Jumièges Abbey

Jumièges Abbey was a Benedictine monastery, situated in the commune of Jumièges in the Seine-Maritime département, in Normandy, France.

In 654 the abbey was founded on a gift of forested land belonging to the royal fisc presented by Clovis II and his queen, Balthild, to the Frankish nobleman Filibertus, who had been the companion of Saints Ouen and Wandrille at the Merovingian court of Dagobert I. Philibert became the first abbot, and Balthild's generosity added "many gifts and pastures from the royal fisc." but he was later obliged to leave Jumièges through the jealousy of certain enemies, and spent a period of exile from Neustria at the court of Bishop Ansoald of Poitiers; afterwards he founded monasteries at Pavilly, Montivilliers and Noirmoutier, where he died in about 685. Among those inspired by his example was the Irish monk Sidonius, who founded the monastery at Saint-Saëns. Under the second abbot, Saint Achard, Jumièges prospered and soon numbered nearly a thousand monks.

In the ninth century it was pillaged and burnt to the ground by the Vikings, but was rebuilt on a grander scale by William Longespee, Duke of Normandy (d. 942). A new church was consecrated in 1067 in the presence of William the Conqueror.

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