Carileffus, St.
CARILEFFUS, ST.
Hermit; b. Aquitaine; d. c. 540. According to the two 9th-century lives, the only written evidence, Carileffus (Calais) was a monk at the Abbey of Ménat or at the Abbey of Micy. He set out with a companion, avitus, and he was ordained by Maximin of Micy (d. 520), bishop of Orléans. Leaving Avitus, he adopted a solitary life in the Diocese of Le Mans on the river Anille. The Abbey of Anille, later Saint-Calais, from evidence in royal charters of the eighth century, seems to have been built in his honor. It took his name perhaps in the ninth century when his cult is well attested. A diploma of 760 suggests that his body was buried at Saint-Calais, where, after its translation to Blois during the course of the Norman invasions, it was again returned in 1663.
Feast: July 1.
Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 3:386–394, earliest life, fragments only. j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti (Venice 1733–40) 1:621–633. a. m. zimmermann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:941. Bibliotheca hagiograpica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 1:1568–72. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum, (Metten 1933–38) 2:389. r. aigrain, Catholicisme 2:369–370. j. havet, Questions mérovingiennes, 6 pts. in 1 v. (Paris 1885–90) pt. 4 Les Chartes de Saint-Calais, 5–58, 209–247.
[v. i. j. flint]