Founded by members of the same family, the Saint-André d'Eixalada monastery initially experienced a period of stagnation and poverty, until the arrival of new, much wealthier monks in 854.

Under his impetus, the monastery increased its possessions and influence, notably obtaining a diploma from Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, in 871, making it a royal abbey.

Such was the damage that the surviving monks decided to abandon the site and found a new abbey downstream, at Cuxa, on land belonging to Protasius.

The Têt is a river that rises in the Pyrenees at the foot of the Carlit summit, before joining a vast high plateau (the Cerdanya, whose historic capital is Llívia) at Bolquère.

Like all the Pyrenees, the Conflent region is home to numerous hot springs that have been used for thermal baths since ancient times, and were venerated by pagan peoples before the arrival of Christianity.

During the late seventh and early ninth centuries, Charlemagne's troops succeeded in driving back the Saracens (Muslims) south of the Pyrenees.

To reinforce the newly conquered territories, Charlemagne founded the Spanish March, a group of counties linked to the emperor.

In the Catalan counties to the east of the Pyrenees, numerous monasteries were founded to clear, populate and manage these new territories under Frankish rule, and to propagate and strengthen the Christian faith.

[8] The names of the donors are mentioned in the document: Erall, Adanasinda, Forídia, Adesinda, Major, Goteleba, Quideberga, Quixilo, Alexandre, Vurili, Tructulf, Vuló as well as the priests Comendat and Argemir.

[10] In its early days, the monastery of Saint Andrew of Eixalada was essentially a family enterprise, living modestly, its only possessions being the Vilar Paulià and some scattered lands.

These included Protasius (sometimes called Protais in French, or Protasi in Catalan), who held the title of archpriest, along with three priests: Sanctiol (or Sanctiolus),[11] Recesvind (or Recceswindus)[11] and Victor, monk Atila and subdeacon Baro.

Before settling in Eixalada, he acquired several new possessions and gained influence in the region around Cuxa (Taurinya, le Llech and Codalet).

[17] Protasius founded a church dedicated to Saint Germain on his Cuxa estate, in 866 or earlier, as indicated by a donation text dated that year.

[18] In 871, the new Count of Conflent, Miro, traveled to Douzy (now in the Ardennes department, on the other side of France) to present himself to the Frankish king Charles the Bald.

[16] This text obliged the abbey to follow the Rule of St. Benedict, granted it the free election of its abbot and exempted it from ordinary justice, the payment of cens, and any intervention by the bishop in its internal or religious affairs.

This brought the community closer to Prades, a rapidly developing town, and to Ria, the birthplace of Count Miron's family.

[4] In 1886, in his epic poem Mount Canigó, the Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer devoted many verses to the tragedy of Saint-André d'Eixalada and the founding of Saint-Michel de Cuxa.

[26][27] En Exalada,vora'l camí de Llivia á Prada,monjos ahirteníam temple y monestir,horta florida,vells pergamins que'l cor no oblida,[...]Mes ¡gran desastre!de tot aixó no'n queda rastre;en un momentla revinguda d'un torrentho ha esborraty es com si may hagués estat!

In Exalade,on the road from Llívia to Prades,the monks, back thenowned a temple and monastery,blooming gardens,old parchments that the heart never forgets,[...]But what a disaster!No trace of this remains;in just a momentthe might of a streamwiped out everythingand it's as if nothing had ever happened!

[33]The church of Saint-Vincent de Campllong has also been reduced to an overgrown ruin, to the extent that the remains of the building are difficult to date.

After evoking the legend of the monastery's foundation, he writes:[35]"When looking for the true date of origin of the Abbey of Saint-André d'Exalada, whose existence goes back such a long way, after having seriously consulted the very varied documents relating to it, initially it seems that impenetrable darkness surrounds it; and one is then led to believe that it might be, as some have said, thanks to this obscurity that rival and jealous ambitions once tried to create fictitious antiquity for it, to trace it back to Pepin and Childeric, even to falsify the charters of Charles the Bald in order to attribute them to Charlemagne – and thus to associate its cradle with the grandeur of the greatest name in Christian Europe.

In reality, this is not the case, and it's impossible to think otherwise when authentic documents are at hand, and when one follows in the footsteps of authors who are distinguished as much for their talent as conscientious chroniclers as by their reputation as men of historical integrity – and absolute disinterestedness.

"In this work, Font follows other authors in setting the date of the monastery's foundation in 745, during the reign of Childeric III, when Pepin the Short ruled the Frankish kingdom, and places the destructive flood in 779.

[7] Some of these falsifications were undoubtedly made to consolidate the monastery's legitimacy over territorial possessions, even though its development did not take place without opposition from the local inhabitants.