By the 7th century, the Irish missionary Columbanus had established the most famous convent in Gaul,
Luxeuil Abbey. Following the death of her husband
Clovis II in 657,
Balthild, the
Queen Regent of
Neustria and
Burgundy became patron of the community, thereby promoting the example of Luxeuil's mixed rule — a combination of Benedictine and Columbanian monasticism — throughout medieval Europe. Balthild was responsible for the foundation of an abbey of nuns at Chelles around 659, a double monastery, where she retired following her vacating of the regency of the
Merovingian throne. Around this same time, the brother of the bishop Audoens, Ado, formed the famous double monastery of
Jouarre, also in Gaul. These two monasteries shared many of the same features: they both housed male and female religious communities within the same enclosure, though these groups lived apart, and they shared a common church for liturgical offices. Both monasteries were administered by a single head, typically an abbess, a reflection of Caesarius of Arles’ view about the management of female houses. The involvement of Columbanus’ successors as
abbots of
Luxeuil,
Eustace and
Waldebert, is well-documented. The
Rule of a Father for Virgins, attributed to Waldebert, established the mother role of the abbess on terms very similar to those of an abbot. In this Rule, Walbert asserts that abbesses share many of the powers of an abbot, including the ability to hear confessions from their nuns and absolve them of their sins.
Hilda of Whitby, abbess of the most famous double house in
England, had originally intended to join her sister at
Chelles in 647, where many other daughters of the English nobility were educated. By order of King
Oswiu, in 664 Hilda hosted the
Synod of Whitby, which brought together representatives from the Celtic and
Roman churches to resolve ecclesiastical differences between them, including the
Easter Controversy. Whitby became known as a school for bishops, and produced five during Hilda’s time as abbess, according to
Bede's
Historia. The prominent position occupied in England by double monasteries emerges further from the fact that Whitby served in the seventh century as a place of retirement and burial for several Anglo-Saxon kings. It also fostered significant cultural achievements, such as the poems of
Cædmon. Beyond Whitby, Anglo-Saxon England cultivated double monasteries including
Ely, which was founded by Queen
Etheldreda of
Northumbria. After spending twelve years refusing to consummate her marriage, Etheldreda was granted the land for Ely by her husband, King
Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the Continent founded double houses there, one example is the double monastery of
Heidenheim, Bavaria, founded by
Willibald around 742, and later led by his sister,
Walpurga. A characteristic unique to Anglo-Saxon religious establishments was the simultaneous institution of double monasteries along with double
minsters. Although both institutions housed both sexes, a
double minster served as a church, often founded by a royal or a magnate, with an attached community of priests, nuns, and monks, rather than an enclosed religious community, to carry out welfare and pastoral work in the local area. This distinction was exemplified in the dichotomy between
sanctimoniala, a professed nun, and a canonica- a woman living under a religious rule, but without necessarily having taken personal religious vows, as in the case of
Beguines and Beghards. Mantineon featured a school for boys in the male monastery, and unlike its Gallic and
Anglo-Saxon counterparts, the male and female sections of the monastery featured very different lifestyles. They did, however, rely upon each other, and established a centre of activity between the two churches that allowed both monks and nuns to exchange skills and goods. Like Western double monasteries, the establishment of
medieval Byzantine double houses peaked by the mid-eighth century. == Decline and revival ==