Saint-Maur Abbey

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The Tour Rabelais in Saint-Maur Abbey

The Saint-Maur Abbey ( Abbaye de Saint-Maur , originally called Abbaye des Fossés ) is an old monastery in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés , which has now gone under . The domain and the remains of the abbey have been converted into an amusement park.

history

founding

At the time of Queen Nantechild , mother of Clovis II , an abbey with a monastery church (called Abbatiale I ) was established in 639 by the Parisian deacon Blidegisilus on a peninsula formed by a bend in the Marne river (the area of ​​today's city of Saint-Maur) Using the ruins of a Roman castrum built. It was named Saint-Pierre des Fossés in reference to the topography of the place, which is characterized by steep slopes down to the river. Babolein or Babolinus, first mentioned on May 9, 641, became the founding abbot. Bishop Audebert of Paris renounced his influence in the organization of the abbey, which was founded by Chlothar III in 658 . received royal immunity. The oldest original documents from the abbey archives are two charters , which were not published until 695/701 by Childebert III. , the second of April 22, 717. The chapel of Notre-Dame des Miracles , the ruins of which are still visible in the Parc de l'Abbaye , is traditionally the place of the first Abbatiale, where Babolinus was buried.

Decline and Renaissance

Exemption certificate from Louis the Pious for the abbaye des Fossés from all road tariffs of December 7th, 829, Archives nationales

At the beginning of the 9th century, the abbey was one of the first to benefit from the reforms of Louis the Pious . Abbot Benoît (813-839) was able to restore the monastery church (called Abbatiale II ), which was consecrated on December 7, 829.

On November 13, 868, at the instigation of Charles the Bald , the abbey received relics of St. Maurus , which were taken from the Abbey of Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil near Saumur , which was threatened by the Vikings . Abbot Udon / Eudes I of Glanfeuil († 886) was then abbot of les Fossés and Glanfeuil, a priory dependent on it . The Abbatiale III was built around 920 by Hagano, Charles III's favorite . , built for Abbot Rainaud I.,

After the term of office of the abbot Adhelnée around 925, the abbey fell into disrepair, like many other abbeys in those years, and fell into the hands of the Counts of Paris as lay abbots : Hugo the Great , Hugo Capet and Burchard of Vendôme , who was also Count of Corbeil was. The monastery was run by an "abbot" Mainard, who preferred to send his monks to hunt dogs and falcons rather than to encourage them to do religious exercises. When the monk Adic complained about the condition of Count Bouchard, in 989 he handed over the task of reforming the monastery to Abbot Maiolus of Cluny. Bouchard's son Thibault I of Corbeil, Abbot of Cormery , became abbot of Saint-Maur in 1005; the Abbatiale III was built and consecrated on November 13, 1030 under Abbot Eudes II, a large Romanesque pilgrimage church with a crypt under the choir , a nave with six bays and one or more bell towers .

middle Ages

Remainder of the Saint-Maur Abbey

In 1058, Guillaume Warlong, Count of Corbeil , became Vogt of the abbey, to which he later retired as a monk. In 1096, the priory of Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil was lost as a result of an intrigue by Count Fulko IV of Anjou , who wanted to take revenge on King Philip I because he had stolen his wife Bertrada von Montfort from him.

The terms of office of Thibaud II (1107–1137) and Ascelin I (1134–1153) are characterized by the intensive artistic activity of the monastery; most of the surviving sculptures date from this period.

In 1134 Abbot Ascelin received the Abbey of Saint-Éloi on the Île de la Cité as a priory for Saint-Maur from Stephan von Senlis, the Bishop of Paris . In a papal bull of Inneocent II of 1136, the Saint-Bon chapel in Paris (rue Saint-Bon, 4th arrondissement), which belongs to Saint-Maur, is mentioned for the first time.

As a result of miracles surrounding the Maurus relics, the monastery became an important pilgrimage destination in the Île-de-France from the 12th century . In the beginning, January 15th was considered the feast day of the saint, later it was moved to June 24th ( St. John's Day ). The pilgrims' goal was to recover from gout (called maladie de saint Maur , Maurus disease) or epilepsy (called maladie de saint Jean ). In 1247 the name of the abbey first appeared as Saint-Maur-des-Fossés , from the end of the 13th century it was only known by this name.

On July 14, 1256, Pierre de Chevry, Prior of Saint-Éloi, was elected abbot after his predecessor Jean I d'Auxonne (1251–1256) had proven "despicable" and had been deposed. Pierre de Chevry shaped life in the abbey for over 30 years; he is the first abbot of the monastery to wear an episcopal miter , and like the bishops he wore a ring, a dalmatic and a crosier . He renewed the offices of chamberlain, cellarer and treasurer . In 1273 he had a new land registry created, in 1275 a copy book - both together resulted in a work of 600 pages, called the "Black Book" (Livre Noir) , which is today a source on the customs and social structures of the 13th century. After his death on June 5, 1285, Pierre de Chevry was buried in the Saint-Martin chapel in the north transept of the Abbatiale, which he had rebuilt (the 86-meter-long choir of the church in Gothic style was completed around 1281).

During the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) the abbey was fortified, and the western tower, called tour Rabelais , is still preserved from the complex . Around 1358 troops of the Dauphin , later King Charles V, were quartered in the abbey . In January 1378, Emperor Charles IV , coming from Prague , visited his nephew Charles V of France and also made a pilgrimage to Saint-Maur to combat his gout. He resided in the abbey with his son Wenceslaus and received the French king here on January 12th and 15th.

On September 16, 1418, the first treaty of Saint-Maur was concluded, among other things , between Duke Johann Without fear of Burgundy and Isabeau , the Dauphin's wife, who was subsequently signed by Duke Johann VI. was submitted by Brittany to the Dauphin, who refused the agreement.

In 1430 the abbey was sacked successively by the Armagnacs and the English.

On September 29, 1465, the second Treaty of Saint-Maur between King Louis XI. and signed the nobles involved in the Ligue du Bien public .

End of the abbey

Tour Rabelais, exterior view

In 1493 the income from the monastery property was transferred to a person not belonging to the monastery ( coming ), here the Bishop of Évreux Raoul du Fou († 1511), in 1533 it was secularized by his successor, the Bishop of Paris Jean du Bellay , who remained eight or nine monks were replaced by a chapter of nine canons .

Undoubtedly through du Bellay, the doctor and writer François Rabelais received the approval of the incumbent Pope Paul III in 1536 . to return to the Benedictine order as a monk in an abbey near Paris who was headed by du Bellay - the Abbey of Saint-Maur. There he was supposed to get a benefice, which still happened in 1536, but not without objection from the previous beneficiary. Rabelais had to submit a petition to the Pope. The outcome of the matter is unknown.

From the 17th century the buildings of the monastery fell into disrepair. In 1735 the Bishop of Paris prohibited the annual pilgrimage to St. John's Day, on April 23, 1749, the Archbishop of Paris Christophe de Beaumont dissolved the chapter and incorporated it into the Church of St-Louis-du-Louvre . The monastery buildings were sold to Louis V Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé in 1751 and demolished. The Notre-Dame-des-Miracles chapel was destroyed during the revolution .

From 1858 the owner of the land, Édouard Bouriéres, had excavations carried out on the site for the church and crypt, and the canons' stables were converted into a Renaissance-style villa that still exists. The domain passed to Senator Adolphe Maujan (1853-1914), who left it to the Dominican lay communities who lived here from 1920 to 1958 before they sold everything to the Caisse des Dépôts ; In 1962, the city of Saint-Maur purchased the site.

Today the abbey no longer exists. In addition to some fortifications, only the Tour Rabelais and the Bourières villa from the 19th century are still standing; large part had to go to the Place de l'Église , a roundabout on the Rue de l'Abbaye and the Avenue de Condé. The remains of the abbey have been registered as a monument historique since 1988 .

literature

  • Saint-Maur des Fossès, mil cent onze ans d'histoire , Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie le Vieux Saint-Maur, 1973, new edition 1981.
  • André Kaspi, Joëlle Conan, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. Quand la banlieue peut avoir une âme , Découvertes Gallimard Histoire Paris 2010 ( ISBN 9782070437306 ).
  • Émile Galtier, Histoire de Saint-Maur-Des-Fossés depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours. L'Abbaye, le château, la ville . Librairie Ancienne Edouard Champion, Paris 1913. New editions 1927 and 1964.
  • Anne Terroine, Un abbé de Saint-Maur au XIIIe siècle, Pierre de Chevry, 1256-1285 , С Klincksieck, Paris 1968.

Remarks

  1. ^ Jean Heuclin Hommes de Dieu et fonctionnaires du roi en Gaule du nord du Ve au IXe siècle (348–817) , Histoire, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Paris 1998, ISBN 2859395512 , p. 158
  2. ^ Henri Bordier, Deux chartes inédites du VIIIe siècle, relatives à l'abbaye de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés . In: Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes . 1850, Volume 11. pp. 56-65.
  3. According to the Vita Bouchards of Vendôme, which was written in 1058 by the Chancellor Eudes de Saint-Maur
  4. ^ Seigneurs de Villemomble et Villebéon . Etienne Pattou. Sur racineshistoire.free.fr.
  5. Dominique Barthélemy, La société dans le comté de Vendôme de l'an mil au XIVe siècle , Fayard 1993, ISBN 2213030715 , p. 291
  6. ^ Félix et Louis Lazare: Dictionnaire administratif et historique des rues de Paris et de ses monuments
  7. Jean de La Tynna: Dictionnaire topographique, étymologique et historique des rues de Paris (1817)
  8. He owed the abbey, which led to a reorganization of the community at the request of King Louis IX. provoked
  9. cf. the article on Rabelais
  10. Abbaye de Saint-Maur (ancienne) , PA00079900, base Mérimée, ministère français de la Culture