Sept-Fons Abbey, Trappist monastery in Diou, France

Sept-Fons Abbey is a Trappist monastery in the Bourbonnais region featuring a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary with traditional monastic architecture surrounding it. The complex includes spaces for prayer, work, and daily life for the resident community.

Sept-Fons was founded in 1132 by Cistercian monks from Fontenay, relatives of Bernard of Clairvaux, on an unhealthy marsh at Diou. A papal bull of Alexander III confirmed it in 1164. After the monks were expelled in 1791, Trappists from the Abbaye du Gard bought the ruins in 1845 and rebuilt the church, consecrated on 15 September 1856.

The monastery's name comes from the seven springs or seven canals that once supplied it, added about a century after the 1132 founding. Around ninety monks live here today, many of them novices sent from monasteries worldwide, including the daughter house at Nový Dvůr in the Czech Republic.

The monastery stands at Diou in the Bourbonnais, in the diocese of Moulins. The community numbers around ninety monks, many of them novices sent from monasteries around the world, so the house is a formation centre for the order. The church was consecrated on 15 September 1856.

The name Sept-Fons comes from the seven fountains or seven canals that once supplied water to the abbey; it was added about a century after the foundation, which was first called Notre-Dame de Saint-Lieu. Around ninety monks live here today, many of them novices sent from monasteries around the world.