La Trappe Abbey in Normandy

Tuesday, 4 October 2022 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General
Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0

La Trappe Abbey, also known as La Grande Trappe, is a monastery in Soligny-la-Trappe, Orne, France. It is known for being the house of origin of the Trappists, to whom it gave its name. The site of the famous La Trappe Abbey was for centuries isolated in a valley surrounded by forests, streams and lakes, 9 miles from Mortagne and 84 miles from Paris, in the Diocese of Séez and the former province of Normandy. It began as a small oratory chapel to the Virgin Mary, built in 1122 by Rotrou III, Count of Perche, as a memorial to his wife Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche. (An illegitimate daughter of Henry I, she drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120.) A few years later Rotrou built a monastery adjoining, which he offered to the monks of Le Breuil-Benoît Abbey near Dreux, a house of the Order of Savigny. The order was highly respected at that time for its fervour and holiness. In 1140 the monastery of La Trappe was raised to the status of abbey. In 1147 Savigny Abbey, with all its affiliated monasteries, was united to the Cistercian Order. From that time onwards, La Trappe was a Cistercian abbey, immediately subordinate to the abbot of Clairvaux.

After years of prosperity, La Trappe suffered during the Hundred Years’ War. It was in the path of both the English and French armies. The monks were forced to abandon the monastery, which was burnt and pillaged in 1376 and again in 1465. In the 16th century, after the reconstruction, the abbey, in common with many other monasteries, was given to a series of absentee abbots in commendam. The lack of leadership depressed its fortunes. The 14th commendatory abbot, installed in 1662, Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé, godson of Cardinal Richelieu, proved to be La Trappe’s greatest leader. De Rancé experienced a religious conversion which led him to take his responsibilities seriously. He became abbot in fact as well as in name. From 1664 La Trappe was the centre of a thorough reform of the Cistercian Order, led by de Rancé. The reform movement took the name of the abbey and became renowned as an order. Bossuet, a friend of de Rancé, was a frequent visitor at La Trappe. James II of England came here while a refugee in France. The distinguished Benedictine scholar, Dom Jean Mabillon, after his long quarrels with de Rancé, visited him here to make peace.

© Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0 © Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0 © PY. Stucki/cc-by-sa-2.0-fr © Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0 © Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0 © Giogo/cc-by-sa-4.0
<
>
© PY. Stucki/cc-by-sa-2.0-fr
The abbey did not escape the general fate of religious houses under the French Revolution. Pursuant to the decree of 13 February 1790 against the religious orders of France, the abbey was suppressed. Some of the monks were martyred. Others, under the novice master, Dom Augustin de Lestrange, went into exile, initially at La Valsainte Charterhouse in Switzerland. The French government sold the abbey as national property. After the Bourbon Restoration, de Lestrange purchased the property back in 1815. When the religious community returned, the brothers found the premises in a ruinous state. They rebuilt the monastery in its entirety and the new church was consecrated on 30 August 1832. The abbey’s reputation as a place of retreat continued. It attracted both the Count of Artois, afterwards Charles X and Louis Philippe in 1847. In 1880 the Trappists were expelled under French laws against religious institutions, but after a couple of years, they were able to return. The monastery was entirely rebuilt under the 45th abbot, Dom Etienne Salasc; the new church was consecrated on 30 August 1895.

The buildings, in Neo-Gothic style, are still occupied by the Trappist community, under the leadership of abbot Dom Guerric Reitz-Séjotte, appointed in 2004. La Trappe Abbey directly supervises four other Trappist houses, at Bellefontaine in Anjou, Timadeuc in Brittany, Échourgnac in Dordogne, and Tre Fontane in Italy.

Read more on Abbaye de La Trappe, Ordre Cistercien de la Stricte Observance – La Trappe, Museum La Trappe Abbey, normandy-abbeys.com – Soligny-la-Trappe Abbey and Wikipedia La Trappe Abbey (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin

Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin

[caption id="attachment_239040" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Jean Housen/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Shelbourne Hotel is a historic hotel in Dublin, Ireland, situated in a landmark building on the north side of St Stephen's Green. Currently owned by Kennedy Wilson and operated by Marriott International, the hotel has 265 rooms in total and reopened in March 2007 after undergoing an eighteen-month refurbishment. The Shelbourne Hotel was founded in 1824 by Martin Burke, a native of Tipperary, when he ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Oman - Khasab

Theme Week Oman - Khasab

[caption id="attachment_161713" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Khasab Castle © StellarD/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Khasab is a city in an exclave of Oman bordering the United Arab Emirates. It is the local capital of the Musandam peninsula and has frequently been dubbed the "Norway of Arabia" because of its extensive fjord-like craggy inlets and desolate mountainscapes. Boats from Khasab take tourists on trips to view the dolphins common in the waters around the Musandam, as well as to visit Telegraph Island, for ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Auvergne - Montluçon

Theme Week Auvergne - Montluçon

[caption id="attachment_236044" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Château of the Dukes of Bourbon © Lionel Allorge/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Montluçon (Occitan: Montleçon) is a commune in central France on the river Cher. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's prefecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as Montluçonnais. The town is in the traditional province of Bourbonnais and was part of the mediaeval duchy of Bourbon. Montluçon is lo...

[ read more ]

Aleksanterinkatu in Helsinki

Aleksanterinkatu in Helsinki

[caption id="attachment_238709" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Kiseleff House © Mahlum[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Aleksanterinkatu ("Alexander Street") is a street in Kluuvi, the commercial centre of Helsinki, Finland. In the city plan by Carl Ludvig Engel, it was the Decumanus Maximus, the main east–west street in the city, crossing the Cardo, Unioninkatu (Union Street) at the corner of the Senate Square. The street begins near the Presidential Palace and continues to meet with Mannerheimintie, the longest street in...

[ read more ]

Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City

Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City

[caption id="attachment_234171" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - ajay_suresh/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, located at 97 and 103 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, is a National Historic Site. The museum's two historical tenement buildings were home to an estimated 15,000 people, from over 20 nations, between 1863 and 2011. The museum, which includes a visitors' center, promotes tolerance and historical perspective on the immi...

[ read more ]

A former military base on its way to a zero energy city

A former military base on its way to a zero energy city

[caption id="attachment_4038" align="aligncenter" width="586" caption="© Enwerk"][/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The planning area is an abandoned former American military base in the Mietraching district, with a total surface area of 70 hectares. Most of the residential buildings in this small autonomous garden city were built in the 1930s, as the base was originally established in 1936 as a German air base. The first planning section comprises the so-called leisure neighbourhood in the north. The existing hotel is to be converted ...

[ read more ]

Bermuda

Bermuda

[caption id="attachment_153820" align="aligncenter" width="590"] View from top of Gibbs Lighthouse © Mike Oropeza[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) to the west-northwest. It is about 1,373 kilometres (853 mi) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast of Miami, Florida. Its capital city is Hamilto...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Cuba - Santiago de Cuba

Theme Week Cuba - Santiago de Cuba

[caption id="attachment_161594" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción © Aquarius-BRE[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some 870 km (540 mi) south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana. Historically Santiago de Cuba has long been the second most important city on the island after Havana, and still remains the second largest. It is on a bay connected to the Caribbean ...

[ read more ]

The Museum Mile in New York City

The Museum Mile in New York City

[caption id="attachment_27832" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Metropolitan Museum of Art © Fcb981/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Museum Mile is the name for a section of Fifth Avenue running from 82nd to 105th streets on the Upper East Side, in an area sometimes called Upper Carnegie Hill. The Mile, which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world, is actually three blocks longer than one mile (1.6 km). Nine museums occupy the length of this section of Fifth Avenue. A tenth museum, the Museum for Afr...

[ read more ]

Cotswolds in England

Cotswolds in England

[caption id="attachment_224343" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Broadway row © Peter K Burian/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Cotswolds is an area in south-central, West Midlands and South West England comprising the Cotswold Hills, a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment, known as the Cotswold Edge, above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat rare in the UK and that is qua...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Upper Campus at Groote Schuur on the slopes of Devil's Peak © Adrian Frith/cc-by-sa-3.0
University of Cape Town

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as...

© Stephan M. Höhne/cc-by-sa-3.0
Bautzen in Saxony

Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the district of Bautzen. It is...

© flickr.com - Иерей Максим Массалитин/cc-by-sa-2.0
Swallow’s Nest in Crimea

The Swallow's Nest is a decorative castle located at Gaspra, a small spa town between Yalta and Alupka, in the...

Schließen