Igny Abbey
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Igny Abbey
Cour honneur abbaye Igny 06730.jpg
Main entrance, 2016
Monastery information
Full name The Abbey of Our Lady of Igny (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Igny;
Other names Abbaye Notre-Dame du Val d'Igny
Order Cistercian, Trappist
Established 1126-1128, 1876, 1929
Disestablished 1790-1874 and 1914-1929
Mother house Cîteaux Abbey, France
Dedicated to Virgin Mary
Diocese Reims
People
Founder(s) Rainaud II de Martigny, Archbishop of Reims
Important associated figures Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Blessed Abbot Guerric of
Igny, Blessed Abbot Gerard of Clairvaux, Gaucher V de Châtillon
Site
Location Arcis-le-Ponsart, Marne, France.
Igny Abbey or Val d'Igny Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Igny; Abbaye Notre-Dame
du Val d'Igny) is a Cistercian abbey located in Arcis-le-Ponsart, Marne, France. It
was founded in 1128 for Cistercian monks, dissolved in 1791 during the French
Revolution, re-established in 1876 for Trappist monks, destroyed in 1918, reopened
in 1929 for Trappist nuns and modernised in 2008–12 to accommodate three or four
pre-existing communities.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Origins and Zenith
1.2 Later Fortunes
1.3 Present Nunnery
2 Abbots and abbesses
3 References
4 Sources
History
Origins and Zenith
Igny Abbey was founded by the Archbishop of Reims, Rainaud II de Martigny, who
provided land at Igny.[1][2] In 1128, Bernard of Clairvaux sent twelve monks from
Clairvaux to Igny to establish it under Humbert, previously prior of Clairvaux, as
the first abbot (Igny is thus of the filiation of Clairvaux).[3]
The community at Igny prospered sufficiently under Humbert to be able to found a
daughter house, Signy Abbey, in 1135. He was succeeded in 1138 by Guerric of Igny,
best known for his sermons, later beatified. His relics are still venerated in
Igny, and are preserved in the church's side chapel.[2][4]
A second daughter house, Valroy Abbey, was founded in 1147.[5]
In 1177, Abbot Gerard of Clairvaux, later Blessed Gerard, was murdered at Igny by a
certain Hugh of Bazoches, a monk whom he had threatened with disciplinary action,
thus becoming the first Cistercian martyr.[6]
Despite this incident, the abbey flourished and in its heyday housed over 500 monks
and owned more than 5,000 hectares of land.
As with other Cistercian monasteries, growth at Igny slowed from the later 13th
century. In the 14th century the abbey suffered badly from the effects of the
Hundred Years' War; large gifts from Gaucher V de Châtillon enabled it to rebuild
in 1378. Decline continued, however.
Later Fortunes
In 1545 the abbey was placed under commendatory abbots, at which time the community
consisted of 72 monks. Further damage occurred during the French Wars of Religion
in the later 16th century, during which the monastery was pillaged by Huguenots.
After still more pillaging suffered during the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-
Spanish War, the number of monks had fallen to seven.
In 1733 the church was destroyed and a new one built, which was completed along
with other new buildings in 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. In 1790
all religious houses in France were suppressed; in April 1791 the six monks then
living there were turned out and the abbey's assets were declared national property
and sold off.[7]
The monastic premises passed into private hands but in 1876 were reacquired by the
Archdiocese of Reims for the establishment of a Trappist monastery by a community
of monks from the Abbey of Sainte-Marie-du-Désert. The new monastery was at first a
priory but was raised to an abbey in 1886. The new community funded themselves
mostly by the manufacture of chocolate.
In 1914 the German army appropriated the premises, wrecking the chocolate factory,
and turned them into a hospital for infectious diseases. Just before the Second
Battle of the Marne in May 1918 the buildings were evacuated; when retreating on 6
August 1918, the Germans blew them up, destroying the entire abbey with the
exception of the small library.
The abbey was rebuilt in 1927-1929 and occupied in November 1929 by a community of
32 Trappist nuns from Laval Abbey.[8] In 1955 Igny founded the first house of
Cistercian nuns in Africa, the Abbaye Notre-Dame de la Clarté Dieu at Murhesa in
South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[8]
Present Nunnery
In 2007 the structure of Cistercian communities throughout northern France was re-
thought, and the order decided that three communities of nuns should be brought
together at Igny: Igny's existing community and those of la Grâce-Dieu and Belval
(subsequently the small community of Ubexy was also included). A major re-building
consequently took place. In 2011 the four existing communities were installed,
which almost doubled the size of the previous population of Igny,[9] as the new
community of the Abbaye Notre-Dame du Val d'Igny.[10]
Abbots and abbesses
Cistercian abbots
1128-1138: Humbert
1138-1157: Guerric I (Bl Guerric of Igny)
1157-1162: Geoffrey of Auxerre
1162-1164: Bernard
1164-1169: Hugh
1169-1179: Pierre I Monoculus (Pierre le Borgne)
1179-1186: Gerard I
1186-1189: Julien (1)
1189-1190: Videbatius
1190-1205: Julien (2)
1205-1232: Nicolas I
1232-1234: Jean I
1234-1237: Gilbert
1238-1239: Anscher
1239-1245: Pierre II of Bar
1245-1254: Thibaud I
1254-1270: Pierre III
1270-1284: Gerard II
1284-1290: Jean II de Pontoise
1291-1292: Nicolas II
1292-1300: Alard I
1301-1307: Guerric II
1307-1327: John III
1327-1332: Pons I Wassigny
1333-1345: Alard II
1345-1355: Jean IV Cohan
1356-13??: Jean V Oiselet
13?? -13??: Pons II
13?? -13??: Ogier I Bezannes
13?? -1378: Laurent
1378-1399: William
1399-1419: Jacques
1419-1445: Nicolas III Unchair
1445-1460: Thibaud II of Luxembourg
1460-1476: Jean VI de Montigny
1476-1488: Nicolas IV Suippes
1488-1498: Ogier II La Grange
1498-1501: Nicolas V
1501-1504: Jean Renauld VII
1504-1506: Denis
1506-1545: Jean VIII Scépeaux
Commendatory abbots
1545-1553: Louis I de Foligny
1553-1589: Louis II de Breze
1589-1625: Alexandre de La Marck
1625-1661: Louis III de La Marck
1661-1709: Paul Godet des Marais de la Marck
1709-1746: Charles-François des Moustiers Mérinville
1746-1759: Francis Jerome de Montigny
1760-1776: Justinian Boffin Puisigneux
1777-1790: Jean-Charles de Courcy
Trappist priors and abbot
1876-1881: Nivard Fournier, prior
1881-1886: Augustin Marre, prior
1886-1922: Augustin Marre, Abbot
Trappist abbesses
1933-1936: Mary I Gastineau Alphonse
1936-1948: Marie Deschamps Lucia II
1948-1951: Andrée Lavaux (1)
1951-1956: Lutgarde Lehalle
1956-1958: Andrée Lavaux (2)
1958-1969: Marie III Aleth Girondelot
1970-1999: Marie Denis IV Aelred
1999-2008: Marie Rose V Flanders
2008–2014: Inès Gravier, apostolic administrator
2014–present: Isabelle Valez
References
France (1788). Traité des droits, fonctions, franchises, exemptions, prérogatives
et privilèges annexés en France à chanqe dignité: à chaque office & à chaque état,
soit civil, soit militaire, soit ecclésiastique. Visse. p. 186. Retrieved 30 August
2012.
"L'abbaye d'Igny" (in French). Arcis-le-Ponsart. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
The foundation year may thus be given variously as 1126 (date of the gift of the
land), 1127 (date of the foundation charter) or 1128 (date of settlement of the
site).
A Companion to Bernard of Clairvaux. BRILL. 21 March 2011. pp. 74–. ISBN 978-90-
04-20139-2. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
Janauschek, Originum Cisterciensium Liber Primus, 1877
recorded in Konrad of Eberbach's Exordium Magnum Cistercense: Benedicta Ward
(translator and editor), Paul Savage (translator), E. Rozanne Elder (editor), 2012:
The Great Beginning of Citeaux: The Exordium Magnum of Conrad of Eberbach: A
Narrative of the Beginning of the Cistercian Order (Cistercian Fathers series No
72). Translation of the critical edition by Bruno Griesser, Series Scriptorum Sacri
Ordinis Cisterciensis, vol 2: Rome 1961. Cistercian Publications; Abbey of
Gethsemani, Kentucky ISBN 978-0-87907-172-1 and ISBN 978-0-87907-2 (digitised
version on Google books)
Bonis, Armelle; Dechavanne, Sylvie; Wabont, Monique (2008). La France
cistercienne: Histoire des moines et des moniales du XIe au XXIe siècle. Salvator.
Retrieved 30 August 2012.
Jaulerry, Laure; Labourdette, Jean-Paul; Hunsiger, Véronique (28 May 2008). Petit
Futé Séjours spirituels en France. Petit Futé. p. 72. ISBN 978-2-7469-2189-4.
Retrieved 30 August 2012.
"Les Cisterciennes de Notre-Dame d'Igny" (in French). Diocese de Reims. Retrieved
29 August 2012.
"Val d'Igny". Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae. Retrieved 29 August
2012.
Sources
Abbaye d'Igny website (in French)
Coordinates: 49°12′36″N 3°41′07″E
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SUDOC (France) 1
Categories: Cistercian monasteries in FranceChristian monasteries in Marne
(department)1128 establishments in Europe1120s establishments in FranceReligious
organizations established in the 1120sChristian monasteries established in the 12th
century
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