WALA, Saint. – A Benedictine from the royal Carolingian family, born c. 755; died at Bobbio on 31 August 836.
Educated in the palace school, he served among other roles as counsellor to Louis the Pious; but soon withdrew from court life, entering the monastery of Corbie, where he held various offices. In 816 he collaborated in the foundations of Corvey and Herford; in 822–25 he accompanied Lothar on a journey to Rome. In 836 he succeeded his brother as abbot of Corbie, where he strove to restore the greatly decayed monastic discipline. He proved a staunch defender of the sanctity of marriage in the matter of the Empress Judith and the margrave Bernard of Septimania, for which he was sent into exile (830–33). Gregory IV sent him to Alsace to settle the disputes within the imperial family. He died in the abbey of Bobbio, where he had been appointed abbot.