FONTEVRAULT (Fons Ebraldi). — Ancient abbey of Benedictine nuns near Saumur in France (Marne et Loire), originally within the territory of the diocese of Poitiers, now in that of Angers, founded at the end of the 11th century by Robert of Arbrissel.
The abbey church of Notre-Dame was begun at the start of the 12th century and consecrated by Callistus II in 1179; it underwent reconstructions in the 13th–14th centuries. The central nave with four domes, destroyed in 1816, was called the "cemetery of kings" because it housed the tombs of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine his wife, of Richard the Lionheart, of Isabella of Angoulême, widow of King John Lackland, and of Robert of Arbrissel. Today the abbey has been reduced to a central house of detention. The chapter house still preserves scenes of the Passion painted by T. Pot (1567). Near the monumental refectory stands the octagonal tower flanked by six apses. Adjoining the ancient dormitory is the church of St Benedict from the 12th century with a cloister from the 17th. Another nearby church is that of St Lazarus (late 12th century) with another cloister. The present church of St Michael dates from the late 12th century and contains the great wooden altarpiece from the abbey church (1621).
HISTORY. — Robert of Arbrissel, the first itinerant preacher in France, gathered around him poor men and women for Christ, who, converted by his sermons, followed and imitated him. After an initial period of apostolic wandering, they made the Rule of St Benedict the basis of their life, with their own statutes. A distinctive feature of this order was its double monasteries, of men and women — though a strict separation was maintained between them — governed by the Abbess of F., who also presided over the male monasteries in honor of the Virgin Mary.
In the century of its foundation the Order of F. spread rapidly in France and England. It won many adherents among the nobility. Several princesses from the houses of Orléans and Bourbon became its abbesses. Pope Sixtus IV in 1475 approved the great reform of Abbess Mary of Brittany (1457–77). Toward the end of the 16th century a religious movement arose from F. that in 1618 led to the foundation of the Congregation of the Calvary (Calvairiennes). Under Gabrielle de Rochechouart (1670–1740) F. enjoyed a new period of prosperity, but in 1790 the Order, which still numbered 59 monasteries in four provinces, was suppressed. In 1824 it revived in France within the Congregation of the Sisters of St Mary of F., and today it has a few members in three independent priories at Chemillé, Brion and Boulan.