Abbey of Faremoutiers

Faremoutiers Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Faremoutiers) was an important Merovingian Benedictine nunnery (re-established in the 20th century) in the present Seine-et-Oise department of France. It formed an important link between the Merovingian Frankish Empire and the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent and East Anglia.

The abbey was founded in about 620 by Burgundofara (Saint Fara), the first abbess. It was a double monastery, the first in France, with communities of both monks and nuns. It was established to follow the strict Rule of Saint Columbanus. The site, an estate belonging to Fara's family, originally known as Evoriacum, was renamed Faremoutiers ("Fara's monastery") in her honour. The modern village of Faremoutiers grew up around the abbey.

In the 9th century, as all French abbeys were commanded to do by Louis the Pious, it changed to the Rule of Saint Benedict.

In 1140 it was destroyed by fire. In 1445, at the end of the Hundred Years' War, it was pillaged by soldiers.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the abbey enjoyed royal favour, but was later tainted by Jansenism, and in the 18th century suffered from an exhausting lawsuit with the bishop of Meaux and continuing economic problems.

It was suppressed during the French Revolution. Until 1796 the premises were used as a barracks and thereafter as a quarry.

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