ON SAINT ABBO,
BISHOP OF METZ.
A.D. 707.
CommentaryAbbo, Bishop of Metz (St.)
G. H.
Meurisse, of the Franciscan Order and a Doctor of Sacred Theology of Paris, Bishop of Madaura and Suffragan of the Church of Metz, published in the year 1633 a History of the Bishops of the Church of Metz, inscribed to Henri de Bourbon, Bishop of Metz: in whose Preface §6 he writes that the sanctity of the Pastors of this Church appears from this, that thirty-one are counted in the ancient Catalogues and Martyrologies of this Church, approved and truly held as Saints: to whom on April 17 we add St. Landric; but whom we have shown to have flourished as Abbot of Soignies and Hautmont after leaving the Bishopric: in whose place then Abbo or Albo succeeded, Memory in the Fasti of Metz for April 15. of whom we here treat, as we say in the same place. His sacred memory the said Meurisse asserts is assigned in the Martyrology of the Cathedral Church on this April 15 in these words: At Metz, of St. Abbo the Bishop. Saussay, we do not know for what reason, in the Gallican Martyrology (though printed before the said history of Meurisse) refers the same to May 16 under this formula: At Metz, of St. Abbo the Bishop and Confessor, who, being raised to this Chair after the passing of St. Clodulphus, In Saussay on May 16. adorned it with the greatest splendor of sanctity: and by deeds and teachings directing the people into the way of justice, he at length received from the Lord the reward of a faithful stewardship. So that account. St. Clodulphus is venerated on June 8, and between him and St. Abbo we have intimated that St. Landric presided for some time. That Saussay needs correcting Charles le Cointe advises on the year 707 no. 14, where he relates these things: "In this year also Abbo, Bishop of Metz, when he had vigorously governed the diocese for ten years, one month, and twenty-six days, The time of his See. passed from this life on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May, as the codex of St. Symphorien of Metz, published by Marc-Antoine Dominici in Ansbert's family restored, attests: and on the same day in the Metz Martyrology, which the Bishop of Madaura cites, the following are read: At Metz, of St. Abbo the Bishop. Whence you may correct Saussay, who inscribed St. Abbo in the Gallican Martyrology on the 17th day before the Kalends of June." Thus le Cointe: from which account it would appear that he was elected about February 18 of the year 697.