abbey of Fleury
(Fleury-Saint-Benoit) Situated on the Loire, near Orleans, France , one of the oldest and most celebrated Benedictine abbeys of western Europe. Tradition attributes its foundation to Leobaldus, c.640, on the site of a Gallo-Roman villa, and Fleury’s records number Cardinal Richelieu among its 89 abbots . The abbey also claims to possess the relics of Saint Benedict, said to have been transferred from Monte Cassino after the Lombard invasions.