:''"Sigirannus” is also the name of a 7th-century abbot of St. Cales in the department of

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

.'' Saint Sigiramnus (also ''Sigirannus'' and similar spellings; french: Siran, Cyran; died 655 AD), also known as Saint Cyran, was an abbot and confessor of the 7th century. A nobleman of Berry,Alban Butler, ''The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints'' (Published by Duffy, 1845), 71. he studied at

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

and then joined the royal court of

Clothaire II Chlothar II, sometime called "the Young" (French: le Jeune), (May/June 584 – 18 October 629), was king of Neustria and king of the Franks, and the son of Chilperic I and his third wife, Fredegund. He started his reign as an infant under the re ...

. He served as cup-bearer but always wore a hair-shirt underneath his garments, devoting himself to prayer. His father, count of Bourges (and later

bishop of Tours The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tours ( Latin: ''Archidioecesis Turonensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Tours'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese has roots that go back to the 3rd c ...

), wanted Sigiramnus to marry the daughter of a nobleman.Alban Butler, Kathleen Jones, David Hugh Farmer, Paul Burns, ''Butler's lives of the saints'' (Published by Liturgical Press, 2000), 41-2. Refusing to marry, Sigiramnus took holy orders at the church of St. Martin at Tours in 625 AD, serving as archdeacon at

. He refused to gain high position in the secular world, and after his father died, he gave away his goods and money to the poor; he was locked away as a lunatic for this. In 640, after he was released, he made a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

with Flavius, an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

bishop. According to one account, as they crossed the

diocese of Tours The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tours (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Turonensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Tours'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese has roots that go back to the 3rd cen ...

, he insisting on working in the fields with the serfs after he was “seized with compassion at the peasants covered with dust and sweat.” When Sigiramnus returned to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, he founded two monasteries with land given to him by Clothaire in the diocese of Bourges: Saint-Pierre de Longoret (Longoretum, Lonrey) and Méobecq (Millepecus), in the forest of Brenne region of the Berry province. Longoret was later renamed Saint-Michel-en-Brenne after him. He served as abbot of Longoret until his death in 655 AD.

Veneration

A life of Sigiramnus was written in the ninth or tenth centuries; the author of this ''Life'' claims to have compiled it from an earlier text. The monastery of Saint-Cyran was dissolved in 1712. Jean du Vergier de Hauranne (1581–1643), known as the Abbé of Saint-Cyran, took his title from this monastery. Sigiramnus’

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...

were kept at the abbey of Saint-Cyran until 1860, when Eugénie de Montijo, Empress consort of the French, encased them in a reliquary and gave it to the church of Saint-Michel-en-Brenne.

References

External links

Ouvrage sur l'abbaye Saint Cyran
{{Authority control 655 deaths Frankish Christian monks Year of birth unknown 7th-century Frankish saints