Saint Ansegisus (c. 770 – 20 July 833 or 834) was a monastic reformer of the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

. Born about 770, of noble parentage, at the age of eighteen he entered the monastery of Fontenelle (also called St Wandrille after the name of its founder) in the diocese of Rouen. Saint

Girowald Saint Gervold (or Girowald, or Gerwald, or Gerbaud) is a monk, diplomat of Charlemagne, bishop of Evreux around 785, and abbot of Saint Wandrille from 787. He died in 806 or 807. He was the uncle of Saint Ansegisus whom he tonsured and clerked aro ...

, a relative of Ansegisus, was then Abbot of Fontanelle. Upon the recommendation of the abbot Girowald he was entrusted by the Emperor

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

with the government and reform of two monasteries, St. Sixtus near Reims and St. Memmius (St. Menge) in the diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne, in which he was successful. In 817,

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

made him abbot of the famous

Luxeuil Abbey Luxeuil Abbey (), the ''Abbaye Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul'', was one of the oldest and best-known monasteries in Burgundy, located in what is now the département of Haute-Saône in Franche-Comté, France. History Columbanus It was founded circa 5 ...

, founded by Saint

Columbanus Columbanus ( ga, Columbán; 543 – 21 November 615) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in pr ...

as early as 590. Finally, having also reformed Luxeuil, he was transferred in 823, after the death of Einhard, as abbot to Fontenelle, where he had begun his monastic life and which he reformed as successfully as the previous monasteries. He was responsible for compiling a number of

capitularies A capitulary (Medieval Latin ) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since the ...

, a document of civil and ecclesiastical law, and also commissioned the first abbey history, the ''

Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium The ''Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium'' (Deeds of the Abbots of Fontenelle), also called the ''Gesta sanctorum patrum Fontanellensis coenobii'' (Deeds of the Holy Fathers of the Monastery of Fontenelle), is an anonymous Latin chronicle of the Abbey o ...

''.Régis Rech
"Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium"
in ''

Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle The Medieval Chronicle Society is an international and interdisciplinary organization founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval annals and chronicles, or more generally medieval historiography. It was founded in 1999 and in ...

'', edited by Graeme Dunphy and Cristian Bratu (Brill, 2016). Consulted online on 6 May 2019.

References

Primary sources

*Capitularies of Ansegisus (assembled 827), ed. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ansegisus, Saint 770s births 830s deaths Abbey of Saint Wandrille Saints from the Carolingian Empire Colombanian saints