Ligugé Abbey, formally called the Abbey of St. Martin of Ligugé (), is a French Benedictine monastery in the Commune of Ligugé, located in the Department of Vienne. Dating to the 4th century, it is the site of one of the earliest monastic foundations in France. The original abbey having been destroyed during the French Revolution, the current monastic community dates from 1853, and belongs to the Solesmes Congregation. First foundation The original monastery was founded in 361, at a site offered by the bishop Hilary of Poitiers, to Hilary's protégé Martin of Tours, to whom it was later dedicated. The site was described as "deserted" in early writings about the abbey, such as the account of the noted historian, Gregory of Tours, who made a pilgrimage to the abbey in 591 to honor his predecessor in the episcopal see. Modern excavations, have identified a Gallo-Roman villa at the site. The reputation of the founder attracted a large number of disciples to the new monastery. The monks initially lived according to the pattern of the Desert Fathers of Egypt, each in his own locaciacum (small hut), this name later evolving to Ligugé. When, however, Martin became Bishop of Tours and established a monastery at Marmoutier a short distance from that city, the fame of Ligugé declined considerably. Among Martin's successors as Abbots of Ligugé may be mentioned Savin, later honored as a saint, who resigned the post of abbot to become a hermit, and Abbot Ursinus, during whose rule the monk Defensor compiled the well-known "Scintillarum Liber". The invasion of the Saracens, the wars of the Dukes of Aquitaine with the early Carolingians, and lastly the Norman invasion were a series of disasters that almost destroyed the monastery. By the 11th century, it had sunk to the position of a dependent priory attached to Maillezais Abbey. It was revitalized in 1003 by the re-establishment of a shrine to St. Martin, its founder, by Adalemode of Limoges, wife of the Count of Poitiers, William V, Duke of Aquitaine. The shrine grew in prominence as a place of pilgrimage until the occupation of the priory by English troops in 1359 and its subsequent destruction by the French forces to prevent its becoming a staging point for relief to the English armies. The priory reached its lowest level in 1501, when it became a benefice held in commendam. The first of the commendatory