Saint Opportuna

The Norwegian bishops' saints database (katolsk.no) says Opportuna was born in the eighth century at the castle of Exmes, near Argentan in Normandy. ¹ Catholic.net's Spanish santoral says near Ayesmes. ⁶ Her brother Chrodegang became bishop of Séez; Nominis, the French bishops' saints site, calls him Godegrand and makes him the fifteenth bishop of the see. ¹⁴⁶

Georges Goyau, in the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia, lists among the saints of the diocese of Séez "St. Opportuna, sister of St. Chrodegang, and her aunt, St. Lanthilda, abbesses of the two monasteries of Almenèches." ⁵ He dates them to "the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century." ⁵ The other sources put her death about 770, half a century or more later. ¹³⁶

She asked her brother to give her the veil. ¹⁶ Catholic.net says that when she came of age she decided the best thing was to consecrate herself to God, and wanted it to be her brother who gave her the veil of virgins; Nominis says that it was Godegrand who received her at Almenèches and gave her the veil. ³⁶ katolsk.no names the convent as Montreuil, at Almenèches, five kilometers from Séez, where her kinswoman Lanthilda was abbess; it calls Lanthilda her cousin, and Goyau her aunt. ¹⁵

She succeeded Lanthilda as abbess. ¹ Catholic.net says the sisters chose her soon after she arrived, for her goodness and fervor. ⁶ katolsk.no calls her a model of humility, obedience, mortification and prayer, and a true mother to all her nuns. ¹ The Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops print it, remembers her for her spirit of extreme abstinence and her austerity of life. ²

The Benedictines of Argentan, quoted by Nominis, say the abbey at Almenèches had been founded at the end of the sixth century, was destroyed by the Normans, and was restored about 1060 under the Rule of Saint Benedict. ³ It was later moved to Argentan, and after the Revolution, the battle of Normandy in 1944 and a time at Séez, the community rebuilt at Argentan in 1958, where it still keeps a relic of Opportuna. ³

Nominis says many miracles are credited to her. ³ katolsk.no tells one as legend: a peasant stole the convent's donkey and would not admit it, and Opportuna left the matter to God. ¹ The next day the peasant's field was found sown with salt. ¹ He gave back the donkey and gave the field to the nuns as well. ¹ Catholic.net tells the same story with a difference: the thief claimed he had bought the animal, and after Opportuna prayed his meadow was covered with a white carpet that left it barren, which is why, it says, the place was afterward called the dirty meadow. ⁶

Catholic.net adds a second story from the same year. A flock of birds descended on the district and ate the grain and the fruit. ⁶ Opportuna, it says, reproached the birds for what they had done and let them go; instead of flying off, they circled her for a while singing their repentance, and the damage they had done was repaired. ⁶

Chrodegang went on pilgrimage to Rome. ¹⁴ katolsk.no says he had left the management of his worldly affairs to a powerful cousin named Chrodobert, and that on his way home, as he came to visit the convent, Chrodobert had him murdered. ¹ The French text of the Roman Martyrology, printed by Nominis, says he was killed on his return from Rome on the orders of a kinsman to whom he had entrusted the diocese; Nominis places the murder on the road to Almenèches, near Nonant. ⁴ Catholic.net and Nominis both say the cousin wanted to succeed him as bishop. ³⁶ The Martyrology honors Chrodegang as a bishop and martyr. ⁴

Opportuna buried her brother in her convent. ¹³ Nominis says that whatever is told of her miracles, the one thing certain is that she could not be consoled for his death. ³ She died soon after: eleven days later, says katolsk.no, or thirteen, say Nominis and Catholic.net. ¹³⁶ katolsk.no gives the date as April 22, about 770, at Almenèches. ¹ The French Martyrology says about 775. ³

katolsk.no says her Life was written in 886 by Saint Hadelin, bishop of Séez. ¹

Her relics traveled. katolsk.no says that in the reign of Charles the Bald, during the Norse invasions, they were taken to the monastery of Moussy between Paris and Senlis, and in 1009 to Senlis. ¹ In 1374 her right arm and a rib were enshrined in a small church dedicated to her in Paris, which grew as the city grew. ¹ Most of her head remained at Moussy, katolsk.no says; her left arm and part of the skull are at Almenèches, and a jawbone at the monastery of Saint-Chrodegang at L'Isle-Adam. ¹ Her shrine in Paris was carried in procession with those of Saint Honoratus and Saint Genevieve. ¹

Nominis says the spread of her relics carried her cult through the Île-de-France and above all to Paris, which named several of its streets after her. ³ katolsk.no says her cult was widespread in the Middle Ages, especially in northern France, and that she is still honored above all in the dioceses of Paris, Meaux and Séez. ¹ She is shown as an abbess with a book or a reliquary, often beside her brother. ¹

The Benedictines of Argentan, quoted by Nominis, say that couples who want a child come to their abbey church to ask Saint Opportuna's intercession before her relic in the crypt. ³ None of the other sources consulted names a patronage. ¹²⁶

Saint Opportuna's feast day is April 22, which katolsk.no says is the day of her death. ¹⁶ The Roman Martyrology enters her on that day as abbess in the territory of Séez. ²³

She is remembered for austerity, and the stories about her are small ones: a stolen donkey, a field, a flock of birds. ¹²⁶ They belong to a convent that kept animals and worked its own fields.

Her death is the part the sources are sure of. Nominis sets aside the miracles and says only that she could not be consoled for her brother, murdered by one of their own family on his way home to see her. ³⁴

She buried him and died within days. ¹³⁶ The Church remembers her for a hard life, and her own last days were grief that nothing eased.