Marcheroux Abbey (french: Abbaye de Marcheroux or ; la, Marchasium Radulphi) is a former

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

monastery dedicated in honour of

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

in Beaumont-les-Nonains in

Les Hauts-Talican Les Hauts-Talican () is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department in northern France. It was established on 1 January 2019 by merger of the former communes of Beaumont-les-Nonains, La Neuville-Garnier and Villotr ...

south of

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; pcd, Bieuvais) is a city and commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise département, in the Hauts-de-France region, north of Paris. The commune of Beauvais had a population of 56,020 , making it the most populous ...

Picardy Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hi ...

, France. The site has been registered as a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' since 1995.Base Mérimée PA00135573: Ancienne abbaye de Marcheroux
/ref>

History

In 1122 Ulric, a companion of the founder of the

Premonstratensian Order The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

, Saint

Norbert of Xanten Norbert of Xanten, O. Praem (c. 1075 – 6 June 1134) (Xanten-Magdeburg), also known as Norbert Gennep, was a bishop of the Catholic Church, founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular, and is venerated as a saint. Norbert was can ...

, established in Jouy-la-Grange in the present Beaumont-les-Nonains a religious community called Saint-Nicolas-en-Thelle. In or around 1145 the landowner Ansculphe de Sénots made them a gift of land in Marcheroux, less than 5 kilometres away, to which the abbey moved shortly afterwards. In 1147

Pope Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He w ...

confirmed the foundation. The monastery was subordinate to the abbey of Saint-Josse de Dommartin in Tortefontaine (now in

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

). Ansculphe de Sénots also gave the abbey a farm at Beaumont, where Ulric established a nunnery, whence the present name of Beaumont-les-Nonains ("nonains" is the Old French word for "nuns").A Sabatier 1865 The farm was destroyed in 1192 but there was still apparently a community of nuns there in the mid-13th century.Charpentier & Daugy 2008 Around 1180 Marcheroux founded a daughter house,

Abbecourt Abbey Abbecourt Abbey (french: Abbaye d'Abbecourt; Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Abbecourt; la, Beata Maria de Alba Curia) is a former Premonstratensian monastery in Orgeval, Yvelines, France. Originally a small oratory, the abbey was founded, either in 1142 o ...

, in the present

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207. In 1668 the abbey joined the reformist movement initiated some decades earlier by

Servais de Lairuelz Annibal-Servais de Lairuelz (1560 – 18 October 1631), a native of Hainaut in what is now Belgium, was a canon and reformer of the Premonstratensian Order. Biography De Lairuelz was born in 1560 in Soignies in the County of Hainaut. He w ...

in an attempt to regain the earlier discipline of the order. In 1727 it fell into the hands of

commendatory abbot A commendatory abbot ( la, abbas commendatarius) is an ecclesiastic, or sometimes a layman, who holds an abbey ''in commendam'', drawing its revenues but not exercising any authority over its inner monastic discipline. If a commendatory abbot is an ...

s. By the time of 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 ...

in 1791, when the monastery was suppressed and its assets sold, only seven canons remained. In the 19th century the abbey church, the vaulting of which had been destroyed, was used as a barn.

Remains

The abbey church survives and retains parts of the 13th-century

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

and

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and west front date from the rebuilding of around 1710. The 17th-century conventual building and the 18th-century gateway are also still extant. Parts of the fabric and fittings of the abbey church are now in other local parish churches. Sixteen

choir stall A choir, also sometimes called quire, is the area of a church or cathedral that provides seating for the clergy and church choir. It is in the western part of the chancel, between the nave and the sanctuary, which houses the altar and Church tab ...

s, backed by two altars and

retable A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum it may be a simple shelf for candles behind an altar, but it can also be a large and elaborate structur ...

s with a

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

are in the parish church of La Houssoye. One of the retables is decorated with a relief depicting

and the three children in the salt barrel. The group is dated 1716 in an inscription. The parish church of Montjavoult contains two 18th-century altar claddings depicting the

Presentation of Jesus at the Temple The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (or ''in the temple'') is an early episode in the life of Jesus Christ, describing his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem, that is celebrated by many churches 40 days after Christmas on Candlemas, ...

.Base Palissy, PM60001111 - Ensemble de deux parements d'autels
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* A. Sabatier: ''Abbaye de Marcheroux de l'ordre des Prémontrés et de la filiation de Saint-Josse-aux-Bois ou Dommartin'', in: ''Mémoires de la Société académique d'archéologie, sciences et arts du département de l'Oise'', vol. 6 (1865), pp. 614–623
online version
* Florence Charpentier and Xavier Daugy: ''Sur le Chemin des abbayes de Picardie: Histoire des abbayes picardes des origines à nos jours'', Amiens: Encrage, coll. "Hier", September 2008, pp. 135–136

External links

{{Coord, 49, 18, 20, N, 2, 01, 42, E, display=title Premonstratensian monasteries in France 1147 establishments Monasteries in Oise