MOYENMOUTIER, ABBEY OF

Former Benedictine monastery located in the Vosges Mountains on the upper Meurthe River in eastern France. It was founded toward the end of the 7th century by St. hidulf, a monk at Saint-Miximin and auxiliary bishop of Trier, who, having left Trier, settled as a hermit on the site that was to become Moyenmoutier. Others joined him and formed a small monastery situated midway between five others, consequently known as medianum monasterium or Moyenmoutier. In its long history (11 centuries) Moyenmoutier was influenced by reform movements emanating from the Abbey of gorze, and later, from cluny. One of its outstanding sons was humbert of silva candida. To counteract the evils brought by the system of commendatory abbots, it joined (1601) with the Abbey of Saint-Vanne at Verdun in forming the great Congregation of Saint-Vanne et Saint-Hydulphe, which was suppressed by the French Revolution in 1790.

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores (Berlin 1826–) 4:87–92. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2008–09. a. potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii aevi (2d ed.1896); repr. Graz 1954) 1:733. Gallia Christiana (Paris 1715–85) 13:1398–1407. g. allemang, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 7:666. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq, and h. i. marrou, 15 v. (Paris 1907–53) 12.1:380–390, on its foundation and early abbots.

[c. davis]