Saint-Hubert Abbey (), officially the Abbey of St Peter in the Ardennes (''Abbaye de Saint-Pierre en Ardennes''), was a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery founded in the

Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...

in 687 and suppressed in 1797. The former abbey church is now a

minor basilica Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectura ...

in the

diocese of Namur The Diocese of Namur () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province in the metropol ...

, Belgium. It was listed as built heritage in 1938, and as an exceptional monument in 2016.

History

The monastery was founded in the village of Andage in 687 by

Pepin of Herstal Pepin II (c. 635 – 16 December 714), commonly known as Pepin of Herstal, was a Franks, Frankish statesman and military leader who was the de facto ruler of Francia as the Mayor of the Palace from 680 until his death. He took the title Duke ...

and his wife,

Plectrude Plectrude (; ) (died 718) was the consort of Pepin of Herstal, the mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, from about 670. She was the daughter of Hugobert, seneschal of Clovis IV, and Irmina of Oeren. She was the regent of Neustria during t ...

, for the monk Bergis. It was dedicated to St Peter. The remains of Saint

Hubert of Liège Hubert of Liège (Latinisation of names, Latinized: ''Hubertus'') ( 656 – 30 May 727 A.D.) was a Christian saint who became the first bishop of Liège in 708 A.D. He is a patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians and metalworkers. Kn ...

(died 727) were installed in the monastery on 30 September 825. Both the abbey and the town would as a result come to be generally known as " Saint-Hubert". Because of St Hubert's status as patron saint of hunting, the Abbey was a noted centre of hound breeding and today's

Bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar, rabbits, and since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is ...

is believed to be descended from the hounds bred there. There were serious fires in the monastery in 1130, 1261, and 1525, and the building was sacked by

Calvinists Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

in 1568. The final suppression of the monastery took place in 1797.

Chronicle

The monastery's chronicle, known as the ''Cantatorium'' of Saint-Hubert from the music book in which it was originally recorded, was published in 1906 in an edition by

Karl Hanquet Karl Hanquet (1871–1928) was a Belgian academic historian. Life Hanquet was born in Liège on 5 October 1871 to an established family of industrialists and arms manufacturers. He was educated at the Collège Saint-Servais and the University of ...

. Originally composed in the years around 1100, it is a major source for the history of the

investiture controversy The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest (, , ) was a conflict between church and state in medieval Europe, the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture), abbots of monasteri ...

in the

diocese of Liège In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

.Arnoud-Jan A. Bijsterveld, "Patrons and Gifts in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Chronicles from the Diocese of Liège: An Introduction", in ''The Medieval Chronicle: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle'', edited by Erik Kooper (Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1999), pp. 69-83.

References

{{Authority control

687 __NOTOC__ Year 687 ( DCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 687 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eur ...

1797 disestablishments in Europe 18th-century disestablishments in the Southern Netherlands Saint-Hubert Christian monasteries established in the 7th century