GERARD of BROGNE, abbot, saint. — Born c. 898 at Namur, of a noble Frankish family, died 3 Oct. 959. While in the service of Count Berengar of Namur, he founded in his domains at Brogne, in 914, a collegiate church of canons which he later transformed into a Benedictine abbey after a mission to Saint-Denis, where he himself became a monk in 919.
In 927 he was ordained priest, though he had already been abbot of Brogne since 923. Disciples and admirers were drawn to him. In 931, at the invitation of Duke Gilbert, he reformed the monastery of Saint-Ghislain in Hainaut; in 937 and following years, Arnold, margrave of Flanders, entrusted to him the