The Abbey of Saint-Père-en-Vallée was a monastery just outside Chartres in France. Founded by Queen Balthild in the seventh century, it adopted the Benedictine rule in 954 and joined the Congregation of Saint-Maur in 1650. It was closed with all other monasteries during the French Revolution in 1790. Today, its buildings lie within the city of Chartres and are classified as a historical monument. The church, Église Saint-Pierre de Chartres, continues to serve as a parish church.
Saint-Père-en-Vallée is so named because it occupied the low ground outside the walls of Chartres, while the cathedral lay within the walls.
The earliest document pertaining to Saint-Père-en-Vallée is the record of grants made to several clergy in 646 by Queen Balthild and a certain nobleman named Hilary.[1]
In the 840s, the monks of Saint-Père-en-Vallée got into a conflict with the bishop of Chartres, Elias, and went into exile at the abbey of Saint-Germain d'Auxerre. In 858 the monastery was sacked by Vikings. Afterwards, it was plundered by the bishop.
In 911 it was attacked a second time by Vikings under the command of Rollo. In 930, a friendlier bishop, Hagano, restored the monastery and gave it fortifications, including a square tower which still stands today as the bell tower. Hagano's successor, Ragenfred, was generous to Saint-Père-en-Vallée with donations and privileges. It was he who definitively established the Benedictine rule in the house. This rule continued to be followed down to 1790.
In the second quarter of the eleventh century, Abbot Landry began to enclose the Bourg Saint-Père, a distinct suburb of Chartres growing up around the monastery. In the twelfth century, the town of Chartres finally swallowed up Saint-Père-en-Vallée and its bourg. The abbey church, which is well preserved today, was built in the Gothic style in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
By the seventeenth century, the abbey of Saint-Père-en-Vallée had the oversight of 24 priories and 80 curacies in the diocese of Chartres, Orléans, Évreux, Rouen, Sées and Coutances. In 1650, the abbey joined the Maurists.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the conventual buildings were rebuilt, but by 1789 there only eight monks living in them and the abbey's revenues had dwindled to 23,000 livres. In 1790 the French government abolished all religious orders and Saint-Père-en-Vallée was suppressed. In 1803, the abbey church was restored as a parish church named Saint-Pierre.
The cartulary of the abbey is preserved. It was composed in three stages. The oldest section, called the Vetus Hagano ("Old Hagano"), was compiled by a monk named Paul, who was the treasurer of the abbey in the late eleventh century. The second section, the Codex argenteus ("Silver Book"), was compiled around the year 1200. The final section was compiled in 1772 by Dom Muley of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Crépin de Soissons, while he was organizing the archives of Saint-Père. The whole cartulary was given a modern critical edition in 1840 and published in two volumes by Benjamin Edme Charles Guérard.[2] In 2014, the Archaeological Society of Eure-et-Loir published 400 excerpts from the cartulary in French translation and richly illustrated.
Many manuscripts originally from Saint-Père were lost in 1944 during World War II, when the municipal library of Chartres was struck by a bomb and burned. Before the fire, the library contained 1,687 manuscripts, including 500 from before 1500. Of these, 138 were from the library of Saint-Père. Lost was MS. 65, which contained a catalogue of the books in the library of Saint-Père in the eleventh century. At that time, it had 94 books, an exceptionally high number for the period. Among the other lost works was MS. 24, the Liber comitis of Audradus Modicus, which he wrote and illustrated in the basilica of Saint Martin at Tours towards 820. It had been kept in Saint-Père for centuries.
A list of abbots can only be compiled from the adoption of the Benedictine rule onwards. From Philip II on, all the abbots were commendatory only.
He was a canon, described as both presbiter (priest) and archiclavus (high key-bearer, that is, administrator) in a document of 940. He was assigned by Ragenfred to obtain twelve monks from the abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire to initiate the Benedictine rule at Saint-Père, but he died before 954.
He was placed at the head of the abbey by Harduin, Ragenfred's successor.
He was consecrated by Wulfard, Harduin's successor, and wrote a passion of Saint Éman.
He was imposed on the monks without an election by Count Theobald II of Blois after the death of Giselbert, which caused the monks to flee to the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Lagny, led by one of their own, Herbert. After two or three years, the monks were reconciled to Magenard and returned. He died in office.
He was forced out by the monks, then recalled by them in 1075. He was forced out a second time in 1078 and died in the priory at Brezolles.
He resigned and died on 2 May 1102.
He participated in the First Crusade and later wrote a history of it.
He died 3 September 1309.
He was also the bishop of Cahors from 1510 and bishop of Orléans from 1514.
He was also the bishop of Mâcon and a cardinal.
He was a nephew of his predecessor through his mother. He converted to Protestantism and abandoned the abbey in 1571. He married Jacqueline d'Orléans-Longueville in 1575 and died on 1 June 1582.
Nicknamed the Chevalier d'Aumale, he was a member of the Catholic League who was killed in the attack on Saint-Denis.
The son of the chancellor of France, he was only fifteen years old when appointed. He became the bishop of Chartres in 1599.
He was a nephew of his predecessor.
He was a brother of his predecessor.
He was the bishop of Langres from 1655. During his abbacy, the monks joined the Congregation of Saint-Maur.
He was the son of Henri de Lorraine-Harcourt.
Nicknamed the Chevalier de Lorraine, he was the brother of his predecessor. He was the lover of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans.
No abbot was named after 1781.