Abbot Suger
c. 1081-1151

Abbot of Saint Denis from 1122 until his death in 1151, Suger played an important role in political and ecclesiastical affairs of Paris in the first half of the twelfth century. Closely tied to the Capetians since he was an oblate at Saint-Denis, Suger even served as regent from 1147-1149 while King Louis VII was on Crusade. This period is often associated with an increased efficacy in the royal administration, and Suger has been credited with having contributed to a new ideology of kingship, although recent scholarship tends to downplay his immediate contributions. As abbot of Saint Denis, Suger began a major renovation program for the abbey perhaps as early as 1122, in the early years of his tenure. Although the academic literature has concentrated primarily on the reconstruction of the west facade and east ends of Saint-Denis, Suger's building program also included almost all of the abbey's buildings, notably the refectory, the dormitory, thedomus hospitum, and perhaps a new cloister. The role of Suger as artistic patron has been the subject of a long and varied critical discourse. Some have gone as far as to credit Suger with having independently masterminded the creation of new iconographic programs of sculpture, stained glass cycles, and of Gothic architecture in general at Saint-Denis. The fact that Suger left a relatively large body of writings about the construction of the building, a rare circumstance, has contributed to the emphasis on Suger's immediate involvement in the construction of the new church.

Suger's writings range in subject matter from histories of the kings Louis VI and VII (Historia gloriosi regis Ludovici) to accounts of his abbacy and the building of Saint-Denis (De Rebus in Administratione sua Gestis, Libellus Alter de Consecratione Ecclesiae Sancti Dionysii, Ordinatio ) Scholars have ascribed an enormous importance to these texts, without which it is questionable
as to whether Suger and his church at Saint-Denis would have received the same kind of academic attention.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis, A Symposium, MMA, ed. Paula Gerson, 1986.

Jean Bony, "What Possible Sources for the Chevet of Saint-Denis," in Abbot Suger and Saint-
Denis, A Symposium, MMA, ed. Paula Gerson, 1986, 131-42.

Sumner Crosby, "Abbot Suger, the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and the New Gothic Style," in The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis in the Time of Abbot Suger, MMA, 1981, 13-24.

Lindy Grant, Abbot Suger of St-Denis. Church and State in Early Twelfth-Century France, London, 1998.

Peter Kidson, "Panofsky, Suger, and Saint Denis" in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 50, 1987, 1-17.

Erwin Panofsky, Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis and Its Art Treasures, Princeton, 1979.