Saint Adalard of Corbie

His father Bernard was a son of Charles Martel and half-brother of King Pepin, which made Adalard a first cousin of Charlemagne. ¹² The Catholic Encyclopedia dates his birth about 751; katolsk.no and santiebeati give 753, and santiebeati places it at Huise, near Oudenaarde in Flanders. ¹²³ katolsk.no names among his brothers and sisters the monk Wala, who would succeed him, and Saint Ida of Herzfeld, the only one of the five who did not enter a monastery. ²

He was educated in the palace school, probably, katolsk.no says, under Alcuin, and was made a count of the palace while still very young. ¹² santiebeati says he was disgusted by the vices of the court. ³ At twenty, in 773 according to katolsk.no, he entered the Benedictine abbey of Corbie near Amiens, which Queen Bathild had founded a century earlier. ¹²⁴

He began as the monastery's gardener. ²³ katolsk.no observes dryly that his gifts, and no doubt his birth, did not leave him there for long. ²

Wanting more seclusion, he went to Monte Cassino; santiebeati says he went there incognito and stayed two years. ¹³ Charlemagne ordered him back to Corbie, where he was elected abbot, in 780 according to katolsk.no. ¹² The encyclopedia's article on Corbie says that under Adelhard, as it spells him, the ninth abbot, the monastic school became famous. ⁴

His cousin would not let him stay in the cloister. katolsk.no says he was often called to court, and that Archbishop Hincmar of Reims named him first among the king's counselors. ² Charlemagne made him chief minister to his son Pepin, King of Italy, and when Pepin died in 810 Adalard became guardian of Pepin's young son Bernard. ¹²³ santiebeati adds that in 809 he took part in the synod of Aachen and went on an unsuccessful embassy to Pope Leo III to have the Filioque added to the Creed. ³

Charlemagne died in 814. ² When Bernard, by then King of Italy, rose against his uncle, the new emperor Louis the Pious, Adalard was suspected of supporting him. ¹²³ katolsk.no recounts that Louis had Bernard blinded, and was later made to do public penance for it. ² Adalard was stripped of his offices and sent to the monastery of Saint Philibert on the island of Noirmoutier, at the mouth of the Loire. ¹²³ santiebeati says his brother Wala and their sisters Gundrada and Theodrada were sent away too. ³

The sources date the exile differently. The encyclopedia places it after 814 and says it lasted seven years; katolsk.no says he was deposed in 816 and recalled after five, in 821; santiebeati dates it to 817 and his return to 822. ¹²³ They agree on how it ended. Louis came to see that he had been wrong and made Adalard one of his chief advisers. ¹² katolsk.no adds that Adalard himself counted the exile a blessing, for the quiet it gave him. ²

While he was away, santiebeati says, he urged the monk who governed Corbie in his place, also named Adalard, to work for the conversion of the Saxons, and a priory was begun at Hethis. ²³ On his return it was moved to Höxter on the Weser, and became the abbey of New Corbie, Corvey, which he founded with Wala. ¹²³ The encyclopedia's Adalard article and katolsk.no date the foundation to 822; its Corvey article says about 820, and names the emperor Louis as co-founder. ¹²⁵

Corvey became famous for its school, and the encyclopedia says it sent out "a stream of missionaries who evangelised Northern Europe," chief among them Saint Ansgar, the apostle of Scandinavia. ⁵ katolsk.no makes the same point, and adds that the two brothers also founded the convent of Herford for their sister Theodrade. ²

Back at Corbie, katolsk.no says, he took on the humblest tasks, spoke with every one of his monks individually at least once a week, and gave the monastery's income to the poor of the district so freely that some thought it excessive. ² He wrote statutes for Corbie and Corvey that kept strict discipline while encouraging learning, and his monks were taught not only in Latin but in the French and German of the people, which was unusual then. ²³ santiebeati says that for his eloquence and learning he was called "the Augustine of the age," and that he wrote on the order of the palace and on the reckoning of Easter, works now lost. ³

He died at Corbie on January 2, 827, shortly after coming back from Germany, at seventy-two according to katolsk.no, and Wala succeeded him as abbot. ¹²³ His life was written by Paschasius Radbertus, a monk of Corbie; santiebeati calls that life a panegyric and mentions a second, meant to be more historical, by Saint Gerard. ²³

Miracles were reported at his tomb, santiebeati says, especially cures of the paralyzed and the deaf and mute, and Pope John XIX ordered his remains raised in 1026; the solemn translation took place on October 10, 1040, which under the law of the time amounted to canonization. ³ katolsk.no and santiebeati say most of his relics are at Saint-Acheul near Amiens. ²³

Saint Adalard is the patron saint of gardeners, according to katolsk.no, which also says he is invoked against infectious diseases, fevers and typhus. ² Both katolsk.no and the Catholic Encyclopedia call him patron of many churches and towns in France and along the lower Rhine. ¹² katolsk.no notes that he is painted as a Benedictine, often with a basket from which he gives alms, as in the woodcut on this page. ²

Saint Adalard's feast day is January 2, the day of his death. ²³ The current Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops publish it, enters him on that day at the monastery of Corbie, as an abbot who arranged everything so that everyone had enough, no one had too much, and nothing was lost, but all was given lovingly to the praise of God. ⁶ katolsk.no notes that January 30 is also found. ² santiebeati's article says he is named in various martyrologies but not in the Roman Martyrology; the current edition does include him. ³⁶

He tried to get away from the world, first at Corbie and then at Monte Cassino, and each time his cousin the king found a use for him. ¹³ He did the work he was given, and when it ended in disgrace he found the island a relief. ²

The Martyrology's line about him is about housekeeping: enough for everyone, too much for no one, nothing wasted. ⁶ It is a description of an abbot who looked after his monks one by one and gave the rest away. ²

He started in the garden. ²³ The monastery that grew from his exile sent Ansgar north, and he did not live to see what came of it. ²⁵