Waldalen

Who they were

Saint Waldalen, probably a son of Duke Amalgar of Burgundy, was born around 600 at Dijon and trained from childhood under Saint Columbanus at Luxeuil. He became a monk there and, around 630, the first abbot of the newly founded abbey of Bèze, built by his repentant father, where he introduced Columbanus's strict rule and built up a rich endowment of vineyards and estates.

Under him Bèze became a centre of learning, founding a monastic school in 655, and he is recorded negotiating a charter from King Theuderic III in 677. He is thought to have died around 680, after governing the abbey for perhaps fifty years, though he was never given any formal public veneration; his feast, where kept, falls on 15 May.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Seventh-century first abbot of Bèze, trained under Saint Columbanus at Luxeuil; feast 15 May.