Chelles Abbey

[2] The abbey stood in Chelles near Paris (Seine-et-Marne department) until the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in 1792 during the French Revolution, and was dismantled.

Before its religious designation, the site of the abbey, Cala (Gaulish "a collection of pebbles"; modern Chelles, Seine-et-Marne)[4] had held a royal Merovingian villa.

The Queen-Saint Balthild, wife of King Clovis II (639-657/658), an Anglo-Saxon aristocrat who had been taken to Gaul as a slave, founded the abbey around 657/660 on the ruins of the Clothilde's chapel as a monastery for women.

Her possessions were treated as relics at Chelles, including a chasuble, a vestment embroidered with a pectoral cross and an image of a beautiful necklace,[6] which is currently displayed in the museum at the site.

Yitzhak Hen supports this, suggesting that the links to royalty encouraged local inhabitants to attend Sunday Mass regularly, if only to catch a glimpse of the king, queen or their representatives.

[11] Bertila’s reputation as a pious member of the nobility and, later, the eminence of Gisela, sister of Charlemagne, drew several foreign princesses to join the nuns at Chelles, including Hereswith of Northumbria.

Janet L. Nelson called it the "centre of the monarchic cult",[14] indicating a unique prominence for the abbey and firm royal connections.

Many of the manuscripts are signed by women, such as Girbalda, Gislidis, Agleberta, Adruhic, Altildis, Eusebia and Vera, all in a similar script.

[18] Rosamond McKitterick has suggested that the manuscripts’ high quality indicates that the scribes at Chelles were talented and understood the texts they were copying.

[19] The fact that so many of these texts were authoritative works of the Catholic Church, written by early theologians, also lends McKitterick to suggest that the scribes were well-educated.

Not until 1499, under Bishop Jean-Simon de Champigny, was any success achieved in this regard, through a decree of the Parlement of Paris: from 1500 the abbesses were elected every three years, which included the possibility of re-election.