MORIMOND, ABBEY OF

Fourth daughter abbey of Cîteaux, founded 1115 in the Diocese of Langres, France, by Olderic of Aigremont in a place called Moiremont. Morimond (Latin Mori mundo, to die to the world) founded other abbeys in France and later in Germany, acquiring over 210 affiliated monasteries throughout Europe, especially in Germanic countries. In Spain, the abbot of Fitero founded the military order of calatrava, which remained attached to Morimond. otto of freising, son of Leopold III of Austria, entered Morimond, became its abbot in 1138, and was later named bishop of Freising. The abbey suffered much damage during the Thirty Years' War and the War of Lorraine. It was rebuilt in 1706. After the French Revolution, the buildings fell into ruin. Today there remain only the 15th-century exterior chapel and one of the portal gates, which dates from the 18th century. Excavations in 1954 and 1955 have allowed reconstruction of the plan of the church, which had a large chevet with a square ambulatory (see cistercians, art and architecture of).

Bibliography: Sources. t. hÜmpfner, Exordium Cistercii cum summa cartae caritatis et fundatio primarum quattuor filiarum Cistercii (Vac, Hung. 1932) 24–25, and in Analecta sacri ordinis cisterciensis 2 (1946) 119–145. j. m. canivez, ed., Statuta capitulorum generalium ordinis cisterciensis, 8 v. (Louvain 1933–41). Literature. l. dubois, Histoire de l'abbaye de Morimond (3d ed. Dijon 1879). l. janauschek, Origines cistercienses, v.1 (Vienna 1877) 5. a. a. king, Cîteaux and Her Elder Daughters (London 1954) 329–387. h. p. eydoux, "L'Église abbatiale de Morimond," Analecta sacri ordinis cisterciensis 14 (1958) 3–111. m. a. dimier, "Morimond et son empire," Mémoires de la Société historique et archéologique de Langres 5 (1959) 46–80. j. salmon, Morimond: Son ancienne abbaye (Breuvannes 1957); Morimond: Les derniers jours de l'abbaye (Breuvannes 1961).

[m. a. dimier]