Saint Abbo of Fleury, also known as Abbon, was a martyr and Benedictine monk born in 945 near Orleans, France. He studied at Paris, Rheims and Orleans and was one of the great scholars of his age; we still have writings by him on astronomy, grammar, philosophy, mathematics, canon law, theology, biography, and other matters.
He administered the abbey school and taught at Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, England from 985 to 987 at the request of Saint Oswald of Worcester, archbishop of York. Abbot at Fleury-sur-Loire, France in 988 where he instituted Cluniac observance; his election came into dispute, which was settled by the bishop who would later be Pope Sylvester II. Abbo brought the abbey school great renown and fought for the rights of monks at the Synod of Saint Denis in 995.
He was ambassador to the Vatican where he became a close friend of Pope Gregory V, and was a peacemaker and negotiator between Pope Gregory V and King Robert the Pious of France. Between the Pontiff and the Abbot the greatest esteem and affection existed.
The saint worked to calm fears and reassure people who feared the end of the world or other problems with the millennial change to the year 1000. He was murdered during a riot by monks whose discipline he was trying to reform. In this he was stabbed in the side with a lance on 13 November 1004 while trying to quell a monastic riot at Le Réole, Gascony, France. Miracles were reported at his tomb.
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