February 8: Abbey of Our Lady of the Lily, Melun, France (13th Century)
The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of the Lys | No Greater Delight
In 1236, Queen Blanche of Castile had laid the foundations of Notre-Dame-La-Royale, Maubuisson, near Pontoise, so Saint Louis therefore assumed all expenses involved in the foundation of the new abbey, but left his mother in charge of the work. ‘Our Lady of the Lily’ would be the new house for Cistercian nuns outside Melun, a town which Blanche loved. The name was one they had agreed upon for the new convent, a convent where there would be prayers perpetually offered to God for the sake of the Crusade that King Louis would soon embark upon.
The Queen of France, Blanche of Castile, wife of King Louis VIII ‘the Lion’ and mother of King Saint Louis IX, died there on 27 November, 1252.
There is a list of abbesses of Our Lady of Lys beginning with Vienna Alix, Countess of Macon, and the last Countess of Vienna, died there on August 23, 1258. She had been widowed …More
Abbaye du Lys
L'ancienne abbaye royale Notre-Dame du Lys, aujourd'hui en ruine, est une abbaye cistercienne de moniales fondée par Blanche de Castille et par saint Louis en 1244. Elle se situe en bordure du centre-ville de la commune de Dammarie-les-Lys, à quatre kilomètres en aval de Melun, dans le sud de la Seine-et-Marne. Livrée aux pillages, transformée en enclos à bœufs à la Révolution, puis vendue comme ruine romantique à un Suisse en 1796, l'abbaye a été classée Monument historique par arrêté du 30 décembre 1930
Abbaye du Lys — Wikipédia