LIESSIES, ABBEY OF

Former Benedictine monastery near Avesnes (Nord), France, Diocese of Cambrai (patron, St. Lambert). Very little is known of its origin: according to the 11th-century Vita of St. Hiltrude, it was founded in the 8th century, c. 764, by Count Wibert whose son Guntrade was first superior, and whose daughter Hiltrude lived a holy life nearby. It is quite possible that originally it was a double monastery. The great riches given by its founder disappeared during the following centuries as a result of secularizations (of church property) and Norman invasions. When in 1095, Thierry, lord of Avesnes, decided to restore the monastery, it was occupied by only four canons. Its restoration was in fact a refoundation: benedictines were introduced and the monastery was once again richly endowed. But prosperity was short-lived and Liessies remained in the following centuries a small abbey often experiencing financial difficulties that, in turn, made difficult the practice of regular observance. The great abbot of Liessies was Bl. F. Louis blosius (1530–66), whose many ascetical treatises record the Benedictine program of asceticism he worked out for his monks; at the same time he reorganized the temporal administration of the abbey with such success that through him material well-being returned to the abbey temporarily and spiritual fervor, permanently. During the French Revolution, the religious were driven away, the goods of the monastery were sold, and the buildings gradually destroyed.

Bibliography: j. peter, L'Abbaye de Liessies (Lille 1912). f. baix, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 9:228–242.

[h. platelle]