Abbey of Saint-Sever

See also: Saint-Sever (homonymy)

The abbey of Saint-Sever in the Landes is a Abbaye Bénédictin E rested by the count de Gascogne Guillaume Sanche at the end of the 10th century.

Its innumerable possessions extend as of the 11th century from the Médoc until Pampelune in Spain. Gregoire de Montaner, who reigns on the abbey of 1028 with 1072, in fact a powerful artistic hearth gathering the most talented sculptors and Enlumineur S, among which Stephanus Garsia, the author of the miniatures of the Beatus.

The Abbey one is classified historic building in 1911 and is registered with the World heritage of UNESCO in 1998, under the ways of St-Jacques in France.

Presentation

The Abbatiale of Romance Style is surprisingly vast. It presents a chorus to six Absidiole S of decreasing depth, according to a Plan Benedictine. The marble columns of the chorus and the transept come from the palate of the Roman governors of Morlanne, located not far from there. The capital X Polychrome S with decoration of lions dating from the 11th century are remarkable. One counts 150 of them including 77 authenticated as being Gallo-Roman and Romance. Its dimensions are impressive: 71 m of length, 31 m broad for the nave and 41 m for the transept. As for the abbey itself, part of the cloister belongs to private individuals.

One reaches by the platforms of the Transept vaults of stage. The transept and the Bas-côté S made it possible to accommodate an important crowd of faithful and pilgrims attracted by this stage of the way limousine (Via Lemovicensis) towards Saint Jacques de Compostelle.

The abbey suffered serious damage during its history: an earthquake in 1372, many seats during the War One hundred Year old, period when the Gascogne is a stake between France and England. The Monastère is several times destroyed and set fire to by the French. The sides are then rebuilt partly. Then the wars of religion come, with the massacres of the years 1569 and 1570 and ransacks it and ruins it monastery by the Huguenot S of Montgomery. It is thus necessary to wait more than one century before the congregation of Saint-Maur does not undertake renovation work of the apse and buildings conventual. With the French revolution, the abbey is unused and the conventual buildings allotted and sold, before being returned to the worship in 1795. The restorers of the 19th century redécorent the Nef and the frontages in style néo-novel, pastiche in conformity with the taste of the time for medieval architecture.

Origins

To the 5th century, Severus (the future Sever saint) is sent by the Pape for évangéliser the Novempopulanie. It is martyrisé and decapitated by the Vandales and, at the 8th century, the Bénédictins built a vault to collect its skin.

The foundation of an abbey, not far from the ancient site of Morlanne, which dominates the valley of the Adour, is at the same time a political act and monk who allows the counts de Gascogne to better sit their authority.

It is in 988 that Guillaume Sanche buys the ground and decides to build a monastery there. At the time, the area indeed counts many and rich villae Roman but no important city. The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Sever will know, in all the fields, an exceptional expansion and a radiation, in particular thanks to Gregoire Montaner, monk of Cluny, become abbot in 1028. It is under its abbatiat, which will last until in 1072, that begins the rebuilding of the church on the model of Cluny, with as remarkable sculptor and project superintendents by their experiment as by their innovative spirit. This work makes following a fire which has occurred in 1060.

Historical context

The Gascon rebirth of the 11th century, which makes following the cruel Invasions, is due for a good portion to the multiplication of the monasteries. One owes them the clearing of the vacant grounds and the forests and the regrouping of the peasants around the abbeys and priories (see Sauveté). In parallel, bishops and abbots get busy to rebuild the cities ruined by the Viking S: Oloron, Nogaro, Réole, Saint-Sever owe them the existence or resurrection.

A powerful abbey

In all the fields, which they are monk, administrative, social, economic and cultural, Gascogne knows a revival thanks to the abbey which is essential on all the Province like a true land power. With its apogee, as of the end of the 11th century, a vast domain surrounds the monastery which also has in the Diocèse of Surface-on-Adour many villae of the Roman epoch, grounds and churches, in a radius of 35 km. Out of this diocese, the monastery acquires fields in Resident of Agen, Bazadais and Pays of Born (Prieuré of Mimizan). Beyond, Saint-Sever holds a church in Navarre close to Pampelune, as well as goods in the Gironde, of which the church of Soulac-on-Sea. In Gascogne, the majority of the possessions of Saint-Sever correspond to a strategic situation of the time: defensive site, zone of passage on the the Garonne or Adour, center circulation. Distant of to the maximum about thirty kilometers one of the other, these possessions constitute for the pilgrims of the stakes and lodgings of stage. In the choice of acquisitions, one also takes account of the fertility of the grounds. The valley of Adour, the coasts of Buzet, the possessions in Armagnac, the vines into Of Bordeaux reveal centers of interest and the economic concerns of the monks who plant vines not far from the monasteries. The decline starts with the One hundred Year old war and precipitates with the wars of religion. In 1569, the Protestants shave the conventual buildings. They will be rebuilt only at the end of the 17th century. With the French revolution, the monks are driven out. The church is returned thereafter to the worship but the monastic buildings are occupied by the town hall and various administrations.

The Reliquary

The abbey of Saint-Sever had with the Middle Ages of many relics of which most famous was the chief (in other words the head, the cranium) of Sever saint. The latter was destroyed at the time of the wars of religion which made devastations in the area. Also, after rebuildhaving patiently rebuilt the sanctuary vandalized in 1569 (the furnace bridge was restored in 1681), the monks were concerned with find a relic distinguished.

The Holy church Eulalie of Bordeaux having, according to an unmemorable tradition, remainders of Clear saint and his companions (whose holy Sever), an embassy obtained from the archbishop the permission to withdraw reliquary of Bordeaux part of the relics of Sever saint in 1714. The official return took place in 1716, in large pumps. The reliquary current goes back to 1783 and was offered by monseigneur Playcard de Raygecourt, bishop of Aire-sur-l'Adour. This reliquary is the testimony of the will of the bishop to remain faithful to the taste Baroque French, in opposition to the neo-classic taste .

Beatus of Saint-Sever

See also: Beatus

Beatus, of the name of its author the Happy monk of the monastery of Liébana in the Asturies, is a comment of the Apocalypse, the last book of the New Testament. This comment was written in VIIIe century, probably within the framework of a theological debate. It was recopied a score of time in Europe in the current of the Moyen-âge.

The specimen of the Abbey of Saint-Sever was carried out in XIe century by the Copiste S and illuminators, joined together around the Master Stephanus Garsia, working under the abbatiat of Gregoire de Montaner. Each abbey indeed had a workshop of writing, or “scriptorium”, to recopy, decorate and preserve the invaluable books.

This Handwritten, richly coloured, reports the visions of holy Jean. Single specimen in France, but inspired to Beatus Spanish, it testifies not only to the scholarship and the creative genius of the Master but also of the intellectual and artistic vitality of the monastery of Saint-Sever to XIe century.

The chart, which represents the known world, makes the good share with the Gaulle, the Aquitaine and Saint-Sever. This document was preserved Wars of religion by pious hands. One finds it in the collections of the cardinal archbishop of Bordeaux François de Sourdis at the beginning of the 17th century then in Paris, with the Arsenal, in what was going to become the National library, where it is always.

Sources

  • Panels of presentation of the abbey of Saint-Sever

See too

External bond

  • Official site of Beatus of Saint-Sever
  • Churches of the Moors: Beatus of Saint-Sever
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