Saint Philibert

Philibert was born in Gascony. ¹⁶ The Norwegian bishops' saints database (katolsk.no) gives about 608; Catholic.net's Spanish santoral says he was born at Eauze in 617 or 618, the son of Filibaud, a count who became bishop of Vic or of Aire. ¹⁶ katolsk.no says his father, later a bishop, educated him. ¹

He was raised at the court of King Dagobert, and the Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops print it, says he became a monk while still an adolescent. ²³ Catholic.net says he went to court at sixteen and there came to know Dado, the future bishop of Rouen, better known as Saint Ouen. ⁶ G. Cyprian Alston, in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, calls him "the companion of Sts. Ouen and Wandrille at the Merovingian court." ⁴

He left the court for the monastery of Rebais, near Meaux. ¹³⁶ Catholic.net says he entered as a novice in 636, soon after Saint Agilus had come from Luxeuil to found the house, and that after fourteen years he became its second abbot. ⁶ katolsk.no and Nominis, the French bishops' saints site, also make him abbot there. ¹³ It went badly. katolsk.no says the monks were difficult and he was inexperienced; Catholic.net says most of them resisted his reforms and drove him out, and that he blamed himself for having failed to give them a deeper piety. ¹⁶

He set out to learn. katolsk.no says he left Rebais to live in other monasteries and make up for what he lacked. ¹ R. Urban Butler, in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia's article on Luxeuil, names him with Wandrille among the monks who came there and "spent years in studying the rule observed in monasteries which derived their origin from Luxeuil." ⁵ Catholic.net follows him to Luxeuil, then to Columban's abbey of Bobbio in the Apennines, and back through France to houses that followed the Rule of Saint Benedict. ⁶

Ouen, by then bishop of Rouen, called him to Neustria. ⁶ The sources disagree on the date of the founding that followed and on who gave the land. Alston says the abbey was founded in 634. ⁴ katolsk.no and Catholic.net both say 654; katolsk.no says the land came from King Clovis II and Queen Bathild, and Catholic.net that Ouen gave him a domain the king and queen had given to the see. ¹⁶ Pierre Fournet, writing on Bathild in the same encyclopedia, says Jumièges was founded "most probably in large part through Bathilde's generosity." ⁸

The site, Catholic.net says, was a nearly wild promontory of forest and marsh on a bend of the Seine. ⁶ Philibert built three chapels on old ruins, to Our Lady, to Saint Peter, and to Saints Denis and Germain, with local laborers and a few monks from Luxeuil, and set the monastery near a dead arm of the river where he could make a sheltered port. ⁶ He built a school for the people of the district, and the Life written about a century after his death says he was known as a healer. ⁶ Several hundred monks joined him. ⁶ Alston says that under his successor Achard the community numbered nearly a thousand. ⁴

His success brought him into conflict with Ebroin, mayor of the palace of Neustria. ¹³⁶ Nominis says that when Philibert learned that Ebroin had had Saint Leger of Autun murdered, he went to reproach him for the crime, and that Ebroin charged Ouen with getting rid of him. ³ katolsk.no says he was imprisoned at Rouen in 674 and then exiled; Catholic.net dates the conflict to 676 and says Ouen agreed to keep him under watch; Nominis says the captivity was gentle and short. ¹³⁶ Alston puts it more briefly: Philibert was "through the jealousy of certain enemies, obliged to leave Jumièges." ⁴

He went to Poitou. ¹⁶ Catholic.net says Bishop Ansoald of Poitiers welcomed him, and that he first restored the monastery of Quinçay near the city. ⁶ Then Ansoald gave him the island of Herio, at the mouth of the Loire, and Philibert founded a monastery there, Herimonasterium, whose name became Noirmoutier. ¹⁶ Monks came from Jumièges to fill it. ³⁶ Catholic.net says it became a center of the economy as well as of the faith, because Philibert taught the people of the coast to make salt pans. ⁶

katolsk.no names other foundations: monasteries for men at Quinçay and at Luçon, and one for women at Pavilly. ¹ Its entry on Saint Austreberta says it was Philibert who persuaded her to take charge of Pavilly and reform it. ⁷ Nominis quotes the Diocese of Luçon, which counts him with Saint Hilary among the first evangelizers of the Vendée and says his monks spread to Luçon and Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm. ³ katolsk.no says his example led to a great growth of monastic life in Neustria. ¹

Ebroin was killed in 681, says katolsk.no, or in 683, says Catholic.net. ¹⁶ Catholic.net says that after his death and Ouen's, Philibert went back to Jumièges and was received in triumph, accepted from the new mayor of the palace an estate at Montivilliers, near Le Havre, and named Achard abbot of Jumièges before returning to his island. ⁶ He died at Noirmoutier and was buried there. ¹² katolsk.no gives 684; Alston about 685; the Diocese of Luçon August 20, 685; and Catholic.net August 20, 685, or more probably one of the years after. ¹³⁴⁶

Viking raids drove his monks from the island. ¹³ Catholic.net traces the journey: in 836 to Déas, now Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, south of Nantes; in 858 to Cunault in Anjou; in 862 to Messay in Poitou; in 872 to Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule; and finally to Tournus, on the Saône, where the relics arrived on May 14, 875. ⁶ katolsk.no counts five resting places in thirty-nine years. ¹ Nominis notes the magnificent abbey church built for him at Tournus, and the crypt at Noirmoutier built over his first grave. ³

Jumièges outlived him by eleven centuries. Alston says it became a great center of religion and learning, was called "Jumièges l'Aumônier" for its charity to the poor, and was closed by the French Revolution; "only its majestic ruins now remain." ⁴

None of the sources consulted names a patronage for Saint Philibert. ¹³⁶ He is the titular saint of the abbey church of Tournus and of churches at Noirmoutier and Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu. ³ Catholic.net says the travels of his relics spread his name through Normandy, Poitou and Burgundy, and that thirteen French communes are named after him. ⁶

Saint Philibert's feast day is August 20. ¹³⁶ The Roman Martyrology enters him on that day at Noirmoutier, as the abbot who founded and governed first Jumièges and then Noirmoutier. ²

His first command ended with the monks putting him out. Catholic.net says he blamed himself rather than them, and the sources agree on what he did next: he went to school again, in other men's monasteries, for years. ¹⁵⁶

Jumièges was built on bad land with the people who lived on it, and it grew into one of the great houses of the West. ⁴⁶ When he spoke against a murder by the most powerful man in the kingdom, he lost it, and began again on an island. ³⁶

He went back to Jumièges only long enough to hand it on, and returned to the island to die. ⁶