Saint Abbo of Fleury

Abbo or Abbon of Fleury (Latin: Abbo Floriacensis; c. 945 – 13 November 1004), also known as Saint Abbo or Abbon, was a monk and abbot of Fleury Abbey in present-day Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire near Orléans, France. Abbo was born near Orléans and brought up in the Benedictine abbey of Fleury. He was educated at Paris and Reims, devoting himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. He spent two years (985–987) in England, mostly in the newly founded monastery of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, assisting Archbishop Oswald of York in restoring the monastic system. He was also abbot and director of the school of this newly founded monastery from 986 to 987. Abbo returned to Fleury in 988, where he was selected as its abbot after Abbot Oilbold's death. Another monk who had secured the support of the King and the Bishop of Orléans contested the choice and the matter assumed national importance. Gerbert of Aurillac later Pope Sylvester II, settled the matter in Abbo's favor. The new abbot became active in contemporary politics: for example, he attended the Synod of Verzy, near Reims, at which Arnulf, Archbishop of Reims was tried for treason and deposed, to make way for Gerbert. Arnulf of Orléans, with whom Abbo feuded over monastic reform from 988 until 994, also attended the conference. In 996 King Robert II (Robert the Pious) sent him to Rome to ward off a threatened papal interdict over Robert's marriage to Bertha of Burgundy. On the way to Rome he met Pope Gregory V, who was a fugitive from the city from which the Antipope John XVI had expelled him. Between the Pontiff and the Abbot the greatest esteem and affection existed. The royal petition for a dispensation was rejected. Abbo succeeded in bringing about the restoration of Arnulf to the see of Reims. He was influential in calming the excitement and fear about the end of the world which was widespread in Europe in 1000.