ABSTRACT
The fact that the majority of the military orders never founded a female branch underlines the distinctiveness of the Hospitallers, who had some female houses and during the fourteenth century gave a saint to France: Saint Fleur or Flor of Beaulieu in Quercy. The history of the dossier of Saint Fleur was authoritatively set out by the editor of her vita in 1946. What, then, were the activities of the nuns of Beaulieu? The structures of the community were evoked in passing by the vita. Connections with the Friars Minor and with the neighbouring Benedictine abbeys are better attested. A monk of the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Maurs a nun and an Abbess of Leyme were among those miraculously cured. What sort of saint did Fleur represent? She stood between tradition and new developments. The content of the 'miracle-contract' that was formed between the believer and the saint corresponded to well known types.
