priors, , a great patron of literature and the friend of Rabelais, built the existing church, a graceful structure but smaller by far than the ancient basilica which it replaced. Rabelais was a guest of the priory for a time, a period he used to edit his early works. During the 16th century, the priory was badly damaged as a result of the conflicts during the War of Religions, and, on 4 February 1607, King Henry IV gave the priory, over the objections of the city's residents, to the Society of Jesus, who made major renovations to the buildings and continued to maintain the practice of the Divine Office in the church. They opened a college for Irish students there, as well as having it serve as a country house for the Jesuit Fathers. This situation continued until the suppression of the Society in 1762, when the site came under the direction of the local bishop, despite the opposition to this by the Benedictines of the Congregation of Saint Maur. At the French Revolution the buildings and lands were sold as national property, the church being used for some time as the Municipal Council chamber. With the re-establishment of the Catholic Church under the Bourbon restoration, the former monastery church was dedicated as a parish church, a function which it continues to serve for the Parish of Saint-Martin en Poitou. The current pastor, as of September 2014, is Thierry de Mascarel. Second foundation In 1849 Louis-Edouard-François-Desiré Pie, afterwards cardinal, became the Bishop of Poitiers. He was a close friend of Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B., the re-founder of the French Benedictine Congregation, and on 19 November 1853 he gave formal approval for the restoration of monastic life at the monastery. Five days later, a small community of four monks arrived from Solesmes Abbey, led by Abbot Guéranger, and established themselves at Ligugé. This was the first daughter house of Solesmes. At first a priory dependent on that abbey, the new foundation was raised in 1864 to the rank of an independent abbey by Pope Pius IX, and Guéranger appointed Dom Léon Bastide to be its first abbot. In 1880 the monks were driven from the abbey by the "Ferry Laws". Many of them, under the leadership of Abbot Joseph Bourigaud took refuge at the ancient Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, which they rebuilt and saved from extinction. Some