Everything about Saint Amand totally explained
» For places named after Saint Amandus see Saint-Amand. For the leaders of the Gallic rebellion under Diocletian, including Amandus, see Aelianus (rebel).
Saint
Amand or
Amandus (Amantius) (c.
584 –
675), was a
French Roman Catholic saint, one of the great Christian apostles of
Flanders.
Biography
Apparently of noble birth, Amand was born in Lower
Poitou. He became a monk at the Island of Yeu (
Île d'Yeu), near
Tours, at about the age twenty, against the wishes and efforts of his family. From there he went to
Bourges, where under the direction of the bishop, Saint
Austregisilus, he lived in solitude on bread and water in a cell for fifteen years.
After a pilgrimage to
Rome, he was consecrated in France as a missionary bishop in
628. At the request of
Clotaire II, he began first to evangelize the pagan inhabitants of
Ghent, later extending his field of operations across Flanders. Initially he'd little success, suffering persecution, and undergoing great hardship but achieving nothing, until the miracle of bringing back to life a hanged criminal changed the feelings of the people, after which he'd many converts.
Under his supervision monasteries were established at Ghent and
Mont Blandin, the first in
Belgium. The monastery at Ghent was funded, and then joined, by the future
Saint Bavo, who was inspired by Amand's preaching. Returning to France, in
630, he angered
Dagobert I by his efforts to turn the king from his sinful life, and he was expelled from the kingdom despite the intervention of
Saint Acarius. Dagobert however later asked his pardon and requested him to be the tutor to the heir to the throne; Amand however declined the honour. His next apostolate was among the
Slavs of the
Danube (the modern
Slovakia), but it was unsuccessful, and he's next found in Rome, reporting the results to the
Papal office. While returning to France he's said to have calmed a storm at sea.
In about
649 Amand, according to some authorities, served briefly as
Bishop of Maastricht (others say the see was
Tongeren or
Liège), the disordered conditions in which were such that he'd to appeal to the Pope,
Martin I, for instructions. The pope's reply set out a plan of action with regard to disobedient clerics, and also contained information about the
Monothelite heresy, then extremely prevalent in the East. Amand was also commissioned to call councils in
Neustria and
Austrasia in order to pass on to the bishops of
Gaul decrees enacted at Rome; the bishops in turn required Amand to pass back to Rome the acts of the councils. He took the opportunity to relinquish his bishopric, and to resume his work as a missionary.
At about this time he established contact with the family of
Pepin of Landen, and helped Saint
Gertrude and her mother
Itta to establish the famous monastery at
Nivelles. Thirty years before he'd gone into the
Basque country to preach, with little success; the inhabitants now asked him to return, and although he was by this time seventy years old, he undertook the work of evangelizing them, in which he seems to have been successful. Returning home, he founded several more monasteries, particularly in Belgium. Dagobert made great concessions to him for his various establishments.
He died in his monastery of Elnon (later
Saint-Amand, near
Tournai) at the age of ninety.
His feast is kept on
6 February. Although mostly revered in Flanders and
Picardy, he was also honoured in England, where at least one church (at
East Hendred in
Oxfordshire) is dedicated to him.
Amand is the
patron saint of all who produce beer: brewers, innkeepers and bartenders (and presumably also hopgrowers). He is also the patron of vine growers,
vintners and merchants, and of
Boy Scouts.
Further Information
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