Pontigny Abbey church
Choir of the abbey church
Ground plan of the abbey church
, founded in 1114 as the second of the four great daughter houses of
Cîteaux Abbey, was a
Cistercian monastery situated on the River
Serein, in the present
diocese of Sens and department of
Yonne, in
Burgundy,
France.
History
Hildebert (or Ansius), a canon of
Auxerre, petitioned Abbot
Stephen Harding of Cîteaux to found a monastery in a place he had selected for this purpose. Accordingly in 1114 Saint Stephen sent twelve monks under the guidance of
Hugh of Mâcon, the first abbot and a friend and kinsman of
Bernard of Clairvaux, to establish the new foundation. Under Abbot Hugh and his successor, Guichard, the new monastery developed such a reputation for sanctity that it attracted sufficient numbers to be able to establish another twenty-two Cistercian monasteries.
Many members of the community of Pontigny went on to occupy high positions in the church and many distinguished personages sought refuge there. Amongst the former were, for example, Blessed Hugh of Mâcon,
Bishop of Auxerre (d. 1151);
Girard Mainard,
Cardinal Bishop of Praeneste (d. 1202); and Robert, Cardinal Titular of St. Pudentiana (d. 1294). The latter included three
Archbishops of Canterbury:
Saint Thomas a Becket,
Stephen Langton and
Saint Edmund of Abingdon, who was buried there.
Over the centuries, however, the original strict discipline relaxed, especially from 1456, when the abbey was given
in commendam. In 1569 it was pillaged and burnt by the
Huguenots, only the relics of Saint Edmund being saved. Partly restored, it continued in existence until it was suppressed during the
French Revolution. The monastic buildings were largely destroyed, but the church was saved, due to the respect in which the cult of Saint Edmund was still held, and continued in use after the Revolution as a parish church.
In 1843 a community of the
Fathers of St. Edmund was established here by
J. B. Muard.
In 1909 the site was bought by the philosopher
Paul Desjardins, who from 1910 to 1914 and from 1922 to 1939 held here every year the so-called "Decades of Pontigny", or conferences of ten days' duration, where the intellectual élite of Europe met including inter alia
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
Jean-Paul Sartre,
Simone de Beauvoir,
T. S. Eliot,
Thomas Mann,
Heinrich Mann.
Burials
Among the burials in the abbey church are the following:
- Saint Edmund of Abingdon (c. 1180–1240), Archbishop of Canterbury
- Paul Desjardins (1859–1940)
Viticulture
Next to their religious duties the monks of Pontigny were also much occupied in the cultivation of vineyards. They established the original vineyard from which the present
Chablis wine traces its descent.
Pilgrims' Route
The abbey is a stopping-point on one of the pilgrimage routes to
Santiago de Compostela.
