Saint of the Day – 29 October – Saint Dodone (8th Century) Abbot of the Monastery at Wallers-en-Fagne, France, Hermit. Born in Vaux, France and died in around mid Century in his Hermitage at Moustiers-en-Fagne, northern France. Also known as Dod, Doddone, Dodonis, Dodonus.
St Folcuin, the Abbot of Lobbes (Died 990), devotes a chapter to St Dodon, a disciple of Saint Ursmar (Died 713), in his “The Acts of the Abbots of Lobbes – Gesta Abbatum Lobiensium.”
Shortly after 980, a Monk of Lobbes took up these records and compiled a Vita Dodone, in which only the account of the two elevations of the Saint’s Relics and their translations can be confirmed.
Finally, we note that the report in the Ecclesiastical records of the region, Dodone was sent to Wallers by St Landelin, (2 centuries earlier) and not by St Ursmar.
Originally from the Village of Vaux, he was entrusted by his parents to St Ursmar, the Abbot of Lobbes, who Baptised and educated him.
Distinguished by his aptitude and piety, Dodone was sent as the Superior to the Abbey of Wallers, a dependency of Lobbes. But, preferring the Hermit life, Dodon soon withdrew a little way north of his Abbey, to the site of the current Moustiers-en-Fagne and died there around the middle of the 8th Century.
His remains were exhumed in 888 under the Bishop of Cambrai, Dodilo (died after 901) and were interred in the Church of the Priory of Wallers. Around 930, they were then disinterred again and raised on the Altar of the Priory Church. They rest today in the small Church of Moustiers-en-Fagne, see below.
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