Saint EVROULT de OUCHE (EVROUL, EBRULF, EBRULFO), abbé, fondateur et confesseur

Statue de Saint Évroult, abbatiale de Thiron-Gardais, Eure-et-Loir, France.

Saint Evroult

Abbé au pays d'Ouche, en Normandie (+ v. 596)

Originaire de Bayeux, il fut appelé par le roi Clovis II puis le roi Clotaire III aux plus hautes charges du royaume franc. Il fut un époux attentif à son épouse et charitable aux pauvres. Voulant devenir moine pour mener une vie plus parfaite, il obtint d'elle qu'elle devienne aussi moniale. Lui-même se retira solitaire dans les forêts de Montfort près d'Argentan. Si grande fut sa vertu qu'il dût fonder plusieurs monastères pour les disciples qui se regroupaient autour de lui et voulaient imiter sa manière de vivre avec Dieu.

Depuis une quinzaine de siècles, notre petite région (Orne, en Basse-Normandie) a accueilli la Bonne Nouvelle de Jésus-Christ. Elle l'a reçue par des missionnaires, hommes et femmes, moines, prêtres, laïcs, par des évêques. Une quinzaine d'entre eux - comme Céronne et Lhômer, au Pays du Perche, comme Evroult, au pays d'Ouche, comme Latuin, notre premier évêque, au pays de Sées, comme les ermites dans le Bocage - ont laissé une grande réputation de sainteté. (diocèse de Séez)

- Saint Evroult, ermite au VIIe siècle, quitta les honneurs d'une haute fonction à la cour franque pour fonder monastères et agriculture dans la région. Il eut un grand rayonnement tant en France qu'en Angleterre. (Saint Evroult - diocèse de Séez)

Localités sous son patronage: Saint-Evroult de Montfort - 61230, Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame du Bois - 61550: - L’origine de Saint-Evroult vient du moine fondateur de la première abbaye d’Ouche au VIIe siècle. Né dans une famille d’aristocrate du Bessin vers 626, il occupa de hautes fonctions dans le royaume de Childéric II. Il s’engagea dans la vie monacale et avec trois compagnons il voulut fonder un ermitage. Ils s’arrêtèrent d’abord à Montfort (St Evroult) mais l’endroit trop passager ne convint pas à la solitude qu’il recherchait.

Il décida de s’enfoncer dans la forêt d’Ouche et s’installa près de la source de la Charentonne pour édifier son ermitage. La communauté prospèra rapidement et Saint Evroult convertit beaucoup de brigands à la religion. Sa vertu était si grande qu’il fonda plusieurs monastères pour ses disciples. Il mourut à l’âge de 80 ans le 29 décembre 706. (Saint Evroult et l'abbaye)

L'abbaye était au XIIème siècle un centre intellectuel important avec une bibliothèque riche de 200 volumes. Dévastée au Xème siècle par les Normands, elle fut reconstruite en 1231, mais elle sera complètement détruite pendant la Révolution française. L'impressionnante abbatiale mesurait alors 91 mètres sur 41 de large. Aujourd?hui, le territoire de Saint Evroult-Notre Dame du Bois est recouvert aux deux tiers par la forêt. Méditer en cette forêt donne à réfléchir sur les péripéties de toute existence.La butte de St Evroult est une propriété privée. Les promenades y sont tolérées. De ces trésors, il reste un extraordinaire reliquaire au musée de Caen. (https://infocatho.cef.fr/fichiers_html/vacances/prtlatlasfrance25069/prtl61.html)

La fondation de ce monastère se situe sous les règnes d'Hilpéric et Childebert entre 550 et 570 par Evroult de Bayeux. (Abbaye de Saint Evroult) Abbaye de Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois 61550 Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois, GoogleMaps

Au pays d'Exmes en Gaule, l'an 596, saint Évroul, abbé d'Ouche, au temps du roi de Neustrie Childebert. Il fut célèbre pour son amour de la solitude, ses austérités et sa bonté envers les pauvres.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/327/Saint-Evroult.html

Ruines de l'abbaye Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois (Orne, France). Vue de la nef avec un pilier de la tour et le transept sud.

EVROULT D’OUCHE

Abbé, Saint

517-596

Saint Evroult naquit à Bayeux en 517. Il sortait d'une famille riche et considérable. Ses parents, après luiavoir donné une éducation conforme à sa naissance, l'envoyèrent à la cour de Childebert I. Ce prince l'honora de sa confiance, et lui donna des emplois très importants. Evroult, par complaisance pour ses parents, entra dans l'état du mariage ; mais il prit pour épouse une femme recommandable par sa vertu. Quoique obligé de vivre au milieu des embarras qu'entraînent les affaires, il trouvait encore du temps pour vaquer aux exercices de piété. Assidu à la prière et à la lecture, il se faisait une solitude de la cour, parce que son cœur était fermé au bruit du monde qui frappait ses oreilles. Quand il était seul, il méditait les saintes Écritures qui faisaient ses délices. Il lisait aussi les vies des anciens Pères, et il apprenait chaque jour à mourir avec eux au monde. Enfin, dégoûté du siècle, il forma la résolution de rompre les liens qui l'y retenaient. Il communiqua son dessein à sa femme, qui consentit avec joie à la séparation qui lui était proposée. Elle quitta le monde la première, et alla prendre le voile dans un monastère. Mais ce n'était point encore assez pour Evroult, il avait besoin du consentement de Clotaire I, qui, après la mort de Childebert, était devenu maître de ses états. Le prince le lui refusa longtemps ; il le lui accorda néanmoins après des instances souvent réitérées. Evroult, devenu libre, vendit ses biens et les distribua aux pauvres ; après quoi il se retira dans le monastère dit des deux Jumeaux, au diocèse de Bayeux. Il venait d'être fondé par saint Martin, abbé de Vertou près de Nantes, et il avait ainsi été appelé de deux jumeaux qui lui avaient donné leur patrimoine, et qui s'y étaient consacrés à Dieu.

La vertu de saint Evroult lui attira tant de vénération, que, pour se soustraire aux piéges de la vanité, il sortit du monastère avec trois autres religieux , pour chercher une solitude plus entière. S'étant enfoncés dans les forêts, ils s'arrêtèrent dans celle d'Ouche en Hyesmois, au diocèse de Lisieux. Le Saint y fonda la célèbre abbaye qui porte aujourd'hui son nom, et qui appartient à la congrégation de Saint-Maur. Il lui vint de toutes parts des disciples, qui, animés par ses exemples et ceux de ses moines , tendirent avec ardeur à la perfection de leur état. Evroult fonda quinze autres monastères, tant pour des hommes que pour des filles : mais il fit toujours sa demeure dans celui d'Ouche. Plusieurs miracles opérés par la vertu de ses prières, ajoutèrent encore à la célébrité de son nom. Il mourut à l'âge de quatre-vingts ans , le 29 Décembre 596. Son nom se lit en ce jour dans le martyrologe romain , et dans ceux d'Usuard, des Bénédictins, etc. On gardait une partie de ses reliques dans l'abbaye de Saint-Evroult; le reste était à l'abbaye de Rebais. On fait sa principale fête à Evreux, le 16 de Janvier.

Alban Butler : Vies des pères, des martyrs, et des autres principaux saints… traduction de Jean François Godescard.

SOURCE : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/evroult_douche.htm

Ruines de l'abbaye Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois (Orne, France). Vue de la nef vers le porche.

Saint Ebrulf of Ouche

Also known as

Ebrolfo

Ebrulfo

Ebrulfus

Ebrulphus

Evroul

Evroult

Évroult

Memorial

29 December

30 August (translation of relics)

Profile

Merovingian courtier. A married layman, he made financial arrangements for his wife, who may have later become a nun, and left the court of King Childebert I to become a monk at Deux Jumeaux abbey. He and a small group of brothers left to become hermits in the nearby forest of Ouche. Ebrulf converted a band of highway robbers to the faith. With them, the brothers, and some spiritual students who gathered around them, he founded a small monastery near Ouche, and served as its abbot. It emphasized self-sufficiency for the house, manual labour offered to God for the men, and was so successful that several other small houses were founded nearby.

Born

626 in Bayeux, Normandy, France

Died

706 of natural causes

relics translated to Deeping Abbey, England in the 11th and 12th centuries

Canonized

Pre-Congregation

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

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

other sites in english

Catholic Online

Catholic Online

Wikipedia

images

Wikimedia Commons

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición

sites en français

La fête des prénoms

fonti in italiano

Cathopedia

Santi e Beati

MLA Citation

“Saint Ebrulf of Ouche“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 December 2025. Web. 24 September 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ebrulf-of-ouche/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ebrulf-of-ouche/

Book of Saints – Evroul

Article

EVROUL (EBRULPHUS) (Saint) Abbot. (December 29) (6th century) Born at Bayeux (Northern France) (A.D. 517), he had a brilliant career at the Court of King Childebert I; but moved by a Divine impulse obtained leave of the following monarch, Clotaire I, to retire to a monastery (his wife at the same time taking the veil in a convent). He lived henceforth a life of prayer and of work for the good of his neighbour; and himself founded many religious houses. He passed away A.D. 596.

MLA Citation

Monks of Ramsgate. “Evroul”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 28 January 2013. Web. 24 September 2026. <https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-evroul/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-evroul/

St. Ebrulf

Feastday: December 29

Death: 706

Abbot founder, also called Ebrulfus and Evroult. Born in 626, in Bayeux, Normandy, France, he was a courtier to King Childebert III. He and his wife separated, each entering a religious house. He went to Deux Jumeaux Abbey at Bayeux. As a hermit in Ouche Forest in Normandy, he attracted so many followers that he had to found a monastery there. Other houses followed.

SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3033

Ruines de l'abbaye Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois (Orne, France). Vue de la nef vers le transept avec le détail des pieds de colonnes.

Ebrulf of Ouche, Abbot (RM)

(also known as Evroul, Evroult, Ebrulfus)

Born in Bayeux, Normandy, in 517; died 596; feast commemorating the translation of his relics is kept at Deeping Abbey in England on August 30. Like Saint Albert, Ebrulf was a Merovingian courtier. He arranged for his wife to be safe from need (she may have entered a convent) and left the court of King Childebert I to became a monk at the nearby abbey of Deux Jumeaux. Later he and a small group of companions became hermits in the forest of Ouche in Normandy, where they lived an austere life. After Ebrulf converted a band of robbers to the faith, he established a small monastery there. As the numbers swelled, several other small houses were founded. Their rule emphasized manual labor as a means of earning a livelihood and a way to serve God. Ebrulf had a strong cultus in England until the feast of Thomas Becket took precedence. Four abbots from Saint-Evroul Abbey ruled English monasteries in the 11th and 12th centuries and brought with them Ebrulf's relics. (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer). 

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1229.shtml

Ruines de l'abbaye Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois (Orne, France). Vue sur la nef depuis le porche.

December 29

St. Evroul, Abbot and Confessor

EVROUL, called in Latin Ebrulfus, was born at Bayeux, in 517, and was of the most illustrious family of that country. But he learned from his cradle to esteem nothing great but what is so in the eyes of God. The same sentiments he made the rule of his holy and disinterested conduct in the court of King Childebert I., who, being charmed with his accomplishments both of mind and body, raised him to several posts of honour and authority, which he never sought: for all his ambition aimed at goods infinitely surpassing those of the earth, for which he testified a total indifference, even whilst they flowed in upon him unasked. He showed by his example how possible it is for a Christian to live in the world without being of it in spirit, and to possess riches without being possessed by them. But then he made continual use of the antidotes which heaven has afforded us to fence our hearts against that contagious air, which are assiduous prayer, pious reading, meditation, and the mortification of the senses. His friends importuned him to marry, and he chose a virtuous wife, whose inclinations were perfectly suitable to his own. By reading the lives of the saints they mutually inflamed each other with a desire of forsaking the world. In this view they agreed to a separation, and she took the veil in a holy nunnery, whilst he distributed his whole fortune among the poor. It was, however, a considerable time before he was able to obtain the leave of King Clothaire I. (who, after the death of his brother Childebert, was become master of all France) to retire from court. At length, he procured it by reiterated importunities, and without delay took refuge in a monastery in the diocess of Bayeux. By his profound humility, fervour, and all heroic virtues, he gained the esteem and veneration of his fellow monks. But the respect which he met with was to him a true affliction: he regarded it as a snare, and a temptation to vanity. To shun it, he, with three others, privately withdrew, and hid himself in the most remote part of the forest of Ouche, in the diocess of Lisieux, which was only inhabited by wild beasts and robbers. These new hermits had taken no measures for provisions. They settled near a spring of clear water, made an inclosure with a hedge of boughs, and built themselves little huts of branches and mud. A country peasant discovered them in this place, to his great astonishment, and advertised them, that the wood was a retreat of cruel thieves: “We are come hither,” said Evroul, “to bewail our sins; we place our confidence in the mercy of God, who by his providence feeds the birds of the air, and we fear no one.” The countryman brought them the next morning three loaves and some honey, and was so edified by their conversation, that he soon after joined them. One of the thieves happening to light upon them, saw there was no booty to be expected, and, out of humanity and compassion, endeavoured to persuade them that their lives would be in danger from others of his profession. Evroul represented to him, that having God for their protector, they stood in fear of no danger from men who could have no inducement to murder those who sought to hurt no man, and had no other occupation than to lead penitential lives, and to please God. He then powerfully exhorted him to change his life. The robber was converted upon the spot, and going to his companions, brought many of them, in the same dispositions with himself, to the saint, by whose advice they betook themselves to till the land, and labour in the country for an honest maintenance. Several of them chose to remain with these anchorets, in the practice of penance. They cultivated the land, but it was too barren to yield them sufficient nourishment, even in their most abstemious way of living. But the inhabitants of the country brought them in a little provision. Evroul accepted their alms, but whatever remained he gave immediately to other poor, reserving nothing for the next day

The advantages and sweets of holy solitude, in uninterrupted contemplation, made him desire to live always an anchoret, without being burdened with the care of others. But fraternal charity overruled this inclination, for he could not remain indifferent to the salvation of his neighbours. He therefore received those who desired to live in penance under his direction, for whom he was obliged to build a monastery at Ouche in Normandy, which to this day bears his name. His community daily increasing, and many offering him lands, he built fifteen other monasteries of men or women, of which his own always remained the chief, and this he always governed himself. His affability charmed every one: he seemed to know no pleasure equal to that of serving his neighbour. He used to exhort all to labour, telling them, that they would gain their bread by their work, and heaven by serving God in it. His example sufficed to encourage others: by his indefatigable constancy in labour, his patience in adversity, his perfect resignation to the will of God in all things with equal joy, and his cheerfulness in the most severe practices of perpetual penance. He arrived at a great old age, though always sighing after the joys of eternity. His patience in his last sickness made him seem never sensible to pain. He lived forty-seven days without being able to take any thing, except a little water, and the sacred body of Jesus Christ. He never ceased to exhort his disciples till he bid them adieu with joy, shutting his eyes to this world on the 29th of December, 596. His body was buried in the church of St. Peter, which he had built. His name occurs in Usuard, and in the Roman Martyrology on this day. See his exact life in. Mabillon, sæc. 1. Ben. p. 354. William of Gemblours, &c. also Bulteau, l. 2. c. 31.

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume XII: December. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.

SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/12/293.html

Porterie de l'abbaye de Saint-Évroult

Sant' Ebrulfo (Ebrolfo) di Ouche Abate

29 dicembre

Martiriologio Romano : A Exmess in Neustria, ora in Francia, sant’Ebrolfo, abate del monastero di Ouche al tempo del re Childeberto.

Il 29 dicembre il Martirologio Romano menziona Ebrulfo, abate al tempo del re Childeberto II (m. 596). Sembra che il santo sia vis­suto nella regione di Ouche, nell'alta Normandia, fra Exmes e Laigle (Orne). Lo menziona anche, lo stesso giorno, il Martirologio di Usuardo (PL, CXXIV, coll. 849-50), un esemplare del Martirolo­gio di Beda (secc. X-XI) che può provenire da St-Calais nella diocesi di Le Mans (Quentin, pp. 31-36) e un sacramentario dell'abbazia di St-Evroult scritto nella seconda metà del sec. XI. La topo­nimia del paese di Ouche attesta ugualmente la devozione a Ebrulfo : due villaggi, una foresta e, non lontano, un'abbazia portano il suo nome. È stato fatto patrono di una dozzina di chiese della diocesi di Sens e di diocesi vicine.

In Gallia Christiana (ed. 1656, IV, pp. 347 sgg.) è detto che egli nacque a Bayeux nel 517 e che morì ottuagenario il 29 dic. 596. Autori dei secc. XI e XII, come il cronista Orderico Vital (m. verso il 1144) monaco di St-Evroult, ci hanno tra­mandato le informazioni che lo concernono e che sembrano riposare sui dati antichi, anzi contem­poranei.

Di origine nobile, Ebrulfo ricevette un'educazione di­stinta e diede prove di virtù profonde. Alto fun­zionario di Clotario I (m. 561) sposò una donna del proprio rango sociale, da cui poi si separò per condurre una vita di maggiore perfezione. Si stabilì allora, con alcuni compagni, nella foresta di Ouche, infestata dalle bestie feroci e dai briganti; questi ultimi si convertirono e alcuni, anzi, si fe­cero monaci.

Il santo avrebbe fondato una quindicina di mo­nasteri, operato numerosi miracoli e anche risu­scitato dei morti. Nel sec. XII Giovanni di St-Evroult compose un'opera in versi in suo onore e Orderico afferma che si ottenevano guarigioni presso la sua tomba. Durante le invasioni norman­ne, i suoi resti furono trasportai a Orléans, secondo Orderico, a Rebais (diocesi di Meaux), secondo un monaco di questa casa. Si cercò, in seguito, di riportarle a St-Evroult, ma senza successo.

Autore: Paul Viard

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/83355

Ruines de l'abbaye Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois (Orne, France).

Saint Evroult et l’Abbaye : https://st-evroult-nd-du-bois.fr/l-histoire/saint-evroult-et-l-abbaye