Corbie Abbey

Corbie Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Corbie, Picardy, France, dedicated to Saint Peter.

It was founded in about 659/661 under Merovingian royal patronage by Balthild, widow of Clovis II, and her son Clotaire III. The first monks came from Luxeuil Abbey, which had been founded by Saint Columbanus in 590, and the Irish respect for classical learning fostered there was carried forward at Corbie. The rule of the founders was based on the Benedictine rule, as Columbanus had modified it.

Besides gifts of estates to support the abbey, many exemptions were granted to the abbots, to free them from interference from local bishops: the exemptions were confirmed in 855 by Pope Benedict III. The abbots ranked as counts and had the privilege of a mint.

Corbie continued its intimate links with the royal house of the Carolingians. In 774 Desiderius, last King of the Lombards, was exiled here after his defeat by Charlemagne. From 850 to 854 Charles, the future Archbishop of Mainz, was confined here. Members of the Carolingian house sometimes served as abbots; a notable abbot was Saint Adalard, one of Charlemagne's cousins.

In the ninth century Corbie was larger than St. Martin's Abbey at Tours, or Saint Denis at Paris. Corvey Abbey in Saxony was founded from Corbie in about 820, and was named after it.

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