Audoen Audoin

Background

His father was Saint Authaire (Audecharius).

Education

Dado was educated at the court of Chlothar II (d629), where training both military and literary was given to young noblemen.

Career

Audoin came from a wealthy and noble Frankish family who held lands in the upper Seine and Oise valleys. He served Dagobert I as one of his referendaries (administrators). He and Eligius served as royal envoys to persuade Amadus to baptize Dagobert"s son.

Audoin appointed his relative, Agilus, as first abbot.

He also took part in the founding of Saint-Wandrille monastery in Rouen, and a nunnery at Fécamp. Audoin was consecrated bishop of Rouen in 641.

He became an advisor of Theuderic III and upheld the policy of Ebroin, the mayor of the palace, to such a degree that he was involved in the treatment of Saint Leger. Nevertheless, the author of the Liber Historiae Francorum, thoroughly hostile to the memory of Ebroin, invariably referred to Audoin as "blessed" or "sainted," and in describing his death said he "migravit ad Dominum," a phrase he otherwise reserved in the original part of his history for the death of the "glorious lord of good memory, Childebert"(III), "the just king."

A poem on Audoin"s life was written in the 10th-century by Frithegod, but it is now lost.

Connections

Friend:

Saint Didier