Trois-Fontaines Abbey

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Trois-Fontaines Abbey (English: Three Fountains; French: l'Abbaye de Sainte-Marie des Trois-Fontaines)[1] in the Marne department of France, was formerly a Cistercian abbey in Champagne.

It was the first of the Cistercian daughter-houses, established north of the head of navigation of the Marne at Saint-Dizier by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1121, though it never figured among the "Elder Daughters" of Cîteaux—Clairvaux, Pontigny, La Ferté and Morimond— that dominated the hierarchic network of the Order.

The chronicler Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, who covered the years 1227 to 1241, was a monk in the abbey. Pope Eugenius III had previously been abbot of Trois-Fontaines.

Between 1739 and 1753, the abbot in commendam was Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French ambassador in Rome, who was made a cardinal in 1739. Later in the century, the abbey became a private dwelling. Today its Romanesque and Early Gothic abbey church is a picturesque ruin. The outbuildings shelter a bicycle museum.

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  1. ^ The Trappist abbey of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, near Rome, is also called the "Abbey of Three Fountains" (Abbazia delle Tre Fontane or Trium Fontium ad Aquas Salvias): see Catholic Encyclopedia: "Abbey of Saints Vincent and Anastasius".

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