In the 10th century, Bishop Theuderic I of Metz donated the relics of Saint Goëri from Saint-Symphorien to the newly-built monastery at Épinal.

The abbey stood outside the city's fortifications[4] near the Porte Serpenoise [fr], on what is now the Avenue Lattre de Tassigny and the Barbot barracks.

[clarification needed] Bishop Adalbero II (984-1005)[6] re-established it under the name of Saint-Symphorien, and appointed monks and an abbot.

The magistrate of Metz, fearing that the abbey, close to the Serpenoise gate, would be an obstacle to the city's defense, had it burnt down in 1444.

The abbey was again destroyed and finally re-established in 1564, near the church of Saint-Martin, in the house of Baudoche,[1] on both sides of the present-day Rue Maurice Barrès.