Florentius of Anjou

Florentius of Anjou (French - Florent d'Anjou) was a 4th century Christian hermit, priest, abbot and saint. According to legend he evangelised the region around Saumur and was brother to Florain of Lorch. The Angevin monasteries of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil (formerly Mont-Glonne and now in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil) and Saint Florent-le-Jeune (now in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent) and the collegiate church in Roye, Somme are all named after him. The abbey of Saint-Florent in Saumur commissioned a tapestry around 1524 showing scenes from the saint's life, still held in Saumur.

It is difficult to find historically trustworthy sources on him. It seems he was initially a hermit living on the île d'Yeu in the 4th century. So many disciples gathered around him there that he established a monastery. His feast day is 22 September, recorded as the day of his burial on Mont Glonne, now in the town of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil. Over time a pilgrimage to his tomb developed and the monks rewrote his biography around the end of the 900s to make his sanctity and influence more popular.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.