Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

Petronilla of Chemillé (died 24 April 1149) was the first abbess of the

double monastery A double monastery (also dual monastery or double house) is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East ...

Fontevrault The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud or Fontevrault (in French: ''abbaye de Fontevraud'') was a monastery in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in the former French duchy of Anjou. It was founded in 1101 by the itinerant preache ...

in western France, which she headed from 1115 to 1149 following her second widowhood. Born Petronilla of Craon, she became a follower of Robert of Arbrissel, himself a

Beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

. After Philippa of Toulouse persuaded her husband,

William IX, Duke of Aquitaine William IX ( oc, Guilhèm de Peitieus; ''Guilhem de Poitou'' french: Guillaume de Poitiers) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubadour, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and ...

, to grant Robert land for the foundation of an abbey, Robert left both Hersende de Champagne and Petronilla in charge of monitoring the construction and organization. A year before Robert's death, he named her first abbess.

Order of Fontevrault

The first biography of Blessed Robert of Arbrissel was written by Baudri, Archbishop of Dol, his friend, in Brittany, at the request of Venerable Petronilla of Chemillé, widow, and first Abbess of this immense and celebrated monastery, who was named by Blessed Robert to replace him at his death as Superior General of the Order of Fontevrault. The feast of

Petronilla was celebrated by the Order of Fontevrault on April 24. The

Bollandists The Bollandist Society ( la, Societas Bollandistarum french: Société des Bollandistes) are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century ...

remark: "Her existence was marked by many contradictions, but she had the courage to pass beyond the judgment of human beings and to walk without deviating on the path to heaven."

References

*Guérin, Mgr Paul (ed.) - ''Vie des Saints'', Vol. 5, p. 2. (Paris, 1876, 7th ed.). *Laffont, Robert - "L'Abbaye De Fontevraud" p. 61. (Paris 2001) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chemille, Petronille De 12th-century French nuns 12th-century venerated Christians Abbesses of Fontevraud Year of birth missing 1149 deaths