Aimoin of Fleury: Vita Sancti Abbonis

The Vita Sancti Abbonis is the life and martyrdom of Abbo, abbot of Fleury, written by his disciple Aimoin. It is introduced by a letter to Hervé, treasurer of the church of Saint-Martin at Tours, who had been brought up at Fleury and remembered Abbo’s teaching, followed by a preface and the life itself. Aimoin recounts Abbo’s education, his learning, his rule of the abbey, and his defence of monastic rights, and he includes passages of moral teaching, such as reflections on Christ’s sayings about leaving father, mother and wife. The narrative culminates in Abbo’s death in 1004 during a visit to the priory of La Réole in Gascony.

Written by someone who knew him well, the work is the principal source for the life of Abbo, one of the most learned scholars and most determined monastic reformers of his age. It casts his violent death as a martyrdom and helped establish his cult at Fleury. Historians of the late tenth century use it for the history of monastic reform, of relations between Fleury and the Capetian kings and the bishops, and of the scholarly culture of the Loire valley around the year 1000.