Almenêches Abbey

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48°41′50.5″N 0°6′39.5″E / 48.697361°N 0.110972°E / 48.697361; 0.110972

Almenêches Abbey (French: Abbaye d'Almenêches) was a Benedictine nunnery^[1] at Almenêches in Orne, Normandy, France. It was founded in the 6th century, but had been abandoned by the 10th century.^[2] Roger of Montgomery refounded it sometime between 1063 and 1066.^[3]

History

During the Anglo-Norman civil war (1202–04), upon hearing the abbey was being used by Duke Robert Curthose as a stable,^[3] Robert of Bellême burned it down.^[4] The abbess, Bellême's sister Emma, fled with her sister nuns; they were temporarily accommodated in surrounding houses or at the Abbey of Saint-Evroul.^[3] The following year Emma had the abbey at Almenêches rebuilt.^[3] It subsequently suffered another fire under Abbess Matilda, Emma's successor,^[3] and a third one after 1308.^[2]

Episcopal visit

In 1260, Archbishop Eudes Rigaud noted the refectory was not in use; the nuns ate in groups of twos and threes in private rooms.^[5] He ordered them to cease this activity and eat in the refectory.^[5] Eudes also noted that the nuns ran up debts in the town and that some of the nuns even had children.^[6] The nuns also failed to live a communal life, did not attend Matins or Compline, and allowed seculars to visit the nunnery.^[6] Eudes admits to finding the nunnery in disarray, explaining he did not have the time to fix every problem he encountered.^[7] Instead, Eudes ordered their bishop to instruct their abbess on the proper life for the nuns.^[7]

Closure

In 1736, the community was transferred to Argentan Abbey.^[2] During the French Revolution the Abbey church was then used to manufacture saltpeter.^[8] Restoration of the church was carried out between 1864 and 1887 by architect Ruprich-Robert.^[9]

In 1948 the church was listed as a Monument historique.^[10]

References

^ Johnson 1991, p. 269.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hicks 2007, p. 193.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hicks 2007, p. 129.
^ Green 1999, p. 113.
^ ^a ^b Johnson 1991, p. 193-194.
^ ^a ^b Power 1922, p. 666.
^ ^a ^b Davis 2006, p. 53-54.
^ "Abbatiale Sainte-Opportune". Sauvegarde de l’Art Français.
^ "Eglise". www.pop.culture.gouv.fr.
^ "Eglise à Almenêches - PA00110713". monumentum.fr.

Sources

Green, Judith A. (1999). Harper-Bill, Christopher (ed.). "Robert Curthose Reassessed". Anglo-Norman Studies XXII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference. The Boydell Press.
Hicks, Leonie V. (2007). Religious Life in Normandy, 1050-1300: Space, Gender and Social Pressure. The Boydell Press.
Johnson, Penelope D. (1991). Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France. University of Chicago Press.
Power, Eileen (1922). Medieval English Nunneries, C. 1275 to 1535. Cambridge University Press.
Davis, Adam Jeffrey (2006). The Holy Bureaucrat: Eudes Rigaud and Religious Reform in Thirteenth-century Normandy. Cornell University Press.53-54