Oignies Abbey (French : Abbaye d'Oignies; originally Priory of St Nicolas d'Oignies) is a former Augustinian monastery in Aiseau-Presles, Wallonia. Established in 1187, it is situated on the banks of the Sambre River in Belgium. [1]
Oignies Abbey (French : Abbaye d'Oignies; originally Priory of St Nicolas d'Oignies) is a former Augustinian monastery in Aiseau-Presles, Wallonia. Established in 1187, it is situated on the banks of the Sambre River in Belgium. [1]
In 1187, four brothers from Walcourt settled at Oignies, Three of the brothers, Gilles, Robert and John, were priests, while the fourth, Hugo, was a jeweller and metalworker. Several other men settled with them and they formed the community of St. Nicolas of Oignies, adopting the rule of St. Augustine. In 1192, St Nicolas of Oignies was officially recognized as a priory by the order of the Canons of St. Augustine. Gilles becomes the first prior, a position that he held for 41 years. The community built a church dedicated to St. Nicolas, which was consecrated in 1204. Following major alterations it was reconsecrated in 1226. [2] In circa 1230, Hugo presented to the monastery a manuscript and silver book covers, the book cover depicting Hugo as a layman, and the monastery's patron saint St. Nicolas. [3]
The women of this group settled in huts between the men's priory and the river. Marie of Oignies left her husband and arrived here in the first decade of the thirteenth century where she ran a community of Beguines. Soon after, the cleric Jacques de Vitry arrived, and it was he who chronicled Marie's life after he became a priest. Hugo's medieval Gothic art pieces are recognized as "some of the most important examples of medieval Gothic metalwork". [4]
Though the priory remained a community of 12 to 20 men, [4] it eventually became an Augustinian monastery. Between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries there were several fires. The wars in the southern Netherlands also caused destruction. In 1559, during the ecclesiastical reorganization of southern Netherlands, St Nicolas priory church became a part of the newly established Roman Catholic Diocese of Namur. It was suppressed in 1796. [5] As with other monasteries, the priory's land parcels were sold and became public property. John Francis Pierlot, also known by his religious name Brother Gregory, was a native of Soignies and the 42nd and last prior of the abbey. In 1794, during the revolution, he left the Treasure of Hugo d'Oignies with a farmer and his wife in Falisolle, to prevent its confiscation by the state. In 1817, following the death of the farmer, it was retrieved from its hiding place, returning to the care of Father Pierlot. In 1818, he gave the Treasure to the Sisters of Notre Dame at Namur. [6] After the revolution, however, some members of the religious community remained until 1808. [7] In 1836, the new owner demolished the cloister. Some of the church furniture went to parish churches in the area, such as Saint Christopher (Charleroi) or St. Maarten (Ragnies). A statue of the Virgin from medieval times is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Situated on 3 hectares in a park-like setting, the building is now privately owned and can be rented for events such as seminars, conventions, and weddings. [8]
Bec Abbey, formally the Abbey of Our Lady of Bec, is a Benedictine monastic foundation in the Eure département, in the Bec valley midway between the cities of Rouen and Bernay. It is located in Le Bec Hellouin, Normandy, France, and was the most influential abbey of the 12th-century Anglo-Norman kingdom.
Frithuswith, commonly Frideswide, was an English princess and abbess. She is credited as the foundress of a monastery later incorporated into Christ Church, Oxford. She was the daughter of a sub-king of a Mercia named Dida of Eynsham whose lands occupied western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames.
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons, is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church founded in Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Norbert of Xanten, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg. Premonstratensians are designated by OPraem following their name.
Jacques de Vitry was a French canon regular who was a noted theologian and chronicler of his era. He was elected bishop of Acre in 1214 and made cardinal in 1229. His Historia Orientalis is an important source for the historiography of the Crusades.
The Tironensian Order or the Order of Tiron was a medieval monastic order named after the location of the mother abbey in the woods of Thiron-Gardais in Perche, some 35 miles west of Chartres in France). They were popularly called "Grey Monks" because of their grey robes, which their spiritual cousins, the monks of Savigny, also wore.
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although in a broader sense the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling and manuscript illumination reaching a high level of development during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Rives-en-Seine. It was founded in 649 near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France.
Maredsous Abbey is a Benedictine monastery at Maredsous, in the municipality of Anhée, Wallonia, Belgium. It is a founding member of the Annunciation Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation.
Floreffe Abbey is a former Premonstratensian monastery, the second of the order to be founded, situated on the Sambre at Floreffe, about 11 km (6.8 mi) south-west of Namur, Wallonia, Belgium.
Ligugé Abbey, formally called the Abbey of St. Martin of Ligugé, is a French Benedictine monastery in the Commune of Ligugé, located in the Department of Vienne. Dating to the 4th century, it is the site of one of the earliest monastic foundations in France. The original abbey having been destroyed during the French Revolution, the current monastic community dates from 1853, and belongs to the Solesmes Congregation.
Thomas of Cantimpré was a Flemish Catholic medieval writer, preacher, theologian and a friar belonging to the Dominican Order. He is best known for his encyclopedic work on nature De natura rerum, for the moral text Bonum universale de Apibus and for his hagiographical writings.
Marie of Oignies was a Beguine saint, known from the Life written by James of Vitry, for Fulk of Toulouse.
Hugo of Oignies was a lay brother of Oignies Abbey. He was a metalworker and painter and is the last of the great jewelers of Mosan art. He is a representative of the school of the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse and was considered the greatest artist of the Meuse Valley of his time.
Cassan Abbey is an 18th-century building in France, classed as a historical monument. It is located in Roujan commune, Hérault département, Occitanie.
Maredret Abbey, also known as l’Abbaye des saints Jean et Scolastique, is a monastery of Benedictine nuns located on the edge of Maredret, a very small village in the hilly countryside to the south of Charleroi and Namur, Wallonia, Belgium. The abbey was inaugurated with the installation of seven nuns in 1893, and the abbey church was constructed between 1898 and 1907.
Saint-Hubert Abbey, officially the Abbey of St Peter in the Ardennes, was a Benedictine monastery founded in the Ardennes in 687 and suppressed in 1797. The former abbey church is now a minor basilica in the diocese of Namur, Belgium. It was listed as built heritage in 1938, and as an exceptional monument in 2016.
Saint Nicholas at Oignies was founded in the last decade of the twelfth century and suppressed in 1796.
the treasure of hugo d'oignies.