The origin of the monastery is unclear. Most specialists consider the incorporation of the monastery into the Cistercian Order in 1142 based on an alleged privilege granted by Alfonso VII in which he gave the abbey the Melon Reserve, although this document has never been found, nor has any reference to it been obtained in subsequent confirmations of the possessions of successive monarchs. For this reason, this date must be questioned as there are no supporting documents. It is on the 28th of December 1155 that Alfonso VII himself conceded Mount Veduego and Vaisti to the monastery of Santa María de Bárcena and its abbot Giraldo. There is a generally accepted idea that the primitive monastery of Melon was not located in the present place, but in Bárcena, a place close to Melon, where years later the monks would move, adopting at the same time the name of the new place. It seems that in Bárcena there was previously a Benedictine settlement since the 10th century, and that this would be the one that would receive the donations of Alfonso VII. Melon could therefore be a Cistercian accession of an early Benedictine monastery and would later change its location. However, it is not until 1158 that there is a first mention of the monastery of Melon in a document in which the Countess Fruela Fernández donates the inheritance of Fragoso to the monastery of Santa María de Melón and its abbot Álvaro, the invocation of Santa María being what makes us think that it was a Cistercian monastery, and that the monastery of Barcena would be a different one and that it would later join the monastery of Melon. Therefore, it is most likely that Melon is a foundation and not an annexation, and that it would be of the Clairvaux branch.
Many donations received the new monastery by Fernando II and his successor Alfonso IX and later after the union of the kingdoms of Leon and Castile is Fernando III will confirm the donations of their ancestors and multiple donations from individuals, made this monastery one of the great not only in the field of Galicia, but throughout the peninsula.
Melon had great importance from the spiritual point of view, receiving multiple annexes, in addition to the mentioned of Bárcena, San Miguel de Cans and later San Clodio and Acibeiro also joined and possibly also A Franqueira since it was subject to this house for years.
After the incorporation to the Congregation of Castile again the reform of the buildings is produced, meaning the destruction of the medieval cloister and its substitution by a reglar cloister and another one in the hospice, of the same characteristics that the neighboring monastery of San Clodio.They are with a rehabilitation project
The disentailment meant the abandonment of the monastery and its progressive ruin
At present both cloisters are semi-ruined and only the church remains which, as I mentioned at the beginning, is closed by a gate preventing its visit and contemplation.
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