Saint Avit
Troisième abbé de Micy-Saint Mesmin (+ 530)
ou Avy.
Il était auvergnat d'origine, mais se fit solitaire dans le Perche avec Saint
Calais et enfin s'en vint mourir dans l'Orléanais où il fut le troisième abbé
de Micy-Saint Mesmin, près d'Orléans. De nombreuses localités se sont mises
sous sa protection: Saint Avit-41170.
Il y a aussi saint Avit (date incertaine) qui aurait également été abbé à Micy
et peut-être dans la même période.
À Orléans, vers 530, saint Avit, abbé.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/7289/Saint-Avit.html
SAINT AVIT
Abbé de Micy
(+ 530)
Saint Avit naquit au pays
de Beauce, de deux humbles cultivateurs. Quand sa mère le mit au monde, sa
chambre, comme une autre étable de Bethléem, fut inondée d'une céleste lumière,
indice des grandes destinées de cet enfant. Jeune homme, il entra dans l'abbaye
de Micy, appelée plus tard de Saint-Mesmin, près d'Orléans. Dès les premiers
jours, il s'y fit le serviteur de tous, au point de passer près de certains de
ses frères pour un idiot et un incapable.
Le saint abbé Mesmin ou
Maximin sut discerner son mérite dans sa charité pour les pauvres, et lui donna
la charge d'économe du couvent. Mais bientôt l'amour de la solitude l'emporte:
il dépose, de nuit, ses clefs dans le lit de l'abbé endormi, et s'enfuit au
fond d'une épaisse foret, à cinq lieues du monastère. La, il vivait dans un si
parfait détachement du monde, dans une si grande union à Dieu, qu'il semblait
un esprit plutôt qu'un homme.
A la mort de l'abbé
Maximin, les religieux du couvent, qui avaient souvent ridiculisé le Saint,
furent les premiers à le choisir pour abbé. De temps en temps, Avit, toujours
épris de la solitude, se retirait au plus épais de la forêt pour s'y retrouver
seul quelques jours avec Dieu.
Il mourut l'an 530. Il
guérit un grand nombre de malades, rendit la vue à un aveugle de naissance et
ressuscita un de ses religieux.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_avit.html
Also
known as
Avitus of Micy
Avit
Avito
Avy
Profile
Monk at
the Menat monastery in Auvergne, France. Abbot of
the Micy monastery near Orléans, France. Hermit in
area of Perche, France.
His reputation for holiness led to would-be spiritual students to gather around
his shack. Eventually there were so many that they were led to build a
new monastery where
Avitus served as abbot.
‘
Born
Orléans, France
c.530
in France
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
The
Child’s Name, by Julian McCormick
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
“Saint Avitus of
Perche“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 June 2024. Web. 1 October 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-avitus-of-perche/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-avitus-of-perche/
Book of Saints –
Avitus – 17 June
Article
AVITUS (AVIT) (Saint)
Abbot (June 17) (6th century) A monk of Orleans who succeeded Saint Maximin as
Abbot of Micy. He finished his career as a hermit in one of the forests in the
West of France, where, however, he seems to have gathered around him a body of
disciples. The year 530 is given as that of his death.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Avitus”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 5
August 2012.
Web. 1 October 2025.
<http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-avitus-17-june/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-avitus-17-june/
Saints
of the Day – Avitus (Avy) of Micy, Abbot
Article
Born in Orléans, France;
died c.530. Saint Avitus became a monk at the small abbey of Menat in the
Auvergne together with Saint Calais. This monastery was under the patronage of
Queen Brunehault and Bishop Saint Bonitus of Clermont. Avitus and Calais soon migrated
to Micy near Orléans, where Avitus became abbot, but the two saints did not
tarry long at Micy either. Seeking greater solitude, Avitus and Calais retired
to La Perche. Within a short time, so many others had been drawn to the
holiness of the duo that Calais retired still further into the forest and
Avitus was forced to build and govern a new foundation, now called
Saint-Avy-de-Chéteau-Dun in the diocese of Chartres. Three famous monks, Saint
Leobin, Euphronius, and Rusticus, assisted Avitus to a happy death. His body
was taken up the Loire to Orléans for burial. A church was built over the site.
The cultus of Avitus is still kept in Orléans and Paris (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
MLA
Citation
Katherine I
Rabenstein. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info.
16 June 2024. Web. 1 October 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-avitus-avy-of-micy-abbot/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-avitus-avy-of-micy-abbot/
June 17
St. Avitus, or Avy,
Abbot, near Orleans
HE was a native of
Orleans, and retiring into Auvergne, took the monastic habit together with St.
Calais in the abbey of Menat, at that time very small; though afterwards
enriched by queen Brunehault, and by St. Boner, bishop of Clermont. The two
saints soon after returned to Miscy, a famous abbey situated on the Loiret near
the Loire, a league and a half below Orleans. It was founded towards the end of
the reign of Clovis I., by St. Euspicius a holy priest, honoured on the 14th of
June, and his nephew St. Maximin or Mesmin, whose name this monastery, which is
now of the Cistercian Order, bears. Many call St. Maximin the first abbot,
others St. Euspicius the first, St. Maximin the second, and St. Avitus the
third. But our saint and St. Calais made not a long stay at Misci, though St.
Maximin gave them a gracious reception. In quest of a closer retirement, St.
Avitus, who had succeeded St. Maximin, soon after resigned the abbacy, as
Lethuld, a learned monk of Misci, assures us, and with St. Calais lived a recluse
in the territory now called Dunois, on the frontiers of la Perche. Others
joining them St. Calais retired into a forest in Maine, and king Clotaire built
a church and monastery for St. Avitus and his companions. This is at present a
Benedictin nunnery called St. Avy of Chateau-dun, and is situated on the Loire
at the foot of the hill on which the town of Chateau-dun is built, in the
diocess of Chartres. Three famous monks, Leobin, afterwards bishop of Chartres,
Euphronius, and Rusticus, attended our saint to his happy death, which happened
about the year 530. His body was carried up the Loire to Orleans, and buried
with great pomp in that city. A church was built over his tomb which still
subsists, and his feast is kept at Orleans, Paris, and in other places. Some
distinguish St. Avitus abbot of Misci from the abbot of Chateau-dun; but all
circumstances show that it was the same holy man who retired from Misci into
the territory of Chateau-dun. See the life of St. Avitus published by
Henschenius in 1701; the New Paris Breviary the 17th of June; Le Cointe’s
Annals, and chiefly the book entitled, Les Aménités de la Critique, t. 2, p. 8
Rev. Alban Butler
(1711–73). Volume VI: June. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Article
Began the religious life
in a monastery at Auvergne. He later returned to one nearer Orleans, his native
city, and there became abbot, but desiring more retirement departed with Saint
Calais into the territory of Dunois. There, in a monastery built for him by
King Clotaire, he passed the remainder of his life. He died A.D. 530. Feast,
June 17th.
MLA
Citation
Julian McCormick.
“Avitus”. The
Child’s Name, 1899. CatholicSaints.Info.
11 September 2023. Web. 1 October 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/the-childs-name-avitus/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-avitus-of-perche/
SAINT AVITUS
Abbot
(†530)
Saint Avitus was the child of a poor family of Orleans, France. From his youth
he desired to consecrate himself to God, and he received the monastic habit at
the abbey of Micy or Saint-Maximin in the diocese of Orleans, at that time
still very small. Its first Superior, Saint Maximin, remarked the young monk’s
virtue when he observed that he deprived himself of a great portion of his food
each day in order to nourish the poor.
After serving as steward for the monastery, Saint Avitus decided to leave in
secret to go and live in solitude in a deserted place. Saint Maximin recognized
in this flight a secret design of God and made no attempt to have him return.
But when the holy Abbot died, Saint Avitus was chosen to succeed him by the
unanimous consent of the religious. He was brought back despite his
protestations of unworthiness, and was obliged to receive the episcopal
consecration and his investiture from the bishop of Orleans.
He labored at his new duties with great assiduity, but saw with sorrow that the
religious were becoming lax. He again thought of flight, considering himself
the cause of the difficulties, and did indeed find a solitude in the diocese of
Chartres, far from all village life, where he lived several years on fruits
growing wild in the forest.
One day a poor mute herdsman lost a pig in the forest, and when a severe storm
broke out, lost his way until he saw a light in the distance. When he
approached, he found himself facing the Saint. The latter not only lit his
torch again for him and showed him the way to go, but made the sign of the
cross on his mouth and restored to him the use of speech, which he had not had
for long years. When this miracle was divulged, the hermit became known
everywhere in the region, and the desert was soon transformed, as it were, into
a city. The monastery which Saint Avitus built there and governed later bore
his name.
He left it from time to time to go to the city of Orleans for his works of
mercy; his prayers cured many sick and handicapped persons. When he failed to
persuade the cruel king Clodomir to liberate Saint Sigismond, king of Burgundy,
with his wife and children whom he had captured and held prisoner and was
intending to put to death, Saint Avitus told him that if he committed that
crime, he himself would perish miserably in the first battle he would
undertake. This indeed is what occurred.
Saint Avitus one day resurrected one of his brethren who had died during his
absence; all the monks saw the dead religious rise from his coffin and begin to
sing with the others the infinite mercies of Our Lord. Saint Lubin or Leobin,
bishop of Chartres, assured his people in a sermon that he had learned of this
fact from the very monk who had been resurrected.
Three famous religious, one of them the same Saint Leobin, who at that time was
a simple monk, attended our Saint at his blessed death, which happened about
the year 530. His body was carried to the church of Saint George in Orleans and
interred there with great pomp. Afterwards king Childebert built a magnificent
temple over this tomb, out of gratitude for the prayers of Saint Avitus.
Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul
Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 7.
SOURCE : http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/06-17.htm
Pictorial
Lives of the Saints – Saint Avitus, Abbot
Article
Saint Avitus was a native
of Orleans, and, retiring into Auvergne, took the monastic habit, together with
Saint Calais, in the Abbey of Menat, at that time very small, though afterward
enriched by Queen Brunehault, and by Saint Boner, Bishop of Clermont. The two
Saints soon after returned to Miscy, a famous abbey situated a league and a
half below Orleans. It was founded toward the end of the reign of Clovis I. by
Saint Euspicius, a holy priest, honored on the 14th of June, and his nephew
Saint Maximin or Mesmin, whose name this monastery, which is now of the
Cistercian Order, bears. Many call Saint Maximin the first abbot, others Saint
Euspicius the first, Saint Maximin the second, and Saint Avitus the third. But
our Saint and Saint Calais made not a long: stay at Miscy, though Saint Maximin
gave them a gracious reception. In quest of a closer retirement, Saint Avitus,
who had succeeded Saint Maximin, soon after resigned the abbacy, and with Saint
Calais lived a recluse in the territory now called Dunois, on the frontiers of
La Perche. Others joining them, Saint Calais retired into a forest in Maine,
and King Clothaire built a church and monastery for Saint Avitus and his
companions. This is at present a Benedictine nunnery, called Saint Avy of
Chateaudun, and is situated on the Loire, at the foot of the hill on which the
town of Chateaudun is built, in the diocese of Chartres. Three famous monks,
Leobin, afterward Bishop of Chartres, Euphronius, and Rusticus, attended our
Saint to his happy death, which happened about the year 530. His body was
carried to Orleans, and buried with great pomp in that city.
MLA
Citation
John Dawson Gilmary Shea.
“Saint Avitus, Abbot”. Pictorial Lives of the
Saints, 1889. CatholicSaints.Info.
25 May 2014. Web. 1 October 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-avitus-abbot/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-avitus-abbot/
Sant' Avito Abate
Festa: 17 giugno
† 530 circa
Nato in Auvergne, Avito
abbracciò la vita religiosa a Menat e, dopo la morte dell'abate Massimino, ne
prese il posto alla guida del monastero di Micy. Condusse anche periodi di
ritiro eremitico nella foresta di Perche, dove morì intorno al 530. La sua figura,
carica di virtù e miracoli, ha ispirato diverse Vitae, sebbene la storicità di
alcune sia dubbia. La devozione verso San Avito si diffuse in Francia, come
testimoniato dalla chiesa di San Giorgio a Orléans, dove fu sepolto.
Martirologio
Romano: A Orléans in Francia, sant’Avito, abate.
Il ricordo più antico di Avito è in due passi di Gregorio di Tours. Nel primo (Hist. Franc., III, 6) è detto che il re burgundo Sigismondo fu nel 523 messo a morte dal vincitore Clodomiro re dei Franchi, nonostante i tentativi fatti per salvarlo «a beato Avito abbate Miciacense, magno tunc temporis sacerdote». Nel secondo (De gloria Confessorum, 99), Gregorio racconta che «Avitus abbas Carnoteni pagi, quem Pertensem vocant, saepius imminere dissolutionem sui corporis Spiritu sancto revelante praedixit. Qui recedens a corpore, honorifice apud Aurelianensem urbem humatus est: super quern fideles Christiani ecclesiam construxerunt», chiesa che Gregorio stesso ebbe occasione di visitare (Hist. Franc., VIII, 2). Di Avito parla anche l'autore del Liber historiae Francorum, che trascrive, amplificandole, le notizie date da Gregorio: «Beatus autem Avitus, qui erat tunc vir sanctus Dei abbas in Aurelianis civitate, deprecabatur Chlodomirum... ».
Adone, attingendo le notizie da Gregorio di Tours, pone la celebrazione di Avito al 19 dicembre, senza motivo alcuno, però, poiché nel Martirologio Geronimiano Avito è menzionato al 17 giugno («In Aurelianis civitate Aviti presbyteri»). L'elogio di Adone, soppresso da Usuardo, che ricorda Avito al 17 giugno, è rimasto in alcuni mss., in cui il nome Avitus fu corrotto in Adiutus e il Baronio, indotto in errore da questa corruzione, celebra Avito al 17 giugno e Adiutus al 19 dicembre. Beda al 15 giugno menziona un Vitus, nome che è certamente una contrazione di Avitus. Nei secc. IX-X furono redatte quattro Vitae di Avito (cf. BHL, I, pp. 136-37, nn. 879-82), tutte di scarso valore, che si ripetono con poche varianti. Stando ad esse, Avito nacque in Arvernia verso la metà del sec. V e abbracciò la vita religiosa a Menat presso Clermont. Si trasferì poi a Micy, presso Orleans, conducendo vita eremitica. Morto nel 520 Massimino, abate di Micy, Avito gli successe, cedendo alle suppliche dei monaci. Si ritirò saltuariamente nelle foreste di Perche, non lontano da Châteaudun, in un luogo che più tardi si chiamò Celle-de-Saint-Avit. Quivi morì verso il 530, un 17 giugno, e fu sepolto a Orléans nella chiesa di San Giorgio.
Qualcuno ha voluto distinguere due Aviti, uno di Menat e l'altro di Micy, ma sembra che tale distinzione sia priva di solido fondamento.
Autore: Paul Viard
