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Audoin (bishop)

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"Saint Ouen" redirects here. For other uses, seeSaint-Ouen (disambiguation).
Saint

Audoin
Statue of St Audoin (left) and St Waninge (right), inFécamp,France.
Born609
Sancy,Kingdom of the Franks
Died24 August 684
Clichy
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Catholic Church
Anglican Communion
Canonizedpre-congregation
Feast24 August
Patronagedeaf people; invoked against deafness

Audoin[a](Latin:Audoenus;AD 609 – on 24 August 684), venerated asSaint Audoin,was a Frankish bishop, courtier, hagiographer and saint. He authoredVita Sancti Eligiiwhich outlines the life and deeds ofEligius,his close friend and companion in the royal court and the Church.

Life

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Audoin came from a wealthy aristocratic Frankish family who held lands in the upperSeineandOisevalleys. His father was Authaire (Audecharius). Audoin was a first cousin ofAgilbert,bishop of theWest Saxons.He spent his childhood atUssy-sur-Marne,and was then sent to be educated at theAbbey of Saint-Médard de Soissons.From there he went to the court ofChlothar II(d.629), where training both military and literary was given to young noblemen, he servedDagobert Ias one of his referendaries (administrators).[5]"Clothar's household seems to have been of particular importance in determining who was to be of political importance for the next two reigns."[6]

Court official

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He was part of a group of young courtiers likeWandrilleandDidier of Cahorsand was a close friend ofEligius,whosevitahe wrote. He and Eligius served as royal envoys to persuade Amadus to baptize Dagobert's son. According toIan Wood,"...Audoin and Eligius were arguably the most influential churchmen inFranciaduring the seventh century. "[6]

In 634 Audoin was ordained priest by Dieudonne, Bishop of Mâcon. The following year, he and his brothers Ado and Rado founded Rebais Abbey, on land donated by King Dagobert. Audoin appointed his relative,Agilus,as first abbot. He also took part in the founding of Saint-Wandrille monastery in Rouen, and a nunnery at Fécamp.Fredegarreports that even as court referendary, Audoin had a reputation of being a religious man.[7]According toWilhelm Levisonin hisVita Audoini episcopi Rotomagensis,Audoin spent a year in evangelical exile as a missionary in Spain just prior to becoming bishop.[8]

Bishop

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Saint Ouen reliques de saint Eloi

In 641 he succeededRomanusasbishop of Rouen.[5]Through his influence,Erchinoalddonated toWandregiselthe land forFontenelle Abbeyin Normandy. He developed theological studies and participated in the fusion of the rule of Saint Colomban and that of Saint Benedict.

During the regency of Queen Bathilde, Audoin became one of the first counsellors of the queen. He was an advisor ofTheuderic IIIand upheld the policy ofEbroin,themayor of the palace,to such a degree that he was involved in the mistreatment ofLeodegar.The bishop's position was strengthened when Theuderic confirmed to him the right to elect and approve the Count of Rouen.

Around 675 Audoin made a pilgrimage to Rome. There he visited the sanctuaries, distributed alms to the poor of Rome, and collected relics to bring back to Rouen. After Ebroin's death in 681, he went to Cologne and succeeded in restoring peace between Neustria and Austrasia, but died shortly thereafter at the royal villa at Clichy on 24 August 684. He was buried in theChurch of Sant-Peterwhich he himself had built. The former abbot of Fontenelle,Ansbert,succeeded Audoin as Bishop and had his predecessor reburied behind the high altar, the equivalent of a canonization.

Audoin wrote avitaof his friend,Eligius.This biography, which is one of the most authentic historical monuments of the seventh century, contains a store of valuable information regarding the moral and religious education of that time, and also testifies to the life ofAurea of Paris.[9][10]

A poem on Audoin's life was written in the tenth century byFrithegod,but it is now lost.[11]The author of theLiber Historiae Francorum,thoroughly hostile to the memory of Ebroin, invariably referred to Audoin as "blessed" or "sainted", and in describing his death said he "migravit ad Dominum", a phrase he otherwise reserved in the original part of his history for the death of the "glorious lord of good memory,Childebert III,the just king ".[12]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Also spelledAudoen,Ouen[1]andOwen[2][3]and known asDadoto contemporaries.[4]

References

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  1. ^""Ouen", Oxford Reference ".
  2. ^"Example of the use of this spelling".Archived fromthe originalon 2016-05-09.
  3. ^Walcott, Mackenzie Edward C. (1860)."Example of the use of this spelling".
  4. ^"Record | The Cult of Saints".csla.history.ox.ac.uk.Retrieved2023-05-08.
  5. ^abFouracre, Paul and Gerberding, Richard A.,Late Merovingian France,Manchester University Press, 1996ISBN9780719047916
  6. ^abWood, Ian.The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751,Routledge, 2014,ISBN9781317871156
  7. ^The Chronicle of Fredegar,IV, Ch.78, (J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed.), London, 1960, p. 66
  8. ^Levison, Wilhelm,Life of Audoin, Bishop of Rouen(Vita Audoini episcopi Rotomagensis,BHL 750, CPL 2088), 1910, pp. 553-567. translated by Fouracre and Gerberding 1996, pp. 152-65. Summary by Benjamin Savill, 9 May 2019,The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity Database,University of Oxford,E06275,retrieved 24 June 2024
  9. ^Clugnet, Léon."St. Ouen".The Catholic EncyclopediaVol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 18 April 2020Public DomainThis article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
  10. ^Baring-Gould, Sabine (1877).The Lives of the Saints.J. Hodges. pp. 66–67.
  11. ^Lapidge, Michael (2004)."Frithegod (fl. c.950–c.958)"(fee required).Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.Oxford University Press.Retrieved19 May2010.
  12. ^Monumenta Germaniae Historica,Scriptorum Rerum Merovingicarumt. II, pp. 320–322, 324.

Sources

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  • Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, edited, revised and supplementedby Thurston and Attwater. Christian classics, Westminster, Maryland.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Ouen".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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