The Ancient Abbey of Canons Regular of St. Augustine of Saint-Pierremont (''i.e.'', St. Peter's mountain) (french: Abbaye de Saint-Pierremont, german: Abtei Petersberg) is a former

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

in the commune of Avril in what is now the Meurthe-et-Moselle ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

'' of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(formerly part of the Duchy of Bar in the Upper Lorraine region of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

), founded in the late eleventh century and dedicated to

Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...

. Little is left of the medieval abbey buildings. Some buildings of the eighteenth century survive (enriched with older fragments, such as the

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

of the abbot Jean Marius (1575-1597) and of the Duchy of Bar), notably the

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

of the abbey, which was built in 1747 in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style and remodeled in 1774 with

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

elements; it is registered in the '' Base Mérimée'' of notable French architectural monuments.

History

The abbey was founded in 1090 by Lubricus, a Canon of the St. Stephen's Cathedral in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

. Reginald I, Count of Bar became the

Vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

of the abbey in 1102. In 1186, Saint-Pierremont briefly served as a refuge for the exiled Archbishop of Trier,

Folmar of Karden Folmar of Karden (''ca''. 1135 – 1189), also occurring in the variant forms ''Fulmar'', ''Vollmar'', ''Volcmar'', ''Formal'', or ''Formator'', was the Archbishop of Trier from 1183 and the last not also to be a prince elector. He opposed t ...

, formerly a member of the congregation.''Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit'', Vol. VI, p. 142. In the course of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

, the community was reformed by St.

Pierre Fourier Peter Fourier (french: link=no, Pierre Fourier, ; 30 November 15659 December 1640) was a French canon regular who is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Foregoing offers of high office, he served for many years as an exemplary pas ...

, who incorporated it into the Congregation of Our Savior. Subsequent to the

invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

and subsequent annexation of the Duchy of Lorraine under

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

in 1632, the saint and his fellow canons refused to take an oath of loyalty to King

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

; as a result, the abbey was pillaged and razed in 1636, though partially restored later in that century and the subsequent one. Being situated in the Three Bishoprics, the abbey became part of France with the settlement of the

Treaty of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peac ...

in 1648. Though the congregation lost its formal independence in 1733, being made directly subordinate to the cathedral chapter of Metz, the community itself survived until the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

References

* Cédric ANDRIOT, ''Les chanoines réguliers de Notre-Sauveur. Moines, curés et professeurs, de Lorraine en Savoie, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles'', Paris Riveneuve, 2012 (in French) * , available at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

here
Volume VI.
(in German)

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Pierremont, Abbey of Former Christian monasteries in France Augustinian monasteries in France Buildings and structures in Meurthe-et-Moselle Monuments historiques of Grand Est