Abbey of Saint-Sauveur de Villeloin
Villalupa / Villae Lupensis
(Villeloin-Coulangé, Indre-et-Loire)
Abbey portal
The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Sauveur de Villeloin was founded by the brothers Mainardus and Mainerius, who donated land at the place known as Villalupa to Audacher, Abbot of Saint-Paul de Cormery (Indre-et-Loire), with the intention of establishing a monastery dedicated to the Holy Saviour. This initiative was undertaken with the approval of Saint-Martin de Tours, as Cormery remained to some extent dependent on that collegiate church. Erard, Archbishop of Tours, consecrated the church of the new monastery in 859.
In 965, the monks of Villeloin obtained the right to elect their own abbot, thereby becoming an independent abbey. The site suffered particularly during the Hundred Years' War: in 1360, the abbey was occupied and, the following year, a ransom had to be paid to recover it. Later, in 1412, it was severely damaged during another attack. During the sixteenth century, it also suffered from the passage of the Huguenots.
In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the monk Pierre Brunet worked on compiling the history of the abbey using the original documents preserved in its archives. He held several offices within the community, including that of prior. His work was continued by Michel de Marolles, Abbot of Saint-Sauveur de Villeloin from 1626 to 1674, an eminent historian, translator, and art collector who assembled an important collection of contemporary engravings. In 1667, he supported the introduction of the Congregation of Saint-Maur into the abbey.
The Maurists maintained monastic life until the abbey was suppressed during the Revolution in 1790, when the community consisted of only four monks. Most of the buildings were demolished, and today only the monumental entrance gateway, flanked by defensive towers, together with a few Maurist-period buildings, survive. During the 1920s, two medieval abbatial crosiers were discovered.
According to Armorial général de France (18th century)
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Monasticon Gallicanum
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Initial with the Stoning of Saint Stephen
Missal from Villeloin (13th century)
Tours. Bibliothèque municipale
Ivory crozier found in the abbey, now in the Cluny Museum
Illustration from La nouvelle crosse romane du Musée de Cluny
(Robert Nanteuil, 1657)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Title page of Histoire des roys de France (1678)
By Abbot Michel de Marolles
Google Books
- BESSE, Jean-Martial (1920). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France, vol. 8, Tours. París : Picard
- BOSSEBOEUF, Louis-Auguste (1910). L'abbaye de Villeloin du XVe au XVIIe siècle. Bulletin et mémoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine, vol. 49. Tours: Péricat
- CARRÉ DE BUSSEROLLE, Jacques-Xavier (1884). Dictionnaire géographique, historique et biographique d'Indre-et-Loire et de l'ancienne province de Touraine. Vol. VI. Tours: Rouillé-Ladevèze
- DENIS, Louis-Jean; ed. (1911). Archives du Cogner. Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Sauveur de Villeloin. París: Champion
- MAILLARD, Élisa (1931). La nouvelle crosse romane du Musée de Cluny. Revue Archéologique. Vol. 31. París: E. Leroux
- PEIGNÉ-DELACOURT, Achille (1877). Monasticon Gallicanum. Paris: G. Chamerot
- POUYET, Thomas (2019). Cormery et son territoire : origines et transformations d’un établissement monastique dans la longue durée (8e - 18e siècles). Université de Tours
- SAINT-MAUR, Congregació de (1856). Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Vol. 14. París: Typographia Regia
- SEMUR, François-Christian (2011). Abbayes de Touraine. La Crèche: Geste Ed.
The former abbey is located in the commune of Villeloin-Coulangé, east of Loches