Maubeuge Abbey

It is best known today as the abbey founded by St. Aldegonde, still a popular figure of devotion in the region.

It is thought to have possibly been where the young Jan Gossaert, a Renaissance-era painter known as Jan Mabuse, was educated, claimed by some to have been a native of the town of Maubeuge, which grew up around the abbey.

Maubeuge was designated a royal abbey in 864, under the Treaty of Meersen, which divided Lotharingia.

[7] At a later date the community changed its observance to the less severe Rule of St. Augustine and the religious, formerly nuns, became styled canonesses regular.

A distinctive part of the religious habit they adopted was a gold medal, bearing an image of St. Aldegonde in enamel, suspended on a blue cord tied with a gold tassel.