Saint Vulmar (or Ulmar, Vilmer, Vulmaire, Vulmar of Samer, Vulmarus, Wulmar; died 689) was a French priest, hermit and then abbot who was later venerated as a saint.
He turned to religion after his wife was taken from him and given to the man to whom she had previously been betrothed.
Life
Vulmar was born near
Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...
in
Picardy
Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France.
Hi ...
, France.
He married, but was separated from his wife.
He became a lay brother at the Benedictine abbey in
Hautmont
Hautmont () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
It is southwest of the centre of Maubeuge, and has 14,500 residents.
On August 3, 2008, a narrow but strong F4 tornado swept through the town, as well as Maubeuge, Neuf-Mesn ...
in
Hainault.
Later he became a priest and was the founding abbot of
Samer
Samer (; pcd, Samé; vls, Sint-Wulmaars) is a commune and in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
Population
Places of interest
* The church of St.Martin, dating from the 15th century.
* The château du Grand ...
monastery near Boulogne.
It is said that Vulmar hid in a hollow oak at
Caëstre
Caëstre (; French Flemish: Kaester and Dutch language, Dutch: Kaaster) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France.
Heraldry
See also
*Communes of the Nord departm ...
for three days to avoid unwelcome honors.
He is depicted as a hermit living in a hollow tree who receives bread from a peasant.
His feast day is 20 July.
Butler's account
According to the hagiographer
Alban Butler
Alban Butler (13 October 171015 May 1773) was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer.
Biography
Alban Butler was born in 1710, at Appletree, Aston le Walls, Northamptonshire, the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. His father died when ...
,
Baring-Gould's account
According to
Sabine Baring-Gould
Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...
, Vulmar was the son of a Frankish nobleman named Vulbert.
When he was a young man he was married to a girl named Osterhilda.
However, when she was a child she had been promised by her parents to someone else.
That person complained to the king of the Franks, who ordered the separation of the young couple and gave Osterhilda to the person to whom shed had been betrothed.
Vulmar reacted by turning his back on the world and joining the monastery of Hautont in Hainault.
He was given the job of looking after cows.
Eventually Vulmar was ordained a priest, but decided to live alone in the oak forest.
For many years he lived in the Eeken forest, but when he was discovered returned to his place of birth and built a hermitage in the forest near Samer.
Over time both male and female disciples joined him, and he built two monasteries in the forest, one for men that he led and one for women under his niece Eremberta.
In 688 Ceadwalla, king of the West Saxons, visited him there while travelling to Rome, gave him 30 sous and said he would pray for him.
Vulmar died of old age just before or after the start of the 8th century and was buried at Samer.
The Huguenots later scattered his bones.
Notes
Sources
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Further reading
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Saints
7th-century deaths