Saint Leger of Autun

He was born about 615. ¹ The Diocese of Autun says 615 and places his birth in Austrasia; the Diocese of Arras, quoted on the French bishops' Nominis site, says about 616. ³⁵ His mother was Sigrada and his father Bobilo, and because they were of high rank he spent his early childhood at the court of King Clotaire II. ¹

From there he went to Poitiers to study under his uncle Dido, the bishop. ¹³ Dido made him a deacon and associated him with the government of the diocese; Arras calls him the bishop's archdeacon. ¹³ Not long afterward he was ordained a priest, and with his uncle's approval he withdrew in 650 to the monastery of Saint-Maixent. ¹ He was soon elected abbot, reformed the community and introduced the Rule of Saint Benedict. ¹ The Autun life dates his abbacy to 653. ⁵

In 656 the widowed Queen Bathild called him to court to help govern the kingdom and educate her children. ¹ He was rewarded with the bishopric of Autun. The encyclopedia's article on him prints the year as 610, which cannot be right for a man born about 615; the same encyclopedia's article on Autun gives his episcopate as 663 to 680, and Autun and Nominis both say 663. ¹²³⁵ The Arras account says he restored order and peace to his diocese. ³

He held a council at Autun. MacErlean dates it 661 and says it "dealt a crushing blow to Manichæism and was the first to adopt the Creed of St. Athanasius." ¹ The article on Autun dates the council "663 (or 670)" and says it ordered all clerics to learn the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed by heart, "the earliest mention of the latter in France," and prescribed the Rule of Saint Benedict as the normal code for monasteries. ²

He reformed the secular clergy and the religious houses, and pressed on every pastor the duty of preaching and of giving the sacraments, baptism above all. For that he built three baptisteries in the town. He enlarged the church of Saint-Nazaire, opened a refuge for the poor, and repaired the public buildings and the old Roman walls. ¹ Those walls, MacErlean wrote in 1910, "still exist and are among the finest specimens preserved." ¹ The Autun life says he also had the cathedral rebuilt and enlarged. ⁵

The politics that destroyed him are tangled, and the sources tell them differently. The encyclopedia's version runs like this. Ebroin, mayor of the palace in Neustria, was in practice the ruler and set about removing anyone in his way. When King Clotaire III died in 670, Ebroin put Thierry on the throne; Leger and the other bishops backed his elder brother Childeric, who with Austrasian and Burgundian help became king. Ebroin was sent to the monastery of Luxeuil. ¹

Leger stayed at court to guide the young king, until he protested against Childeric's marriage to his first cousin. His enemies told the king the bishop was a conspirator, and he too was sent to Luxeuil. ¹ The Autun life puts it differently: Leger, back at court in 673 as the king's steward, rooted out intrigue and profiteering, made new enemies, and was exiled after threatening Childeric with the censure of the Church. ⁵ Nominis frames the whole quarrel as one between Neustria's centralizing power and Burgundy's customs and autonomy, which Leger defended. ³

Childeric was murdered in 673. ¹ Leger and Ebroin both hurried from Luxeuil to the court, and within a short time Ebroin had made himself mayor again and "vowed vengeance on the bishop, whom he looked on as the cause of his imprisonment." ¹

About 675, by the encyclopedia's date, or 676 by Autun's, forces stirred up by Ebroin attacked Autun: the encyclopedia names the duke of Champagne and the bishops of Châlons and Valence. ¹⁵ To save the town, Leger surrendered. ¹ Nominis says he gave himself up to spare his people famine. ³

MacErlean's account of what followed is plain: "He was brutally treated and his eyes put out, the sockets being seared with red-hot irons. Ebroin's bloodthirsty instincts were not yet satiated; he caused the holy bishop's lips to be cut off and his tongue to be torn out." ¹ The Martyrology, more briefly, says he was subjected to various tortures and blinded. ⁴

What happened next depends on whom you read. Nominis says a synod called by Ebroin declared him an unworthy priest and that he was confined in a convent of nuns. ³ The Autun life says he was left in a forest, survived, and spent two years in the monastery of Fécamp, where he recovered his speech and preached. ⁵ The encyclopedia records that a letter he had sent after his mutilation is still extant. ¹

Some years later Ebroin persuaded the king that Childeric's murder had been Leger's doing. He was seized again and, "after a mock trial, was degraded and condemned." ¹ The Autun life places the trial at a synod in King Thierry's palace in September 678. ⁵ He was taken into a forest by Ebroin's order and killed. ¹ The Autun life says he was beheaded in the forest of Sarcing, in the Somme, on October 2, 678. ⁵

The year varies. The encyclopedia says 678 at Sarcing. ¹ The Martyrology places his death in what is now Saint-Léger, in the territory of Arras, and Nominis's French text of it dates it 679 or 680. ³⁴ The Arras account gives about 679, near Lucheux, and says it happened on an October 3, around 679 or 680. ³ Nominis says a later synod rehabilitated him and gave him the title of martyr; the Autun life says King Thierry, recognizing his mistake, allowed his cult in 681. ³⁵

The Martyrology honors his brother with him. Saint Gerinus, it says, had been stoned to death two years earlier, also on Ebroin's orders. ⁴

His body went to the abbey of Saint-Maixent in Poitou, where he had been abbot. The encyclopedia dates the move 782; the Autun life, 684. ¹⁵ Later the relics went to Rennes and then to Ebreuil, which took the name Saint-Léger, and some were still kept in 1910 in the cathedral of Autun and the seminary of Soissons. ¹ In 1458 Cardinal Rolin made his feast a holy day of obligation. ¹

He left a mark on the French language too. Nominis notes that the "Complainte de saint Léger," written in 970, is one of the very first literary texts in the Romance tongue that was becoming the language of ordinary people. ³ Five communes in the Saône-et-Loire alone carry his name, and many more across France. ³

None of the sources read for this page names a patronage for Saint Leger beyond the many parishes and towns dedicated to him in France. ³⁵ The page leaves the question open rather than repeat claims it cannot trace to an authoritative source.

Saint Leger's feast day is October 2. The Roman Martyrology enters him on that day, with his brother Gerinus, and Nominis and the Diocese of Autun both give October 2. ³⁴⁵ The Autun life makes it the day he died. ⁵

Leger was not a hermit who was dragged into politics against his will. He was raised at court, sat on a regent's council, and backed one king against another. ¹ Nominis is frank that he stood for one side in a struggle between kingdoms. ³ The Church honors him anyway, as a martyr, and that is worth noticing: holiness here did not mean staying clear of public life.

What the sources remember of his years at Autun is ordinary pastoral work done well. Clergy reformed, the creed taught, baptisteries built so that people could be baptized, a refuge for the poor, the walls mended. ¹²

Then the gate. Faced with a siege, he walked out and handed himself over so that the town would not starve. ¹³ What was done to him afterward was done to a man who had already chosen.

The Autun life says that, blind and maimed, he learned to speak again and went on preaching. ⁵ It is a good thing to hold onto. The worst that was done to him did not end his ministry; it changed its shape.