Benedictines The first monastery here was
Benedictine, founded in 1045 by Hugues Adhemar, baron of
Grignan, and visited by
Pope Paschal II in 1107, but shortly afterwards it fell into disuse.
Cistercians The abbey was re-founded as a
Cistercian monastery by Gontard Loup, lord of
Rochefort-en-Valdaine, in 1137, and settled from
Morimond Abbey, of which it was a daughter house. The founder endowed it with land nearby, and through the 12th and 13th centuries other benefactors added to its lands, thus ensuring its prosperity. Already by 1167 it was sufficiently established to found a daughter house of its own,
Fénier Abbey, closely followed by
Le Bouchet Abbey in 1169. By the end of the 13th century the abbey was extremely well established and influential, but gradually lost its position through the 14th century. In common with many other monasteries it suffered from the effects of the
Black Death and the
Hundred Years' War, and also from changing views of spirituality which led to a fall in the number of vocations, especially among the
lay brothers who worked the estates, which in turn led to the estates being leased out. In 1515 its governance passed into the hands of
commendatory abbots, which produced still more decline. By the time of the
French Revolution, in 1791, when the abbey was dissolved, the dispersed community consisted of only three monks. The abbey's goods were sold off, but the buildings were too far from transport connections to be worth the effort of demolishing for the materials, and therefore were left standing.
Trappists In 1815 the monastery was refounded by
Trappists led by Pierre-François de Paul Malmy (Père Étienne) The new foundation flourished, and by 1850 had 233 monks. The thriving Trappist community was able to found several other monasteries. In 1843 a Trappist community was established at
Staoueli in
Algeria, later Abbey of Our Lady of Atlas, which in turn gave rise to two communities,
Notre-Dame de Tibhirine, at
Tibhirine in Algeria, and
Notre-Dame de l'Atlas au Maroc, at
Midelt in
Morocco. Aiguebelle also founded a community at
Koutaba in
Cameroon. In France Aiguebelle undertook the foundation of
Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, in
Ardèche, in 1850, followed by the
Abbey of Sainte-Marie-du-Désert at
Bellegarde-Sainte-Marie (
Haute-Garonne);
Acey Abbey at
Vitreux (
Jura); the
Abbey of Notre-Dame des Dombes at
Le Plantay (
Ain); and
Bonnecombe Abbey at
Comps-la-Grand-Ville (
Aveyron). Aiguebelle also oversees the nuns of Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours at
Blauvac in the
Vaucluse. ==Buildings==