Saint Amand

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For places named after Saint Amandus see Saint-Amand. For the leaders of the Gallic rebellion under Diocletian, including Amandus, see Aelianus (rebel).

Saint Amandus
Saint Amandus and the serpent, from a 14th century manuscript
Born	584, Lower Poitou
Died	675, Saint-Amand
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	February 6 (formerly February 1)
Attributes	chair, church, flag
Patronage	Wine makers, Beer brewers, merchants, innkeepers, bartenders, Boy Scouts
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Saint Amand or Amandus (Amantius) (c. 584 – 675), was a French Roman Catholic saint, one of the great Christian apostles of Flanders.

[edit] 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 had 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 had 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 is next found in Rome, reporting the results to the Papal office. While returning to France he is 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 had 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 had 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.

[edit] References

Acta Sanctorum (Antwerp, 64 vols, 1643-), Feb 1 (1658), 815-904
Krusch, B, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum merov., V, 395-485
Moreu, E de, Saint Amand (1927)
Moreu, E de, La Vita Amandi Prima et les Fondations monastiques de St Amand, Analecta Bollandiana lxvii (1949), 447-64