Eligius | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Confessor,Bishop | |||||
| Born | (588-06-11)11 June 588 Chaptelat,Francia | ||||
| Died | 1 December 660(660-12-01) (aged 72) Noyon,Neustria, Francia | ||||
| Venerated in | |||||
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation | ||||
| Feast | 1 December | ||||
| Attributes | Anvil;Bishop with acrosier in his right hand, on the open palm of his left a miniature church of chased gold; bishop with ahammer, anvil, andhorseshoe; bishop with ahorse;courtier;goldsmith; hammer; holding a horse's leg, which he detached from the horse in order to shoe it more easily; horseshoe; man grasping adevil's nose withpincers; man holding achalice and goldsmith's hammer; man shoeing a horse; man with hammer andcrown near a smithy; man with hammer, anvil, andAnthony the Great; pincers; withGodeberta; giving aring to Godeberta; working as a goldsmith | ||||
| Patronage | Cartwrights; clockmakers; coin collectors; craftsmen of all kinds;cutlers; exercise riders and grooms;gilders; goldsmiths; harness makers; horses;jewelers;jockeys; knife makers; laborers; locksmiths; metalworkers in general;miners;minters;Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers;Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers;saddlers; toolmakers;veterinarians; watchmakers | ||||
| |||||
Eligius[b] (French:Éloi; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660), venerated asSaint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier, and bishop who was chief counsellor toDagobert I and laterBishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded inVita Sancti Eligii, written by his friendAudoin of Rouen.
Born into aGallo-Roman family, Eligius found success as a goldsmith at theMerovingian royal court ofClotaire II and served as chief counsellor toDagobert I until Dagobert's death in 639. Under the subsequent regency ofNanthild, the queen consort, Eligius was ordained a priest and campaigned againstsimony in the Church. AppointedBishop of Noyon–Tournai in 642, he founded many monasteries and churches while working to convert thepagan population ofFlanders to Christianity.
Despite his background as a goldsmith, Eligius became increasinglyascetic during his time at the royal court and used his influence to ransom captive slaves and care for the poor. A legend emerged of his having once healed a demon-possessed horse by amputating and miraculously reattaching the horse's foreleg.[2]
Eligius is best known for being thepatron saint of horses and those who work with them. He is also the patron saint of goldsmiths, metalworkers, coin collectors, veterinarians, and theRoyal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), acorps of theBritish Army.
Eligius was born into aGallo-Roman family at the villa ofChaptelat,Aquitaine (modern-day France), six miles north ofLimoges. His father, recognising unusual talent in his son, sent him to the goldsmith Abbo, master of the mint at Limoges. Later Eligius went toNeustria, the palace of theFranks, where he worked under Babo, the royal treasurer, on whose recommendationClotaire II, king of the Franks, is said to have commissioned Eligius to make a throne of gold adorned with precious stones.[3]
And from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture ofsiliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse, but filling all faithfully with gems, he happily earned his happy reward.[4]
Among other goldsmithing work soon entrusted to Eligius were the bas-reliefs for the tomb ofGermain,Bishop of Paris.[5] Clotaire took Eligius into the royal household and appointed him master of the mint atMarseille.[3]
After the death of Clotaire in 629, his sonDagobert I appointed Eligius his chief counsellor. Eligius' reputation spread rapidly, to the extent that ambassadors first sought him out for his counsel and to pay their respects to him before going to the king. He made some enemies. Eligius was able to induceJudicael to make a pact with Dagobert at a meeting at the king's villa of Creil (636–37); this success increased his influence:[3]
Indeed King Dagobert, swift, handsome and famous with no rival among any of the earlier kings of the Franks, loved him so much that he would often take himself out of the crowds of princes, optimates, dukes or bishops around him and seek private counsel from Eligius.[4]
Eligius took advantage of this royal favour to obtainalms for the poor and to ransom captive Romans, Gauls, Bretons, Moors and especially Saxons, who were arriving daily at theslave market in Marseille. He founded several monasteries, and with the king's consent, sent his servants through towns and villages to take down the bodies of criminals who had been executed and give them decent burial.[4]
Eligius was a source of edification at the royal court, where he and his friendAudoin of Rouen lived according to the strict Irish monastic rule that had been introduced into Gaul byColumbanus. Eligius introduced this rule, either entirely or in part, into themonastery of Solignac near Limoges, which he founded in 632 at a villa he had purchased, and also at the convent he founded at Paris, where three hundred virgins were under the guidance of theAbbess Aurea.[4] He also built the basilica of St. Paul and restored the basilica at Paris that was devoted toMartial, the patron bishop-saint of Limoges. Eligius also erected several fine tombs in honour of the relics ofMartin of Tours, the national saint of the Franks, andDenis, who was chosen patron saint by the king.[6]
On the death of Dagobert in 639, the queen consortNanthild took the reins of government, the kingClovis II being a child. During this regency, Eligius was ordained into the priesthood in 640.[7] He then launched a successful campaign againstsimony in the Church which resulted in a royal order banning the sale of pontifical offices and mandating that such offices be earned through having good character and an ethical life.[4]
On the death ofAcarius,Bishop of Noyon–Tournai, on 14 March 642, Eligius was made his successor, with the unanimous approbation of clergy and people. "So the unwilling goldsmith was tonsured and constituted guardian of the towns or municipalities of Vermandois which include the metropolis,Tournai, which was once a royal city, and Noyon andGhent andKortrijk ofFlanders."[4]
The inhabitants of his new diocese were pagans for the most part. He undertook the conversion of the Flemings, Frisians, Suevi, and the other Germanic tribes along the North Sea coast. He made frequent missionary excursions and also founded a great many monasteries and churches. In his own episcopal city ofNoyon he built and endowed a nunnery for virgins. After the finding of the body ofQuentin of Amiens, Eligius erected in the saint's honour a church to which was joined a monastery under Irish rule. He also discovered the bodies ofPiatus of Tournai and his martyred companions, and in 654 removed the remains ofFursey, the celebrated Irish missionary (died 650).[3]
There is a legend that Eligius resolved the problem of a horse reluctant to be shod. He thought it was possessed by demons, so he cut off the horse's foreleg and, while the horse stood on the remaining three legs and watched, he re-shod the hoof on the amputated leg, before miraculously reattaching the leg to the horse.[2]
Eligius died on 1 December 660 and was buried at Noyon.[3]
Audoin of Rouen recorded the life and deeds of Eligius in hishagiography,Vita Sancti Eligii. At one point, Audoin lovingly recalls Eligius' increasinglyascetical appearance during their time serving at the royal court:
He was tall with a rosy face. He had a pretty head of hair with curly locks. His hands were honest and his fingers long. He had the face of an angel and a prudent look. At first, he was used to wear gold and gems on his clothes, having belts composed of gold and gems and elegantly jeweled purses, linens covered with red metal and golden sacs hemmed with gold and all of the most precious fabrics including all of silk. But all of this was but fleeting ostentation from the beginning and beneath he wore ahairshirt next to his flesh and, as he proceeded to perfection, he gave the ornaments for the needs of the poor. Then you would see him, whom you had once seen gleaming with the weight of the gold and gems that covered him, go covered in the vilest clothing with a rope for a belt.[4]
Besides Eligius' self-mortification, Audoin recalls his propensity for weeping, "For he had the great grace of tears."[4]
Several writings of Eligius have survived: asermon in which he combats the pagan practices of his time, ahomily on theLast Judgment and a letter written in 645 in which he begs for the prayers of BishopDesiderius of Cahors. There are fourteen otherpseudepigraphical homilies that are no longer attributed to him.[3] An important study about his work as a goldsmith was contributed by the German scholarHayo Vierck to theJoachim Werner Festschrift in 1974.[8]
Thefeast day of Eligius is celebrated on 1 December.[7] Eligius is particularly honored inFlanders, in the province ofAntwerp, and atTournai,Kortrijk,Ghent,Bruges, andDouai. During theMiddle Ages his relics were the object of special veneration and were repeatedly divided and transferred to other resting places, in 881, 1066, 1137, 1255, and 1306. A good deal of legend has gathered around the life of Eligius, who is still very popular with goldsmiths, farriers and car mechanics.[3]
Eligius is the patron saint of horses and cattle and is also the patron saint of goldsmiths, blacksmiths,[c] metalworkers in general,[9] numismatists/coin collectors[10] and theBritish Army corps ofRoyal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).[11]
A mass is celebrated around 9 December atNotre Dame de Paris for members of theConfraternity of Saint Éloi. This follows the tradition of the May offering, usually a religious painting, made to the Cathedral between 1630 and 1707 by the goldsmiths of Paris.[12] The tradition of the Guild Chapel was revived in 1953 by the Paris goldsmiths who provided the altar, crucifix above it and a statue of Eligius.[13]
Eligius is invariably depicted in bishop's garb, alongside his emblem, a goldsmith's hammer. The only exceptions are the illustrations toVita Sancti Eligii that depict episodes before his investiture as bishop. He is generally represented as a bishop, a crosier in his right hand, holding a miniature church of chased gold in the open palm of his left hand.[3]
ThePetrus Christus panel of 1449 illustrating this article, since the removal of its overpainted halo in 1993, is now recognised in the Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as theVocational Portrait of a Goldsmith, and not as a depiction of Eligius.[1]
The legend of the shoeing of the horse is depicted in a pre-Reformation carving in theWincanton Parish Church,Slapton Church Northamptonshire, England,[14] atapestry in theHospices de Beaune (Hotel Dieu) inBeaune,[15] France, as afresco on the wall ofAarhus Cathedral, Denmark, as well as in a 14th-century painting attributed toNiccolo di Pietro Gerini in thePetit Palais in Avignon, France.[16] The painting was confiscated from an Austrian collector by the Germans duringWorld War II and was restituted to the heirs of the original owners in March 2013 by theFrench Ministry of Culture.
....which ornament the tomb of St Germain, bishop of Paris...
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
