SAINT-ANTOINE-DE-VIENNOIS, ABBEY OF

Former central house of the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony, Department of Isère, France, Diocese of Grenoble, formerly Archdiocese of Vienne. The foundation originated as the church of Saint-Antoine-de-la-Mothe, built to receive relics of St. anthony of egypt brought back from Constantinople by Geilen or Jocelin (1070–95). The abbey, entrusted to the Benedictines of montmajour (c. 1083), was erected into a Benedictine priory (1101) and consecrated (1119) by Pope CallistusII. But repeated conflicts between the Benedictines and the Antonine hospitallers, who had been founded by Gaston de Dauphiné at Saint-Antoine c. 1095, led Pope Boniface VIII in 1297 to erect a church, detached from Montmajour, into an abbey with the Antonines' Grand Master, Aymon de Montagny, as first abbot (1273–1316), constituting them canons regular under the Rule of St. augustine. Numerous dependent commanderies were founded in Europe; Saint-Antoine became a center of pilgrimage (14th–15th centuries). Pillaged five times by the Huguenots (1562–90), the abbey declined, despite reforms under Brunel de Grammont (d. 1634), until Pius VI joined it to the knights of malta (1776–77). The abbey was suppressed during the French Revolution. The abbey church (13th–15th century) now serves as a parish church; the cloister, under canons regular of the Immaculate Conception until 1901, is now occupied by a minor seminary, municipal offices, and a distillery.

Bibliography: h. dijon, L'Église abbatiale de Saint-Antoine en Dauphiné (Grenoble 1902). l. maillet-guy, "Les Commanderies de l'ordre de St. Antoine en Dauphiné," Revue Mabillon 16 (1926) 1–26; 17 (1927) 218–236, 352–378; 18 (1928) 1–23, 81–95. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2593–95. j. david, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart (Paris 1912–) 3:733–734. a. mischlewski, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:133.

[g. e. gingras]