Abbey of Longchamp

Last updated

The Abbey of Longchamp, known also as the Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin, was a convent of Poor Clares founded in 1255 in Paris by Saint Isabelle of France.

Poor Clares order of convent nuns

The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis – are members of a contemplative Order of nuns in the Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan Order to be established. Founded by Saints Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, and before the Third Order of Saint Francis. As of 2011 there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations.

Paris Capital of France

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Contents

The Abbey of Longchamp in the 17th Century (engraving by Israel Silvestre) Corbel006 L' abbaye de Longchamp au XVIIe siecle, d'apres la gravure d'Israel Silvestre.jpg
The Abbey of Longchamp in the 17th Century (engraving by Israël Silvestre)

Royal Foundation

St Isabelle, foundress of Longchamp (Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, Paris) St. Isabel of France Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois.jpg
St Isabelle, foundress of Longchamp (Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, Paris)

Though betrothed to Hugh, eldest son and heir of Hugh X of Lusignan, Isabelle refused to celebrate the formal wedding due to her fixed determination to remain a virgin, although she never became a nun.

Hugh XI de Lusignan, Hugh VI of La Marche or Hugh II of Angoulême. He succeeded his mother Isabelle of Angoulême, former queen of England, as Count of Angoulême in 1246. He likewise succeeded his father Hugh X as Count of La Marche in 1249. Hugh XI de Lusignan was the half-brother of King Henry III of England.

Hugh X of Lusignan French noble

Hugh X de Lusignan, Hugh V of La Marche or Hugh I of Angoulême succeeded his father Hugh IX as Seigneur de Lusignan and Count of La Marche in November 1219 and was Count of Angoulême by marriage.

In furtherance of Isabelle's wish to found a monastery of Poor Clares, her brother King Louis IX of France began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of Rouvray, not far from the Seine, west of Paris. On 10 June 1256, the first slide of the monastery church was laid. The building appears to have been completed about the beginning of 1259, because Pope Alexander IV gave his sanction on 2 February 1259, to the new Rule which was composed especially for this monastery by the Franciscan Mansuetus base on the Rule of St. Clare. Not as strict as that rule, the community was allowed to hold property. The monastery was named the Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin. In the Rule the nuns were called the Sisters of the humble order of servants of the most Blessed Virgin Mary. The nuns were subject to the Friars Minor. Some of the first nuns came from the Poor Clare monastery in Rheims.

Louis IX of France 13th-century King of France

Louis IX, commonly known as Saint Louis, was King of France, the ninth from the House of Capet, and is a canonized Catholic and Anglican saint. Louis was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII the Lion, although his mother, Blanche of Castile, ruled the kingdom until he reached maturity. During Louis' childhood, Blanche dealt with the opposition of rebellious vassals and put an end to the Albigensian Crusade which had started 20 years earlier.

Seine river in France

The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long (483 mi) river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine, 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre. It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 120 kilometres (75 mi) from the sea. Over 60 percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by commercial riverboats, and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in Paris, lined with top monuments including Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum and Musée d'Orsay.

Pope Alexander IV pope

Pope Alexander IV was Pope from 12 December 1254 to his death in 1261.

Isabelle never joined the community herself, but did live in the monastery, in a room separate from the nuns’ cells. She suffered from illnesses during her life, which prevented her from following the rule of life for the nuns. Isabelle refused to become abbess, which allowed her to retain her wealth and resources, so she could support them and continue to give to the poor. She kept a discipline of silence for most of her day.

Abbess female superior of a community of nuns, often an abbey

In Christianity, an abbess is the female superior of a community of nuns, which is often an abbey.

Isabelle died at Longchamp on 23 February 1270, and was buried in the monastery church.


Abbesses of Longchamp

Destruction

Ruins of the Abbey of Longchamp (engraving by Edmond Morin c. 1856) Corbel005 Vue panoramique de l'ancienne abbaye de Longchamp.jpg
Ruins of the Abbey of Longchamp (engraving by Edmond Morin c. 1856)

The Abbey of Longchamp had many vicissitudes. At the time of the French Revolution, on 26 February 1790 the nuns were served with an order of expulsion, but it was on 17 September 1792 that the valuables and sacred objects were taken away from the chapel and by 12 October that year the nuns had left the monastery. [1] . In 1794 the empty building was offered for sale, but, as no one wished to purchase it, it was destroyed. In 1857 the walls were pulled down, except for one tower, and the grounds were added to the Bois de Boulogne.

French Revolution social and political revolution in France and its colonies occurring from 1789 to 1798

The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies beginning in 1789. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, catalyzed violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon who brought many of its principles to areas he conquered in Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history.

Bois de Boulogne large public park the western edge of Paris, France

The Bois de Boulogne is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by the Emperor Napoleon III to be turned into a public park in 1852.

Further reading

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Depictions

See also

Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp (a flat horse race, open to thoroughbreds aged two years or older, run at Longchamp Racecourse each year in early October).

Related Research Articles

Isabelle of France (saint) French saint

Isabelle of France was the daughter of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. She was a younger sister of King Louis IX of France and of Alfonso, Count of Poitiers, and an older sister of King Charles I of Sicily. In 1256, she founded the Poor Clare monastery of Longchamp in the part of the Forest of Rouvray, west of Paris. Isabelle consecrated her virginity and her entire life to God alone. She is honored as a saint by the Franciscan Order. Her feastday is the 26th of February.

Faremoutiers Abbey was an important Merovingian Benedictine nunnery 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.

Chelles Abbey abbey located in Seine-et-Marne, in France

Chelles Abbey was a Frankish monastery founded c. 658 during the early medieval period. It was intended initially as a monastery for women; then its reputation for great learning grew, and with the afflux of men wishing to follow the monastic life, a parallel male community was established, creating a double monastery.

<i>Maîtresse-en-titre</i>

The maîtresse-en-titre was the chief mistress of the king of France. It was a semi-official position which came with its own apartments. The title came into use during the reign of Henry IV and continued until the reign of Louis XV.

When the Viking chieftain Rollo obtained via the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte the territories which would later make up Normandy, he distributed them as estates among his main supporters. Among these lands were the seigneurie of Harcourt, near Brionne, and the county of Pont-Audemer, both of which Rollo granted to Bernard the Dane, ancestor of the lords (seigneurs) of Harcourt. The first to use Harcourt as a name, however, was Anquetil d'Harcourt at the start of the 11th century.

John VI of Harcourt was a count of Harcourt. He was son of John V of Harcourt and Blanche of Ponthieu who was the sister of Jeanne of Ponthieu.

Marguerite de Sablé, Dame de Sablé, was a French noblewoman and one of the wealthiest heiresses in the counties of Anjou and Maine. She was the eldest daughter of Robert de Sablé, and the wife of William des Roches, Seneschal of Anjou, who two years after his marriage to Marguerite became one of the greatest barons in Anjou and Maine, her considerable inheritance having passed to him upon her father's death in 1193.

Isabelle de Meulan, Dame de Mayenne, Dame de Craon was a French noblewoman, being the daughter of Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester, Count of Meulan. Isabelle married twice; firstly to Geoffroy, Seigneur de Mayenne, and secondly to Maurice II, Sire de Craon. Her eldest son Juhel III de Mayenne was a celebrated Crusader.

Godfrey of Brabant Lord of Aarschot (1284–1302) and Lord of Vierzon (1277–1302)

Godfrey of Brabant, was the first Lord of Aarschot, between 1284 and his death in 1302, and Lord of Vierzon, between 1277 and 1302.

Forest Abbey

Forest Abbey was a Benedictine Abbey founded in 1105, beside a creek, a tributary of the Zenne, southwest of the city of Brussels, Belgium in the municipality of Forest.

Women letter writers

Women letter writers in early modern Europe created lengthy correspondences, where they expressed their intellect and their creativity; in the process, they also left a rich historic legacy.

Agnes d'Harcourt was an author and the abbess of the Abbey of Longchamp.

Amaury III de Craon

Amaury III de Craon, Lord of Créon, Mareuil and Sablé, Seneschal of Gascony as well as seneschal of Anjou, Maine and Touraine.

Pentemont Abbey abbey located in Paris, in France

Pentemont Abbey is a set of 18th and 19th century buildings at the corner of Rue de Grenelle and Rue de Bellechasse in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The abbey was a Cistercian convent founded near Beauvais in 1217 and moved to its current site in Paris in 1672 at the behest of Louis XIV. A reconstruction of the abbey was initiated in 1745 by the Abbess Marie-Catherine Béthisy de Mézières and work was completed in 1783. In the late 18th century the abbey was one of the most prestigious educational institutions in Paris for daughters of the elite, including two of Thomas Jefferson's. The abbey also provided rooms for ladies of good standing who were in search of rest, including Joséphine de Beauharnais when the case of her separation from her first husband was heard.

Abbey of Notre Dame aux Nonnains abbey located in Aube, in France

The Abbey of Notre Dame aux Nonnains, also called the Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Troyes, was a convent founded before the 7th century in Troyes, France. The non-cloistered canonesses became wealthy and powerful in the Middle Ages. In 1266–68 they defied the pope and used force to delay construction of the collegiate Church of St Urbain. They were excommunicated as a result. Later the abbey adopted a strictly cloistered rule and the nuns became impoverished. Work started on building a new convent in 1778 but was only partially completed before the French Revolution (1789–99). The abbey was closed in 1792 and the church was demolished. The convent became the seat of the prefecture of Aube.

The Abbaye Notre-Dame de la Déserte or Abbaye de la Déserte, was an abbey in Lyon, France. Founded in 1303 by Louis de Villars, Bishop of Lyon it housed the Poor Clares from 1304 till 1503, then Benedictine nuns from 1503 to the French Revolution, when it was dissolved. It was demolished in 1814.

Abbey of Saint-Ausone abbey located in Charente, in France

The abbey of Saint-Ausone is a Benedictine abbey founded in Angouleme in the Charente in the 11th century.

Henri IV de Sully

Henri IV de Sully, Grand Butler of France, Treasurer of France, Lord of Sully was a 13th-14th century French noble.

References

  1. Henri Corbel, Petite Histoire du Bois de Boulogne, Albin Michel, 1931, p. 42.

Coordinates: 48°51′18″N2°14′49″E / 48.855°N 2.247°E / 48.855; 2.247