Leobin of Chartres, St.

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LEOBIN OF CHARTRES, ST.

Bishop of chartres, 544 c. 556. From detailed information furnished by the vita, written most probably by his successor, Caletric (557 c. 567), but reworked in the ninth century, Leobin is one of the best known of the early bishops of Chartres. He entered the monastery of St. Hilary at Poitiers, where he subsequently became cellarer and acquired a reputation for strict enforcement of monastic regulations and for zeal in his studies. Apparently forced to leave St. Hilary's because of the hostility of certain monks, he visited a number of monasteries from the region of the Loire to Lerins. Subsequently, St. avitus of vienne made him abbot of Brou. In 544, he was elected bishop of Chartres, and, although not the founder of its episcopal school, he did much to develop it. An active participant in the synods of Orléans (549) and Paris (552), he was one of the judges who deposed Saffaracus, bishop of Paris.

Feast: March 14; Sept. 15 (translation feast).

Bibliography: Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis, 2 v. (Brussels 18981901) 2:4847. Acta Sanctorum, March 2:344349. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Auctores antiquissimi (Berlin 1826) 4.2:7382. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, 15 v. (Paris 190753) 3.1:102125. a. poncelet, "Les Saints de Micy," Analecta Bollandiana 24 (1905): 1104, esp. 2531.

[m. r. p. mcguire]