Faremoutiers Abbey (
French: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Faremoutiers) was an important
MerovingianBenedictine nunnery (re-established in the 20th century) in the present Seine-et-Marne department of
France. It formed an important link between the Merovingian
Frankish Empire and the southern
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of
Kent and
East Anglia.
History
The abbey was founded around 620[1] by
Burgundofara (Saint Fara), the first abbess. She had been consecrated to God, while yet a child, by
Columbanus. With the approval of Bishop Gundoald of Meaux, Burgundofara established an abbey on her father's lands.[2]Eustace of Luxeuil supplied monks as chaplains and to assist in building the monastery.[3]
It was a
double monastery, the first in France, with communities of both
monks and
nuns. The main buildings and the abbey church were in the middle of a large enclosure; the monastery of the brothers was located outside of it. It was established to follow the strict
Rule of Saint Columbanus. The site, an estate belonging to Fara's family, originally known as Evoriacum, was renamed Faremoutiers ("Fara's monastery") in her honour. The modern village of
Faremoutiers grew up around the abbey.[4]Jonas of Bobbio, biographer of Columbanus stayed at Faremoutiers in 633. Three women of the royal house of
East Anglia entered the Abbey of Faremoutiers:
Sæthryth, the step-daughter of
King Anna, Anna's daughter
Æthelburh, and his grand-daughter by his daughter
Seaxburh,
Eorcengota (†660), daughter of
Eorcenberht of Kent. Queen
Balthild of Chelles was an important benefactress of the monastery,[5] as was
Erchinoald, mayor of the palace of Neustria.[6]
In the 9th century, as all French abbeys were commanded to do by
Louis the Pious, it changed to the
Rule of Saint Benedict. In 887, the Abbey was sacked by the
Normans. The monasteries became increasingly populated by young women from the nobility, and the Carolingian royal family. As the rules were relaxed, a period of decadence followed. Faremoutiers thus declined into the hands of the local lords and mutated into a place of receptions and maintenance of men-at-arms. Around 1094
Philip I of France wrote the abbot of Marmoutier and "...asked him to reform the monastery of Faremoutiers because of the nuns' dissolute lifestyle".[7] In 1140 the monastery was destroyed by fire, but rebuilt in 1145. In 1445, at the end of the
Hundred Years' War, it was pillaged by soldiers.[4]
In the 16th and 17th centuries the abbey enjoyed royal favour, and saw a number of abbesses appointed by the crown. In 1683, at the request of
Louis XIV, architect
Jules Hardouin-Mansart took charge of the reconstruction of the main building of the Abbey.
Anna Gonzague de Clèves-Nevers, daughter of
Charles I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, was educated at Faremoutiers.[4] The abbey was later tainted by
Jansenism, and in the 18th century suffered from an exhausting lawsuit with the
bishop of Meaux and continuing economic problems.
It was suppressed during the
French Revolution, [3] and the forty-three nuns were dispersed at the end of 1792. Most rejoined their families. Until 1796 the premises were used as a barracks and thereafter as a quarry.
Re-foundation
In 1923 Benedictine nuns from the Abbaye Saint-Nicolas de Verneuil settled in
Amillis before founding in 1931 a small community on the site of Faremoutier abbey, which remains to this day.[3] The Abbey of Faremoutiers now belongs to the
Benedictine Congregation of Mont-Olivet. Since 1980, the monastery has operated as an
EHPAD, i.e. a
Residential care home for senior citizens, primarily elderly nuns from different monasteries throughout France.
^Le Jan, Regne. "Convents, Violence and Competition for Power in Francia.", Topographies of power in the Early Middle Ages. (Theuws, Frans; De Jong, Mayke; van Rhijn, Carine, eds.) Leeiden: Koninkslijke Brill NV, 2001