Savigny Abbey Ruins

Savigny Abbey (Abbaye de Savigny) was founded by Vital de Mortain, who set up a hermitage in the forest of Savigny (1105). Rudolph, lord of Fougeres, confirmed to the monastery (1112) the grants he had formerly made to Vital, and from then dates the foundation of the monastery. Its growth was rapid, and Vital and Saint Aymon were canonized.

In 1119 Pope Celestine II, then in Angers, took it under his immediate protection, and strongly commended it to the neighbouring nobles. Under Geoffroy, successor to Vital, Henry I of England established and generously endowed 29 monasteries of this Congregation in his dominions. Bernard of Clairvaux also held them in high esteem, and it was at his request that their monks, in the times of the antipope Anacletus, declared in favour of Pope Innocent II.Serlon, third successor of the Founder, found it difficult to retain his jurisdiction over the English monasteries, who wished to make themselves independent, and so determined to affiliate the entire Congregation to Citeaux, which was effected at the General Chapter of 1147. Several English monasteries objecting to this, were finally obliged to submit by Pope Eugene III (1148).

In later centuries discipline became relaxed. In the mid-16th century the Abbey was pillaged and partly burned by Calvinists, and records of the following year mention but twenty-four monks remaining.It continued to exist until the Revolution reduced it to a heap of ruins, and scattered its then existing members. The church was restored in 1869. It has been listed as a Monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture in 1924.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

L'Abbaye, Savigny-le-Vieux, France

Details

Founded: 1105
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)