Blessed Achard of Saint-Victor

Achard of Saint Victor (c. 1100 – 29 March 1171) was a canon regular and abbot of the Abbey of St. Victor, Paris, and later Bishop of Avranches. By tradition he is honored as a Blessed by his fellow Canons Regular of St. Augustine. Achard is thought to have been born in England and educated in France, based on evidence from an early collection of Victorine epitaphs. Another theory is that he came from the noble Norman family of de Pertins of Domfront. He completed his studies at the monastery school of St. Victor, and entered the cloister there. On the death (1155) of the first abbot, Gilduin, he was elected to fill the vacant post, becoming the second abbot of the abbey (a post he held until 1161), at a time when the royal abbey was almost at the zenith of its glory and power. In 1157 the cathedral chapter of Sées, composed of canons regular, elected Achard as their bishop, and the choice was duly confirmed by Pope Adrian IV. But Henry II of England intervened and named his personal chaplain, Frogier, or Roger, to the office, thereby vetoing Achard's election. Subsequent relations between Achard and the Plantagenet king were quite cordial, however, with the abbot using (as revealed by a surviving letter from Achard to Henry II) his influence at the English Court to compel the royal treasurer, Richard of Ely, to disburse for the benefit of the poor some moneys which he was unjustly detaining. In March 1161 Achard was consecrated Bishop of Avranches. Henry made no objection to his consecration, and later that same year Bishop Achard stood as godfather to Henry's daughter, Eleanor, born at Domfront. But the French king, Louis VII, was by no means pleased to see such a shining light of the Parisian church pass over into Norman territory, as is evident from a letter he then addressed to the prior of St. Victor's. In 1163 Achard was in England assisting at the solemn translation of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey.