ABBOND of FLEURY (Abbo or Abo Floriacensis), saint. – Born in the territory of Orléans between 945 and 950. As a child, he was offered (as an oblate) by his pious parents to the monastery of St Benedict at Fleury-sur-Loire, where, after completing his studies, he became a teacher while still very young. To perfect his learning, he went to Paris, Reims, and, for music, to Orléans. He then resumed teaching and opposed those who announced the end of the world for the year 1000 (cf. Apologeticus, at the end: PL 139, 471).
In 985, at the request of St Oswald, archbishop of York and formerly a monk at Fleury, a zealous restorer (together with St Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury) of monastic life in England, he was sent to the island to direct the school of the abbey of Ramsey. He remained there for two years, winning the esteem of the episcopate and of King Æthelred; he was ordained priest by St Oswald. Recalled to Fleury, he was elected abbot in 988. His government marked a revival of the famous abbey, whose school became one of the most renowned and frequented in France.
He waged a long struggle with the episcopate to defend the rights of monks, especially those of his own monastery, which were threatened by Arnulf, bishop of Orléans. He played a major part in the synod of Saint-Denis, held in 992 and 993 (cf. Hefele-Leclercq, IV, 1403-1406), after which he addressed his Apologeticus to King Hugh Capet and his son Robert.
He worked strenuously to restore monastic discipline in various monasteries according to the Cluniac reform. While in Gascony to reorganize the priory of La Réole (dependent on Fleury), he was mortally wounded by a lance while trying to make peace between Gascons and French, and died on 13 November 1004. He was venerated as a martyr, and from 1031 enjoyed public cult in various parts of France (feast on 13 November). His life was written by Aimoin, his disciple and companion on his final mission to La Réole.
Writings. – There is no complete critical edition of his works, some of which still exist only in manuscript; the least incomplete is that found in PL 139, 375-378. The Berlletre (in DHG, I, col. 50 sg.) gives precise indications of 15 authentic works.
Besides the already cited Apologeticus, we may note: the Epistolary (important is the long letter XIV, which Pierre Pithou placed at the end of the ancient Codex of the Canons of the Roman Church, and letter VIII to Abbot Odilo of Cluny on the “canons” or principle for a harmony of the Gospels); the Life of St Edmund, the martyr king of England (855-870); the Epitome of the lives of 91 Roman pontiffs; the Liber de computo (a manual); some grammatical and astronomical writings; the Poems (almost all in manuscript), including an acrostic poem to Emperor Otto III.
But the work by which Abbo’s fame chiefly endures is the Collectio Canonum, known in the history of canon law as the Collectio Abbonis Florianensis. It contains, in forty-two chapters, texts from Holy Scripture, councils, decretals, capitularies, sources of Roman or Romano-barbaric law, and the Fathers; and despite the period in which it was compiled (c. 993), it is not influenced by the pseudo-Isidorian decretals. Many texts from this collection passed into Gratian’s Decretum (Aem. Friedberg, Corpus Iuris Can., I, p. XXXVIII, lists 20; and A. Amanieu, in DDC, I, 74, adds 32 more).
In all, Abbo may be said to have been one of the most learned and influential men of his time (cf. the judgment of his abbot: Vita, 6: PL 139, 393): a defender of papal authority, an advocate of monastic independence, and a promoter of the reform of both secular and regular clergy. He went twice to Rome on missions for the king of France; on his return, he induced Hugh Capet (in 996) to reinstate Archbishop Arnulf at Reims, and two years later persuaded King Robert to submit to Pope Gregory V, who had laid an interdict on him for his incestuous marriage with his cousin Bertha.
In his spirituality, Jesus Christ occupies a central place. He liked to call himself “Abbo, lover of the lovers of Christ” (cf. Epist.: PL 139, 423, 433, 438, 449), and wished monks to attain “to taste how sweet the Lord is and His Christ, in whom we have life, being, and movement” (Epist.: PL 139, 429).
He defines monastic life as “a laborious spiritual leisure” (Apol., init.: PL 139, 461), and regards it as wholly devoted to contemplation (cf. Epist. 8; Apol. midway; Coll. Can., 23: PL 139, 430, 464, 489). He recommends fraternal charity and unremitting struggle against the passions, emphasizing for this purpose the high ascetic value of study: “he held that the study of letters and especially the practice of speaking were of great benefit” (Vita, 8: PL 139, 393).