Longchamp Abbey


Longchamp Abbey, known also as the Convent of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin, was a convent of Poor Clares founded in 1255 in Auteuil, Paris, by Saint Isabelle of France. The site is now occupied by Longchamp Racecourse.

Royal Foundation

Though betrothed to Hugh, eldest son and heir of Hugh X of Lusignan, Isabelle refused to celebrate the formal wedding due to her fixed determination to remain a virgin, although she never became a nun.
In furtherance of Isabelle's wish to found a nunnery of Poor Clares, her brother King Louis IX of France began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of Rouvray, not far from the Seine, west of Paris. On 10 June 1256, the first stone of the monastic church was laid. The building appears to have been completed about the beginning of 1259, because Pope Alexander IV gave his sanction on 2 February 1259 to the new Rule which was composed especially for this community by the Franciscan friar Mansuetus, based on the Rule of St. Clare. The less rigorous Rule of Mansuetus allowed the community to hold property. The abbey was named the "Convent of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin" and the nuns were called the "Sisters of the Humble Order of Servants of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary". They were subject to the Order of Friars Minor. Some of the first nuns came from the Poor Clares in Reims.
Isabelle never joined the community herself, but did live in the abbey, in a room separate from the nuns’ cells. She suffered from illnesses during her life, which prevented her from following the rule of life for the nuns. Isabelle refused to become abbess, which allowed her to retain her wealth and resources, so she could support them and continue to give to the poor. She kept a discipline of silence for most of her day.
Isabelle died at Longchamp on 23 February 1270, and was buried in the abbey church.

Destruction

Longchamp Abbey underwent many vicissitudes. During the French Revolution, on 26 February 1790, the nuns were served with an order of expulsion; on 17 September 1792 the valuables and sacred objects were taken away from the chapel and by 12 October that year the nuns had left the abbey.. In 1794 the empty building was offered for sale, but, as no one wished to purchase it, it was destroyed. In 1857 the remaining walls were pulled down, except for one tower, and the grounds were added to the Bois de Boulogne.

Abbesses of Longchamp