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St. Evroul of Ouche

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St. Evroul of Ouche

Abbot, Confessor

Evroul, also called Ebrulf, left court service for monastic life in Normandy. His community in the forest of Ouche combined prayer, work and care for those who sought conversion.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Monastic foundation: Ouche in Normandy
Butler records the community formed in the forest and its later monastery.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 29, “St Evroul, Abbot, Confessor,” pp. 476-479.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 29, “St Evroul, Abbot, Confessor,” pp. 476-479.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 29, “St Evroul, Abbot, Confessor,” pp. 476-479.

Evroul, called Ebrulfus in Latin, came from Bayeux and served at the Frankish court. He married a woman who shared his religious desires. Butler records their mutual decision to enter religious life, after which she took the veil and he distributed his property for the relief of the poor.

He first entered a monastery and later sought a more secluded life with companions in the forest of Ouche. The notice recounts their encounters with local people and men living by robbery. Some were drawn to conversion and honest work, and a community formed around the hermits.

Evroul accepted responsibility for those who came to him and established a monastery. Butler remembers his affability, generosity and encouragement of manual labour as part of serving God. He died on December 29, 596. The foundation retained his name and became an enduring part of the religious life of Normandy.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

Evroul and Ebrulf refer to the same abbot in this notice. The decision to enter religious life is described as mutual between him and his wife.

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