The Abbaye Notre-Dame de la Déserte or Abbaye de la Déserte ("Our Lady of the Wasteland"), was an abbey in Lyon. Founded in 1303 by Louis de Villars, Bishop of Lyon it housed the Poor Clares from 1304 till 1503, then Benedictine nuns from 1503 to the French Revolution, when it was dissolved. It is today in the Diocese of Lyon in the parish of La Platière (now part of Lyon, Rhône).
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History
The Monastery was founded in 1304 in the parish of the Platière by Blanche de Chalon (Lady of Belleville). It was built in a neighborhood that was then a wasteland on the southern slopes of the Croix-Rousse. Originally Monastery of Poor Clares, It adopted the Rule of St. Benedict in 1503. The abbess was appointed by the King though proofs of nobility were not mandatory for the appointment.
In the early 17th century Adherence to the Benedictine rule grew lax and abbess Marguerite de Quibly applied severe reform in 1620 before instituting the Benedictine Order in the Monastery of Our Lady of Bourbon with 5 Sisters of the Desert.