Saint-Étienne, located in southeastern central France, about thirty miles (fifty kilometers) southwest of Lyon, had been settled around 1195.

Named after Saint Stephen, the city first appears in the historical record in the Middle Ages as Saint-Étienne de Furan (after the River Furan, an affluent of the Loire).

On the upper reaches of the Furan near the Way of St. James, the Abbey of Valbenoîte is founded by the Cistercians in 1222.