Saint Aignan of Orleans

Aignan or Agnan (Latin: Anianus) (358–453), seventh Bishop of Orléans, France, assisted Roman general Flavius Aetius in the defense of the city against Attila the Hun in 451. He is known as Saint Aignan. His feast day is the 17th of November. Aignan of Orléans (or Anianus) was born about 358 in Vienne in the Dauphiné to a family probably of Roman origin, who had fled the control of the Arian Goths in their homeland of Hungary. His brother Leonianus became an abbot, and is commemorated in the Gallican martyrology on 16 November. As a young man, he retired to a hermitage he had built for himself near that city, to live a life of prayer and penance. He then went to Orléans to study under by Bishop Euvertius. Under the direction of Euvertius, he prepared for the priesthood, and after ordination was appointed abbot of the monastery of Saint Laurence des Orgeries outside the city walls. Later he was promoted to coadjutor Bishop of Orléans. Upon the death of Euvertius, Aignan became bishop of Orléans. It was customary on the installation of the bishop for the city to release prisoners. Agrippinus, the governor of the city, refused to release them despite Bishop Aignan's request; but falling ill, immediately set them at liberty. Aignan is credited with doing much to save his city from Attila's hordes, who had avoided Paris. Though advanced in age, he helped the populace prepare to defend themselves and traveled to Arles to ask the Roman general Aetius to intervene. Aignan died about 453 at the age of ninety-five. His remains were buried at first in the church of the monastery of Saint Laurence, of which he had been abbot, but were later moved to the church of the monastery of Saint-Pierre-aux-Bœufs, which was afterwards renamed as a token of veneration as the church, and afterwards abbey, of Saint Aignan. Some of his relics were burned by the Huguenots in 1562; the surviving parts are in a carved wooden shrine in the church of Saint Aignan.