Establishment Saint Remaclus founded the Abbey of Stavelot on the river, circa 650, on lands along the border between the bishoprics of
Cologne and , this territory belonged at that time to Grimoald, the Austrasian mayor of the palace and member of the Arnulfinger-Peppinid family. A charter of
Sigebert III, king of
Austrasia entrusted Remaclus with the monasteries of both Stavelot and Malmedy, which was located a few kilometres eastwards in the forest, "a place of horror and solitary isolation which abounds with wild beasts". Sigebert granted forest land; charged his
Mayor of the Palace,
Grimoald the Elder, with furnishing money to build the two monasteries; and continued to foster these communities with personal gifts. with the town claiming its foundation date as 648. Malmedy is listed on earlier maps than Stavelot, and the commission appointed in 670 by
Childeric II, in order to delimit the abbey territory, started from Malmedy (). The
relics of Saint Remaclus were housed in this new church.
Development and the High Middle Ages In 747,
Carloman, Duke of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, enlarged the abbeys' lands with gifts from his own, on his
abdication. Throughout the ninth century, the abbeys played an important cultural role in
Lotharingia, particularly thanks to abbot
Christian. Around 875, the relics of
St Quirinus were
translated from to Malmedy Abbey after the intercession of Emperor
Charles the Bald, partly to secure relics comparable to those of St. Remaclus at Stavelot. Through the seventh and eighth centuries, the two abbeys followed their mission of
evangelism, along with
forest clearance. With the decline of the
Carolingian Empire, however, the abbeys suffered the same decay as elsewhere, leaving the principality in the custody of
lay abbots—temporal guardians—from 844 to 938, including
Ebbo,
Archbishop of Reims,
Adalard the Seneschal, and
Reginar and
Giselbert, dukes of Lorraine. Welcoming
pilgrims and the sick was a part of the monks' mission. The '
mention the ', the monastery's
hospice, where poor pilgrims were granted hospitality, including food for almost eight days, whilst they made their
devotions; this hospice differs from the abbey's
hospital: '
. On 13 April 862, Lothair II of Lotharingia, while dealing with the distribution of property ', ordered that local
tithes be paid to the hospital '''', an order he confirmed on 10 June 873. Several historical sources provide evidence of the raid of 881, which was well prepared and organised. The monks rushed to dig up the relics of Remaclus and fled to the
county of in present-day , in the French ; the surrounding region was largely unaffected by the invasion. who was made abbot by
Holy Roman Emperor Henry II in 1020. He built an imposing church over in length, which was consecrated in the presence of
Emperor Henry III on 5 June 1040. focused on his resting place in the crypt. Malmedy developed around the monastery; until the end of the tenth century, the villagers used the chapel of
Saint Laurent, an
apsidiole of the abbey church, as their place of worship. The monks from Stavelot processed to Malmedy with the
crosier and relics of St Remaclus to remind the rebellious monks of the traditional ordering of the abbeys that the saint had instituted. The relics and crosier were also transported to an Imperial Diet of
Henry IV in
Goslar. In 1066, they processed again, this time to
Aachen and
Fritzlar; they processed to
Bitburg and
Bamberg the following year. That their prayers were not answered apparently led the monks to despair that the relics were becoming impotent or that the monks were being punished by their patron; in 1067 and 1068, abbot Thierry even went to
Rome to appeal to
Pope Alexander II. This impasse lasted for a further three years, until Henry held court at Liège during Easter in 1071; with great ceremony, the monks processed with Remaclus's relics to meet with his legendary fellow bishop
St Lambert, joined en route by the relics of
St Symmetrus. Numerous miracles convinced the emperor to recognise the union of the two abbeys and reiterate the superiority of Stavelot, forcing Anno eventually to capitulate. A rejoiceful procession back to Stavelot paused en route to celebrate Mass on the banks of the Meuse; finally, the monks processed with Remaclus's relics to the abbey at Malmedy, to symbolise the restoration of his and their authority. This series of episodes is recounted in the heroic narrative of the
Triumph of St Remaclus and confirmed by several contemporary sources. In the 12th to 15th centuries, however, the abbacy experienced a slow decline. In the 14th and 15th centuries, several Imperial edicts, initially issued by
Emperor Charles IV, put the abbacy under the protection of the
counts of Luxembourg.
Early Modern Age In 1509,
William of organised a procession to induce the recalcitrant county of , a fief of the abbey, to submit to his jurisdiction. The cortège was pious, rather than fraught with tension; with Stavelot monks carrying the shrines of Remaclus and with other reliquaries; and the monks of Malmedy with reliquaries of
Quirinus,
Just, Peter, and Philip; joined by parishioners from with the relics of Symmetrus. and Malmedy In Malmedy, some 600 out of the 660 houses of the town were destroyed and it took more than a century to completely rebuild. Stavelot was incorporated into the French Republic by a decree of 2 March 1793, along with and . Despite opposition from local notables, Malmedy was similarly incorporated by a decree of of the Year IV (1 October 1795). of the church just the western doorway remains, as a free-standing tower. Two
cloisters—one secular, one for the monks—survive as the courtyards of the brick-and-stone 17th-century domestic ranges. The foundations of the abbey church are presented as a footprint, with walls and column bases that enable the visitor to visualize the scale of the
Romanesque abbey. == Geography and administration ==