Saint-Martin de Ligugé abbey
The Abbey of Saint-Martin de Ligugé (Latin Abbatia Sancti Martini, Logociacum ) is a Benedictine abbey and is located in the municipality of Ligugé in the Vienne department near Poitiers .
history
The monastery was founded in 361 by St. Martin of Tours . In Trier he had met Athanasius , the biographer of the monk's father Antonius, who was exiled there . Ligugé is therefore the first monastery in the West . Martin used an abandoned Roman settlement for this. He wanted to be close to his honored teacher and role model, Hilary of Poitiers , who was Bishop of Poitiers from 350 to 367. First he set up a hermit cell, which was soon joined by 60 other monks. Some sources report that Hilarius donated the monastery for Martin. Martin himself was ordained a priest there and was abbot in Ligugé until 370.
Archaeological excavations have confirmed the age, as remains of buildings from the 4th century were uncovered, in which monk cells and a small chapel can also be seen. In addition, enameled clay tiles with Byzantine patterns were found for the first time in France .
Merovingian sarcophagus lids from the 5th and 6th centuries and a report by Bishop Gregory of Tours from 591 document the continued existence of the abbey.
Around 700 the Ligugé monk Defensor put together the extensive collection of quotations Liber scintillarum . In 732 the monastery was destroyed by the Arabs.
After a period of decline, for which there are no testimonies, Adalmodis , the first wife of Duke Wilhelm V , founded a Martins shrine in Ligugé after 1003, which was settled by Benedictines from Maillezais Abbey and developed into a heavily visited place of pilgrimage .
In 1268, Alfonso of Poitiers granted the Ligugé priory independent jurisdiction .
In 1307 Pope Clement V stayed several times in the Ligugé monastery. He issued an indulgence for the Martin pilgrimage .
In the course of the Hundred Years War , the monastery was largely destroyed in 1359. Reconstruction began in 1479 and was completed by Geoffroy d'Estissac as Bishop of Maillezais and Commendatarprior of Ligugé in the 16th century. The church from this time has been preserved.
Ligugé again suffered severe damage in the conflict during the Reformation . In 1607 Henry IV handed the complex over to the Jesuits , who had built a college in Poitiers . In 1762 the order was expelled from France. Ligugé fell back to the episcopal see of Maillezais. In the course of the French Revolution , buildings and lands were nationalized and sold into private hands.
In 1852, Bishop Pie of Poitiers was able to purchase the complex. The following year, Ligugé was rebuilt as a Benedictine monastery with monks from Solesmes under the direction of Prosper-Louis-Pascal Guéranger . The first abbot was from 1864 Léon Bastide (1823–1900). Extensive extensions were built in the 1890s.
In 1901 the Benedictines had to leave France as a result of anti-clerical legislation. They found accommodation in Chevetogne, Belgium . In 1923 they were able to return. Since the abbey church in the 16th century had become a parish church, they built a new monastery church in 1929.
During the Second World War, Ligugé u. a. Robert Schuman and Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow . On December 13, 1943, Father Aimé Lambert was executed as a member of the Resistance in Wolfenbüttel prison.
After the war, the Ligugé monastery opened up a new source of income with a workshop for enamel art .
Today around 25 monks live in the convent.
literature
- Fr François Chamard: Saint Martin et son monastère de Ligugé , Poitiers 1873
- Pierre de Monsabert: Le monastère de Ligugé; étude historique (= Moines et monastères 7), Ligugé / Vienne 1929
- L'abbaye de Ligugé , Paris around 1970
- Lucien-Jean Bord: Histoire de l'abbaye Saint-Martin de Ligugé 361–2001 , Paris 2005, ISBN 2-7053-3772-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://data.bnf.fr/fr/10261912/leon_bastide/
- ↑ Biography (Charles-V. Aubrun)
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 31 ′ 2.1 ″ N , 0 ° 19 ′ 51.9 ″ E