Abbey of Melleray

Melleray Abbey (Abbaye de Notre-Dame-de-Melleray) was a Cistercian monastery, founded about the year 1134. It was situated in Brittany, Diocese of Nantes, in La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne in the vicinity of Châteaubriant (in present Loire-Atlantique).

Foulques, Abbot of Pontron in Anjou, which was founded from Loroux (itself a daughter foundation of Cîteaux), sent monks for the foundation of a monastery in Brittany. They chose a solitary location near Old Melleray, shown them by Rivallon, pastor of Auverné, which Alain de Moisdon, proprietor of the place, donated to them. Guitern, the first abbot, erected the original monastery in 1145, but the church was not completed until 1183, under Geffroy, the fourth abbot.

Melleray, a small monastery built for about twelve monks, remained regular until during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when relaxation prevailed. Etienne de Brezé (1544) was the first commendatory abbot, and from his time the monastery declined, until toward the end of the seventeenth century when, through the efforts of Dom Jouard, vicar-general of the order, the Rule of St. Benedict was re-introduced, and the monastic buildings restored. In 1791 it was suppressed, and the few religious were dispersed.

This, however, was not the end of Melleray. The Trappists, expelled from France, took refuge at Valsainte in Switzerland; from there Dom Augustine de Lestrange established them in various parts of the world. Through the generosity of Sir Thomas Weld, a wealthy English Catholic and the father of Cardinal Weld, they settled (1795) at Lulworth, Dorset, England. Their monastery was soon created an abbey, and Dom Antoine was elected the first abbot (1813). In 1817, with changed conditions and the restoration of the Bourbons, the monks of Lulworth returned to Melleray.

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