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The Abbey Bec-Hellouin - a factfile

  • The Abbey is situated in Northern France approximately equidistant from Rouen and Le Havre.
  • It was founded in 1040 by it is said a young knight who resolved to become a hermit and took the name of Herlouin.
  • The Abbey has been described as ‘one of the most important centres of intellectual learning in the Christian World’ and had strong links with the Christian church in England.
  • A number of its incumbents later became Archbishop of Canterbury, (the senior Archbishop in England) and three became Bishop of Rochester.
St Nicholas Tower

  • Pope Alexander II was a student there.
  • Lanfranc who later became Archbishop of Canterbury was a close ally of the man who later became known as William the Conqueror, after his successful invasion of England in 1066.
  • Anselm was abbot at Bec-Hellouin before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093
  • In 1792 the monks were dispersed, and the buildings were used as a cavalry depot
  • The Abbey was re-occupied in 1948 by Benedictine monks, who undertook a substantial renovation of the buildings, and converted the vaulted refectory of 1747 into the abbey church which contains the tomb of it’s founder.
  • The building pictured above is the 15th century St Nicholas Tower, on of the few buildings of the abbey to have survived largely undisturbed.

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