Glanfeuil Abbey

The Abbey of St. Maurus, better known as Glanfeuil Abbey (French: Abbaye de Glanfeuil, Abbaye Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil, Abbaye de Saint-Maur-sur-Loire) was a French Benedictine monastery in the village of Saint-Maur-sur-Loire, located in what is now the commune of Le Thoureil, Maine-et-Loire, which dated back to the 9th century. It was dissolved in 1908.

According to the legendary account attributed to Faustus, a student of St. Benedict, Innocentius, Bishop of Mans, sent his vicar, Adenard, to Monte Cassino to ask St. Benedict to send some monks to Gaul. Benedict dispatched twelve monks, including St. Maurus and Faustus. Maurus then established Glanfeuil Abbey, thus making it the original Benedictine foundation in Gaul. The story is based in part on the account of St. Maurus in Gregory the Great's Dialogues. The modern common view is that while St. Maurus was a historical person, the Vita of Faustus is a fabrication by Abbot Odo from around 868.

There are no reliable records regarding the initial founding of Glanfeuil Abbey. Excavations at the end of the nineteenth century disclosed a possible Merovingian monastery built on the ruins of a Roman villa. The first mention of Glanfeuil is around the middle of the eighth century when it was in the possession of Gaidulf of Ravenna, who depleted its resources until the monastery itself was little more than a ruin.

By about 830, the abandoned monastery had come into the possession of Rorgon I, Count of Maine, possibly through his wife, Bilichilde. Together, they undertook to restore the abbey. Abbot Ingelbert of Saint-Pierre-des-Fossés sent some monks, including the count's brother, Gausbert.

In 835 Ebroin's cousin, Count Rorgon petitioned King Pippin of Aquitaine for the monastery of Glanfeuil on behalf of his relative Ebroin. Glanfeuil had been placed under the authority of another relative of Ebroin's, Abbot Ingelbert of Saint-Pierre-des-Fossés, by the Emperor Louis the Pious in 833. Ebroin became Bishop of Poitiers, and in 844 bestowed the office of abbot on Gausbert's son Gauslin. On 14 July 847 Charles confirmed Ebroin's right of possession of the abbey, apparently without oversight from Fossés, and its heritability in his family. It was during the tenure of Abbot Gauslin that, around 845, the supposed remains of Saint Maurus were discovered.

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