St. Vincent Abbey, Senlis

The Royal Abbey of St. Vincent was a former monastery of canons regular in Senlis, Oise, which was destroyed during the French Revolution. Late in their history, they became part of a new congregation of canons regular with the motherhouse at the Royal Abbey of St Genevieve in Paris, known as the Genofévains, widely respected for their institutions of learning.

The abbey was founded in 1065 by Queen Anne of Kiev, the widow of King Henry I of France, possibly built on the ruins of an ancient chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist which had been destroyed in the course of invasion by the Normans in the late 900s. She did this to fulfill a vow she had made as a young bride some fifteen years earlier to found a monastery if God were to bless her marriage. By that time, however, she had met the man who became her third husband, the Norman lord Ralph IV of Valois, which resulted in their excommunication.

Nevertheless, the monastery church was solemnly dedicated on 29 October 1065, under the patronage of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist and St. Vincent of Saragossa. Her son, King Philip I of France, later declared it to be a royal abbey, independent of all authorities, both ecclesiastical or civil, and made a number of grants of land to the community.

After its founding, the queen then took up residence at the abbey. She resided at the abbey until her last husband's death in 1074. At that time she asked her son to assume the patronage of the abbey, which he did, granting further lands to the community. He, in turn, left it to his son, King Louis VI. King Louis, however, did not have the concern about the community of his father and grandmother. The Abbey of Cluny had its eyes on St. Vincent and its properties, and attempted to gain control of it, as it had done with the Parisian Priory of St. Martin-des-Champs. The three chapters of canons in Senlis joined forces to resist this step and finally gained the support of the king. To strengthen their financial situation, he restored various lands of the abbey which had been seized by local lords. Pope Callistus III gave his official support to the canons, though he urged them to return to their original zeal in their following of the Rule of St. Augustine in their daily lives. Thus the abbey began the 12th century with a new sense of vigor.

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