.jpg)
Statue de saint Maurand en la Collégiale Saint-Pierre de Douai
Saint Maurant
diacre
et abbé (✝ v. 702)
ou Mauront.
Baptisé par saint
Riquier, il passa toute sa vie dans sa Flandre natale. Sa
première éducation terminée, il fut envoyé à la cour du roi Clovis II où il
demeura plusieurs années. Au moment où sa famille voulut le marier, il refusa.
Sa mère, craignant qu'il ait pris cette décision pour mieux s'adonner à la
débauche, consulta l'évêque saint
Amand qui la rassura. La décision de saint Maurant était
guidée par un appel de Dieu. Et c'est ainsi que nous le retrouvons moine du
monastère du Breuil et père spirituel de l'abbaye de Marchiennes. Il s'endormit
dans le Seigneur après une vie pleine de mérites et de vertus.
À Marchiennes dans l’Artois (*), en 702, saint Mauront, diacre et abbé, qui
fut disciple de saint Amand.
(*) actuellement, l'Ostrevent.
Martyrologe
romain
St. Mauront, Abbot
HE was born in
the year 634, and was baptized by St. Riquier. Being the eldest son of blessed
Adalbald, an illustrious French nobleman of royal blood, and of St. Rictrudes,
of a most noble family in Gascony or Aquitain, his high birth promised him the
first honours of the kingdom, and his capacity and integrity made him superior
to the greatest affairs. He passed his youth in the court of King Clovis II.
and the holy queen Bathildes, and discharged in it many honourable employs. On
the death of his father he became lord or duke of Douay, and succeeded to his
other large estates, came home into Flanders to settle his concerns and to
marry a rich young lady, a treaty having been already concluded for this
purpose. But God designed him for a state of greater perfection; and his
instrument for bringing this about was St. Amand bishop of Maestricht who then
led a retired life in his monastery of Elnone. Mauront was so touched by a discourse
of this holy prelate on the vanity and dangers of the world, that he went
directly to the monastery of Marchiennes, founded by his mother. There he soon
received the clerical tonsure from St. Amand, and after some years was made
deacon and prior of Hemaye, or Hamaige, half a league from Marchiennes, on the
Scarp. He built himself a new monastery called Breüil, on his estate of
Merville, a considerable town near St. Venant, in the diocess of Teroüanne, and
when it was finished, was chosen the first abbot. His father Adalbald had two
brothers, Sigefrid, count of Ponthieu, and Archenald, Mayor of the Palace to
Clovis II. son to Dagobert, to whom they were related. After the death of
Adalbald, whom the poet who celebrated St. Rictrudes, styles Duke of the people
of Douay, 1 his brother Archenald rebuilt the castle of Douay,
(which gave rise to the town,) and founded the church of our Lady, now called
St. Amatus’s. 2 St. Amatus, on being banished by King Theodoric III.
was committed to the care of Mauront, who profited exceedingly by the saintly
conversation of that holy confessor; whom he so much respected that he resigned
to him his abbacy, and lived under his obedience, but was obliged to resume his
charge upon the death of that holy bishop, in 690. He was also abbot of the
monks at Marchiennes, whilst his sister Clotsenda was abbess of the separate
house of nuns, this being at that time a double monastery. St. Mauront died
there in the seventy-second year of his age, of Christ 706, on the 5th of May,
on which day he is commemorated in the Belgic Martyrologies. Merville, the
ancient Minariacum of Antoninus, having been plundered by the Danes or Normans,
towards the end of the ninth century, Charles the Simple, king of France,
transferred the community of monks from Breüil to our Lady’s Church at Douay,
which had been founded by Archenald, St. Mauront’s uncle. At the same time the
body of St. Mauront with that of St. Amatus, was translated from Breüil to
Douay, and both are there enshrined in the church of St. Amatus, which, since
the secularization of the monastery in 940, is a collegiate church of canons.
In its archives and in the ancient calendars of the cathedral of Arras, St.
Martin’s at Tournay, Liesse, &c., St. Mauront is styled sometimes Levite or
Deacon, and sometimes Abbot: by which he seems never to have been ordained
priest. His body is kept in a rich shrine in this church, in which is a chapel
sacred to his name and his parents, where his statue is seen between those of
his parents. He is represented holding in his right hand a sceptre, and in his
left a building with a tower or belfry. The abbey of St. Guislin in Hainault
possesses his skull in a shrine of silver gilt. The cathedral of Arras and some
other churches, show particles of his relics. 3 On his life consult Huebald the monk in his life of
St. Rictrudes, the archives of the church of St. Amatus in Douay, copied by
Buzelin in his accurate Gallo Flandria, and Annales Flandrici, and by
Henschenius, t. 2, Maij, p. 53; see also Miræus, Malbrancq, Locrius, Grammaye,
Sylvius Baldricus, Le Cointe, an. 638, n. 97; Molanus, &c.
Note 2. Grammaie, in Duaco, Buzelin, Annal. Flandr. Locrius,
Chronicon Belgicum, Silvius, Baldericus, Castilion, Sacra Belgii Chronol. p.
38. [back]
Note 3. The B.
Rictrudes, besides Mauront, had three other children. 1. The B. Clotsenda, her
eldest daughter, abbess of Marchiennes after her death, honoured on the 13th of
June. 2. St. Eusebia or Isoye, chosen abbess of Hamaye (Hamaticum) at twelve
years of age, about the year 646, where she succeeded Gertrude, grandmother to
Adalbald, who with St. Amand had founded the double monastery of Marchiennes.
3. B. Adalsend, a nun under her at Marchiennes, honoured on the 24th of
December. Adalbald is commemorated on 2nd of February. See Molanus, Nat. Sanct.
Belg. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume V:
May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Maurontius of Douai, OSB
(AC)
(also known as Maurantius, Mauron, Mauront)
Born in 634; died May 5, c. 701. Saint Maurontius was the heir-apparent to SS.
Adalbald and Rictrudis. He was baptized by Saint Riquier and reared at the
court of Clovis II and Saint Bathildis. Upon the death of his father, he
succeeded him as lord of Douai (Tournai) and inherited other estates.
He was on the point of
marrying, in fact the marriage contract had been signed, when he heard a
discourse by the retired Bishop Saint Amandus on the dangers of the world.
Maurontius immediately quit the world and joined the Benedictines at
Marchiennes, a monastery that had been founded by his mother. Within a short
time he received the clerical tonsure from Amandus, and some years later he was
ordained a deacon (apparently he was never ordained to the priesthood) and
prior of Hamage Abbey.
Eventually, he became the
abbot-founder (and patron) of Breuil-sur- lys, built on his estate near Douai
in the diocese of Thérouanne. There he cared for Saint Amatus, who had been
banished by King Theodoric III. Maurontius respected and learned so much from
Amatus that he resigned his abbacy in his favor and lived under his obedience.
When the holy bishop died in 690, Maurontius resumed the leadership of the
monastery and directed the monks at the double monastery of Marchiennes at the
same time, while his sister Saint Clotsend was abbess of the nuns.
Maurontius was buried at
Breuil, but during the Nordic invasions at the end of the 9th century, King
Charles the Simple had the relics of Maurontius and Amatus moved to the church
of Saint Amatus at Douai. Maurontius's body is kept in a rich shrine in this
church, in which is a chapel dedicated to him and his parents, where there is a
statue of him between those of his parents. The abbey of Saint Guislin in
Hainault possesses his skull in a shrine of silver gilt. The cathedral of
Arras, and some churches, show particles of his relics (Benedictines,
Husenbeth).
In art Saint Maurontius is
a nobleman holding an abbey (Breuil-sur- lys) in his hand with a fleur-de-lys
on his shield (Roeder). In his chapel, his statue shows him holding in his
right hand a scepter, and in his left a building with a tower or belfry
(Husenbeth).
