Ouen (Audoenus, Dado), (c.600–84), bishop of Rouen. Born at Sancy near Soissons, Ouen was brought up at the court of Clotaire II in the company of Eloi, Wandrille, and Didier. He became chancellor of Dagobert I and Clovis II, founded the monastery of Rebais, and received Holy Orders rather late in life, when at the height of his secular career. In 641 he became bishop of Rouen, while his friend Eloi became bishop of Noyon. As bishop he sent missionaries to parts of his diocese which were still infected with paganism and superstition, he founded monasteries as centres of piety and learning; he also combated simony, then rife. He was a counsellor of Thierry III and supported the policies of Ebroin, mayor of the palace. He died at Clichy-la-Garenne, near Paris, later called Saint-Ouen, 24 August 684. This has constantly remained his feast day. Canterbury claimed to possess his body, although a more plausible set of relics existed at Rouen, where there is still a fine flamboyant church in his honour, as well as forty church dedications in the diocese, and twenty-nine in that of Evreux. The Canterbury claim, as expounded by Eadmer, was that during the reign of Edgar four unknown clerics arrived at his court, bearing the bones of Ouen. Edgar's suspicions of their authenticity were allayed by the miraculous cures, which were approved by Oda, archbishop of Canterbury (940–60). The clerks brought the relics to Canterbury and became monks there. The bones were placed in a confessio with those of Blaise and Wilfrid, and a chapel in the SE. transept of the crypt at Canterbury was dedicated in his honour. The Canterbury cult of Ouen thus dates from the 10th century; after 1100 his feast was almost universal in English Benedictine calendars. Other places which claimed relics were Boursies, near Cambrai (a head), and Clichy (a finger). Feast: 24 August.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Aug. IV (1739), 794–840: Vita S. Audoeni (ed. W. Levison), M.G.H., Scriptores rerum merov., v. 536–67; E. Vacandard, Vie de saint Ouen (1902); A. Wilmart, ‘Les Reliques de Saint Ouen à Cantorbéry’, Anal. Boll., li (1933), 285–92; N. R. Ker, ‘Un fragment des Miracles de S. Ouen’ Anal. Boll., lxiv (1946), 50–3
