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1789: Privileges are abolished.
Properties of the clergy are seized and auctioned.
Religious vows are forbidden. And in 1790 the State relieves the clergy from its prior religious vows.
The abbey and its dependencies were bought in 1791 for 10 500 F by JEAN-LOUIS LALOUETTE, grain trader and Christian believer. He gave the church to the city of Saint-Michel of which he was also mayor. He sold the remaining buildings - the farm, the mill, the upper water reservoir, and a few acres of land to JACQUES MILLET labourer. The latter established a glass factory in the monastery and brought in PIERRE DESMASURES glass master from the Fourmies region. He thus saved the abbey from plunder and destruction.
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 ut of the eleven monks in Saint-Michel, eight remained there. The new owner did not make them go, quite the contrary.
In 1792 the abbey church was emptied: the sacred vases, among which a pure gold monstrance, were sent to the mint for melting. In 1793 the bells were brought down and sent to Vervins.
The Convention was pushing for dechristianization but the Christian faith remained strong and protected the priests.
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 n 1803, PIERRE DESMASURES,
glass master, sold the abbey and its dependencies for 20 400 F to PIERRE BEURRE (merchant), PIERRE DEPRE-LAMARLIERE, LOUIS DESPRE AND AUGUSTIN RAUX forge master at La Neuville aux Joutes. As early as 1807 this forge master, former deputy at the Constitutional parliament, bought the shares of his partners and became the sole owner.
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 s early as 1802, thanks to
the Concordat signed between NAPOLEON and the Pope, the abbey church was allowed to open its doors to the faithful again. In 1801 the new owner of the buildings of Saint-Michel, indicted for murder, committed suicide. Still today, the MILLET case is debated: innocent or guilty of robbing and killing his victims inside the abbey.
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Napoleon I |
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spinning mill was set up in the monastery and major changes were brought to the architecture so as to accommodate the rush of customer orders. Later the heir of AUGUSTE RAUX sold the abbey to the LEGOUPIL REICHENBACH Co for 180 000 F which was a considerable appreciation in view of the stability of the French currency during that period. The mill shifted to cotton work and was sold again, to BERTHERAUX for 75 000 F in 1841. But the rarity of cotton due to the American civil war led to the factory closure and its sale in 1864.
In 1865, CESAR SAVART bought the property for 86 000 F. This rich shoe merchant was the son of a woodcutter, in Saint-Michel. He started work at the age of 8 and at the age of 23 went to Paris where he became a docker on the Saint-Martin canal. Through relentless work, and exemplary honest behaviour, the great confidence he inspired and his strong innate business sense helped him build a considerable fortune with a shoe and leather factory.
Honoured with the Legion d'Honneur, he moved in fashionable political and religious circles, and established a new shoe factory in his native town Saint-Michel. He set up and financed an orphanage for girls in 1866 and gave its management to the Saint-Vincent de Paul sisters. This orphanage stayed open for a century. He also paid for the construction of a primary catholic school catering to the instruction of boys in the district. He financed some public works (wash-houses, roads) and let the church benefit from his grants. He died in 1895, after the death of his only son aged 30 and the death of his wife in 1890. He had named the orphanage as his sole legatee.
Neither the city nor the abbey suffered significant damage during the two world wars. Only the bells were, once again, melted by the German army. The organ was miraculously spared.
The shoe factory ceased all activity in 1951. |
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