Saint Eucherius

Bishop of Orleans(687-738)
Feast – February 20

The Devil never sleeps and the war never ends.

In early 711, forces led by Tariq ibn Ziyad disembarked in Gibraltar starting the westernmost expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate and Muslim rule into Europe. By 716 the Iberian Peninsula known as Hispania became Al-Andalus. A small area of Southern France named Septimania was separating the Muslims from Gaul (a region of Western Europe inhabited by Celtic tribes, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and the west bank of the Rhine in Germany). King Ardo of Septimania did everything he could to slow the advance of Arab and Berber armies under al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi, when they crossed the Pyrenees (the mountains separating Spain and France) in 717. Two years later in 719 Muslims took  Septimania’s capital Narbonne  and secured control of region.

This generated many Visigothic refugees who were forced to travel north, to the refuge of Duke Odo in the semi-independent Franks duchy of Aquitaine.

In early 721, the Umayyad army under Al-Samh arrived at the gates of Toulouse; an essential city of Aquitaine resided on the Garonne river. Surprised by the incursion, Odo was overwhelmed by this military expedition and immediately left the city seeking help from Charles Martel “The Hammer,” Duke and Prince of the Franks, Mayor of the Palace and practically the ruler of Francia. Charles preferred to have Odo defeated in order to reconquer it and absorb the Duchy of Aquitaine, leaving Duke Odo with no choice but to head back to Toulouse with haste. On the 9th June 721 Odo took a majority of his experienced riders and charged directly towards the Umayyad army. As the battle continued on throughout the day and the charge by Odo seemed to be ineffective, he commanded his units to fallback just to return unexpected in evening. Odo with the full force smashed through the unprepared enemy lines, approached the enemy camp, slaughtering many Umayyad footman. Al-Samh was wounded and his army obliterated. This victory halted Muslim expansion for three years.

In 732 Abd er Rahman lead the Umayyad forces north. This time Duke Odo was easily defeated at Bordeaux and Garonne. Muslims pushed towards the Loire River crushing all resistance in their path.

On October 3rd, a Muslim army under Abd er Rahman and a Christian army under Duke Charles Martel came face to face between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, in Aquitaine in western France. For seven days, the two armies engaged in minor skirmishes. The battle finally began on the seventh day on, as Abd er Rahman did not want to wait any longer, with winter approaching. After Abd er-Rahman was killed in the clash his troops fled under the darkness of night.

The battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Frankish-dominated Empire in western Europe for the next century and established Charles The Hammer as its leader. Charles decided to fund his war efforts through confiscation of church property. To curb His pride and discourage others from following his example, God called Saint Eucherius to deal with this problem.

St. Eucherius was born c. 687 at Orleans to a very illustrious family.

His pious mother while being pregnant had been advised in a vision that he would someday be Bishop of the city of Orleans. She in her daily prayers was offering him to God asking for nothing for him but divine grace. At his birth, his parents dedicated him to God. They took great care to form both his mind and his heart and set him to study when he was but seven years old. His improvement in virtue kept pace with his progress in learning. Meditation on sacred scripture, especially on Saint Paul’s writings about the world and its enjoyments, calling them mere empty shadows which deceive us and vanish away, so deeply sunk in his heart and mind that he resolved to leave the world and about the year 714 at the age of 27 he retired to the abbey of Jumiege in Normandy. The reputation of his virtue was so great that when his uncle Suavaric, Bishop of Orléans, died, the people and clergy of the city petitioned the mayor of the palace his permission to elect St. Eucherius to the vacant See. The Saint entreated his monks to screen him from the honors threatening him; but they preferred the public good to any private inclinations and resigned him to accept that important charge. He finally consented and with universal applause was consecrated Bishop of Orleans in 721. He devoted himself entirely to the care of his church. He was indefatigable in instructing and reforming his flock, and his zeal and even reproofs were accompanied with so much sweetness and charity, that it was impossible not to love and obey him.

When Duke Charles Martel confiscated church property by stripping churches of their revenues to fund his war efforts and other activities while encouraging others to do the same, St. Eucherius reproved these encroachments with great zeal and found himself out of favor with the new Carolingian dynasty. When Charles returned from his victory at the Battle of Tours, he stopped in Orléans. To avoid condemnation of the local population he ordered St. Eucherius to follow him to Verneuil upon the Oise, in the diocess of Beauvais, where he then kept his court, and banished him to Cologne, Germany.

The local governor in Cologne was so charmed with his virtue, that he made him the distributer of his large alms, and allowed him to retire to the monastery build by St. Trudo at Sarchinium, on the River Cylindria.

One day while at prayer, St. Eucherius had been taken up and shown, among other things, the sufferings of those in hell, among whom he saw Charles Martel.  When the vision ended, he called St. Boniface and Fulrad, the Abbot of Saint – Denis, and asked them to see if Charles Martel had died.  When the two opened the tomb, a dragon rushed out, and they found the tomb’s interior blackened as though burned.  These two signs were taken as evidence that the vision had been accurate, and that Charles had been condemned to hell for his confiscation of Church property.

Prayer and contemplation were St. Eucherius’s whole employment, until the year 743, in which he died on the 20th of February.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          “Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Orleans.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_eucherius.html (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

[2]          “Saint Eucherius of Orleans – Newman Connection – Effingham, IL.” http://www.newmanconnection.com/faith/saint/saint-eucherius-of-orleans (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

[3]          “ALL SAINTS: ⛪ Saint Eucherius of Orleans,” ALL SAINTS, Feb. 20, 2014. https://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2014/02/saint-eucherius-of-orleans.html (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

[4]          “Eucherius of Orléans,” Wikipedia. Feb. 05, 2020, Accessed: Jan. 30, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eucherius_of_Orl%C3%A9ans&oldid=939311285.

[5]          “The Compass newspaper — November 21, 2008 Issue — Saint of the Day.” https://www.thecompassnews.org/compass/2008-11-21/saintoftheday.shtml (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).