EUGENDUS OF CONDAT, ST.

Abbot; b. Franche-Compté, c. 450; d. Condat, Jan. 1 c. 510–17. According to the vita traditionally attributed to a fellow monk and disciple, Eugendus (Oyend) as a child was entrusted to Saints Romanus and Lupicinus, founders of the monastery of Condat (later Saint-Oyend; today, Saint-Claude). There until his death he lived in mortification, study, and prayer, esteemed for his humility and his learning, which included a knowledge of Greek, remarkable for his day. As abbot he rebuilt the monastery, destroyed by fire, and patterned its life on the eastern monasticism of basil and John cassian.

Feast: Jan. 1.

Bibliography: Vita in j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis. Benedicti (Venice 1733–40) 1:553–559. Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (Berlin 1825–) 3:154–166, authenticity questioned by b. krusch; defended by l. duchesne, in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire 18 (1898) 5–16. Analecta Bollandiana 17 (1898) 367–368. Vies des páres du Jura, tr. as The life of the Jura fathers: The Life and Rule of the Holy Fathers Romanus, Lupicinus, and Eugendus, tr. t. vivian, k. vivian, and j. b. russell (Kalamazoo, Mich. 1999). r. poupardin, "Étude sur les vies des saints fondateurs de Condate et la critique de M. Bruno Krusch," Moyen-âge 11 (1898) 31–48. a. m.. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige (Metten 1933–38) 1:39. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheueux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 1:9–11. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:5–6.

[g. m. cook]