Fontenelle Abbey was founded by Wandregisel or Saint Wandrille (died 668) on land obtained through the influence of Wandregisel's friend Saint Ouen, Archbishop of Rouen. Saint Wandrille held a high position at the court of his king, Dagobert I, but wishing to devote his life to God, he retired to the abbey of Montfaucon, in Champagne, in 629. In 648 he returned to Normandy and established the monastery of Fontenelle; the deed of gift of the land is dated 1 March 649.
He first built a Carolingian style basilica dedicated to Saint Peter, nearly 92m long, which was consecrated by Saint Ouen in 657. This church was destroyed by fire in 756 and rebuilt by abbot Ansegisus (823–33), who added a narthex and tower. The monastery was extremely successful at first, and produced many saints and prelates. In 740 however there began a series of lay abbots, under whom the monastery declined. Saint Ansegisus, the reformer of Luxeuil Abbey, was appointed in 823 abbot of Fontenelle, which he also reformed.
The abbey soon became a target for Viking raids, culminating in that of 9 January 852 when it was burnt down and the monks fled with the relics of Saint Wandrille.After more than a century in temporary accommodation at Chartres, Boulogne, Saint-Omer and Ghent, the community was at length brought back to Fontenelle by abbot Maynard in 966 and a restoration of the buildings was again undertaken. A new church was built by abbot Gérard, but was hardly finished when it was destroyed by lightning in 1012. Undaunted by this disaster the monks once more set to work and another church was consecrated in 1033. Two centuries later, in 1250, this was burnt to the ground, but abbot Pierre Mauviel at once began a new one. The work was hampered by lack of funds and it was not until 1331 that the building was finished.
Commendatory abbots were introduced at Fontenelle in the 16th century and as a result the prosperity of the abbey began to decline. In 1631 the central tower of the church suddenly fell, ruining all the adjacent parts, but fortunately without injuring the beautiful cloisters or the conventual buildings.
It was just at this time that the newly formed Congregation of St-Maur was reviving the monasticism of France, and the commendatory abbot Ferdinand de Neufville invited them to take over the abbey and do for it what he himself was unable to accomplish. They accepted the offer, and in 1636 began major building works. Not only did they restore the damaged portion of the church, but they added new wings and gateways and also built a great chapter-hall for the meetings of the general chapter of the Maurist congregation. They gave the abbey new life, which lasted for the next hundred and fifty years.
During the French Revolution in 1791 Fontenelle was suppressed, and in the following year the property was sold by auction. The church was partially demolished, but the rest of the buildings served for some time as a factory and later passed into the possession of the de Stacpoole family, to be turned to domestic uses.
George Stanislaus, 3rd Duke de Stacpoole, who had become a priest and a domestic prelate of the pope, restored the entire property to the French Benedictines, and a colony of monks from Ligugé Abbey settled there in 1893. Dom Pothier, a scholar who reconstituted the Gregorian chant and one of the most well-known Benedictines of the world, later was elected abbot of Saint-Wandrille, becoming upon his installation on 24 July 1898 its first abbot since the French Revolution and its first regular abbot since the 16th century. This community was expelled under the 'Association Laws' by the French government in 1901, and spent years in Belgium until they were able to return on 26 January 1931, where they have remained until the present.
Besides the chief basilica Saint Wandrille built seven other churches or oratories both inside and outside the monastic enclosure. All of these have either perished in the course of time, or been replaced by others of later date, except for the chapel of St. Saturnin, which stands on the hillside overlooking the abbey. It is one of the most ancient ecclesiastical buildings now existing and, though restored from time to time, is still substantially the original construction of Saint Wandrille. It is cruciform, with a central tower and eastern apse, and is a unique example of a 7th-century chapel.
The parish church of the village of St. Wandrille also dates from the saint's time, but it has been so altered and restored that little of the original structure remains.
The buildings were damaged by bombing in 1944. A new abbey church was consecrated on 12 September 1970.
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