Savigny Abbey, Rhône

The Abbey of Saint-Martin de Savigny was a Benedictine monastery in the Archdiocese of Lyon. Nothing today survives of its buildings other than some stones in the Musée Lapidaire of Savigny-en-Lyonnais.^[1]

Ruins of the abbey in 2019

Portion of a Pilaster with an Acrobat Capital from Benedictine Monastery Abbey of Saint-Martin de Savigny at The Metropolitan Museum Cloister Collection

It was founded by Leidradus after he resigned as bishop of Lyon in 816. The first mention of the abbey is in a charter of 817.^[2] It also appears in the Notitia de servitio monasteriorum of 819, where it is one of the monasteries owing only prayers (orationes) for the emperor and no other service.^[3]

In 976, Conrad the Peaceful, King of Burgundy, confirmed the possessions and privileges of the abbey.^[4] In 1139, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote to Falco, archbishop of Lyon, indicating that Savigny was in conflict with the abbey of La Bénisson-Dieu over possessions in the Roannais. Bernard was writing in support of La Bénisson-Dieu because its abbot, Alberic, was one of his disciples.^[5]

Savigny was eventually placed in commendam and lost its spiritual significance. In 1779, King Louis XVI ordered the closure of the abbey by letters patent. This was confirmed by Pius VI through a Papal bull on 22 June 1780.^[3] In 1784, the buildings were sold.^[6] The archives of the abbey are now part of the archives of the department of the Rhône.

References

1. Abbaye Saint-Martin de Savigny
2. Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Savigny. Suivi du Petit cartulaire de l'Abbaye d'Ainay. Vol. 1, Cartulaire de Savigny, par Aug. Bernard, 1853.
3. "Les vestiges de l'abbaye Saint-Martin de Savigny" (PDF) (in French). Office de Tourisme du Pays de L’Arbresle. May 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2014..
4. « Acte no 539 », sur Chartes originales antérieures à 1121 conservées en France, Cédric GIRAUD, Jean-Baptiste RENAULT and Benoît-Michel TOCK, eds. Nancy: Centre de Médiévistique Jean Schneider [electronic edition: Orléans: Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, 2010].
5. « "Pauperes sunt, et habitant inter pauperes. Hoc præcipue obsecramus ut Saviniacenses monachos prohibeatis ab infestatione eorum, quoniam calumniantur eos injuste, ut putamus. Aut si se confidunt habere justitiam, judicate inter illos. Filius noster abbas Albericus, etsi suis meritis commendabilior, etc." Mabillon, Vol. 1 (1690) & col. 169 of the 1719 ed.
6. "Abbaye de Savigny" (in French). Musée du diocèse de Lyon. Retrieved 26 August 2014..

Further reading

• Jane Alice Tibbetts. The Investiture Controversy at Savigny. University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1966.

45.815896°N 4.575515°E / 45.815896; 4.575515