Suger (c.
1081 –
January 13, 1151) was one of the last
French abbot-statesmen, a historian and the influential first patron of
Gothic architecture.
Suger was born into a poor family and in 1091 was brought to the nearby
abbey of Saint-Denis for education. He trained at the priory of Saint-Denis de l'Estrée, and there first met the future king
Louis VI the Fat. From 1104 to 1106 Suger attended another school, perhaps that attached to the abbey of
Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. In 1106 he became secretary to the
abbot of Saint-Denis. In the following year he became provost of Berneval in
Normandy, and in 1109 of Toury. In 1118 Louis VI sent Suger to the court of
Pope Gelasius II at
Maguelonne, and he lived from 1121 to 1122 at the court of Gelasius's successor,
Calixtus II.
On his return from
Italy Suger became abbot of St-Denis. 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 king,
Louis VII, into
Aquitaine on the occasion of that prince's marriage to
Eleanor of Aquitaine, and during the
Second Crusade served as one of the regents of the kingdom (1147 - 1149). He bitterly opposed the king's divorce, having himself advised the marriage. Although he disapproved of the
Second Crusade, he himself, at the time of his death, had started preaching a new
crusade.
Suger served as the friend and counsellor both of Louis VI and Louis VII. He urged the king to destroy the feudal bandits, was responsible for the royal tactics in dealing with the communal movements, and 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. Scholars such as Edwin Panofsky believe that the theology of the
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite influenced the architectural style of the abbey of St. Denis.
Suger became the foremost historian of his time. He wrote a panegyric on Louis VI (
Vita Ludovici regis), and collaborated in writing the perhaps more impartial history of Louis VII (
Historia gloriosi regis Ludovici). In his
Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis, and its supplement
Libellus de consecratione ecclesiae S. Dionysii, he treats of the improvements he had made to St Denis, describes the treasure of the church, and gives an account of the rebuilding. Suger's works served to imbue the monks of St Denis with a taste for history, and called forth a long series of quasi-official chronicles.
