Luxeuil

Luxeuil (lüksö`yə), former abbey, E France, at the present-day town of Luxeuil-les-Bains. It was founded c.590 by St. Columban on the site of the Roman town Luxovium, destroyed (451) by Attila, later established in Franche-Comté and now in the Haute-Saône dept. The ascetic rule of Columban was soon modified and replaced (8th cent.) by that of St. Benedict. Although constantly troubled by the interference of the Merovingian kings, the monks of Luxeuil were important in upholding Christianity, and enjoyed independence until the abbey's inclusion in Franche-Comté. The abbey, devastated (c.732) by the Saracens, was rebuilt by Charlemagne and soon became one of the early centers of medieval learning; its abbots came to rank as princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The French Revolution secularized the abbey.