History 

The church of Perse appears for the first time in Rouergue history with its donation to Conques abbey in 1060 by Hugues, lord of Calmont. In this text, it was not only written about a church, but a monastery called "Perse". This monastery was surrounded with an old town ("vetulo burgo de Persia" in text), surely the first urban centre in the valley on an alluvial area above the Lot river, out of reach of the floods of the river.

The real problem in the history of that monastery, whatever the date of it foundation, is it becoming in Rouergue history in 1060. It's hard to understand what reasons can explain absence not only of documents but also of historical mention of it existence before that date. drawing by Denys Puech

Perse ?  this name for that church has an unknown explanation neither in texts nor in people memory. However, it's possible to express several hypotheses: either this monastery was built on a place called by that name before, or it was built by an oriental monastic community or with architectural characters classed as oriental style. But they are only hypothesis and everyone can try to find his personal explanation.

Perse in the beginning of XXth

Some dates 1312 In the beginning of XIVth, Perse was a prior church with five monks send by Conques, and only two in 1420. But we don't know how many people lived in the monastery really. 1437 After Conques abbey in 1424, Perse became a secular church.  In 1546 a secondary monastic building on west side of church was dilapidated and unuable. 1568 Attack of Protestants ended the ruin of that monastic secondary building 1731 Perse stopped to be a parish church 1864 Perse church was filed as an historical monument

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