ROUGEMONT, ABBEY OF

Called also S. Mariade Rubeo Monte, a former convent of Benedictine sisters, in the Diocese of Dijon and the Department of Cote d'Or, France. It was founded by at least the 11th century for it is first mentioned in 1105 in a bull of pascal iv as being among the convents belonging to the Diocese of Langres. It was subject to the Benedictine abbot of Moutier-Saint-Jean and flourished during the 13th century when the abbey church was built. Abbess Catherine d'Arcy dissipated its wealth and secured transfer to the augustinians in the 15th century, occasioning a lawsuit and resulting in an order from Pope callistus iii delegating the bishop of Chalon to reestablish the convent under the benedictine rule. This was followed by a decline in spirituality in the 16th century when the abbesses were nominated by the Crown. Reform began again under Bishop Zamet despite resistance of the Abbess Lucrèce de Rochefort-Luçay (1621–66). To hasten reform, the crown in 1667 joined the convent to the priory of Saint-Julien-sur-Deheune, forming a single community renamed the Abbaye de Notre Dame et de S. Julien de Rougemont. The community was transferred to Dijon in 1673, and there the Abbess Mme. de Rouville built a new convent, St. Julien de Rougemont, in 1682.

Bibliography: j. laurent and f. claudon in Beaunier, Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France, v.12.3 (Paris 1941). l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2551.

[g. e. gingras]