years later the buildings at Ligugé were sold to a civil syndicate, by which they were leased to the abbot and community, who were thus enabled to re-enter their monastery. They then started a printing press as a means of supporting themselves. Today that operation has become an independent publishing house called Aubin. Candidates began to come in considerable numbers and, by 1893, the community was able to found what is now the Abbey of Sainte-Marie in Paris, and, the following year, the ancient Abbey of Saint-Wandrille in Normandy was resettled by a community of monks from Ligugé. Among the visitors to the abbey during this period were Joris-Karl Huysmans, who became an oblate of the abbey, and Paul Claudel, who spent time there as a postulant, both of whom wrote of their experiences at Ligugé in L'Oblat and Partage de Midi respectively. In 1902 the community was again driven out, this time by the Association Laws, and settled at Chevetogne Abbey, Belgium. On their return, they had the abbey church re-constructed; it was consecrated on 12 October 1929. During World War II the abbey gave shelter to Robert Schuman, the future distinguished French politician and champion of the European Union, in August 1942 while he was waiting for passage to the free zone, as well as to Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow of Senegal, future Director General of UNESCO. A member of the monastic community, Dom Aimé Lambert, was a member of the French resistance, who was captured by the Gestapo and beheaded at the prison in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, on 3 December 1943. After the war an enamelling workshop was set up here. The community, as of 2013, consists of some 25 monks. Abbots of Ligugé (Second foundation) Léon Bastide, O.S.B., 1864–1877 Joseph Bourigaud, O.S.B., 1877–1906 François-Léopold Gaugain, O.S.B., 1906–1936 Pierre Basset, O.S.B., 1936–1953 Gabriel Le Maître, O.S.B., 1954-1963 Vacancy 1963-1966 Pierre Miquel, O.S.B., 1966-1990 Jean-Pierre Longeat, O.S.B., 1990-2014 André-Junien Guérit, O.S.B., 2014-2018 Christophe Bettwy, O.S.B., elected on 3 April 2018 (entered the abbey in 1998) References External links St. Martin's Abbey, Ligugé: website Benedictine monasteries in France Buildings and structures in Vienne Christian monasteries established in the 4th century 360s establishments 4th-century establishments in Roman Gaul Monasteries destroyed during the French Revolution 1792 disestablishments in France 19th-century Christian monasteries 1853 establishments in France 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France