Congregation of Savigny

The monastic Congregation of Savigny (Savigniac Order) started in the abbey of Savigny, situated in northern France, on the confines of Normandy and Brittany, in the Diocese of Coutances. It originated in 1105 when Vitalis of Mortain established a hermitage in the forest at Savigny in France.

Vitalis was a canon of the Collegiate Church of St. Evroul. He resigned his prebend to embrace an eremitical life under Robert of Arbrissel in the forest of Craon, located in Anjou. Leaving the latter, he retired to the forest of Savigny, where he built his own hermitage.

The number of disciples who then gathered around him necessitated the construction of adequate buildings, in which was instituted the monastic life, following the Rule of St. Benedict, interpreted in a manner similar to the Cistercians. The community wore grey habits. In 1112, the local lord, Rudolph of Fougeres, confirmed to the monastery the grants he had formerly made to Abbot Vitalis, and from then dates the foundation of the monastery. Once firmly established, its growth was rapid, and it soon became one of the most celebrated in France. The founder was judged worthy of canonization, and many of his successors in the abbatial office, as well as simple monks of the Abbey, were canonized or beatified by the Church, the best known of them being Saint Aymon.

It founded daughter-houses such as that at Furness Abbey and Calder Abbey, both in Cumbria, England. In 1119, Pope Celestine II, then in Angers, took it under his immediate protection, and strongly commended it to the neighbouring nobles.

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