Liessies Abbey

After miracles were reported at her tomb, the Bishop of Cambrai organised her formal veneration, but was unable to establish monks here, as the house was at that time in the possession of a community of canons, who refused to co-operate.

Fénelon, at that time Archbishop of Cambrai, accordingly held a visitation of the abbey in 1702 and left certain instructions of which the abbot circulated a largely fictitious account.

[5] In 1791 the last abbot, Dom Mark Verdier, and his community signed a declaration, as ordered by the decree of 14 October 1790, in which they confirmed their desire to remain in religion, but the suppression followed nevertheless.

The valuable paintings for which the abbey was famous, which included a series of "religious founders", were burned or dispersed; a few survived in neighbouring churches.

Although the major structures are destroyed, a number of small monastic working buildings still survive scattered about the abbey's former park, which has been preserved as an open space.