Bartholomew of Marmoutier, St.

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BARTHOLOMEW OF MARMOUTIER, ST.

Benedictine priest and abbot of marmoutier near Tours from 1063 until his death on Feb. 24, 1084. He successfully resisted the claims of Geoffrey the Bearded, count of Touraine and Anjou, to spiritual and temporal dominion over the monastery. He then so improved the discipline at Marmoutier that lay and ecclesiastical reformers sought monks from his abbey to reform old monasteries and to found new ones. When william i, the Conqueror, founded battle abbey in thanksgiving for his victory at Hastings, he sought and received monks from Bartholomew's house. Under Bartholomew's rule, Marmoutier thus acquired several churches and monasteries in France and in England. His name was included in many medieval Benedictine martyrologies, but no cult in his honor has ever been approved.

Bibliography: p. calendini, Dictionnarie d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912), 6:101415.

[j. c. moore]

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Bartholomew of Marmoutier, St.

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