Saint Vigor
Saint Vigor | |
|---|---|
 Fresco at the Church of St Vigor de Neau | |
| Born | Artois |
| Died | circa 537 AD |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | November 1 |
Saint Vigor (French: Saint Vigor, Vigeur; Latin: Vigor, Vigorus) (died circa 537 AD) was a French bishop and Christian missionary.
Life
[edit]Born into the nobility in Artois, he studied at Arras under Saint Vedast.[1] His father would not grant approval for him to become a priest, so he ran away from home, taking nothing with him, accompanied by an acolyte, Theodimir. Thereafter, he became a hermit preacher at Reviers, Calvados, and worked as a missionary. Vigor was named bishop of Bayeux around 514.[2]
He fervently opposed paganism and reputedly founded a monastery, later known as Saint-Vigor-le-Grand. In Bayeux, Normandy, he destroyed a pagan temple that was still in use and built a church on the grounds.[3]
Veneration
[edit]Vigor was venerated from an early date in Bayeux, where he had been bishop. His cult as a saint is attested in 834 by mention of a relic at Le Mans.[4] Around 987 Vigor's relics came to the Abbey of Saint-Riquier in Ponthieu. Saint-Ouen Abbey, Rouen held a copy of the Vita Vigoris; John Howe dates the "vita"s composition to the beginning of the eleventh century.[5] In 1032 Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, founded an abbey dedicated to Saint Vigor on the site of an older monastery destroyed by the Normans during their invasion.[6]
The successful Norman conquest brought his cult to England. His name appears in an eleventh-century breviary at Worcester, possibly introduced by bishop Samson or Theulf, both of whom had been canons at Bayeux.[7]
Two English churches have been dedicated to Vigor; one in Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, the other in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset.[8] His feast falls on All Saints' Day (November 1), and as a result is often moved to another date. Saint Vigor is mentioned in the life (vita) of Saint Paternus.[3]
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Fresco at the Church of St Vigor de Neau. -
Église Saint-Vigor at Marly-le-Roi, Île-de-France -
Church of St Vigor with All Saints at Fulbourn, England
Notes
[edit]- ^ "Saint Vigor", Nominis
- ^ "History of Fulbourn churches". Fulbourn and the Wilbrahams Parish Churches.
- ^ a b Farmer, David. "Vigor", The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. 5th ed., OUP, 2011 ISBN 9780199596607
- ^ Howe, John. "The Date of the 'Life' of St. Vigor of Bayeaux", Analecta Bollandiana, Volume 102, Issue 3-4, pp. 303-312 doi:10.1484/J.ABOL.4.01478
- ^ Herrick, Samantha Kahn. "Reshaping the Past on the Early Norman Frontier: The 'Vita Vigoris'", The Haskins Society Journal 12: 2002. Studies in Medieval History, (Stephen Morillo, ed.) Boydell Press, 2003, p. 133 et seqISBN 9781843830085
- ^ Desile, Albert. L'abbaye de Cerisy-la-Forêt libérée de ses entraves, La Manche Libre, 1957
- ^ Higgitt, John. The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West, University of Toronto Press, 2000, p. 8 ISBN 9780802047595
- ^ "Church of St. Vigor". Historic England.