POPPONE, Saint. - Benedictine abbot, born in 978 to a noble Flemish family, died at Marchiennes on 25 January 1048. He was one of the most effective collaborators of RICHARD of St-Vanne in the restoration of monasteries in the Rhine region and the Low Countries.
After two pilgrimages (to the Holy Land c. 1000 and to Rome in 1005), he suddenly renounced a plan of marriage and a military career, to which his noble birth destined him, and embraced the Benedictine life at the monastery of St-Thierry in Reims (c. 1008), directed by Gilbert, brother of Gerard I, Bishop of Cambrai. Richard of St-Vanne recognized his merits and sent him as prior to the monastery of St-Vaast in Arras (1024), where, with the help of the Count of Flanders, he was able to recover properties usurped by lay lords. P. is best known as abbot of Stavelot-Malmédy, from which he extended his influence. The emperors Henry II, Conrad II, and Henry III entrusted him with the abbacy of St Maximin in Trier and the task of restoring monastic life in the monasteries of St Vincent in Metz, Limburg, Hersfeld, St Gall, St-Gislain, St-Trond, and Marchiennes. In return for imperial protection and generosity, P. acted as negotiator between the German sovereigns and the court of France. He was undoubtedly a type of imperial abbot, but he also contributed, through his intimate and profound religious life, to prepare the ground from which the Cluniac reform began to flourish. Feast day: 25 or 28 January.