(Fleury-Saint-Benoit) Situated on the Loire, near Orleans, France, one of the oldest and most celebrated Benedictine abbeys of western Europe. Tradition attributes its foundation to Leobaldus, c.640,on the site of a Gallo-Roman villa, and Fleury's records number Cardinal Richelieu among its 89 abbots. The abbey also claims to possess the relics of Saint Benedict, said to have been transferred from Monte Cassino after the Lombard invasions.