St. Amand

Feastday: February 6
Patron: Wine makers, Beer brewers, merchants, innkeepers, bartenders, Boy Scouts
Birth: 584
Death: 675

 

This great missionary was born in lower Poitou about the year 584. At the age of twenty, he retired to a small monastery in the island of Yeu, near that of Re. He had not been there more than a year when his father discovered him and tried to persuade him to return home. When he threatened to disinherit him, the saint cheerfully replied, "Christ is my only inheritance." Amand afterward went to Tours, where he was ordained, and then to Bourges, where he lived fifteen years under the direction of St. Austregisilus, the bishop, in a cell near the cathedral. After a pilgrimage to Rome, he returned to France and was consecrated bishop in 629 without any fixed See, receiving a general commission to teach the Faith to the heathens. He preached the gospel in Flanders and northern France, with a brief excursion to the Slavs in Carinthia and perhaps, to Gascony. He reproved King Dagobert I for his crimes and accordingly, was banished. But Dagobert soon recalled him, and asked him to baptize his newborn son Sigebert, afterwards to become a king and a saint. The people about Ghent were so ferociously hostile that no preacher dared venture among them. This moved Amand to attempt that mission, in the course of which he was sometimes beaten and thrown into the river. He persevered, however, and in the end people came in crowds droves to be baptized.

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As well as being a great missionary, St. Amand was a father of monasticism in ancient Belgium, and a score of monasteries claimed him as founder. He found houses at Elnone (Saint-Amand-les-Eaux), near Tournai, which became his headquarters, St. Peters on Mont-Blendin at Ghent, but probably not St. Bavo's there as well; Nivells, for nuns, with Blessed Ida and St. Gertrude, Barisis-au-Bois, and probably three more. It is said, though possibly apocryphal, that in 646 he was chosen bishop of Maestricht, but that three years later, he resigned that See to St. Remaclus and returned to the missions which he had always had most at heart. He continued his labors among the heathens until a great age, when, broken with infirmities, he retired to Elnone. There he governed as Abbot for four years, spending his time in preparing for the death which came to him at last soon after 676. That St. Amand was one of the most imposing figures of the Merovingian epoch, is disputed by no serious historian; he was not unknown in England, and the pre-Reformation chapel of the Eyston family at east Hendred in Birkshire is dedicated in his honor.

"Saint Amand" redirects here. For places named after the saint, see Saint-Amand. "Amand" redirects here. For the villages in Iran, see Amand, Iran. For other uses, see Amandus (disambiguation).

Amandus (c. 584 – 679), commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the great Christian missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium.

Life

The chief source of details of his life is the Vita Sancti Amandi, an eighth-century text attributed to Beaudemond (Latin: Baudemundus). The vita was expanded by Philippe, abbot of Aumône. According to this biography, Amand was born in Lower Poitou. He was of noble birth but at the age of twenty, he became a monk on the Île d'Yeu, against the wishes of his family. His father threatened to disinherit him if he did not return home. From there Amandus went to Bourges and became a pupil of bishop Austregisilus. There he lived in solitude in a cell for fifteen years, living on no more than bread and water.

Humbert of Maroilles was of a noble family and trained as a monk in Laon. However, upon the death of his parents, he returned to his estates in Mézières sur Oise to settle some inheritance issues and found fine food, servants, and various conveniences sufficiently distracting that he gave up any thought of the monastic life, until one day Amandus took him on a pilgrimage to Rome. Humbert became his disciple and companion.

Excerpt from the Vita St. Amandi manuscript. Manufactured in Ghent, ca. 10th century. Preserved in the Ghent University Library.

After the pilgrimage to Rome, Amandus was made a missionary bishop in France in 628, without a fixed diocese. At the request of Clotaire II, he evangelized the pagan inhabitants of Ghent, later extending his field of operations to all of Flanders. Initially, he had little success, suffering persecution and undergoing great hardships. However, after allegedly performing a miracle (bringing back to life a hanged criminal) the attitude of the people changed and he made many converts. He founded a monastery at Elnon where he served as abbot for four years. Amandus was made a bishop in 628.

St. Amandus and the serpent, from a 14th-century manuscript

He returned to France in 630. Amandus was a close friend of Adalbard of Ostrevent, whom he advised on the founding Marchiennes Abbey. Amandus angered Dagobert I by attempting to have the king amend his life. In spite of the intervention of Saint Acarius, Amand was expelled from the kingdom and went to Gascony.

Later Dagobert asked him to return and tutor the heir to the throne. Amand however declined. In 633, Amandus founded two monasteries in Ghent; one at Blandinberg, and the other named for St. Bavo, who gave his estate for its foundation. His next missionary task was among the Slavic people of the Danube valley in present-day Slovakia but this was unsuccessful. Amand went to Rome and reported to the Pope.

While returning to France, Amandus is said to have calmed a storm at sea. In 639, he built an abbey near Tournay.

From 647 till 650, Amand briefly served as Bishop of Maastricht. The pope gave him some advice on how to deal with disobedient clerics and warned him about the Monothelite heresy, at that time prevalent in the East. Amand was commissioned by the pope to organize church councils in Neustria and Austrasia in order to pass on the various decrees from Rome. The bishops asked Amand to transmit the proceedings of the church councils to the pope. He resigned the see to St. Remaclus, to resume his missionary work.

Around this time, Amand established contact with the family of Pepin of Landen and helped Gertrude of Nivelles and her mother Itta establishing the famous monastery of Nivelles. At the same time, he was now 70 years old, the inhabitants of the Basque country asked him to return to their country to evangelize, although 30 years earlier he had preached there in vain. Returning home, he founded several more monasteries in present-day Belgium with the help of king Dagobert.

Amand died in Elnone Abbey (later Saint-Amand Abbey, in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, near Tournai) at the age of ninety. The Vita of St. Aldegonde recounts that on the day of his death, Aldegonde was shown a vision of the missionary ascending to heaven. This account did much to further the cult of Amandus.

Veneration

Known for his hospitality, Saint Amand is the patron saint of all who produce beer: brewers, innkeepers and bartenders. He is also the patron of vine growers, vintners and merchants, and of Boy Scouts.

His feast day is 6 February. Although mostly revered in Flanders and Picardy, he is also venerated in England, where at least one private chapel (at East Hendred in Oxfordshire) is dedicated to him.

Notes

1. ^ "Shrine of Saint Amandus", The Walters Art Museum
2. ^ Calendar of Saints in the Diocese of Liège (15th c.).
3. ^ "Vita S. Amandi[manuscript]". lib.ugent.be. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
4. ^ Kreiner, Jamie. The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 207ISBN 9781107050655
5. ^ Campbell, Thomas (1907). "St. Amandus", The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
6. ^ "Saint Humbert", Nominis
7. ^ St. Humbert - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online
8. ^ Monks of Ramsgate. “Humbert of Marolles”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 5 September 2013 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
9. ^ "Saint Amandus Recues a Man From Judicial Vengeance", Vengeance in Medieval Europe: A Reader, (Daniel Lord Smail, Kelly Gibson, eds.), University of Toronto Press, 2009, p. 115ISBN 9781442601260
10. ^ "Saint Amandus", Treasures of Heaven, Columbia University
11. ^ Fell, Charles and Challoner, Richard. "St. Amandus, Bishop", The Lives of Saints: Collected from Authentick Records of Church History, T. Osborne, 1750, p. 143 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
12. ^ Butler, Alban. "St. Amandus, Bishop and Confessor", The Lives of the Saints, Vol. III, 1866
13. ^ Moreira, Isabel and Moreira, Isabelle. Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Authority in Merovingian Gaul, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 220ISBN 9780801436611
14. ^ "Beer Saints", Brookston Beer Bulletin