Frankish bishop of Metz Arnulf of Metz

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• Name: Saint Arnulf of Metz
• Reference Number: 15847

Notes:

Saint Arnulf of Metz (c 582, Lay-Saint-Christophe, Meurthe-et-Moselle - 640) was a Frankish bishop of Metz and advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia, who retired to the Abbey of Remiremont.

Arnulf was born of an important Frankish family at an uncertain date around 582. In his younger years he was called to the Merovingian court of king Theudebert II (595-612) of Austrasia and sent to serve as dux at the Schelde. Later he became bishop of Metz. During his career he was attracted to religious life, and he retired to become a monk. After his death he was canonized as a saint. In French he is also known as Arnoul or Arnoulf.

Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasian court under Theudebert II After the death of Theudebert in 612 he was made bishop of Metz. The rule of Austrasia came into the hands of Brunhilda, the grandmother of Theudebert, who ruled also in Burgundy in the name of her great-grandchildren. In 613 Arnulf joined his politics with Pippin of Landen and led the opposition of Frankish nobles against Queen Brunhilda. The revolt led to her overthrow, torture, and eventual execution, and the subsequent reunification of Frankish lands under Chlothachar II.

Chlothachar later made his son Dagobert I king of Austrasia and he ruled with the help of his advisor Arnulf. Not satisfied with his position, as a bishop he was involved in the murder of Chrodoald in 624, an important leader of the Frankish Agilolfings family and a protégé of Dagobert.

From 623 (with Pippin of Landen, then the Mayor of the Palace), Arnulf was an adviser to Dagobert I. He retired around 628 to a hermitage at a mountain site in the Vosges, to realize his lifelong resolution to become a monk and a hermit. His friend Romaric, whose parents were killed by Brunhilda, had preceded him to the mountains and together with Amatus had already established Remiremont Abbey there. Arnulf settled there, and remained there until his death twelve years later.

Arnulf was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. In iconography he is portrayed with a rake in his hand and is often confused in legend with Arnold of Soissons, who is a patron saint of brewing.
Shortly after 800, most likely in Metz, a brief genealogy of the Carolingians was compiled, modelled in style after the genealogy of Jesus in the New Testament. According to this source, Arnulf's father was a certain Arnoald, who in turn was the son of a nobilissimus Ansbertus and Blithilt (or Blithilde), an alleged and otherwise unattested daughter of Chlothar I. This late attribution of royal Merovingian descent at a time when the Carolingian dynasty was at the peak of its power contrasts clearly with the contemporary Vita Sancti Arnulfi's failure to mention any such a connection: The Vita, written shortly after the saint's death, merely states that he was of Frankish ancestry, from "sufficiently elevated and noble parentage, and very rich in worldly goods", without making any claims to royal blood. While modern historians generally dismiss the later Carolingian genealogy as spurious[2], it constitutes an important link in Christian Settipani's suggested line of unbroken descent from antiquity via Flavius Afranius Syagrius.

Arnulf was married ca 596 to a woman whom later sources give the name of Dode or Doda, (born ca 584), and had children. Chlodulf of Metz was his oldest son, but more important is his second son Ansegisel, who married Begga daughter of Pepin I, Pippin of Landen.

Sources

Vita Arnulfi c. 1, MG. SS. rer. Merov. 2, p. 432.
Cf. R. Schieffer, Die Karolinger, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Köln, 2nd ed., 1997.
Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, edited, revised and supplemented by Thurston and Attwater. Christian Classics, Westminster, Maryland.
Christian Settipani - La Préhistoire des Capétiens, Première Partie.

Arnulf — . [Group Sheet]

1. II Pippin was born 635; died 16 Dec 714.

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• Reference Number: 15848

Notes:

Pepin (also Peppin, Pipin, or Pippin) of Landen (c. 580 - 27 February 640), also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian king Dagobert I from 623 to 629. He was also the mayor for Sigebert III from 639 until his own death.

Pepin's father is named Carloman by the Chronicle of Fredegar, the chief source for his life. His byname comes from his probable birthplace: Landen, modern Belgium. He is sometimes called Pepin I and his other nicknames (Elder and Old) come from his position at the head of the family called the Pippinids after him. Through the marriage of his daughter Begga to Ansegisel, a son of Arnulf of Metz, the clans of the Pippinids and the Arnulfings were united, giving rise to a family which would eventually rule the Franks as the Carolingians.

In 613, several leading magnates of Austrasia and Burgundy abandoned Brunhilda, the great-grandmother and regent of their king, Sigebert II, and turned to Chlothar II of Neustria for support, promising not to rise in defence of the queen-regent and recognising Chlothar as rightful regent and guardian of the young king. Chief among these leading men were Warnachar II, Rado, Arnulf, and Pepin. The latter two were described by Fredegar as the "two most powerful barons of Austrasia" and they made some agreement with Chlothar at Andernach. However, while Rado was confirmed as mayor in Austrasia and Warnachar in Burgundy, Pepin did not receive his reward until 623, when he was appointed mayor in Austrasia after Chlothar made his young son Dagobert king there. Arnulf, his lifelong friend, was appointed adviser to the new king alongside him.

Pepin was praised by his contemporaries for his good government and wise counsel. Though some enemies tried to turn the king against him, their plots were foiled and Pepin remained on good terms with the king until 629, when, for reasons unknown, he retired (or was retired) to his estates, where he remained for the next decade, until Dagobert's death.

On his death, Pepin came out of retirement to take on the mayoralty in Austrasia for the heir Sigebert III and to oversee the distribution of the treasury between Sigebert and his brother, Clovis II, and his stepmother Nanthild, who was ruling on Clovis' behalf in Neustria and Burgundy. Sigebert's share of the inheritance was amicably surrendered, partly because of the friendship between Pepin and the Burgundian mayor of the palace, Aega. Pepin and Arnulf's successor as chief counsellor to the king, Cunibert, Bishop of Cologne, received the treasure at Compiègne and brought it back to Metz. Not long after, both Pepin and Aega died. He was so popular in Austrasia that, though he was never canonised, he was listed as a saint in some martyrologies. His feast day was 21 February.

He left two daughters and two sons by his equally famous wife, Itta:
Begga, married the aforementioned Ansegisel and later canonised
Gertrude, entered the convent of Nivelles founded by her mother, also later canonised
Grimoald, later mayor of the palace like his father
Bavo (or Allowin), became a hermit and later canonised

Sources:

Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476-918. London: Rivingtons, 1914.
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., translator. The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1960.

Pepin — Itta. died 652. [Group Sheet]

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• Name: Saint Itta
• Reference Number: 15850

Notes:

Saint Itta or Itta of Metz (also Ida, Itte or Iduberga) (592-652), was the wife of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia. Her brother was Saint Modoald, bishop of Trier. Her sister was abbess Saint Severa. Their father was Arnoald, Bishop of Metz, son of Ansbertus.

On the advice of the missionary bishop Saint Amand, bishop of Maastricht, after Pepin's death, she founded the Benedictine nunnery at Nivelles, with a monastery under the abbess. She herself entered it and installed as abbess her daughter Gertrude, perhaps after resigning the post herself.

She had by Pepin another daughter, Abbess Begga of Andenne who married Ansegisel, son of Arnulf of Metz. By Begga, she is the grandmother of Pepin of Herstal and one of the matriarchs of the great Carolingian family. Her only son was Grimoald, later mayor of the palace, and father of King Childebert the Adopted.

Both her daughters were later canonised, as was she. Her feast day is May 8.

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• Reference Number: 15849