Saint Vigor

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Saint Vigor
Fresco at the Church of St Vigor de Neau
BornArtois
Diedcirca 537 AD
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Roman Catholic Church
FeastNovember 1

Saint Vigor (French: Saint Vigor, Vigeur; Latin: Vigor, Vigorus) (died circa 537 AD) was a French bishop and Christian missionary.

Life

Born into the nobility in Artois, he studied at Arras under Saint Vedast.[1] His father would not grant approval for him to become a priest, so he ran away from home, taking nothing with him, accompanied by an acolyte, Theodimir. Thereafter, he became a hermit preacher at Reviers, Calvados, and worked as a missionary. Vigor was named bishop of Bayeux in 514.[2]

He fervently opposed paganism and reputedly founded a monastery, later known as Saint-Vigor-le-Grand. In Bayeux, Normandy, he destroyed a pagan temple that was still in use and built a church on the grounds.[citation needed]

Saint Vigor, Saint-Vigor-des-Monts (Manche)

Veneration

Vigor was venerated from an early date in Bayeux, where he had been bishop. His cult as a saint is attested in 834 by mention of a relic at Le Mans.[3] Around 987 Vigor's relics came to the Abbey of Saint-Riquier in Ponthieu. Saint-Ouen Abbey, Rouen held a copy of the Vita Vigoris; John Howe dates the "vita"s composition to the beginning of the eleventh century.[4] In 1032 Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, founded an abbey dedicated to Saint Vigor on the site of an older monastery destroyed by the Normans during their invasion.[5]

The successful Norman conquest brought his cult to England. His name appears in an eleventh-century breviary at Worcester, possibly introduced by bishop Samson or Theulf, both of whom had been canons at Bayeux.[6]

Two English churches have been dedicated to Vigor; one in Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, the other in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset.[7] His feast falls on All Saints' Day (November 1), and as a result is often moved to another date. Saint Vigor is mentioned in the life (vita) of Saint Paternus.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ "Saint Vigor", Nominis
  2. ^ "History of Fulbourn churches". Fulbourn and the Wilbrahams Parish Churches.
  3. ^ Howe, John. "The Date of the 'Life' of St. Vigor of Bayeaux", Analecta Bollandiana, Volume 102, Issue 3-4, pp. 303-312 doi:10.1484/J.ABOL.4.01478
  4. ^ Herrick, Samantha Kahn. "Reshaping the Past on the Early Norman Frontier: The 'Vita Vigoris'", The Haskins Society Journal 12: 2002. Studies in Medieval History, (Stephen Morillo, ed.) Boydell Press, 2003, p. 133 et seqISBN 9781843830085
  5. ^ Desile, Albert. L'abbaye de Cerisy-la-Forêt libérée de ses entraves, La Manche Libre, 1957
  6. ^ Higgitt, John. The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West, University of Toronto Press, 2000, p. 8 ISBN 9780802047595
  7. ^ "Chrch of St. Vigor". Historic England.
  8. ^ "saintpatrickdc.org".

External links


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