ANGILBERT, ST.

Carolingian poet and courtier, abbot; b. c. 750; d. Feb. 18, 814. He was an official in the court of charlemagne for more than 20 years. He was a figure in the carolingian renaissance, a student of alcuin in the palace school, the head of the court chapel, and tutor of the young Pepin. He fathered two sons out of wedlock, Nithard and Harnid, by Charles's daughter Bertha. Between 792 and 796, he took part in three embassies to Rome, taking the libri carolini to Adrian I in 794. He was present at Charlemagne's coronation in 800. In 811, he was one of the witnesses to Charlemagne's will. In 781, he was appointed lay abbot of Saint-Riquier (Centula ). Sometime between 796 and 802, he retired to his abbey to live an austere life. As abbot, he was an able administrator and builder. He wrote two treatises about his monastic work. He greatly increased the library holdings and introduced the uninterrupted recital of the Hours, the laus perennis, for his 300 monks. His poems have no exceptional literary merit but they do give interesting insight into life at Charlemagne's court. St. Angilbert's cult began at Saint-Riquier in the twelfth century.

Feast: Feb. 18.

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Poetae 1:355–381. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 15.1:173–190. Acta Sanctorum Feb. 3:91–107. hariulphe, Chronique de l'abbaye de Saint-Riquier, ed. f. lot (Paris 1894). s. a. rabe, Faith, Art, and Politics at Saint-Riquier: The Symbolic Vision of Angilbert (Philadelphia 1995). w. wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, ed. w. levison and h. lÖwe (Weimar 1952–63) 2 235–241. r. aigrain, Catholicisme 1:559–560. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:371. Bibliotheca sanctorum (Rome 1961–) 1:1249–50. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinische Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–31) 1:543–547. p. richard, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 3:120–123.

[v. gellhaus]