Saint of the Day – 13 September – Saint Amatus (c 560-c 627)

Saint of the Day – 13 September – Saint Amatus (c 560-c 627) Monk and Hermit, Penitent, miracle-worker, together with St Romaric, he founded Remiremont Abbey. Born in c 560 at Grenoble, France and died on 13 September 627 in Remiremont, Vosges, France of natural causes. Also known as – Aimé, Amad, Amat, Amé.

Amatus was born about the year 560 to a noble family at Grenoble. Around 581, he entered the Abbey of St Maurice Agaunum and at the age of thirty retired into a hermitage, where his reputation for a life of penance and prayer, privileged with the grace of miracle working, drew the attention of St Eustace of Luxeuil, who persuaded Amatus to join his community.

One of his missionary journeys brought him to the court at Metz and there he converted a former Count Palatine of King Theodebert II, the Frankish noble St Romaric.

S. Romaric founded with Amatus a double monastery for men and women at Remiremont Abbey, on land that had been in Romaric’s possession since his days as a Count Palatine.

Amatus was its first abbot. He ruled this Abbey for many years and established there the difficult pious practice of the “Laus perennis” or Perpetual Praise, which consisted in the maintaining in the Church, an uninterrupted service of Psalmody and Prayer, day and night.

Saint Amatus died in the year 627 and at his own request, was buried just outside the church door. Later, his remains were suitably enshrined under one of the altars of the same church.

Saint Amatus was Canonised on 3 December 1049 by Pope Leo IX. He is greatly venerated in Grenoble, France.