Near Paris, France. Founded in 630 by King Dagobert for Benedictine monks. Possesses the shrine of Saint Denis, became one of the richest and most important abbeys in France. Suger, thirty- sixth abbot, was perhaps the most famous among them. The present building was begun in 1140. In 1633 it was united to the Congregation of Saint-Maur. King Louis XVI confiscated the abbacy and united the monastery to the house of Saint-Cyr. It was dissolved during the French Revolution. Restored under Napoleon III, it is now a "national monument."