SAINT-TROND, ABBEY OF

Or the Flemish Sint-Truijen; former benedictine monastery in Limburg, Belgium (Lat. Trudonense ). It was founded in 662 on a site called Sacrinium or Sarchinium by St. trudo (or Trond) of Brabant, and was dedicated (664) to St. Quentin and to St. remigius of Reims by Bp. Theodard of Maastricht. Trudo ruled his monastery with the simple title of superior; Grimo, his second successor, became first "abbot" there even though the abbey depended on St. Stephen's of Metz until the bishop of Liège became its protector (1227). Bp. eucherius of orlÉans, who was exiled by Charles Martel, died at Saint-Trond in 742; Libertus was martyred there by the normans who destroyed the monastery in 884. Adalbert I, Bishop of Metz, and abbot of Saint-Trond (944–964) revived the monastery. In the 11th century, under Abbots Gontran (1034–55) and Adalard II (1055–82), the monastery prospered, and the benedictine rule was regularly observed. Abbot Thierry (d.1107), who wrote a life of St. bavo and De vita et miraculis sancti Trudonis, introduced the cluniac re-form. His successor Rudolph (d. 1138) composed a chronicle of the monastery and seven books against simoniacs; also, he had the abbey church consecrated by Otbert, Bishop of Liège (1117). The decline of the abbey was rapid in the 15th century; in 1520 Abbot William IV of Brussels, who was later to develop the Louvain Library (1525), invited monks from gembloux to renew Benedictine observance at Saint-Trond. In 1603 the monastery was attached to the bursfeld Congregation; it was suppressed in 1796 and partially destroyed in 1798. Remains include a church tower with an 11th-century base, and a spire that dates from the 17th century.

Bibliography: c. piot, ed., Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Trond, 2 v. (Brussels 1870–74). Gesta, Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores (Berlin 1826–) 10:227–448. g. simenon, L'Organisation économique de l'abbaye de Saint-Trond (Brussels 1912). l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:2905–06. m. coens, "Les Saints particulièrement honorés à l'abbaye de Saint-Trond," Analecta Bollandiana 72 (1954) 85–133, 397–426; 73 (1955) 140–192. É. brouette, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:176.

[j. daoust]