ELIGIUS OF NOYON, ST.

Bishop of Noyon; b. Chaptelat near Limoges, France, c. 588; d. Noyon, 660. Apprenticed as a goldsmith, Eligius (or Éloi) entered the service of Kings Chlotar II (d. 629) and Dagobert I (d. 639) as an official of the royal treasury at Paris; his name appears on the third-ofa-sou piece for the period. In 636–637 he was employed on an embassy to Brittany; then in 641 he became bishop of Noyon. He founded the monastery of solignac, another house in Noyon where St. Godeberta (d. c. 700) was the first abbess, and also an abbey in Paris. He was buried in the cathedral at Noyon. His great friend, St. ouen of rouen, wrote the first account of his life, parts of which are perhaps incorporated in the existing vita. His cult existed in the eighth century, and he was adopted as the patron saint of metal workers, finding great popularity in the 13th century. His work as a goldsmith is greatly praised by his biographer and seems to have been widely available, but little of it can be identified with certainty today.

Feast: Dec. 1.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Jan. 1:154–155; Oct. 13:740–741. Vita, Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (Berlin 1825–) 4:634–742. Sermons, ibid., 751–761. p. morel, Étude critique de la vie de S. Éloi (unpublished dissertation Paris 1930) 129–133. j. duquesne, Saint Eloi (Paris 1985). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:455–458. É. brouette, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912–) 15:260–263.

[v. i. j. flint]