Lebuino (Lebuinus, Liafwin, Liwin, Lewin), Saint (LEBUINO (LEBUINUS, LIAFWIN, LIWIN, LEWIN), SANTO)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

LEBUINO (Lebuinus, LIAFWIN, LIWIN, LEWIN), saint. — Born in England of Anglo-Saxon parents, at an unknown date. In the monastery where he was educated, he became imbued with the missionary spirit and, as soon as he had been ordained a priest, went to Holland to evangelize the Frisians. He built a church and established the center of his activity at Deventer, on the eastern bank of the River Yssel. He also wished to attempt the conversion of the Saxons, but was unsuccessful. He died on 12 November, probably in the year 780, at Deventer, of which he is the patron. Feast: 12 November.

He is certainly a duplication of S. Livino, bishop and martyr of the seventh century, venerated at Ghent in Flanders on 12 November, a legendary figure invented by the monks of St-Bavon around the eleventh century to justify a purported relic of his venerated in their church. The author of the Passio Livini drew upon the Vita Liafwini antiqua (cf. Analecta Boll., 59 [1941], p. 277).

BIBL.: Vita S. Lebuini by Ubaldo of S. Amando, in MGH, Scriptores, II, pp. 360-64; another Vita Lebuini antiqua, ed. J. A. Moltzer, De oudste lebensbeschreibung van Lebuinus, in Nederlandsch Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, new series, 6 (1919), pp. 221-35, and in a critical edition, edited by A. Hofmeister, in MGH, Scriptores, XXX, II, pp. 789-95. The prologue to Ubaldo’s Vita was first published by A. Hofmeister, Über die älteste Vita Lebuini und die Stammverfassung der Suchten, in Geschichtliche Studien für Albert Hauch, Leipzig 1916, pp. 83-107. A poem by Radboda, in MGH, Poëtae, IV, pp. 169-72. A new Vita, in Anal. Boll., 34-35 (1915-16), pp. 306-30 (the preface provides a detailed critical account). Cf. also L. Van der Essen, Einde critique et littéraire sur les vices des saint mérovingens de l'ancienne Belgique, Louvain 1907, pp. 368-75. On S. Livino cf. O. Holder-Egger, Zu den Heiligengeschichten des Genres St. Bavoshloster, in Historische Aufsätze, dem Andenken an Georg Wirtz gewidmet, Hannover 1886, pp. 622-665. The legendary Vita of S. Livino, in J. Mabillon, Acta SS. OSB, 2 (1733), pp. 431-42; cf. M. Coens, Anciennes litanies des saints, in Anal. Boll., 59 (1941), pp. 277-80; Martyr, Romanum, 515.

Uldricho Vicentini