Abbey of Saint-Martin de Limoges

History

Bishop Hilduin of Limoges founded a Benedictine monastery at the site in 1012, a fact noted by the contemporary Ademar of Chabannes. Hilduin and his brother, the abbot of Saint-Martial, made gifts to the monastery, and the bishop endowed it with relics of Saint Justus, possibly securing royal and papal protection. Hilduin was buried at Saint-Martin. Pierre Coral later claimed the monastery remained poor and small.

Bishop Jordan praised it before the peace council of 1031. The first abbot, Rudolf, came from Tulle; the second, Berengar, from Saint-Augustin-lès-Limoges, died en route; the third, Donadieu, consecrated in December 1074, was associated with acquiring a relic of Martin of Tours. The fourth abbot, Jordan, from Vierzon, resigned and was succeeded by Gerard, a monk of Tulle. In 1134, William I became the first abbot elected from the monastery's own monks.

Pierre de Pierrebuffière succeeded in 1155; during his abbacy in 1182, Henry the Young King suppressed a local rebellion, heavily damaging the monastery, and the monks took refuge at Saint-Martial. Pierre left for Cluny, and by 1195 William II was elected. The church was rebuilt by 1235. Pierre Coral became abbot in 1247 and left to become abbot of Tulle in 1276.

Huguenots damaged the monastery in 1548 and 1563; commendatory abbot Marchandon repaired it. In 1622, the Benedictines ceded the house to Marchandon, who converted it into a Feuillant house by 1624 under the name Saint-Martin-Saint-Laurent. The government acquired the building in 1791, and it became headquarters of the 12th Army Corps; no trace of the monastic building remains.

Older monastery in the same location

A chronicle from the 13th century by Abbot Pierre Coral records that a monastery dedicated to Martin of Tours was founded around 640 by the parents of Saint Eligius, with Alicius, brother of Saint Eligius, as first abbot. It was later destroyed by Pippin I of Aquitaine during a civil war and again by Vikings. The reliability of this account is uncertain, though an abandoned church existed outside the walls by the year 1000.