SAINT-BENOÎT-SUR-LOIRE. - The Abbey of St-Benoît-sur-Loire at Fleury (from the ancient name of a villa, Floriacum, which had belonged to a certain Florus or Florius) stands near the small town of the same name in the Val de Loire, in the department of the Loiret and in the diocese of Orléans.
Its central position, at the crossing of the great highways, made this valley the center of the peoples of ancient Gaul; in it stood the omphalan, the sacred navel: periodic assemblies were held there; expiatory sacrifices for the whole nation were also offered there, in the temple of the god Radiobus, whither pilgrims flocked from every side under the guidance of the druids. This sacred character was preserved also in the Gallo-Roman period, as important archaeological remains show, and then passed to the Germanic peoples who settled in Gaul.
Christianity met with difficulties in this pagan center, where it triumphed in the 4th century, perhaps through the work of St. Martin, to whom various churches in the valley are dedicated. Probably the same period must be traced back to in order to find the first Christian traces at Fleury. It is known only that in the middle of the 6th century an oratory dedicated to the Virgin was attached to the villa, of which King Clovis II was the owner. The King, who shared with his consort St. Bathilde a concern for the spread of monastic life, ceded the villa, in exchange for other estates, to Leodebodus, abbot of St. Peter's in Orléans. The latter, attracted by the fame of the Rule of St. Benedict, had decided to found a new monastery in order to introduce its observance there. Now he could carry out his plan at Fleury, where the villa was soon transformed into an abbey, which he himself endowed with many possessions by an act of 27 June 651. The choice of the place, the compliance of King Clovis and the intention of transferring there the relics of St. Aignan, dear to the people for having saved Orléans from Attila, reveal the aim of creating in the valley a Christian sacred center, capable of a powerful attraction, not inferior to that exercised by the earlier center of a pagan character, which was probably not yet entirely vanished at that time. The development of the abbey of Fleury was therefore rapid: the translation of the body of St. Benedict, which would have taken place in the time of Abbot Mommolus (658-79), made it even more famous and one of the most frequented sanctuaries of France. From this time it was called St-Benoît-sur-Loire. It enjoyed the favor of the Frankish princes, who enriched it with numerous donations. In the Carolingian period it reached a high degree of prosperity with Abbot Theodulf, the true founder of the school, which became a very important cultural center: its influence often crossed the borders of France. Several times the life of the abbey was disturbed by devastations and other calamities: in the 9th century, on three occasions the monks were forced to flee because of the incursions of the Normans. There followed a relaxation in monastic life, which only St. Odo of Cluny, authorized by the Pope, succeeded in restoring there, overcoming many difficulties.
Following the Cluniac reform, Fleury became a model monastery, from which various colonies set out for other houses, even outside France. At the same time the school reached its apogee through the work of Abbot Abbo (v.), who governed the monastery from 998 to 1004. Serious fires suffered by the abbey in the years 974, 1002 and 1026 interrupted the fervor of life and study; that of 1026 destroyed all the buildings. The monks, led by Abbot Gauzlin (1004-30), soon undertook its reconstruction. While, however, the crypts were restored shortly afterward and the altars of the Madonna and of St. Benedict were rebuilt together with the choir with two transepts, the church, damaged by a new fire in 1184, was consecrated only in 1218. In this period and in the following century the spiritual life of the monastery was as intense as its artistic activity, and it did not diminish even because of material difficulties and the decline of the school. The influx of pilgrims was also smaller. This state of affairs lasted a long time and grew ever worse because of the raids that plagued the region, particularly during the Hundred Years' War; moreover, on the death of individual abbots the tax agents tried to seize the temporal goods of the abbey, which in 1363 also suffered for two years the occupation of a Breton company. Other acts of tyranny and new intrigues in the abbatial elections brought to the government of the monastery mostly unworthy persons, worsening the situation to the point that even Fleury had to submit to commendation (1486). By now regular discipline was also failing, the individualistic spirit had destroyed the common life, nor did the various attempts to restore observance avail. The commendatory abbot De Coligny, having openly declared himself favorable to Calvinism, completed the impoverishment of the abbey by carrying off its best treasures and abandoning it to the sack of the Huguenots in 1562.
A few years later Fleury became part of the Gallican Congregation of the Exempts, but only with its annexation to the Congregation of the Maurists in 1627 did it receive a reform that gave it back a period of religious and cultural flourishing. But in the following century a new relaxation is noticeable. In 1789 the monastery was sold, in 1806 demolished: only the church remained, which from 1865 was cared for by some monks of St. Mary de la Pierre-qui-vire. In 1944, with a group that had split off from the same abbey, the monastic community was re-established at Fleury.
The school of Fleury, besides by Theodulf, a collaborator of Alcuin in the Carolingian revival, was distinguished by Abbo in the 10th century: the number of its pupils has been put as high as 5000. From the 9th to the 12th century various authors compiled the Miracula s. Benedicti. Writers worthy of remembrance are also: Haimo, Hugh of St. Mary, Gauzlin, Andrew, Rodulf, Theodoric. The sciences most cultivated were the biblical, historical and liturgical, and patristics, but the classical literatures had a large part there; the hagiographic works were numerous. Particular mention is also due to the scriptorium in which a type of writing developed, known precisely by the name of Fleury script.
Closely linked to the school was the Library. Its holdings were destroyed or dispersed at the time of the Huguenot war. A few remains are now in Orléans, in Bern and in the Vatican.
Bibliography4 works
(École nationale des chartes, Positions des thèses), Toulouse 1898; F. M. Carey, De Scriptura Floriacensi, in Harvard studies in class. philol., 34 (1923), p. 194 ff.; H. Leclercq, s. v. in DACL, V. coll. 1709-1760; id., St-Benoît-sur-Loire, Paris 1925; M. Aubert, L'église de St-Benoît-sur-Loire, in Congrès archéol. 1930, ivi 1931; G. Chenessau, L'abbaye de Fleury à St-Benoît-sur-Loire, ivi 1931; J. Soyez, Les origines de St-Benoît-sur-Loire d'après deux guides récents, in Bull. de la Soc. archéol. et histor. de l'Orléans, 21 (1931), pp. 486-89; M. Thiboute - J. Leclercq, St-Benoît-sur-Loire, Paris 1945.
Ambrogio Mancone