Le monachisme insulaire armoricain d'après les textes hagiographiques

The beginnings of monasticism are associated with deserts, especially those of Egypt and Syria, the withdrawal from the world allowing to seek God. This model also influenced the Martinian and Lerinian monasticism, and as we know, the Celtic monasticism. In this context has developed the concept of island desert : the island was a new kind of desert, whose shores became identified with the boundaries of the monastic enclosure. This notion of island desert is very present in Armorican Brittany, where the islands are numerous for this withdrawal. However, the oldest Breton saints’ lives, those of Guénolé, Paul Aurelian, Malo, Magloire and others, and the archaeological findings allow us to put this notion into perspective. It appears indeed that the islands occupied by the monks were concentrated in a few well-defined areas (Channel Islands, archipelago of Brehat, Brest roadstead, etc.), and represented links along the maritime routes. This paper aims therefore to study the Armorican island monastic settlements in their geographical, political and religious context and to study the nature of their insularity (re use of previous structures, evolution of implantation). We thus see that an island settlement did not necessarily imply the isolation and that the Armorican island monasticism was strongly connected to the mainland and its political and ecclesiastical structures.