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Ligugé Abbey, or the Abbey of St. Martin of Ligugé, is a Benedictine monastery in Ligugé, Vienne, France. Founded in 361 by Martin of Tours with land from Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, it is one of France’s oldest monastic sites. Initially thriving, the abbey later declined after invasions and conflicts, becoming a dependent priory by the 11th century. It was revitalized in 1003 but suffered during the Hundred Years’ War and was later held in commendam.
In the 16th century, the Jesuits took over, renovating the priory and running a college until the suppression of their order in 1762. The site was sold during the French Revolution, with the church eventually serving as a parish church.
Monastic life was restored in 1853 with monks from Solesmes, making Ligugé the first Solesmes daughter house. Expelled in 1880 by anti-clerical laws, the monks took refuge in Spain, later returning and founding new abbeys. Visitors like Huysmans and Claudel spent time there. After another expulsion in 1902, the community returned and rebuilt the abbey church, consecrated in 1929.
During World War II, the abbey sheltered figures like Robert Schuman and Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow. Monk Aimé Lambert joined the Resistance and was executed in 1943. After the war, an enamelling workshop was established at the abbey.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.