The Couvent des Minimes was founded in 1613, in Mane in the modern-day French department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, by the Marquis Melchior de Forbin Janson for the Minimes order of mendicant monks established by Saint Vincent de Paul.
Growing and studying plants was an important part of life at the Couvent at the time. Louis Feuillée, Louis XIV’s botanist, studied and wrote botanical treaties there.
During his expeditions to South America, he studied new species of plants, such as nasturtiums and fuchsias, which he brought back to France.
After the French Revolution, the Couvent des Minimes remained uninhabited until 1862, when Canon Terrasson, archpriest of Forcalquier, undertook its transformation into a hospice.
Several years later, a community of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary came to live there to look after the hospice and its residents.