ANGILBERTO, St. — Abbot of Centula (Saint-Riquier), one of the principal aides and confidants of Charlemagne and a disciple of Alcuin. Of noble birth, he was born about 750 and died on 18 Feb. 814. He was educated at the court of Pippin the Short, where he formed a friendship with Charles, which lasted until his death.
In 781, Charlemagne appointed him Primicerius Palatii and entrusted him with the care of his son Pippin, who was crowned as a boy king of Italy. From 787 onward, he lived constantly at the Frankish court, where, as a member of the Palatine Academy founded by Alcuin, he distinguished himself by his poetic activity, which earned him the epithet of “Homer.” His close relations with Alcuin are well known, and his name is linked to that of the latter. Though leading a very worldly life, he had two sons by Bertha, Charlemagne’s daughter: Nithard and Harnid. About 790, he was given in commendam the rich abbey of Centula, which he used as a source of income. Later, Charlemagne entrusted him with three diplomatic missions to the Pope: in 792 to conduct to Rome the Adoptionist Felix of Urgel; in 794 to submit the Libri Carolini to his judgment; and in 796 to pay homage of obedience to the new Pope Leo III. After this third mission, he abandoned the worldly life of the court to devote himself to his true monastic duties. He then received priestly ordination, and under his rule Centula flourished both in its possessions and in its internal organization. He himself set an example of an austere and mortified life. In 811 he was one of the signatories of Charlemagne’s will. His feast is celebrated on 18 Feb.
Besides his poems, he wrote a Libellus de perfectione et dedicatione Centulinae ecclesiae et de diversitate officiorum (in MGH, Poetae Carolini; Aevi, ed. Dummer, I, pp. 355–81; MGH, Scriptores, XV, pp. 173–90).