SAINT-RIQUIER. – Ancient Benedictine abbey near Abbeville in the diocese of Amiens (France), founded c. 624–34 by St. Riquier (feast: 26 Apr.; cf. *Martyrologium Romanum*, p. 157), son of a Count of Ponthieu. It was enlarged by Abbot Angilbert of Centula c. 793.
Angilbert visited Rome in the years 792, 794, 796, and 800; from 790 Abbot of Centula, he restored the monastery, enriched its library with manuscripts and its churches with relics. The collection of Centula, notable for the text of certain inscriptions, closes with the epitaph of St. Caidocus (G. B. De Rossi, *Inscr. chr.*, II, I, Rome 1888, pp. 72–77). Angilbert built three churches: one over the tomb of St. Riquier, replacing the earlier church of Abbot Ocioald, was dedicated to the Saviour and All Saints; another to the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles; the third to St. Benedict and the other saintly abbots. The abbey then flourished and reached a community of 400 monks; but in 845 it was sacked by the Normans; c. 959.
SAINT-REMY-DE-PROVENCE. – Monastery of the ancient St-Paul-de-Mausole (late 12th–early 13th c.).
It was reformed by St. Gerard of Brogne; passed into commendatory status in 1538, then to the Maurist Congregation in 1659. The abbey was almost destroyed by lightning in 1710; today it is partly occupied by the small Seminary of the diocese of Amiens; the abbatial church of the Saviour was rebuilt in the 15th–16th c., restored in 1827–28, and today serves as a parish church. The façade features twelve large statues of the Apostles; the square tower rises 50 m. The interior, 104 m. long × 25 m. wide and 25 m. high, is a Latin cross, divided into three naves by columns brought from Italy. It has a single apse and transept. The stalls number 68 carved seats and several statues from the ancient building. The Treasury preserves precious reliquaries. Of the once-rich Library, two items survive: the Carolingian purple *Evangelary* in 198 folios with five initials and four full-page miniatures, now in the Library of Abbeville; and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. 13359. The chronicle of the monk Ariulf, written c. 1088, has likewise perished; it had included the catalogue of the abbatial Library (F. Lot, *Hariluf, Chronique de l'abbaye de St-Riquier*, Paris 1894). The *Carmina Centulensia* of Milo, Fregedard, and Odulf form the poetic history of the abbey from 825 to 853 and from 861 to 871. The monastery’s charters are scattered across several locations: the departmental and national archives, the Libraries of Amiens and Paris (Bibliothèque nationale and Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal).