Location:Saint-Bavo's abbey in Ghent - Date:first half of the ninth century (Van der Essen, 1907) - Commission:Abbot Einhard (Van der Essen, 1907), Declercq (2005), however, points out that the addressing in the prologue rather indicates a bishop than a lay abbot.

3797 words

This life was first and foremost written to support and promote the local cult of Bavo. He is presented as the example for the canons. Next to this however, Declercq (2005) points out a broader discourse. First of all, the vita transforms Bavo’s eremitism into the Carolingian paradigm of eremitism as a withdrawn but nonetheless monastic life. Secondly, in conforming with this Carolingian ideal, the vita opposes another, namely the pressure to take on the rule of Benedict. By putting forward Bavo, a hermit living a harsh life, as an example, the canons stress the greater value of a more stringent life, such as that of their patron saint, to the life prescribed by the rule of Saint-Benedict.

The first biography of Saint Bavo. Bavo was a nobleman from Hesbaye (the ‘Haspengouw’), who at a later stage entered a religious life. Only with the death of his wife, a daughter of the Frankish count Adilio, he became a student of Saint Amand, who was touring the Hesbaye region (ca. 630-639). Around 650, Bavo came to Ghent where he joined the cloister that his mentor had founded there. Not satisfied with this kind of religious life, Bavo became a hermit in the neighborhood of Ghent (propably in Mendonk (see Declercq, 2005)). He died living as a hermit (before 659) and was buried at the location of his cellule, where an ‘oratorium’ was constructed. However, very soon after this first burial (2nd half of the 7th century), his remains were translated to the abbey of Ghent that would become increasingly connected with Saint Bavo and his cult and by the ninth century the abbey would be named after Saint Bavo (Verhulst, 1986). This first vita was written to support this local cult that generated important incomes and prestige for the abbey. To stress the link between the saint and the abbot, the hermit Bavo was portrayed rather as a withdrawn monk, still subjected to the abbot, than as a true hermit (Declercq, 2005).

Vita metrica Amandi
Gregorius Tornacensis, Vitae patrum

Milo Elnonensis, Vita metrica Amandi (Declercq, 2005) (NaSo-Link)

Boulogne sur Mer, Bibliothèque Municipale, 106
Brussel/Bruxelles, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque Royale, 7460
Brussel/Bruxelles, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque Royale, 9120
Brussel/Bruxelles, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque Royale, 9636-9637 (Link)
Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, 816 (Link)
Douai, Bibliothèque Municipale, 836 (Link)
Gent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, 308 (Link)
Köln, Historisches Archiv der Stadt, W 163 (Link)
London, British Library, Arundel, 91 (Link)
Namur, Bibliothèque publique, 15
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Latin, 5327 (Link)
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Latin, 5270 (Link)
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Saint-Omer, Archives Municipales, 716, V (Link)
Saint-Omer, Bibliothèque de l’Agglomération, 715, III (Link)
Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Multimédia, 513 (Link)

Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti, II (Parijs, 1669) 396-403 (Link)
Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, Oct., I (1765) 229-235 (Link)
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KRUSCH (B.), in Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, 4 (Hannover-Leipzig, 1902) 534-545 (Link)

Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina 1049
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KRUSCH (B.), in Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, 4 (Hannover-Leipzig, 1902) 528-533
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VERHULST (A.), 'Saint Bavon et les origines de Gand', Revue du Nord, 68 (1986) 455-470 (459, 464-465)
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