Abbey of Saint-Hubert

Abbey of St Peter in the Ardennes

Abbaye de St-Pierre en Ardennes
Monastery information
Order	Order of St Benedict
Established	687
Disestablished	1797
Diocese	Liège
Site
Coordinates	50.0265°N 5.3744°E / 50.0265; 5.3744

Saint-Hubert Abbey (French: Abbaye de Saint-Hubert), officially the Abbey of St Peter in the Ardennes (Abbaye de Saint-Pierre en Ardennes), was a Benedictine monastery founded in the Ardennes in 687 and suppressed in 1797. The former abbey church is now a minor basilica in the diocese of Namur, Belgium. It was listed as built heritage in 1938, and as an exceptional monument in 2016.[1]

History

An 18th-century view of Saint-Hubert

The monastery was founded in the village of Andage in 687 by Pepin of Herstal and his wife, Plectrude, for the monk Bergis. It was dedicated to St Peter.[2]

The remains of Saint Hubert of Liège (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 is believed to be descended from the hounds bred there.[3]

There were serious fires in the monastery in 1130, 1261, and 1525, and the building was sacked by Calvinists in 1568.[4] 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.[5] Originally composed in the years around 1100, it is a major source for the history of the investiture controversy in the diocese of Liège.[6]

References

1. Belgisch Staatsblad / Moniteur Belge, 2016/205312. Accessed 30 January 2017.
2. J. Dury and J.-P. Delville, "Liège, 2: L’expansion généralisée du christianisme (viie siècle)", in Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. 32 (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2015), 150-151.
3. Jardine-Buchanan J. (1937), Hounds of the World.
4. P. Bertrand, "Hubert (Saint)", in Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. 25 (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1995), 23-24
5. Karl Hanquet (ed.), La Chronique de Saint-Hubert dite Cantatorium (Hayez, Imprimeur de L'Academie, Bruxelles, 1906)
6. 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.