Audomar
{{short description|Bishop of Thérouanne}}
{{confused|Saint Othmar}}
{{Infobox saint
|name= Audomar
|image= Estrée - Statue-1 (cropped).jpg
|imagesize= 150px
|caption= Statue de Saint Audomar (Omer).
|honorific_prefix=Saint
|birth_date=
|birth_place=Neustria
|death_date=~670 AD
|death_place=
|feast_day= 9 September
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|venerated_in= Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church.
}}
Audomar (died {{c.}} 670), better known as Omer, was a bishop of Thérouanne, after whom nearby Saint-Omer in northern France was named. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Biography
Audomar was born of a distinguished family of Coutances, then under the Frankish realm of Neustria, towards the close of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century.[https://books.google.com/books?id=BbQ4DwAAQBAJ&dq=st+Audomar&pg=PA91 Brett, Caroline. "The Hare and the Tortoise? Vita Prima Sanctis Samsonis, Vita Paterni, and Merovingian Hagiography", St Samson of Dol and the Earliest History of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales, (Lynette Olson, ed.), Boydell & Brewer, 2017, p. 91] {{ISBN|9781783272181}}
After the death of his mother, he entered with his father the abbey of Luxeuil in the Diocese of Besançon, probably about 615. Under the direction of Eustachius, Omer studied the Scriptures, in which he acquired remarkable proficiency.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11251a.htm O'Boyle, Francis. "St. Omer." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 31 Dec. 2012]
When King Dagobert requested the appointment of a bishop for the important city of Thérouanne, the capital of the ancient territory of the Morini in Neustria, he was appointed and consecrated in 637.{{cite book|author=Yaniv Fox|title=Power and Religion in Merovingian Gaul: Columbanian Monasticism and the Formation of the Frankish Aristocracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7lUBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|date=18 September 2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-06459-1|pages=37–38; 128; 279}}
Though the Morini had received Christianity from Fuscian and Victoricus, and later Antmund and Adelbert, nearly every vestige of Christianity had disappeared. In 649 or 651, Audomar received twelve estates, including Sithiu where he established three missionaries who came from Austrasia and spoke the local language.[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780227679319.001.0001/acref-9780227679319 "Saint-Omer", Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages,(André Vauchez, ed.) James Clarke & Co., 2005]{{ISBN|9780227679319}} The Abbot of Luxeuil sent to his assistance several monks, among whom are mentioned Bertin, Mommolin, and Ebertran.
He founded the Abbey of Saint Peter (now the Abbey of Saint Bertin) in Sithiu, soon to rival the old monastery of Luxeuil for the number of learned and zealous men educated there. In 649 he erected the Church of Our Lady of Sithiu, with a small monastery adjoining, which he turned over to the monks of Saint Bertin, on condition that he would be buried at the site and that the church would serve as a burial place for the monks.[http://www.liberfloridus.be/abdij_eng.html "The Collegiate Church and St. Bertin Abbey", Ghent University Library]
The exact date of his death is unknown, but he is believed to have died about the year 670.
Veneration
The place of his burial is uncertain; most probably he was laid to rest in the church of Our Lady, later Saint-Omer Cathedral, where there is a 13th-century cenotaph dedicated to him.
His feast is celebrated on 9 September.
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{Catholic|wstitle=St. Omer}}
{{Portal|Saints}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Audomare, Saint}}
Category:7th-century Frankish bishops
Category:Bishops of Thérouanne
Category:Year of birth unknown