Aulne Abbey

(Alna).

A former Cistercian monastery near Landelies on the Sambre in the Diocese of Liège. Originally it was a Benedictine monastery, founded by Saint Landelinus about 656. Before 974 the Benedictines were replaced by secular clerics leading a common life, who, however, embraced the Rule of St. Augustine in 1144. At the instance of Bishop Henry de Leyen of Liège it came into the hands of Cistercian monks from Clairvaux in 1147 with Franco de Morvaux as its first Cistercian abbot. Henceforth it flourished as a Cistercian monastery until the French burned it at the end of the eighteenth century, only a short time after it had been rebuilt in larger dimensions. The library, which contained 40,000 books and 5000 manuscripts, was also destroyed.