USUARD. - Benedictine of St-Germain-des-Près (Paris), author of a martyrology, d. around 875-77, on January 13. Nothing is known of his origins. He was a professed religious in 838 when he signed a prayer pact between his monastery and that of St. Remigius of Reims.

Entrusted with searching among the ruins of Valencia, sacked by the Moors, for the body of the deacon St. Vincent, principal patron of St-Germain-des-Près, U. went to Spain in 858, furnished with letters of recommendation from Charles the Bald, but was able to bring back only from Cordova the relics of the martyrs George, Aurelian and Natalia, which he deposited at Emant in the diocese of Sens, while waiting to be able, in 863, to restore the monastery of St-Germain, abandoned after the Norman expedition of 856. The account of the journey to Spain was written by the monk Aymon: De translatione ss. mart. Georgii etc. (PL 115, 939-60).

Between 863 and 869, Charles the Bald charged U. with drawing up a martyrology that would remedy the gaps and defects of the previous ones. In the dedicatory letter to the King (ed. E. Dümmler, in MGIF, Ep. Kor. aevi, VI, pp. 192-193), he says he made use of the Martyrologies of Jerome, that is (pseudo-Jerome) of Bede, of Florus of Lyon and of certain others whose names he does not specify. It has been established today that Ado's collection was U.'s principal source. However, his work displays a marked personal character: modifications in the order of the saints, reductions of the hagiographical information, numerous additions, adaptation of the whole to liturgical use. The new col-

USUARDO - <em>Martyrologium Uluardi</em>, in the edition by G. B. du Sollier. The reproduced page contains the notices for September 6 with the entire critical apparatus. — USUARDO - *Martyrologium Uluardi*, in the edition by G. B. du Sollier. The reproduced page contains the notices for September 6 with the entire critical apparatus.(from Acta SS. Iunii, VII, Antwerp III, p. 517)

The collection of 875 spread very quickly beyond the Benedictine monasteries, to the point of replacing the other liturgical martyrologies. The manuscript texts were multiplied, without remaining free of additions, reworkings and local adaptations; likewise the editions, from the princeps of Lübeck of 1475 up to those of G. B. du Sollier (Antwerp 1714), republished in Acta SS. Iunii, VI and VII and in PL 123, 599-992; 124, 9-860, and of Jacques Bouillart (Paris 1718). The text of U. was the basis of the subsequent redactions of the Martyrologium Romanum, beginning with the official Roman edition of 1582 and that of 1584, made under Gregory XIII according to the decrees of the Council of Trent.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: PP. Maurini, Hist. lit. de la France, V, Paris 1740, pp. 436-45; for the manuscripts and editions of the Martyrologium, cf. A. Pottin, Biblioth. hist. m.-aev., Berlin 1896, pp. 1018-82. On the interdependence of the historical martyrologies and the sources of U., cf. the capital work of H. Quentin, Les martyrs. histor. du moyen âge, Paris 1908; cf. Revue d'hist. ecclés., 11 (1910), pp. 338-44. See also the introduction to the Martyr. Romanum, pp. X-XII, XV-XVI; P. Grosjean, Sur les éditions de l'Uluard de Jean Molanus, in Anal. Bolland., 70 (1952), coll. 327-33.

@incollection{ec12_usuardo, author = {Schmitt, Clemente}, title = {Usuardo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {933--934}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/usuardo} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry