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Chelles Abbey
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Chelles Abbey
Chelles Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame-des-Chelles) was a Frankish monastery founded around 657/660 during the early medieval period. It was intended initially as a monastery for women; then its reputation for great learning grew, and when men wanted to follow the monastic life, a parallel male community was established, creating a double monastery.
The abbey stood in Chelles near Paris (Seine-et-Marne department) until the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in 1792 during the French Revolution, and was destroyed. The abbey housed an important scriptorium and held the advantage of powerful royal connections throughout the Carolingian era.
Before its religious designation, the site of the abbey, Cala (Gaulish "a collection of pebbles"; modern Chelles, Seine-et-Marne) had held a royal Merovingian villa. Queen Clotilde, the wife of Clovis I, had previous built a small chapel there dedicated to Saint George circa 511.
King Chilperic I and his wife, Fredegund, frequently resided at Cala; Chilperic was assassinated in 584 while hunting there.
The Queen-Saint Balthild, wife of King Clovis II (639-657/658), an Anglo-Saxon aristocrat who had been taken to Gaul as a slave, founded the abbey around 657/660 on the ruins of the Clothilde's chapel as a monastery for women. She gave the first of two great endowments to its construction, enabling the abbey and a large new Church of the Holy Cross to be built. Though no charters survive, in "Life of Saint Balthild", there are references to the gifts she made to the abbey.
Balthild and the abbesses quickly established an impressive reputation for encouraging learning, which attracted monks to Chelles and resulted in its conversion to a double monastery by the end of the 7th century. Balthild herself retired to Chelles in 664, bringing with her a second endowment, and died there in 680, where she was also buried. Her possessions were treated as relics at Chelles, including a chasuble, a vestment embroidered with a pectoral cross and an image of a beautiful necklace, which is currently displayed in the museum at the site. Her hagiography was written soon after her death, probably by a nun at the abbey.
Balthild is reported to have established the monastery first under the Rule of Saint Columbanus, then later adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict, although recent scholars, including Moyse and Dierkens, have warned against assumptions that the Rule was a firmly entrenched system. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the abbey represented a step in the progress of Celtic Christianity into Burgundy, especially in its admittance of monks.
In any case, Balthild exerted control by appointing her own choice of abbess, Bertila. After the apparent shift to the Benedictine Rule from that of Columbanus, the abbey was often governed by Carolingian princesses who continued this tradition.
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Chelles Abbey
Chelles Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame-des-Chelles) was a Frankish monastery founded around 657/660 during the early medieval period. It was intended initially as a monastery for women; then its reputation for great learning grew, and when men wanted to follow the monastic life, a parallel male community was established, creating a double monastery.
The abbey stood in Chelles near Paris (Seine-et-Marne department) until the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in 1792 during the French Revolution, and was destroyed. The abbey housed an important scriptorium and held the advantage of powerful royal connections throughout the Carolingian era.
Before its religious designation, the site of the abbey, Cala (Gaulish "a collection of pebbles"; modern Chelles, Seine-et-Marne) had held a royal Merovingian villa. Queen Clotilde, the wife of Clovis I, had previous built a small chapel there dedicated to Saint George circa 511.
King Chilperic I and his wife, Fredegund, frequently resided at Cala; Chilperic was assassinated in 584 while hunting there.
The Queen-Saint Balthild, wife of King Clovis II (639-657/658), an Anglo-Saxon aristocrat who had been taken to Gaul as a slave, founded the abbey around 657/660 on the ruins of the Clothilde's chapel as a monastery for women. She gave the first of two great endowments to its construction, enabling the abbey and a large new Church of the Holy Cross to be built. Though no charters survive, in "Life of Saint Balthild", there are references to the gifts she made to the abbey.
Balthild and the abbesses quickly established an impressive reputation for encouraging learning, which attracted monks to Chelles and resulted in its conversion to a double monastery by the end of the 7th century. Balthild herself retired to Chelles in 664, bringing with her a second endowment, and died there in 680, where she was also buried. Her possessions were treated as relics at Chelles, including a chasuble, a vestment embroidered with a pectoral cross and an image of a beautiful necklace, which is currently displayed in the museum at the site. Her hagiography was written soon after her death, probably by a nun at the abbey.
Balthild is reported to have established the monastery first under the Rule of Saint Columbanus, then later adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict, although recent scholars, including Moyse and Dierkens, have warned against assumptions that the Rule was a firmly entrenched system. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the abbey represented a step in the progress of Celtic Christianity into Burgundy, especially in its admittance of monks.
In any case, Balthild exerted control by appointing her own choice of abbess, Bertila. After the apparent shift to the Benedictine Rule from that of Columbanus, the abbey was often governed by Carolingian princesses who continued this tradition.
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