A Benedictine monastery near Sable, France, founded in 1010 by Geoffrey, seigneur of Sable, as a priory dependent on the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture at Le Mans. Under Jean Bougler (1505 to 1556), the last regular prior, two famous groups of statuary, known as the "Saints of Solesmes," were set up in the church. In 1791 the monastery was suppressed. Dom Prosper Gueranger took possession in 1833, and in 1836 began the Benedictine life there. Pope Gregory XVI raised Solesmes to the rank of an abbey in 1837, making it at the same time the mother-house of the "Congregation of France." Branches were founded at Liguge; Silos, Spain; Glanfeuil; Fontenelle; Marseilles; Farnborough, England; Wisque; Paris; and Kergonan. Having been driven from France in 1903, the monks settled in the Isle of Wight. The community of Solesmes has achieved world-wide reputation for erudition; the restoration of the true Gregorian chant of the Church is perhaps its greatest work.