VILLIBRORDO, saint — Autograph of St. V. containing the information of his arrival in France (690), of his episcopal ordination in Rome (695), and of his age, 78 years (728). Beside the XI and X Kal. (21–22 November), a note in another hand recalls the «dies natalis episcopatus» of V. — Paris, Bibl. naz., ms. lat. 10837, f. 39°.
On the hill of Andaon, situated opposite Avignone on the right bank of the Rhône, an altar to Silvanus was erected in Roman times; in the Christian period it was replaced by a chapel dedicated to St. Michael. According to tradition, St. Cesaria died there in a grotto in 587. In 987, through a donation by Edelberto, judge of Provence, and his wife Teucinda, the Benedictine monastery of SS. Andrea and Martino was founded there and recognized in 999 by Pope Gregorio V; the abbey gradually enlarged its possessions, and the monastic buildings were expanded after the Maurist Congregation was introduced there in 1637.
The primitive chapel of St. Michael changed its dedication to that of St. Nicola from the 11th to the 17th century, and then to that of St. Cesaria; it stood north of the abbey. The church of St. Andrea, north of the cloister, was consecrated in 1118 by Pope Gelasio II and enlarged in the 14th century; beneath the apse was the crypt; the octagonal bell tower was Romanesque. It was razed to the ground during the Revolution. Beside it arose a chapel called Notre-Dame or dei morti, and nearby the church of St. Martino was erected, consecrated in 1024; Cardinal P. Blan was buried there in 1409. It collapsed in 1603 and was rebuilt by the Maurists in 1650, under the title of St. Cesaria. The Revolution also destroyed this church, whose choir balustrades and a bell dated 1511 are preserved by the church of Pujat.
For the group of dwellings west of the abbey, the parish church of Notre-Dame-de-Belzëvet or Bellevue was built in the 12th century; on the door is engraved the dedication «XV KL. Dec. Dedicacio S. Maria». In the 14th century it became a chapel of the Saint-André fortress, and the parish was transferred to its present location downstream, in the church of Saint-Pons. Cardinal Arnaldo De Via, nephew of Giovanni XXII, built a palace there and founded the church, consecrated by the same Pope on 1 June 1333 under the title of Notre-Dame; he also founded a collegiate chapter there and donated an ivory statue of the Madonna and Child, still venerated today; he was buried there in 1335. Later, a cloister was built along the north side of the church. In 1791 the church became the parish church of V. under the name of St-Pons.
On 2 June 1356, Pope Innocenzo VI promulgated the bulls founding the Carthusian monastery of St. Giovanni Battista at the foot of the Andaon hill, which in 1362 took the name of Val-de-Bénédiction. The church was consecrated in the Pope’s presence on 19 August 1358 by Guido di Boulogne, cardinal of Alvernia; Innocenzo VI and his nephew Cardinal A. Aubert were buried there in 1362. The papal chapel preserves frescoes attributed to Matteo di Viterbo from the time of Innocenzo VI. The Charterhouse was enlarged in 1372 by Cardinal P. Selva di Montirac and enjoyed great prosperity in the 17th century; in 1633 it founded the daughter house of S. Maria Maddalena in Marsiglia.
King Filippo il Bello granted privileges to the inhabitants who had settled on the hill around the abbey, which was enclosed by walls and fortified to secure the passage of the Rhône; a strong tower was erected in 1302 and restored in the 14th and 15th centuries. Thus, little by little, a new Villeneuve St-André took shape, subject to the King of France, with its own mint, rival to Avignano, which belonged to the counts of Provence and was the seat of the popes from 1308 to 1411. V. then expanded and acquired cardinals’ palaces.