Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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PORT ROYAL

Benedictine abbey for women, founded in 1204, and located at Chevreuse, near Versailles. In 1609 it became a stronghold of Jansenism under Abbé St. Cyran, and in 1638 the members left Paris to found a second Port Royal near the abbey "of the Fields." In 1709 the Port Royal community was suppressed by Pope Clement XI. The buildings were razed by order of Louis XIV, but the edifice of the original monastery still stands.