Faremoutiers Abbey () was an important Merovingian Benedictine nunnery (re-established in the 20th century) in the present Seine-et-Marne department of France. It formed an important link between the Merovingian Frankish Empire and the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent and East Anglia. History The abbey was founded around 620 by Burgundofara (Saint Fara), the first abbess. She had been consecrated to God, while yet a child, by Columbanus. With the approval of Bishop Gundoald of Meaux, Burgundofara established an abbey on her father's lands.Eustace of Luxeuil supplied monks as chaplains and to assist in building the monastery. It was a double monastery, the first in France, with communities of both monks and nuns. The main buildings and the abbey church were in the middle of a large enclosure; the monastery of the brothers was located outside of it. It was established to follow the strict Rule of Saint Columbanus. The site, an estate belonging to Fara's family, originally known as Evoriacum, was renamed Faremoutiers ("Fara's monastery") in her honour. The modern village of Faremoutiers grew up around the abbey. Jonas of Bobbio, biographer of Columbanus stayed at Faremoutiers in 633. Three women of the royal house of East Anglia entered the Abbey of Faremoutiers: Sæthryth, the step-daughter of King Anna, Anna's daughter Æthelburh, and his grand-daughter by his daughter Seaxburh, Eorcengota (†660), daughter of Eorcenberht of Kent. Queen Balthild of Chelles was an important benefactress of the monastery, as was Erchinoald, mayor of the palace of Neustria. In the 9th century, as all French abbeys were commanded to do by Louis the Pious, it changed to the Rule of Saint Benedict. In 887, the Abbey was sacked by the Normans. The monasteries became increasingly populated by young women from the nobility, and the Carolingian royal family. As the rules were relaxed, a period of decadence followed. Faremoutiers thus declined into the hands of the local lords and mutated into a place of receptions and maintenance of men-at-arms. Around 1094 Philip I of France wrote the abbot of Marmoutier and "...asked him to reform the monastery of Faremoutiers because of the nuns' dissolute lifestyle". In 1140 the monastery was destroyed by fire, but rebuilt in 1145. In 1445, at the end of the Hundred Years' War, it was pillaged by soldiers. In the 16th and 17th centuries the abbey enjoyed royal favour, and saw a number of abbesses appointed by the crown.