Medieval France. An Encyclopedia

(Darren Dugan) #1

FÉCAMP


. A Benedictine abbey on the English Channel in the diocese of Rouen, Fécamp was
originally founded as a house for nuns in 664. It was destroyed by the Vikings in 841 and
refounded in 1001 by Richard II, duke of


Fécamp (Seine-Maritime), La Trinité,

nave. Photograph: Clarence Ward

Collection. Courtesy of Oberlin

College.

Normandy, as a house for monks. The first abbot was William of Saint-Bénigne of Dijon.
The most famous member of the community, Jean de Fécamp, became abbot in 1028;
Jean’s monastic reforms reached far beyond his community. Fécamp was known in the
central Middle Ages for liturgical chant and as a pilgrimage center focusing on a relic of
the precious blood of Jesus. The church burned in 1168 and was rebuilt at the turn of the
13th century. Fécamp, part of the Maurist reform in the 17th century, was suppressed in
the French Revolution.
E.Ann Matter
L’abbaye bénédictine de Fécamp: ouvrages scientifiques du XIIIème centenaire, 658–1958. 4 vols.
Fécamp: Durand, 1959–63.
Leclercq, Jean, and Jean-Paul Bonnes. Un maître de la vie spirituelle au XIe siècle: Jean de
Fécamp. Paris: Vrin, 1946.


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