ACHARD (Achardus), Blessed. - Abbot of St. Victor, then bishop of Avranches. A descendant of a noble Norman family that had settled in England in the retinue of William the Conqueror on the expedition of 1066, he was born in the first half of the 12th century, according to some on the English island, according to others in Normandy near Domfront (Orne). He died on 29 March 1171.
Having received his first education among the regular canons of Bridlington (diocese of York), he went to Paris to perfect his studies. There he embraced the religious life in the new abbey of St. Victor, where the example of the famous Hugh spurred him on in study and in virtue. On the death of Abbot Gilduin (1155), he succeeded him as second abbot of St. Victor. In 1157 he was elected bishop of Séez, but Henry II of England opposed his consecration because, as St. Thomas of Canterbury relates, Pope Adrian IV had favored his selection. In 1161 he was appointed bishop of Avranches. Pious and beneficent, through his friendship with the English monarch he obtained many favors for his diocese and for the entire region of Normandy. He was buried in the church of the Premonstratensian abbey of La Lucerne, of which he had been the principal benefactor and whose foundation stone he had blessed (1164).
In the sources he bears the title of master (magister Achardus), and his epitaph calls him famous doctor Achardus (PL 196, 1779). But his writings, not yet fully identified, have remained unpublished.
The abbey of Maredous has taken upon itself the task of the editio princeps, and since 1899 has gathered the necessary materials. On the basis of these, Morin notes « his subtle and at the same time lucid genius, his bold analysis of the mysteries of the human being, joined to Victorine mysticism, in a lively style, at times eloquent, much more effective than the scholastic style of the later age », and acknowledges him as the author of the treatise De discretione animi, spiritus et mentis, previously falsely attributed to Adam of St. Victor. In 1935 he published it, according to cod. Paris. Mazar. 1002 (942), of the 13th century, coming from St. Victor. Important is his treatise or sermon De abnegatione sui ipsius, also called, less accurately, De tentatione Domini in deserto, because its subject is Matt. 4:1. The author's aim is to lead the soul to perfection through the seven degrees of evangelical self-denial, which make it enter as into seven deserts. Stripping itself thus of itself and of all things, the soul is united intimately to God. The little work is addressed to all, but especially to religious.
In Migne there are by A. only two brief Epistolae (PL 196, 1381-82). Some of his works are lost, such as the De Trinitate, of which some passages are quoted in the Eulogium ad Alexandrum III of John of Cornwall (PL 199, 1054 ff.), and the Quaestiones de peccato, cited in the Allegoriae in Novum Testamentum attributed to Hugh of St. Victor (but later).
A profound theologian, a champion of traditional doctrine, he advocates the realism of the union of the two natures in Christ against the nominalists of every shade.
Erroneously, by Vossius, the Vita B. Gezzelini or Schetzelonis was attributed to him, edited (Douai 1626) by Raisse (cf. Acta SS. Augusti, I, Venice 1741, pp. 172-73, 175-80); it is probably the work of his namesake and contemporary Achard of Clairvaux.