Arnulf of Metz
Encyclopedia
Saint Arnulf of Metz was a Frankish
bishop of Metz and advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia
, who retired to the Abbey of Remiremont
.
Arnulf was born to an important Frankish family at an uncertain date around 582. His father was Baudgise or Baudegisel II of Aquitaine or Carthage (d. 588), Palace Mayor and Duke of Sueve. His mother was Oda. In his younger years he was called to the Merovingian court of king Theudebert II
(595-612) of Austrasia
and sent to serve as dux
at the Schelde. Later he became bishop of Metz
. During his career he was attracted to religious life, and he retired to become a monk. After his death he was canonized as a saint
. In French he is also known as Arnoul or Arnoulf. In English he is also known as Arnold.
Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasia
n court under Theudebert II
After the death of Theudebert in 612 he was made bishop of Metz. The rule of Austrasia
came into the hands of Brunhilda
, the grandmother of Theudebert, who ruled also in Burgundy
in the name of her great-grandchildren. In 613 Arnulf joined his politics with Pippin of Landen
and led the opposition of Frankish nobles against Queen Brunhilda
. The revolt led to her overthrow, torture, and eventual execution, and the subsequent reunification of Frankish lands under Chlothachar II
.
Chlothachar later made his son Dagobert I
king of Austrasia and he ruled with the help of his advisor Arnulf. Not satisfied with his position, as a bishop he was involved in the murder of Chrodoald in 624, an important leader of the Frankish Agilolfings
family and a protégé of Dagobert.
From 623 (with Pippin of Landen, then the Mayor of the Palace
), Arnulf was an adviser to Dagobert I
. He retired around 628 to a hermitage at a mountain site in the Vosges
, to realize his lifelong resolution to become a monk and a hermit. His friend Romaric
, whose parents were killed by Brunhilda
, had preceded him to the mountains and together with Amatus had already established Remiremont Abbey
there. Arnulf settled there, and remained there until his death twelve years later.
Arnulf was married ca 596 to a woman whom later sources give the name of Dode or Doda, (born ca 584), and had children. Chlodulf of Metz
was his oldest son, but more important is his second son Ansegisel
, who married Begga
daughter of Pepin I, Pippin of Landen. Arnulf is thus the male-line grandfather of Charles Martel
and great-great grandfather of Charlemagne
.
Arnulf was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
. In iconography
he is portrayed with a rake in his hand.
in the New Testament
. According to this source, Arnulf's father was a certain Arnoald
, who in turn was the son of a nobilissimus Ansbertus
and Blithilt (or Blithilde), an alleged and otherwise unattested daughter of Chlothar I. This late attribution of royal Merovingian descent at a time when the Carolingian dynasty was at the peak of its power contrasts clearly with the contemporary Vita Sancti Arnulfi's failure to mention any such a connection: The Vita, written shortly after the saint's death, merely states that he was of Frankish
ancestry, from "sufficiently elevated and noble parentage, and very rich in worldly goods", without making any claims to royal blood. While modern historians generally dismiss the later Carolingian genealogy as spurious, Christian Settipani
claims it is evidence of a line of unbroken descent from antiquity
via Flavius Afranius Syagrius
for Charlemagne.
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
bishop of Metz and advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia
Austrasia
Austrasia formed the northeastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...
, who retired to the Abbey of Remiremont
Remiremont Abbey
Remiremont Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near Remiremont, Vosges, France.-History:It was founded about 620 by Romaric, a lord at the court of Chlothar II, who, having been converted by Saint Ame, a monk of Luxeuil, took the habit at Luxeuil...
.
Arnulf was born to an important Frankish family at an uncertain date around 582. His father was Baudgise or Baudegisel II of Aquitaine or Carthage (d. 588), Palace Mayor and Duke of Sueve. His mother was Oda. In his younger years he was called to the Merovingian court of king Theudebert II
Theudebert II
Theudebert II , King of Austrasia , was the son and heir of Childebert II. He received the kingdom of Austrasia plus the cities of Poitiers, Tours, Vellay, Bordeaux, and Châteaudun, as well as the Champagne, the Auvergne, and Transjurane Alemannia, on the death of his father in 595, but was...
(595-612) of Austrasia
Austrasia
Austrasia formed the northeastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...
and sent to serve as dux
Dux
Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....
at the Schelde. Later he became bishop of Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
. During his career he was attracted to religious life, and he retired to become a monk. After his death he was canonized as a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
. In French he is also known as Arnoul or Arnoulf. In English he is also known as Arnold.
Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasia
Austrasia
Austrasia formed the northeastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...
n court under Theudebert II
Theudebert II
Theudebert II , King of Austrasia , was the son and heir of Childebert II. He received the kingdom of Austrasia plus the cities of Poitiers, Tours, Vellay, Bordeaux, and Châteaudun, as well as the Champagne, the Auvergne, and Transjurane Alemannia, on the death of his father in 595, but was...
After the death of Theudebert in 612 he was made bishop of Metz. The rule of Austrasia
Austrasia
Austrasia formed the northeastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...
came into the hands of Brunhilda
Brunhilda of Austrasia
Brunhilda was a Visigothic princess, married to king Sigebert I of Austrasia who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons...
, the grandmother of Theudebert, who ruled also in Burgundy
Kingdom of Burgundy
Burgundy is a historic region in Western Europe that has existed as a political entity in a number of forms with very different boundaries. Two of these entities - the first around the 6th century, the second around the 11th century - have been called the Kingdom of Burgundy; a third was very...
in the name of her great-grandchildren. In 613 Arnulf joined his politics with Pippin of Landen
Pippin of Landen
Pepin of Landen , also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian king Dagobert I from 623 to 629...
and led the opposition of Frankish nobles against Queen Brunhilda
Brunhilda of Austrasia
Brunhilda was a Visigothic princess, married to king Sigebert I of Austrasia who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons...
. The revolt led to her overthrow, torture, and eventual execution, and the subsequent reunification of Frankish lands under Chlothachar II
Clotaire II
Chlothar II , called the Great or the Young , King of Neustria, and, from 613 to 629, King of all the Franks, was not yet born when his father, King Chilperic I died in 584...
.
Chlothachar later made his son Dagobert I
Dagobert I
Dagobert I was the king of Austrasia , king of all the Franks , and king of Neustria and Burgundy . He was the last Merovingian dynast to wield any real royal power...
king of Austrasia and he ruled with the help of his advisor Arnulf. Not satisfied with his position, as a bishop he was involved in the murder of Chrodoald in 624, an important leader of the Frankish Agilolfings
Agilolfings
The Agilolfings were a family of either Frankish or Bavarian nobility that ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Merovingian suzerains from about 550 until 788...
family and a protégé of Dagobert.
From 623 (with Pippin of Landen, then the Mayor of the Palace
Mayor of the Palace
Mayor of the Palace was an early medieval title and office, also called majordomo, from the Latin title maior domus , used most notably in the Frankish kingdoms in the 7th and 8th centuries....
), Arnulf was an adviser to Dagobert I
Dagobert I
Dagobert I was the king of Austrasia , king of all the Franks , and king of Neustria and Burgundy . He was the last Merovingian dynast to wield any real royal power...
. He retired around 628 to a hermitage at a mountain site in the Vosges
Vosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...
, to realize his lifelong resolution to become a monk and a hermit. His friend Romaric
Romaric
Saint Romaric was a Frankish nobleman who lived in Austrasia from the late 6th century until the middle of the 7th century. He was a former Count Palatine in the court of the Merovingian king, Theodebert II. His parents were killed by Queen Brunhilda and because of the enmity of his family with...
, whose parents were killed by Brunhilda
Brunhilda of Austrasia
Brunhilda was a Visigothic princess, married to king Sigebert I of Austrasia who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons...
, had preceded him to the mountains and together with Amatus had already established Remiremont Abbey
Remiremont Abbey
Remiremont Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near Remiremont, Vosges, France.-History:It was founded about 620 by Romaric, a lord at the court of Chlothar II, who, having been converted by Saint Ame, a monk of Luxeuil, took the habit at Luxeuil...
there. Arnulf settled there, and remained there until his death twelve years later.
Arnulf was married ca 596 to a woman whom later sources give the name of Dode or Doda, (born ca 584), and had children. Chlodulf of Metz
Chlodulf of Metz
Saint Chlodulf or more commonly Saint Cloud was bishop of Metz approximately from 657 to 697....
was his oldest son, but more important is his second son Ansegisel
Ansegisel
Ansegisel was the son of Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz and his wife Saint Doda. He served King Sigbert III of Austrasia as a duke and domesticus...
, who married Begga
Begga
Saint Begga was the daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, and his wife Itta. On the death of her husband, she took the veil, founded seven churches, and built a convent at Andenne on the Meuse River where she spent the rest of her days as abbess...
daughter of Pepin I, Pippin of Landen. Arnulf is thus the male-line grandfather of Charles Martel
Charles Martel
Charles Martel , also known as Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the...
and great-great grandfather of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
.
Arnulf was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. In iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
he is portrayed with a rake in his hand.
Genealogy
Shortly after 800, most likely in Metz, a brief genealogy of the Carolingians was compiled, modelled in style after the genealogy of JesusGenealogy of Jesus
The genealogy of Jesus is described in two passages of the Gospels: Luke 3:23–38 and Matthew 1:1–17.* Matthew's genealogy commences with Abraham and then from King David's son Solomon follows the legal line of the kings through Jeconiah, the king whose descendants were cursed, to Joseph, legal...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. According to this source, Arnulf's father was a certain Arnoald
Arnoald
Arnoald, also called Arnoldus or Arnual , was a Bishop of Metz between 601 and 609 or 611, the successor of Agilulf, and a Margrave of Schelde. He was the son of Ansbertus, a Senator, and wife Blithilde....
, who in turn was the son of a nobilissimus Ansbertus
Ansbertus
Ansbertus was a mythical Gallo-Roman Senator. It is proposed by some modern genealogists, that he is the son of Ferreolus, Senator of Narbonne and his wife Saint Dode...
and Blithilt (or Blithilde), an alleged and otherwise unattested daughter of Chlothar I. This late attribution of royal Merovingian descent at a time when the Carolingian dynasty was at the peak of its power contrasts clearly with the contemporary Vita Sancti Arnulfi's failure to mention any such a connection: The Vita, written shortly after the saint's death, merely states that he was of Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
ancestry, from "sufficiently elevated and noble parentage, and very rich in worldly goods", without making any claims to royal blood. While modern historians generally dismiss the later Carolingian genealogy as spurious, Christian Settipani
Christian Settipani
Christian Settipani is the Technical Director of an IT company in Paris and a genealogist and historian.He has a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Paris-Sorbonne University and is currently preparing his doctoral thesis, while he often gives lectures to students undergraduates at the...
claims it is evidence of a line of unbroken descent from antiquity
Descent from antiquity
Descent from Antiquity is the project of establishing a well-researched, generation-by-generation descent of living persons from people living in antiquity. It is an ultimate challenge in prosopography and genealogy....
via Flavius Afranius Syagrius
Flavius Afranius Syagrius
Flavius Afranius Syagrius was a Roman politician and administrator.- Life :Afranius' father was Clodoreius; it is unknown who his mother was. Afranius was also a member of the Gallic-Roman aristocratic family of the Syagrii, which originated in Lyon...
for Charlemagne.
The Legend of the Ring
Arnulf was tormented by the violence that surrounded him and feared that he had played a role in the wars and murders that plagued the ruling families. Obsessed by these sins, Arnulf went to a bridge over the Moselle river. There he took off his bishop’s ring and threw it into the river, praying to God to give him a sign of absolution by returning the ring to him. Many penitent years later, a fisherman brought to the bishop’s kitchen a fish in the stomach of which was found the bishop’s ring. Arnulf repaid the sign of God by immediately retiring as bishop and becoming a hermit for the remainder of his life.The Legend of the Fire
At the moment Arnulf resigned as bishop, a fire broke out in the cellars of the royal palace and threatened to spread throughout the city of Metz. Arnulf, full of courage and feeling unity with the townspeople, stood before the fire and said, “If God wants me to be consumed, I am in His hands.” He then made the sign of the cross at which point the fire immediately receded.The Legend of the Beer Mug
It was July 642 and very hot when the parishioners of Metz went to Remiremont to recover the remains of their former bishop. They had little to drink and the terrain was inhospitable. At the point when the exhausted procession was about to leave Champigneulles, one of the parishioners, Duc Notto, prayed “By his powerful intercession the Blessed Arnold will bring us what we lack.” Immediately the small remnant of beer at the bottom of a pot multiplied in such amounts that the pilgrims thirst was quenched and they had enough to enjoy the next evening when they arrived in Metz.Sources
- Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, edited, revised and supplemented by Thurston and Attwater. Christian Classics, Westminster, Maryland.
- Christian SettipaniChristian SettipaniChristian Settipani is the Technical Director of an IT company in Paris and a genealogist and historian.He has a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Paris-Sorbonne University and is currently preparing his doctoral thesis, while he often gives lectures to students undergraduates at the...
- La Préhistoire des Capétiens, Première Partie. - Saint ARNOUL - ancêtre de Charlemagne et des Européens, edited by Imp. Louis Hellenbrand. Le Comité d'Historicité Européene de la Lorraine, Metz, France, 1989.