GERARD OF BROGNE, Abbot, Saint. - Born around 898 at Namur, of a noble Frankish family, died 3 October 959. While he was in the service of Count Berengar of Namur, he founded on his estates at Brogne, in 914, a collegiate church of canons which he later transformed into a Benedictine abbey after a mission carried out at St-Denis, where he himself became a monk in 919.

In 927 he was ordained a priest, while already from 923 he was abbot of Brogne. Disciples and admirers were drawn to him. In 931, at the invitation of Duke Giselbert, he reformed the monastery of St-Ghislain at Hainaut; in 937 and the following years, Arnold, margrave of Flanders, entrusted to him the reform of the monasteries of St. Peter and St. Bavo at Ghent, then of St. Bertin, St. Vaast, St. Amand, etc. The reform extended to the bishoprics of Cambrai, Liège, Utrecht. His reform was a return to pure Benedictine observance, without particular rules, but it was not lasting for lack of enlightened continuators of his work. Feast on 3 October.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Acta SS. Octobris, II, Paris 1866, pp. 300-20; on the life published there: U. Berlière, Etude sur la Vita Gerardi Broniensis, in Revue bénédictine, 9 (1892), pp. 137-72; id., Etude des réformes monastiques des Xe-XIe siècles, in Acad. du P. de Belgique, Bulletin de la classe des lettres, 94 (1932), pp. 137-56; W. Wattenbach-W. Holzmann, Geschichtsquellen, I, 1, Berlin 1938, pp. 112, 133-35; Martyn, Romanum, p. 433.

@incollection{ec6_gerardo_di_brogne_abate_santo, author = {Schmitt, Clemente}, title = {Gerardo di Brogne, abate, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {85--86}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gerardo-di-brogne-abate-santo} }

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Gerard of Brogne, Abbot, Saint

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