Saint Bavo of Ghent (also known as Bavon, Allowin, Bavonius, Baaf; AD 622–659) is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

. He was the son of Pepin of Landen and the brother of saints

Begga Saint Begga (also Begue, Begge) (b. 613 – d. 17 December 693 AD) was the daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, and his wife Itta of Metz. She is also the grandmother of Charles Martel, who is the grandfather of Charlem ...

and

Gertrude of Nivelles Gertrude of Nivelles, OSB (also spelled ''Geretrude'', ''Geretrudis'', ''Gertrud''; c. 628 – 17 March 659) was a seventh-century abbess who, with her mother Itta, founded the Abbey of Nivelles, now in Belgium. Life Family and childhood The ea ...

Life

Bavo was born near

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

, to a Frankish noble family that gave him the name Allowin. His father was Pippin of Landen, the Mayor of the Palace of

Austrasia Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the F ...

, and his mother Itta of Metz. A wild, young aristocrat of Brabant, he contracted a beneficial marriage, and had a daughter. He was a soldier who led an undisciplined and disorderly life. Shortly after the death of his wife, Bavo decided to reform after hearing a sermon preached by Saint Amand on the emptiness of material things. On returning to his house he distributed his wealth to the poor, and then received the tonsure from Amand. For some time thereafter, Bavo joined Amand in the latter's missionary travels throughout France and Flanders. On one occasion, Bavo met a man whom he had sold into slavery years before. Wishing to atone for his earlier deed, Bavo had the man lead him by a chain to the town jail. Bavo built an abbey on his grounds and became a monk. He distributed his belongings to the poor and lived as a recluse, first in a hollow tree and later in a cell in the forest by the Abbey. He died at the Abbey in Ghent, in what is today Belgium.

Veneration

Bavo is the patron saint of Ghent, Zellik, and Lauwe in Belgium, and

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

in the Netherlands. His feast in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is October 1. He is most often shown in Christian art as a knight with a

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

and falcon. The most popular scene is the moment of his conversion, which has many stories attached to it. Because he is so often shown with a falcon, he came to be considered the patron saint of

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

. In medieval Ghent, taxes were paid on Bavo's feast day, and it is for this reason he is often shown holding a purse or money bag. According to Rodulfus Glaber, the city of

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...

is named after him, with Bamberg meaning "Mount of Bavo".

Legacy

Several churches are dedicated to him, including: * Saint Bavo Cathedral, in Ghent * Sint-Bavokerk and

Cathedral of Saint Bavo The Cathedral of Saint Bavo is a cathedral in Haarlem, the Netherlands, built by Joseph Cuypers from 1895 to 1930 to replace the former '' waterstaatskerk'' in the Jansstraat called the St. Joseph. That church was itself a replacement for the Si ...

, both in

* Sint-Bavokerk in Heemstede, Lauwe, and Zellik * Saint Bavo Church and School, in Mishawaka, Indiana * in Wilrijk His picture is also part of the Coat of Arms of the

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

suburb Wilrijk.

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

painted a ''Saint Bavo'', dated between 1662 and 1665.

Images

File:BoschTheLastJudgementTriptychRightOuterWing.jpg, Saint Bavo by Hieronymous Bosch, with both attributes, the purse and falcon, ca.1498-1504, detail from The Last Judgment (Bosch triptych) Image:De bekering van Sint-Bavo 23-05-2008 14-18-07.JPG, ''The conversion of Saint Bavo'', Peter Paul Rubens, St Baafs, Ghent. Image:Saint Bavo.jpg, ''Saint Bavo'', ca. 1460. North Netherlandish. Limestone with traces of polychromy. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Image:St.Bavo saves Haarlem 1673.jpg, Saint Bavo saves

from the

Kennemer Kennemerland is a coastal region in the northwestern Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It includes the sand dunes north of the North Sea Canal, as well as the dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park. History Kennemerland gets its ...

s. Dated 1673 but showing legend from 1274.

References

* Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Saints''. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. .

External links

*
San Bavone di Gand

Acta S. Bavonis alias Alloini confessoris, Gandavensium patroni

at th
Christian Iconography website

(Life of Bavo, Confessor of Ghent, in Latin) in Monumenta Germaniae Historica {{DEFAULTSORT:Bavo 589 births 654 deaths Frankish warriors Pippinids Clergy from Liège Belgian hermits Belgian Roman Catholic saints 7th-century Frankish saints