It donated an ivory statue of the Madonna and Child, still venerated; it was buried there in 1335. Later, a cloister was built on the north side of the church. The church became in 1791 the parish church of V. under the name of St-Pons.
Pope Innocent VI on 2 June 1356 issued the founding bulls of the charterhouse of St John the Baptist at the foot of the Andaon hill, which in 1362 took the name of Val-de-Bénédiction. The church was consecrated, in the presence of the Pope, on 19 August 1358 by Guy of Boulogne, cardinal of Auvergne; Innocent VI and his nephew Cardinal A. Aubert were buried there in 1362. The papal chapel preserves frescoes attributed to Matteo da Viterbo from the time of Innocent VI. The charterhouse was enlarged in 1372 by Cardinal P. Selva of Montirace and enjoyed great prosperity in the 17th century; in 1633 it founded the branch of St Mary Magdalene in Marseille.
King Philip the Fair granted privileges to the inhabitants settled on the hill around the abbey, which was surrounded by walls and fortified to secure passage of the Rhône; a strong tower was erected in 1302, restored in the 14th and 15th centuries; thus gradually arose a new Villeneuve St-André, subject to the King of France, with its own mint, rival to Avignon which belonged to the counts of Provence and from 1308 to 1411 the seat of the popes. V. then expanded and had cardinals’ palaces.