LUXEUIL, ABBEY OF. - In the diocese of St-Cloud, in the department of Haute-Savoie in France. LUXEUIL, an ancient Celtic settlement, served as a thermal station in Roman times.
In 582 the Irish monk St COLUMBAN founded a monastery at LUXEUIL, which soon became a highly esteemed centre of learning. After the Benedictine Rule was introduced there, the monastery was placed directly under the Holy See and favoured by Charlemagne; the abbots held the title of Princes of the Empire. Decline began at the end of the 15th century; Charles V incorporated the Lordship of LUXEUIL into the Franche-Comté, which was later united with the French crown in 1678. The abbey was suppressed in 1790 by the French Revolution. The abbey church of St PETER was built between 1328 and 1340; it has three naves with a main apse of five niches and two square side apses; the stalls of the choir, carved in 1545 for the cathedral of Besançon, were transferred to LUXEUIL in 1675. In the transept is a statue of St PETER from the 13th century. To the south of the church stands the cloister with adjoining abbey buildings, partly dating from the early 17th century. The former abbey palace now serves as the presbytery and town hall. JEAN JOUFFROY was born at LUXEUIL (1412–73), who later became abbot of LUXEUIL, bishop of Albi and cardinal. Little is known about the scriptorium of LUXEUIL and its two monastic libraries, one containing choral books and the other secular authors. No ancient catalogue survives, and the manuscripts were dispersed during the repeated fires and in the period of the comedy. MABILLON, visiting in 1683, found only a few manuscripts remaining. In 1790 these had been reduced to 33 according to a list then compiled by the prior Dom WATHEROT (L. ECREMENT, Essai historique sur la ville et l'abbaye de L., Lure 1865, p. 136); another 13 were at Vesoul; one was sold in London in 1859, another is in Berne, and one in the library of Pierpont Morgan.
The most ancient Gallican lectionary discovered there by MABILLON (Iter germanicum, Hamburg 1717, p. 11) reappeared at a sale in 1875 and subsequently came into the possession of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris (now Ms. lat. 9427). It has recently been edited by Fr P. SALMON (Le lectionnaire de L., Rome 1944), who has demonstrated that it was compiled for a secular church which he believes to be that of Langres (id., Le lectionnaire de L. Ses origines et l'église de Langres, in Revue bénédictine, 53 [1941], p. 103; id., La liturgie langnoise au XIe–XIIe siècle d'après les mss. 789, in Miscellanea liturgica in honorem L. C. MOHLBERG, I, Rome 1948, pp. 443–50).