Initially devoted to St Valerian, a Christian from Asia Minor who travelled to Tournus to convert the people in the 2C, the abbey changed patron saint in the early 9C, following the arrival of monks from Noirmoutier fleeing Norsemen. They brought with them the relics of St Philibert, who had founded the abbey of Jumièges in Normandy and died at Noirmoutier in 685. The abbey enjoyed a century of prosperity before being destroyed by fire during a Hungarian invasion in 937; it was rebuilt but abandoned a few years later. In 949, Abbot Stephen, a former prior, returned to Tournus and began rebuilding; the work was finished in the 12C, producing one of the most beautiful parts of the church. Damaged several times over the centuries, it was restored and remodelled until it was sacked by the Huguenots in 1562. Turned into a collegiate church in 1627, the abbey became a parish church in 1790, thus escaping destruction.