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Origin and history

Saint Martin de Sées Abbey, founded in the 11th century by Roger II de Montgommery and his wife Mabile de Bellême, replaces an episcopal monastery destroyed by Norman invasions. It was originally linked to the abbey of Saint-Évroult, whose customs it adopted. The charter of foundation was confirmed in 1061 by William, Duke of Normandy, and the abbey spread rapidly, acquiring possessions in England and Spain under the impulse of his first abbots, such as Raoul d'Escures, the future archbishop of Canterbury.

In the 12th century, the abbey experienced an intellectual and material development, welcoming monks who were literate and transcribing Greek and Latin manuscripts. She was visited by King Henry II in 1185 and by Saint Louis in 1256. However, it suffered destruction during the Hundred Years' War, notably by the English in 1353, and the nave of its church was destroyed. John I, Duke of Alençon, was buried there after his death in Azincourt in 1415.

In the 16th century, the abbey adopted the reform of Chezal-Benoît under the impulse of Cardinal Philippe of Luxembourg, then that of Saint-Maur in 1636. The Maurists completely rebuilt the monastery in the 18th century, inspired by the abbey to the Men of Caen. Despite its wealth, the abbey declined in the 18th century because of the beginnings and the disciplinary release. At the Revolution, it was sold as a national good and transformed into a textile manufacture by François Richard-Lenoir, employing up to 889 workers.

In the 19th century, after the collapse of the factory, the abbey became the major seminary of the diocese of Sées in 1835. It was listed as a historic monument in 1968 for its facades, roofs, and Romanesque remains. Expelled in 1907 because of the law of separation of churches and the state, seminarians gave way to a hospital and then a rehabilitation institute in the 20th century. Today, after several changes of owners, his future remains uncertain.

The abbey housed an exceptional medieval library, some 60 of which were identified, scattered between Alençon, the Vatican, the United States and the BnF. Among them, an 11th century Bible, presented at the Council of Trent, and remarkable illuminations. The Maurists, in the 17th century, made it an intellectual home with learned monks as dom Tassin, author of a literary history of the Congregation of Saint-Maur.

Architecturally, the abbey blends Romanesque remains (baie en plein cintre, archatures) with 18th-century Maurist reconstructions, organized around a vaulted cloister and a French-style park. Her time was immense: she owned the tithes of forty parishes, noble fiefs, and priories in England and Spain, making her one of the richest abbeys in Normandy.

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