The forest surrounding the town of Azrou is home to countless cedar trees, a large number of Barbary macaques, and one semi-abandoned monastery. The name of this monastery is White Stones, or, in the Amazigh language, Tioumliline (sometimes spelled Toumliline). The complex includes a chapel, the monks’ cells, the refectory, the school, and a few other buildings now mainly used for storage. A little further uphill, there is a tiny cemetery where five monks are buried.
The history of this monastery is not particularly long, but still quite complex. It was the year 1952 when a group of 20 French monks from the Abbey of Saint-Benoît d’En Calcat arrived in Azrou on an invitation from the bishop of Rabat, Louis-Amédée Lefevre. The congregation inspected the area and decided that they would restore and expand a dilapidated boys’ school about three kilometers from Azrou; on this property, they would also build facilities for the monks and a chapel. This was the foundation of what eventually became the Tioumliline Monastery.
It is said that the monks welcomed locals needing medical attention and immediately started acquiring Arabic and Amazigh languages. Self-sufficiency was high on their priorities, so the monks also took up farming, which made their existence dependent on hard labor and the whims of the weather—not unlike the existence of the locals living around them. The monks were unmistakably outsiders, but having renovated the school premises, opened a dispensary, and become conversant in the local idioms, they successfully carved out a place for themselves in the social fabric of Azrou.
Only one year after their arrival, complications arose when the French authorities ousted Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, the ruler of Morocco. The monks decided to make their position clear by serving food and drinks to political prisoners in Azrou, openly defying the French authorities. Two years later, in 1955, the monks went even further and gave shelter to holiday camps organized by the Istiqlal Party, which was fighting for Moroccan independence. This was just the beginning. The subsequent years saw a series of events that brought together people from opposing factions to find dialogue and understanding.
The Tioumliline Monastery became a gravitational center for international and international politicians and intellectuals, that would verge on Azrou for these cross-factional dialogues. Its fame had grown so much that upon his return to Morocco in November 1955, Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, now King Mohammed V, gave the royal backing to the events taking place at the monastery. However, the wind of the Cold War was sweeping across the globe, radical changes were brought about by decolonization movements, and Moroccan society was in turmoil. As a result, the very presence of French monks became problematic, and June 1968 witnessed the inevitable closure of the Tioumliline Monastery, including the school and the dispensary.
The premise remained untouched for years, which explains the state of disrepair of the buildings. In 2009, French director, Xavier Beauvois, was given the go-ahead to use the monastery site to shoot the movie Of Men and Gods. Some restoration work was carried out, but it was more aesthetic than structural. Real restoration was undertaken a few years later, culminating with the inauguration of the renovated chapel in September 2024. More restoration work is planned but, as of November 2024, it has not yet begun.
