Suger (; ; ; 1081 – 13 January 1151) was a French abbot and statesman. He was a key advisor to King Louis VI and his son Louis VII, acting as the latter's regent during the Second Crusade. His writings are seminal texts for early 12th-century Capetian history, and his reconstruction of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where he was abbot, was instrumental in creating the Gothic architecture style.
Early life Suger was born into a family of minor knights 1081 (or 1080), landholders at Chennevières-lès-Louvres, a small village surrounding Saint-Denis in northern Paris.John F. Benton, "Suger's Life and Personality," in Paula Lieber Gerson, ed. Symposium (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986) p. 3. Suger was given as an oblate to the abbey of Saint-Denis at age ten in 1091. He claimed humble origins, but may have come from a family of some substance. He trained at the priory of Saint-Denis de L'Estrée for about a decade, where he would have first met the future king Louis VI of France.Their friendship may have been shortlived for Louis had left the abbey's schooling in 1092: whilst it is not certain that the two were friends yet, it is not unlikely given the cozy number of students present. In 1124, Louis refers to Suger as a "faithful and familiar" companion (Jules Tardif, Monuments historiques, no. 391). Suger took up the oblate life relatively easily and showed strong ability including in Latin and a firm grasp of legal matters. This ability led to him being chosen to work in the abbey archives to find documents that could protect the abbey from usurpation by Bouchard II of Montmorency, where historians speculate of his involvement in the appearance of a forged charter—if this was Suger's work, then it is certainly a fitting reflection and early example of his close admiration of the abbey.Lindy Grant, Abbot Suger of St-Denis: Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France (Essex: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998) p. 80, fn. 30.
Suger began a successful career in monastic administration as he went on several missions for his abbey, which held land at several vantage points across the country. Finding favour with Abbot Adam of Saint-Denis, Suger became his secretary in 1106, which helped develop Suger's political career.Suger has a tendency to downplay Abbot Adam's achievements: these are explored in Rolf Große, "L'abbé Adam, Prédécesseur De Suger," in Rolf Große, ed. Suger en question (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2004) pp. 31–43. [in French] As a result, he was involved in significant events: in the same year, he was at the synod at Poitiers; in the spring of 1107 to attend Pope Paschal II; in 1109, where he met Louis VI again as he sat a dispute between the king and Henry I of England, and; in 1112 at Rome for the second Lateran council. During this time, he held administrative roles that required him to be first at Berneval in Normandy in 1108 as provost, then from mid-1109 to 1111 provost to the more important priory of Toury. The area was suffering as a result of Hugh III of Le Puiset's exploitation of revenues, and a series of disputes and failing alliances gave Suger experience on the battlefield.John France, Medieval France at War (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2022) p. 79. OCLC WorldCat 1381142379. He appeared to take up this new challenge well and was successful, though would go on to heavily regret his involvement in warfare by his sixties.In Ordinatio, he asks God to forgive "what I have done," and refers to himself as "clearly being an irreligious man." (trans. Panofsky, p. 123) There is a gap in sources on Suger's whereabouts after he left Toury in 1112,Grant, Suger: Church and State, p. 96. though he was likely advancing his monastic position alongside working on further negotiations.
It is from 1118 when the sources start again, where Suger is deeply entrenched in royal affairs. He is chosen as the royal envoy to welcome the fleeing Pope Gelasius II (John of Gaetani) to France and arrange a meeting with Louis VI.Pope Paschal II dies January 1118; John of Gaetani is made the new pope, becoming Gelasius II; Henry V marched on Rome and appointed Gregory (VIII) as an antipope; Gelasius fled to France to the protection of Louis VI. Suger was sent to live at the court of Gelasius at Maguelonne, and later at his successor Pope Calixtus II's court in Italy in 1121. It was on his return from in March 1122 that Suger, aged 41, learned of Abbot Adam's death and that the others at the abbey had elected him to be the new abbot. Suger took pride in the fact that this happened in his absence and without his knowledge—whilst Louis was initially enraged at the fact that the decision was made without him being consulted first, he was clearly content with Suger assuming the role, as the two enjoyed a strong working relationship.
Court life and influence Suger served as the friend and counsellor to both Louis VI and Louis VII. Until 1127, he occupied himself at court mainly with the temporal affairs of the kingdom, while during the following decade he devoted himself to the reorganization and reform of St-Denis. In 1137 he accompanied the future Louis VII into Aquitaine for marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. He bitterly opposed the later divorce, having advised the marriage.
Though Suger was openly againstWillelmus, Vita., 394. Louis VII's intention announced in 1145 to lead a Second Crusade to rescue the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a council in February 1147 elected Suger to be a regent.Initially, Suger and William, count of Nevers were chosen in an election dominated by St Bernard, with the rationale as "twin swords—the ecclesiastical and securar—[to] protect the realm." William's imminent retirement as a monk meant that Ralph of Vermandois and, to a lesser degree, Archbishop Samson of Reims, to be co-regents with Suger. Grant, Church and State, 157. One of the reasons Suger was opposed to the crusade were the issues present in France at the time: Louis VII wrote shortly after setting out to ensure protection of Gisors, and only six weeks after his expedition, asking for money, asking Suger to use some from his own resources if necessary."sive de nostro seu de vestro pecuniam sumptam nobis mittatis," [whether you send us money taken from us or from you,] in Recueil des Historiensdes Des Gaules et de la France, ed. Martin Bouquet et al. (Paris, 1869–1904) vol 15, p. 487. He urged the king to destroy the feudal bandits, he was responsible for the royal tactics in dealing with the communal movements, and he endeavoured to regularize the administration of justice. He left his abbey, which possessed considerable property, enriched and embellished by the construction of a new church built in the nascent Gothic style. Suger wrote extensively on the construction of the abbey in Liber de Rebus in Administratione sua Gestis, Libellus Alter de Consecratione Ecclesiae Sancti Dionysii, and Ordinatio.
After the regency, Louis VII and his contemporaries still consulted Suger on matters ecclesiastical and political, and he was asked to defend cases at court. At this point, Suger was also being assigned cases to work on lone which would otherwise be given to an episcopal commission to deal with lone. Louis VII gave Suger the task of resolving two episcopal elections, at which point Suger practically continued to hold the same level of control over the church of France as he would have had as regent.Grant, Church and State, 278.
Following the failure of the Second Crusade and letters from the Jerusalem and Pope Eugenius, Suger proposed a new crusade at a convention in Laon in 1150, with the support of Louis and St Bernard. The aim was to have a crusade led by Suger and run by the French church to do what the secular powers failed to do.Grant, Church and State, 279. Support for this fell apart from many churchmen, including the pope losing belief in the pursuit and advising the king to remain in France to settle local issues. The matter troubled Suger to his final year of his life, at which point he nominated an unnamed nobleman to take his stead in battle, though it ultimately did not materialise as the idea was likely shelved by that point.Grant, Church and State, 280.
Suger's final year continued to be busy for him, as he was instructed by the pope to reform Saint Corneille at Compiègne. Odo of Deuil's appointment as abbot had the backing of Louis VII and Suger, though after the two left, it was met with violent resistance by the canons (as was the case at Sainte-Geneviève).
Today, a French street is named after Suger, and two schools bear his name ( in Saint-Denis, and École secondaire Suger in Vaucresson). Contribution to the arts
Abbey of Saint-Denis
Prior to Suger's abbacy, the Abbey of Saint-Denis was a significant site, with a long tradition of royal burials dating back to the 6th century. Thus, when Suger was appointed to be its abbot, the tie between monarchy and church became even closer. Ideas to renovate the small and aging abbey arose as early as 1124, when he began to take in funds for the project—but work on the full rebuild as did not begin until 1137. The idea of a full rebuild and what it should look like was a gradual development over time. Early ideas were sporadic and undeveloped, with Suger mostly preoccupied with state affairs. Ground was first broken in 1130 to rebuild the old nave, with ideas of importing in classical columns from Rome, though this was an act rendered moot by the eventual decision for a full rebuild. The rebuild was not something Suger could have given much of his time to until the and ascension of Louis VII, who wished to have his own set of advisors alongside his father's.
Suger began with the west front, reconstructing the original Carolingian façade with its single door. He designed the façade to be an echo of the Roman Arch of Constantine with its three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion. The rose window above the west portal is the earliest-known such example, although Romanesque circular windows preceded it in general form.
At the completion of the west front in 1140, Suger moved on to the reconstruction of the eastern end, leaving the Carolingian nave in use. He designed a choir (chancel) that would be suffused with light.When the new rear part is joined to that in front, The church shines, brightened in its middle. For bright is that which is brightly coupled with the bright And which the new light pervades, Bright is the noble work Enlarged in our time I, who was Suger, having been leader While it was accomplished. Abbot Suger: On What Was Done in His Administration c.1144–8, Chap XXVIIIErwin Panofsky argued that Suger was inspired to create a physical representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem, however the extent to which Suger had any aims higher than aesthetic pleasure has been called into doubt by more recent art historians on the basis of Suger's own writings. To achieve his aims, his masons drew on the several new features which evolved or had been introduced to Romanesque architecture, the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory windows.
The structure was finished and dedicated on 11 June 1144,Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) A World History of Art. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 376. in the presence of the king. The Abbey of Saint-Denis thus became the prototype for further building in the royal domain of northern France. It is often cited as the first building in the Gothic style. A hundred years later, the old nave of Saint-Denis was rebuilt in the Gothic style, gaining in its transepts two spectacular rose windows.Wim Swaan, The Gothic Cathedral
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