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... Bella Paise (Bellapais) Abbey...
AN INTRODUCTION
The Premonstratensian
Abbey was founded by Archbishop Thierry in 1206, and confirmed by Pope
Gregory IX. (Cart. of St. Sophia No. XXXVI., Brief of Greg. IX., Rieti:
9th April, 1232); at first it was known as an Augustinian Convent.*
The Abbey of Bella Paise (Bellapais
or Abbaye de la Paix: the French word 'la paix' means peace or quietness
and in my opinion the name of the abbey is probably best translated
with 'Beautiful Quietness' instead of 'Beautiful Peace' as is usually
done - Hans Doeleman) is certainly the most magnificent souvenir and
architectural monument of the Lusignan
Dynasty of Cyprus. It was designed on a scale and with a completeness
worthy of its royal foundations and patronage. It is quite unlike anything
else of the kind surviving in the Levant, and can only be compared with
similar monasteries in Spain or Italy. Such an example enables us to
realize the descriptions of several Lusignan palaces and other buildings
elsewhere in the island of Cyprus, of which we now have no traces remaining.
For instance the great Dominican Convent
at Nicosia would appear to have been a much more imposing group
of buildings than even Bella Paise.
* Augustinian
Order - The origin of the order, which took place in the XIth
century remains obscure. It commemorates St. Augustine of Hippo and
his doctrines of predestination, and is perhaps a revival of
the Orders for men and women which he was instrumental in founding in
the IVth century.
The Premonstratensian,
or Norbertine Order, was
founded in the XIIth century by St. Norbert who obtained permission
in 1120 to found a cloister in the diocese of Laon in North France.
A spot was pointed out to him in a vision and he termed it 'Pré
Montré', or Pratum Monstraturn. The order may be called the reformed
Augustinian or the White Canons of the rule of St. Augustine.
In the middle of the XIIth century William of Corbeil introduced the
canons into England, under the name of Austin
Friars.
"The
life of a monk - Winter and
Summer he rose between five and six, washed at the open lavatory, and
took his place in choir at six o'clock. There he said matins and prime,
and the corresponding Hours of the B.V.M. and heard mass. , After mass,
on chapter days, the meeting in chapter, then breakfast, followed by
tierce in church, and, if the day was of special obligation, the high
mass at which the monastery servants and the neighbouring villagers
attended. Afterwards each monk had his special work. Some taught or
learned in the cloister. Some kept in the Scriptorium the accounts of
the community, or compiled annals from the passing travellers and guests
or letters from other monasteries. The more learned and artistic copied
the service books of the church, etc. Some attended to the infirmary,
or to the storage and dispensing of the food and drink required in a
large community. All, unless they had received a dispensation, assembled
in church for sext, nones, vespers and compline, and in the refectory
for midday and evening meals which they ate in silence while one of
the brethren read passages from the writings of the saints. Compline
over they retired to rest in the common dormitory, from which they descended
into the church for the nocturnal offices. It was a life of regularity
and discipline, but not of privation. Cold and bare was the life within
a medieval monastery but so also was the interior of the average medieval
home compared with modern life."
-
Wakeman's "Church of
England", page. 175.
In the folklore of Cyprus the Abbey of Bellapais seems to be regarded
as the palace of the ubiquitous 'Queen'.
Indeed it appears to be haunted by three 'Queens', two of whom are the
Queens of Hilarion and Buffavento who occasionally pay the third a visit
in her 'divan' of the great arched hall. Such vague legends must not
however be supposed to have any historical foundation, or refer to King
Hugh IV and his Queen Alix d'lbelin, the founders of the Abbey...
