SAINT-GUILEHM-DU-DÉSERT, ABBEY OF

Former benedictine monastery in the Diocese of Lodève, present-day Diocese of Montpellier, France, known originally as Gellone (monasterium Gellonense ), from the valley northwest of Montpellier where it was located. The eponymous designation S. Guillelmus de Deserto superseded the old usage. Duke william of aquitaine (d. 812) founded the monastery c. 804; it was affiliated with aniane, and immediately flourished as a Benedictine house under royal patronage and through the ardor of its first abbot, benedict of aniane. Despite a jurisdictional dispute with Aniane, Saint-Guilhem-du-Désert attained its apogee in the 11th and 12th centuries. From this period dates the surviving church, with its fine altar. The repute of the founder (honored as a saint probably from the 10th century) as a warrior against the Spanish infidel, and the possession of a relic of the True Cross (Charlemagne's gift), rendered the abbey a pilgrim shrine. Saint-Guilhem declined during the later Middle Ages, but managed to survive under nonresident abbots, often neighboring bishops, until the French Revolution, when the few remaining monks were dispersed and the properties sold.

Bibliography: l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2723–24. p. alaus et al., eds., Cartulaires des Abbayes d'Aniane et de Gellone, 2 v. (Montpellier 1898–1910). p. marres et al., eds., Saint-Guilhem-du-Désert (le milieu et l'homme ) (Montpellier 1956).

[t. n. bisson]