimage of Trust on EarthBrother Roger initiated the annual year-end European youth meetings in Paris in 1978, a movement that subsequently spread to dozens of European capitals as well as cities across Asia, Africa and the Americas.
- 2005 and 2023Succession of priors across three Christian traditionsFollowing the death of ninety-year-old Brother Roger on 16 August 2005 during evening prayer in the Church of Reconciliation, Brother Alois Löser (a German Catholic) served as prior for eighteen years before handing the office of prior to Brother Matthew (Andrew Thorpe, an English Anglican) in December 2023.
Historical records of the Virtual Museum of Protestantism in France (Musée protestant) note a delicate phase in relations between the Taizé Community and the Reformed Church of France during the 1950s. Initially, the ordained pastors among the brothers served the Reformed parish in nearby Mâcon. In 1956, however, the National Council of the Reformed Church of France declined to ordain new Taizé brothers as pastors, holding that a parish pastor must remain free of vows to a monastic community. Even so, fraternal ties with the Protestant Federation of France endured, while as early as 1948 the Papal Nuncio in Paris, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli (later Pope John XXIII), and the Bishop of Autun had granted permission for joint liturgical use (simultaneum) of the medieval village church of Taizé.
IIIThe Church of Reconciliation, multilingual chant and the Romanesque village church
The architectural ensemble on the hill of Taizé mirrors the community's own journey: instead of marble cathedrals, visitors encounter a twelfth-century Romanesque limestone village church alongside the austere raw-concrete Church of Reconciliation on the crest of the hill, surrounded by an open-air bell tower, the brothers' dwellings, pottery workshops and a quiet spring down in the wooded hollow.
The main liturgical space of the community, built between April 1961 and August 1962 to designs by Brother Denis Aubert (1933 to 2015) with the physical labor of young German volunteers from Aktion Sühnezeichen. Starting at Easter 1971, the western concrete facade was opened and extended by successive modular bays fitted with rolling shutters, allowing the church to expand or contract from a few hundred worshippers in winter to several thousand in summer.
To soften the starkness of the original Brutalist concrete interior, the brothers removed fixed pews and carpeted the floor so worshippers sit on low wooden meditation stools (tabourets de méditation) or on the ground. The eastern choir is hung with triangular orange fabric sails suggesting a boat setting out to sea, accented by low brick walls holding hundreds of flickering oil lamps. Beneath the choir lie two crypts reserved for Catholic and Orthodox liturgies.
Along the southern concrete wall, facing the twelve-stop pipe organ (replaced in 2009), runs a sequence of eight stained-glass windows set into deep niches and created by the Swiss artist Brother Éric de Saussure (1925 to 2007). The eight windows depict the Annunciation, the Magnificat, the Nativity, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Victory of the Paschal Lamb, Christ Pantocrator, Pentecost and the Transfiguration, complemented by a window of Abraham and Isaac in the crypt.
The prayer space features the dove-shaped Cross of Taizé and a reproduction of the sixth-century Coptic Icon of Christ and Saint Menas from Bawit in Egypt (known at Taizé as the Icon of Friendship, whose original is kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris), alongside the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir and the large Cross of Icons.
The twelfth-century limestone parish church of the village of Taizé, classified by the French Ministry of Culture as a historic monument (Monument historique, reference PA00113486) on 10 September 1913. Here the first seven brothers pronounced their vows in 1949, and the small tree-shaded cemetery beside the church holds the graves of Brother Roger and deceased brothers of the community.
Down in the wooded valley at the foot of the hill lie the Spring of Saint Stephen and a small pond, an area kept in complete silence for personal retreats. Near the village stand the kilns and workshops where Brother Daniel de Montmollin and the brothers developed vegetable-ash glazed stoneware to support the community.
Perhaps the best-known gift of Taizé to global Christian worship is its meditative liturgical music. So that thousands of pilgrims speaking dozens of languages could sing together without paging through thick hymnbooks, starting in 1975 the brothers worked with the liturgist Joseph Gelineau and the French composer and organist Jacques Berthier (1923 to 1994, a native of Auxerre in Burgundy) to create short repetitive chants (ostinatos). Each chant consists of a single scriptural phrase in Latin or various vernacular languages, such as Laudate Dominum, Ubi caritas, Jésus le Christ or Nada te turbe, sung over and over in four-part harmony accompanied by solo verses, flute, strings and woodwinds, leading the assembly into an eight-to-ten-minute period of complete silence at the heart of every prayer.
Readers wishing to compare this modern monastic simplicity with France's great medieval abbey and cathedral architecture may consult Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey or Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
Neither the Protestant Reformed tradition nor the ecumenical Christian theology of the Taizé Community teaches or practices East Asian feng shui. The choice of the village of Taizé in 1940 grew out of its proximity to the wartime demarcation line and its closeness to the ancient Abbey of Cluny, while the alignment of the Church of Reconciliation follows Christian liturgical custom and the topography of the hilltop. The reading below offers the library's comparative view through traditional land-form analysis for readers interested in the natural setting of the site.
Seen on the topographical map of southern Burgundy at 46.5136 degrees North and 4.6769 degrees East, the village of Taizé sits atop a limestone ridge rising roughly 250 meters above sea level along the western edge of the Mâconnais hills overlooking the valley of the Grosne River (Vallée de la Grosne). In traditional land-form reading, this limestone spine runs northward from the uplands of Cluny toward Cormatin. The great medieval Abbey of Cluny stands ten kilometers due south, forming a continuous spiritual dragon vein (Dragon Vein (Long Mai)) along the ridge: where Cluny upstream once stood as the grandest monastic center of eleventh- and twelfth-century Europe, the hill of Taizé downstream gathers the quiet monastic qi of the modern age.
In the four-quarter layout, the western slope of Taizé opens out toward the broad meadowland where the Grosne River meanders northward, serving as the outer bright hall (Outer Bright Hall (Wai Ming Tang)) of water embracing the foot of the hill. To the east and northeast, the vineyard-covered hills of the Mâconnais rise as a rear backing (Rear Backing Mountain (Hou Zhen)) and flanking guardians that shelter the plateau from winter winds. Directly below the southeastern slope, natural groundwater emerges at the Spring of Saint Stephen (Source Saint-Étienne) and feeds a small wooded lake, creating a sheltered inner bright hall (Inner Bright Hall (Nei Ming Tang)) that gathers qi. The Church of Reconciliation crowns the level crest at the northern end of the village (at 46.5155 degrees North and 4.6786 degrees East), oriented along a southwest-to-northeast axis: its expandable southwestern bays open wide to welcome pilgrims climbing the hill, while the choir at the northeastern end gathers light and song into the stillness of the ridge.
VThree daily hours of prayer and annual pilgrimage seasons
Life on the hill of Taizé revolves not around outward fairs but around three common prayers every day (morning prayer shortly after eight o'clock, midday prayer past noon and evening prayer at half past eight) throughout all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. International youth meetings at Taizé run in week-long cycles from Sunday to Sunday, reaching their highest numbers between Easter and late autumn.
Among Vietnamese Christians, young Catholic and Protestant students and overseas Vietnamese families living in France, Germany and across Europe regularly travel to the hill of Taizé during Easter week and the summer months. Both in Vietnam and in Vietnamese diaspora parishes and congregations, candlelight prayers in the spirit of Taizé with chants sung in Vietnamese have become a cherished spiritual practice during Lent, Holy Week and youth gatherings.
| Time | Calendar | Rite and major gathering |
|---|---|---|
| Daily (Morning, Midday, Evening) | Daily cycle year-round | Three common prayers in the Church of Reconciliation with short multilingual chants, Psalm and Scripture readings, an 8-to-10-minute period of contemplative silence and intercessions. |
| Every Friday evening | Weekly cycle | Prayer around the Cross: after evening prayer, the Cross of Taizé is laid flat on the carpeted floor so pilgrims may come forward one by one to kneel and rest their forehead on the wood of the Cross. |
| Every Saturday evening | Weekly cycle | Celebration of the Paschal Light: children and young people pass candle flames from hand to hand until the entire Church of Reconciliation glows with light in remembrance of Christ's Resurrection. |
| Holy Week and Easter (March or April) | Christian liturgical calendar | The great spring pilgrimage on the hill of Taizé, commemorating the lifelong vows of the first seven brothers (Easter Sunday, 17 April 1949) with tens of thousands of young pilgrims. |
| 6 August and 16 August | Gregorian calendar | 6 August celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration and the anniversary of the Church of Reconciliation (1962). 16 August commemorates the passing of Brother Roger (2005) in thanksgiving for the community's journey. |
| 28 December to 1 January | Gregorian calendar | The annual European Youth Meeting (part of the Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth launched in 1978), hosted each New Year in a different major European city. |
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Communauté de Taizé, 71250 Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
- Getting there
- From Paris or Lyon, take a high-speed TGV train to Mâcon-Loché TGV station or Chalon-sur-Saône station, then board the regional Bourgogne-Franche-Comté bus (Line 701 linking Chalon, Cormatin, Taizé, Cluny and Mâcon), which stops directly on the hill of Taizé.
- Coordinates
- 46.5136, 4.6769
The Taizé Community welcomes visitors into a simple monastic way of life rather than as a tourist attraction. Upon entering the Church of Reconciliation, you are asked to keep complete silence in the central nave, silence mobile phones, and refrain from flash photography or filming during the hours of prayer. You may sit on the low wooden meditation stools or directly on the carpeted floor, leaving the backed benches along the sides for older visitors. When walking down to the Spring of Saint Stephen in the valley or visiting the small cemetery beside the Romanesque village church, please tread quietly so as to preserve the atmosphere of retreat for all around you.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Taizé Community
Contribute photos, historical notes, or videos for Taizé CommunityEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Master Ưng Khiêm invites the community to enrich this page. On-site photographs, historical details not yet mentioned, or short video clips: every contribution is personally reviewed and answered.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. No community contributions yet. Be the first to contribute.
?Quick Questions
Is the Taizé Community Protestant or Catholic?
The Taizé Community is an international ecumenical Christian monastic brotherhood. It was founded in 1940 by Brother Roger Schutz, a Swiss Reformed (Protestant) pastor, and the first seven brothers who professed lifelong vows in 1949 all came from Protestant churches. Since 1969 the community has also welcomed Catholic brothers, and today its roughly 100 brothers come from both Protestant (Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican) and Catholic traditions across nearly 30 nations.
Why is the main church at Taizé called the Church of Reconciliation?
The church was built between 1961 and 6 August 1962 by young German volunteers belonging to Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (Aktion Sühnezeichen), who came to France to work with their hands as a tangible gesture of healing between the French and German peoples after the Second World War. The name Church of Reconciliation (Église de la Réconciliation) honors both that postwar gesture and the vocation of unity among separated Christians.
What makes Taizé chants different from traditional church hymns?
Developed from 1975 onward with the close collaboration of the French composer Jacques Berthier (1923 to 1994), Taizé chants consist of short phrases drawn from the Psalms or Gospels in Latin and many modern languages. Rather than singing many long verses, the assembly repeats a single short phrase (an ostinato) many times in gentle four-part harmony, allowing pilgrims of every language to sing by heart and enter into contemplative stillness.
How do the brothers of the Taizé Community support themselves financially?
Under the Rule of Taizé, the community accepts no outside donations, financial grants or personal family inheritances for itself. All roughly 100 brothers earn the community's livelihood entirely through their own daily work, including making glazed stoneware pottery, writing and publishing books on theology and spirituality, recording sacred music and crafting items on the hill of Taizé.
Where is Brother Roger buried at Taizé?
Brother Roger Schutz (1915 to 2005) is buried not inside the modern Church of Reconciliation but in the small tree-shaded cemetery beside the twelfth-century Romanesque limestone village church of Saint Mary Magdalene (Église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine) in the center of Taizé, alongside the graves of his mother and departed brothers of the community.