La Trappe Abbey

La Trappe Abbey or La Grande Trappe is a monastery in Soligny-la-Trappe, Orne, France. It is known for being the house of beginning of the Trappists, officially referred to as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, to whom it gave its call. The website of the famous La Trappe Abbey become for centuries remoted in a valley surrounded by using forests, streams and lakes, nine miles from Mortagne and 84 miles from Paris, in the Diocese of Séez and the previous province of Normandy. It began as a small oratory chapel to the Virgin Mary, built in 1122 through Rotrou III, Count of Perche, as a memorial to his wife Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche. A few years later Rotrou constructed a monastery adjoining, which he supplied to the monks of Le Breuil-Benoit Abbey near Dreux, a residence of the Order of Savigny. The order become surprisingly reputable at that point for its fervour and holiness.

In 1140 the monastery of La Trappe become raised to the fame of abbey. In 1147 Savigny Abbey, with all its affiliated monasteries, turned into united to the Cistercian Order. From that point onwards, La Trappe changed into a Cistercian abbey, right away subordinate to the abbot of Clairvaux. After years of prosperity, La Trappe suffered all through the Hundred Years' War. It became within the direction of each the English and French armies. The monks were compelled to abandon the monastery, which turned into burnt and pillaged in 1376 and once more in 1465. In the 16th century, after the reconstruction, the abbey, in not unusual with many different monasteries, become given to a chain of absentee abbots in commendam. The loss of leadership depressed its fortunes.