Melleray Monastery

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Melleray Cistercian Abbey
Melleray Trappist Abbey
Melleray Trappist Abbey
location FranceFrance France
region Pays de la Loire
Loire-Atlantique department
Lies in the diocese Nantes
Coordinates: 47 ° 32 '54 "  N , 1 ° 22' 40"  W Coordinates: 47 ° 32 '54 "  N , 1 ° 22' 40"  W.
Serial number
according to Janauschek 		212
Patronage St. Mary
founding year 1145
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1795 and 2016
Year of repopulation 1817 ( Trappist )
Mother monastery Pontron Monastery
Primary Abbey Citeaux monastery
Congregation (Trappists)

Daughter monasteries

before 1795 none,
since 1832 Mount Melleray monastery (Ireland)

The Melleray Monastery ( lat.Mellerium / Abbatia BM de Melleario ; French Abbaye Notre-Dame de Melleray , formerly also La Meilleraie ) was a Cistercian abbey (from 1817 to 2017 of the strict observance ) in the municipality of La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne im Loire-Atlantique department , Pays de la Loire region in France , around 21 km south of Châteaubriant on the edge of the Ancenis forest.

history

The monastery was founded in 1145 by Foulques, the abbot of Pontron monastery , a daughter of Le Loroux monastery , on land donated by Alain de Moisdon and thus belonged to the filiation of Cîteaux monastery . It was richly decorated by the lords of Rougé, the barons of Ancenis and Châteaubriant and the Duchess Konstanze of Brittany . The church was built until 1183. In 1544, the small monastery fell in Kommende . In 1664 the abbey joined the strict observance . Restorations took place in the 17th and 18th centuries. Apart from the religious wars in the 16th century, the history of the monastery was unusually peaceful. In 1790 there were still seven monks. After the monasteries were closed during the French Revolution , the monastery continued to exist until 1795.

In 1817 it was repopulated by a group of Trappists (= Cistercians of the Strict Observance) from Lulworth in England. They introduced the advanced methods of British agriculture . The monastery was dissolved again in 1831, but monastery life was reintroduced as early as 1837. As a result, the medieval buildings largely fell victim to the expansion of the monastery. The Trappist monastery founded several subsidiaries.

The closure of the abbey and the handover of the buildings to the Communauté du Chemin Neuf were officially announced on August 27, 2015 . For a year, lived and prayed there, the eight remaining Trappist and a Klaustraloblate (one the exam entertaining wafer ) along with 20 members of the Chemin Neuf. Then the monks changed in the monastery Port-du-Salut .

Buildings and plant

The abbey church
Abbey portal

The church, consecrated in 1183 in the form of a Latin cross with a flat end of the chancel and square pillars, which support the pointed arched side aisle arcades, was restored to its original state in 1948. The facade and portal date from the 15th century.

literature

  • Michel Niaussat: Melleray et l'empreinte due XIXe siècle. In: Dossiers d'Archéologie. No. 234, 1998, ISSN  1141-7137 , pp. 84-85.
  • Bernard Peugniez: Routier cistercien. Abbayes et sites. France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse. Nouvelle édition augmentée. Éditions Gaud, Moisenay 2001, ISBN 2-84080-044-6 , p. 336.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Kilian J. Walsh: Dom Vincent of Mount Melleray . MH Gill & Son, Dublin 1962, p. 54.
  2. ↑ Erbe und Arbeits , Vol. 92 (2016), p. 245
  3. ↑ https://infolocale.ouest-france.fr/nozay-44113/agenda/projection-du-film-dans-les-pas-des-moines-abbaye-de-melleray_5911908

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