Moutiers-Saint-Jean Abbey



Moutiers-Saint-Jean Abbey (from Latin monasterium sancti Johannis, Abbaye de Moutiers-Saint-Jean, also Abbaye Saint-Jean-de-Réome) was a monastery located in what is now the village of Moutiers-Saint-Jean (named after the monastery) in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France. It is in Burgundy, near Dijon. The monastery was founded by a monk named John around 450. In the seventh century, during the abbacy of Chunna (Hunnanus), a monk from Remiremont, the original monastic rule, which had been that of the ancient saint Macarius of Alexandria, was replaced by that of Luxeuil, founded by the Irish missionary Columbanus. When Jonas of Bobbio stayed at the monastery in 659, during Chunna's abbacy, he was compelled by the monks to write a biography of their founder. The result was the Vita Iohannis.

In 816–17, Saint-Jean was reformed according to the synods of Aachen. According to the record of monasteries made around that time, it owed the Carolingian state annually both a monetary gift (dona) and a military contribution (militia).

The abbey became a major center of influence, by kings and nobles over the centuries; at one time it was  financed by the dukes of Burgundy. Moutiers-Saint-Jean was sacked, burned and rebuilt a number of times; in 1567 the Huguenot army struck off the heads of the two kings on the main doorway. In 1797, after the French Revolution, the entire building was sold as rubble for rebuilding. It lay in ruin for decades, with the sculpture severely defaced, before the Doorway from Moutiers-Saint-Jean was bought from the landowner and moved to New York in 1932, where it is now in The Cloisters museum.

The remains of the abbey (the 14th-century main gate, the facades of two 17th-century buildings, the grounds of the abbey and the abbey church) are protected by the French government.